The 21st Century hasn’t given us a lot of reason to recommend it so far—terror, war, fascism, plague, climate disaster, and an impending technopocalyps… but, hey, at least we’ve had good tv! 

Often referred to as “Peak TV,” the so-called second (or “new”) Golden Age of Television began in the very late 90’s and really cemented its influence in the first decade of the 2000’s. The plots were complex and protracted, not episodic. The protagonists were antiheroes, not heroes, morally ambiguous, hard to endorse, but impossible not to like.  There was foul language and graphic violence and full-frontal nudity. And since nobody could access this content with an antenna and tin-foil, we paid for it. 

It’s since been dubbed “prestige tv,” in part (I think) to assuage the consciences of all those snooty people who looooooved to say that they “didn’t watch tv.” Prestige tv included shows you couldn’t not watch—not because you wouldn’t be “cool” or you might be left out of the most recent water-cooler small-talk, but because prestige tv was quite literally re-shaping culture itself.

The Sopranos. Lost. Mad Men. The Wire. Breaking Bad. House of Cards. True Detective. Game of Thrones. Atlanta.

Today we’re going to talk about prestige tv, in my opinion one of the most significant, and uniquely American, artistic movements since rock n’ roll. What makes prestige tv prestigious? How do we know it when we see it? What are some of the best examples of it? And, perhaps most importantly, why are we seeing less of it?

In this episode, we discuss the following ideas/thinkers/texts/etc.:

• Vanderbilt University Medical Center‘s decision to turn over transgender patient records to the Tennessee Attorney General
• Charlie Kirk on “getting back to work” on Juneteenth
• The Sopranos (HBO series)
• Mad Men (AMC series)
• The Wire (HBO series)
• House of Cards (Netflix series)
• Breaking Bad (AMC series)
• Game of Thrones (HBO series)
• Atlanta (FX series)
• Kathryn VanArondonk, “13 Signs You’re Watching Prestige a TV show” (Vulture, 2017)
• Twin Peaks (ABC series)
• Law and Order (NBC series)
• Why is Game of Thrones  so (aesthetically) dark?
• Ted Lass  (AppleTV series)
• Reservation Dogs (FX series)
• L.A. Law ( NBC series)
• Boston Legal (ABC series)
• Orange is the New Black (Netflix series)
• Big Little Lies (Max series)
• Yellowjackets (Showtime series)
• Sam Adams, “Peak TV is over: Welcome to Trough TV” (Slate, 2023)
• NYPD Blue (ABC series)
• Lost (ABC series)
• Judy Berman, “How Documentaries Took Streaming by Storm” (Time, 2021)
• For All Mankind (AppleTV series) 
• Silo (AppleTV series)
• Television without Pity
• The A.V. Club
• torrent
• Breaking Bad creator Vince Giligan reflects on meth and morals
• Ann Gunn (actress who played Skye on Breaking Bad), “I Have a Character Issue” (New York Times, 2013)
• Black Mirror (Netflix series)
• David Renshaw, “The end of peak television: has the era of prestige TV just ground to a halt?” (The Guardian, 2023)
• Some suggested things to talk about when others are talking about a prestige TV show you don’t watch 😉
• Station Eleven (Max series)
• Years and Years  (Max series)
• Severance (AppleTV series)

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