21st Century Television

I have seen the possible future of television, and it's exciting, and well crafted and well acted and strikingly produced...and it's airing on PBS.

SHERLOCK aired here in the U.S. on PBS as part of Masterpiece Mystery (Both Season 1 & 2 are now viewable on the PBS website). Season 2 was a three-part series (something we Yanks would erroneously call a mini-series) timed at 1:30 a piece. I don't want to get side-tracked about the smart programming strategy that the British have institutionalized on their side of the pond, but I think it's something that the programmers here in the U.S. should revisit as we go through television's shifting paradigm (I.E. the steady move of content to the internet as well as the ratings-disruptive habits of the audience who now prefers TV on demand to appointment viewing).  As we gather more and more outlets for viewing -- HULU, YouTube, Yahoo, Netflix, Amazon Prime -- more content is going to be needed. If you shudder at the thought of more "reality," be prepared for the heebie-jeebies because less and less money is going to be available for upfront costs which means less development, fewer professionals, and basically no production value.  At least, not until we effectively monetize the web. How its going to shake out is anyone's guess right now, but my money continues to be on the creative side with odds favoring the person who can do more with less. Which brings me back to....  Where was I? Oh, yes. SHERLOCK. Blergh! I knew I was going to be side-tracked.

The series is genius not because they took arguably the best known PI ever written and slapped him back on TV. No. Anyone can tune in to CBS after 9PM and get a procedural, and anyone can take a character in the public domain and re-craft him to investigate a mystery (E.G. HOUSE, MD and NBC's upcoming ELEMENTARY). However, the lure here is usually in the sensationalism. How gross can we make a dead body? How lurid can we make the crime?  But the Brits have foregone the Ick Factor and decided to go for...shall I say "innovation?"  Perish the thought that a television show can be described so, and yet, there it is. Season 1, Episode 1 of SHERLOCK starts with a police inspector giving a press conference on a murder. Instead of having our devastatingly, detailed detective standing in the back of the room, poised to dramatically reveal himself and mock and question the officer, the audience hears numerous text alerts.  The sound your phone makes when you have received a text. All the journos look to their phones. As they look at the screens in their hands, floating above their heads, bobbing along with the actors heads are the text type written words, "He's lying." Text!  In Film!  Without the actor looking down, then cutting to the phone screen to give you a crappy reproduction of a cell phone screen shot so that you can read the text, too! In Season 2, John Watson, MD, has started a blog about Sherlock's exploits. Instead of blandly showing Watson typing then explaining what he's typing to Sherlock, we get another long shot with the type marching across the screen as Watson's fingers fly over the keypad. What he is typing is not important expect that a throw-away joke is made about Blog titles (how I suffer over them!). But we go further than just showing technology in use. We actually use technology in informing the character! What?! Is that possible?! It is, it is! As Sherlock looks at person, we see the character from his perspective. We are in Sherlock's head. Along a lapel line, the words "$400 suit" may appear. As he looks across a vista, a measurement might be taken. The film makers do not stop the motion of the camera, the text resides within the shot like a natural extension. They trust their audience to follow along because they force their audience to actually watch the screen. As someone who has texted or commented on FB photos or -- forgive me -- played Soltaire on an iPad while "watching" other TV shows, I must put down my techno gadgets if I want to follow the story. I can't just listen, I have to pay attention.  And by paying attention, I'm rewarded. In Season 2, Episode 1, "A Scandal in Belgravia," we are introduced to Irene Adler who drugs our dear Sherlock. Again, we are given Sherlock's perspective. A dreamlike encounter happens between the two. No, not sex -- keep it clean, people! Instead, Sherlock falls onto the floor and into his bed until he suddenly finds himself in a car that was featured earlier in a crime he has yet to solve for the audience. But it's not Sherlock who explains it to us, it's Irene Adler who reveals herself to be just as clever as Sherlock...and who consequently reveals that the writers of this series are quite clever themselves. Earlier, we are teased with a sight gag of our Sherlock in a deerstalker cap while Watson dons a driver's cap. But further, SHERLOCK's technology is used to immerse the viewer in the experience. As Sherlock stays home, Watson brings his laptop to a crime scene and uses the laptop's camera to show Sherlock the evidence. As Watson walks, the camera bobs along with his gait. When Sherlock sits down, it's like you're Skyping with the man. While 3D tries to deliver the experience of being in the room, SHERLOCK allows you to be a part of the process.  And let's face it, it doesn't cost the producers a ton of money. Not when you look at the costs of CGI'ing something like TERRA NOVA. 

As the end of the current television season closes, we have been treated to some interesting upfronts for next fall.  I look forward to the new Fox line-up which seems to have used THE NEW GIRL as a template. I will schedule a viewing of REVOLUTION on NBC and NASHVILLE on ABC, but nothing so far matches the feel of something that has been as thought out and crafted as SHERLOCK. Not even the new ELEMENTARY. It all feels like pop and fizz.  But if SMASH and GLEE taught us anything, it's that pop and fizz goes flat. You must engage your viewer with more than just great sets and big named actors. You have to give us something that feels fresh. You have to give us a story and if you can give us an immersive experience while you're at it, you might just have the next TV game changer.