I suppose my biggest obsession right now would be Doctor Who. Been watching the last few series (ooh, aren't I fancy, not using season) pretty much on repeat, to the point where it's actually starting to wear out. The Smith/Moffat stuff especially, which is odd in that I like Tennant better, as the Doctor, overall. Smith brings great energy to the character, for sure, but Tennant had a charm that was quite nice. Don't know, maybe it's just nostalgia. But what I like about Smith and Moffat's run, besides the aforementioned energy, is how BIG everything feels. And not just big, but interconnected to. I mean, myth arcs are great all and all, and they're popping up all over the place now, but what gets you about Moffat's stuff, and it's mostly a writer thing, is the little in-universe nods to everything else. One off characters that pop in again for a bit. Quick waves to previous episodes. That kind of thing. It feels like the universe really is massive, and just teeming with people like this.
The idea of a myth arc, though, is really interesting, because I think it's what people are starting to get behind more and more. These big complex stories with twisty turny developments and massive questions that you really have to stick around to answer. Who's River Song, what's the deal with the Island, etc. This stuff bleeds over into kids TV, too, which I actually think is wonderful. I've been doing some thinking, and it might just be age-driven Solipsism, but I think my generation (children of the 80s and 90s) was one of the first that was raised on serialized shows that bult myth arcs as well. Everyone had their adventure serials, obviously, it's a concept that might be as old as storytelling itself. But the idea of a larger narrative structure buried within is a little harder to find, especially in kids TV.
But we totally had that. Classic stuff like the DC Animated Universe, with Batman and the Justice League, but also the less revered bits too. Power Rangers actually had great large scale storytelling, able to build some awesome storylines for a show that was essentially half stock-footage (Obviously, it's not stock-footage. Metaphor.) And anime in general basically trained us to the idea that shows were all about massive arcs. It took weeks to move things along in DBZ, but I was sitting there in front of the TV every day after school, even if the episode was NOTHING but flashbacks. Which it usually was.
There's really no point to this, but if there was, it would probably be something like this; for all that kids today (Get off my lawn!) seem to have the attention span of a goldfish, I think we've actually built an audience that, more than any other time in media-viewing history, is willing to accept a tv show that flat out DOES NOT ANSWER QUESTIONS. The whole stitcom idea, of wrap everything up, put a bow on it, and CREDITS! is no longer the strict rule. Now TV's a tease, baiting you with resolution, then pulling it back and laughing in your face. And frankly, I wouldn't have it any other way.
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