This past television season there were exactly two titles on everyone's mind when it came time to gather around the water cooler: Lost and Desperate Housewives. Both of ABC's freshman hits intrigued us, shocked us, saddened us, excited us, inspired us and confused us. The fact that so many people have gotten hooked by these two shows right out of the gate though has lead to what some might call "media overkill." The gossip and promotion is almost enough to make some viewers start turning the channel. And who can blame them?
Both shows have proven to the broadcast networks that hour-long scripted drama series can still work. Look at all the new dramas scattered across their schedules for the coming season. It's quite obvious the rest of them that aren't ABC are looking for their next big hit to compete. Both shows have swept the Emmy nominations. There are more Emmy nominations between just these two shows than ABC saw for its entire line-up the previous year. And the latest news? NBC and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has moved the Golden Globe Awards from a Sunday night airing (where it has aired for ten consecutive years) to a new Monday night in order to avoid competition from Desperate Housewives, which blew the awards ceremony out of the ratings water this past year, despite the fact that Teri Hatcher even won a Golden Globe that same night for her work on the series. Must be nice to be her these days.
The shows are great. Lost has taken us into the lives of castaways on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere. Despite the fresh idea, when I first heard about the show before last season's premieres, I admit that I thought it was dead on arrival for sure. Desperate Housewives was the same. Another fresh idea taking us into the darkly comic lives of desperate suburban housewives. The acting is great, the concepts are fantastic, the writing is brilliant. They're everything most viewers look for in a TV show. In an alternate universe (read: before this past season), shows like both of these would probably have gained a small but loyal audience, resulting in them both either getting canceled by now or living on and becoming one of the most underrated television gems (I bet none of those Emmy voters have even bothered batting an eye lash at Veronica Mars or Gilmore Girls). Fortunately enough, we're no longer living in that era of swift but extremely painful television cancellations.
Article comments
1 - Phillip Winn
Lost rocks all. It is proof that broadcast television can compete with cable. Whether they will actually continue to do so remains to be seen.
While Lost survived, after all, others were still canceled prematurely.
2 - Joe
This is true. I'm actually a fan of both Lost and Desperate Housewives...I just hope that all the media hype doesn't force people to get so burned out that they stop tuning in just when the show's getting good.