Season of My Content

DANA DELANEY

Season of My Content

Back in the summer of 2006 I wrote a column arguing that the quality of television — once considered an artistic wasteland — had finally, inarguably surpassed that of the movies. While the cineplexes were overstuffed with tired sequels, remakes, and adaptations of, yes, old TV shows, television was offering much more daring and different fare like Lost, The Wire, The Shield, Deadwood, Battlestar Galactica, The Sopranos, and Rescue Me. And the debuts of Friday Night Lights (even better than the movie), 30 Rock, and Heroes were just around the corner. I expected a lot of debate about it. Shockingly, there was none. Even hardcore movie buffs couldn't help but agree.

Fast-forward 15 months, and it appears to be a different story. As I write this, TV writers are picketing outside studios, being treated to doughnuts by Jay Leno and concerts by Rage Against the Machine. (Wow, maybe I should go on strike!) But some would say the season was in trouble before the writers walked out. For one thing, there were no new breakout hits this fall (ABC's Samantha Who? does fine, but still loses more than a third of its Dancing With the Stars lead-in audience). Not only that, but several faves stumbled badly out of the gate: Heroes got caught up in a pair of awful lovey-dovey romances, Friday Night Lights went all Lifetime-movie-of-the-week on us with a dead-stalker story line, and The Office opened up shop with some painfully drawn-out hour-long episodes while turning Michael Scott into an even dumber version of Homer Simpson.

Meanwhile, on the silver screen, theatergoers have been treated to a string of dramatic triumphs, including Into the Wild, No Country for Old Men, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, and Michael Clayton. Is TV becoming film's cultural bee-yotch all over again? Was the boob tube's age of dominance really that brief?

I'm not quite ready to hand back the crown. A closer look reveals that Heroes and Friday Night Lights have finally gotten back on creative track. Even more encouraging is the resurgence of several shows that had fallen on hard times. Mired in a two-season slump, Desperate Housewives has been positively electric this fall, thanks in no small part to the genius addition of Dana Delany as a returning neighbor packing a secret beneath her smile. A lot of people figured Survivor's torch had been snuffed for good after last spring's snooze-inducing Fiji season, but its latest China edition has featured some of the best drama — scripted or unscripted, big-screen or small — anywhere. (Ditto for The Amazing Race, which has reemerged from its two-year Family Edition hangover to become a must-DVR show, once again.)

ABC's gleefully addictive Dirty Sexy Money may not be a hit, but the tabloid-flavored tale should be, and as far as laughs go, I'll put 30 Rock up against all feature-film comedies, especially any that include the words Balls or Fury in the title. Over on cable, Showtime's Brotherhood remains the finest TV show that no one — and I mean no one — is watching. Seriously, check out a few hours of this political/Mob drama, then go get an ice pack to apply to the area where you will no doubt end up kicking yourself for not tuning in sooner. And I may not have known what the hell was going on half the time on FX's Damages, but Ted Danson's performance would be pure Oscar bait had it been in theaters.

So it turns out my TV's just fine, thank you very much. That said, the recent strong run of movies may have narrowed the gap to the point where the battle for quality control could be closer to something of a dead heat. And you know who that makes the ultimate winner? Us.

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