TV transformed dramatically in the 2010s, but it's remakarkable how much TV didn't change at all

Vulture

Here we are at the end of the decade, and thanks to Netflix, "The Office is as popular and omnipresent as ever, if not more so," says Jen Chaney. "I don’t go a single day without seeing an image of Michael Scott in my social-media feeds, on merchandise, or on a screen in my house where my kid is streaming episodes of the show. Did Steve Carell leave The Office? Yes, that is a fact. But is he also kind of still on it, 24/7? Yes." The story of the 2010s, says Chaney, is how many shows that were popular at the beginning of the decade are either still around or still relevant thanks to revivals or streaming services like Netflix. Grey's Anatomy, The Walking Dead, Blue Bloods, The Bachelor, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Dancing with the Stars, Bob's Burgers, and The Simpsons are among the shows that were on in 2010 that will be around in 2020. Even though Lost finished with its controversial series finale in May 2010, it has survived via a number of copycats like Manifest and Emergence. "That doesn’t even take into account the shows that aren’t Lost knockoffs but have it in their DNA, like The Good Place and Damon Lindelof’s The Leftovers and Watchmen," says Chaney. "The beginning of the decade said, Lost is dead. The second half of it responded, Long live Lost." Chaney adds: "The 2010s were, without a doubt, a transformative time for television. The number of TV shows and ways in which we watched them exploded on an unprecedented level. In the year 2010, our viewing options were akin to an overstuffed closet: There was a lot to sort through, but it was manageable. We had a handle on how to get rid of the stuff that didn’t spark joy. But in 2019, our potential binge-watches are more like the stock room in The Matrix: an endless series of shelving units that extend into infinity. Even if you’re the One, there’s no way you can stream this many damn episodes. Every end-of-decade retrospective about the medium — even our own! — will tell you a version of this same story: The big news about TV in the 2010s was its abundance and how much more nichified it became. But in a decade that will also be remembered as a time of great polarization, it seems only right to offer another perspective. As much as the TV landscape transformed, it’s remarkable how much didn’t change at all."

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