Welcome to the Vibranium Age of TV

Much is written about the Streaming Wars™ and how this new competition dynamics is radically changing the logic and value of TV and, specially recently, movies, fostering PeakTV™ higher and higher. But less is written about the new logic that streaming is allowing for Productions. Yes, there are pieces about new production processes and the freedom that streamers allow for creators. Bear in mind that such freedom may be more of a freedom of format than a freedom of creativity or business. For instance the duration of each episode in a show not being restrained by the needs of tv channels but certainly not the freedom for creators to have the rights of their own series. I believe this will evolve in due time (I May Destroy You, one of the most prestigious series of the year, reportedly went to HBO instead of Netflix because the platform needed to have all rights. In the future, streaming business processes will need to get more flexible).

Seems like the focus of the freedom of streaming ends up being about physical topics (time restraint or maybe physical formats of TV vs. Mobile, one factor in which late Quibi was really innovative). This focus is completely normal as there was nothing until now to justify that streaming media would be responsible for a profound change in what a streaming production uniquely is. Some important people, like Matthew Ball, have argued over and over about the possibilities that the virtual world offers to creators but what I usually watch end up being adaptions from TV to streaming or from movies to streaming. Sure, I am watching it through an internet connection but it sure looks and feels a lot like TV shows. And although series productions are not in the metaverse era yet, in 2020, some great series may have started to define what may be the next step towards it, a real streaming production, or a streaming genre. And it already looks like in the years to come that path will be broadened. Maybe the first big budget series to adapt to this was not for streaming at all, but for the new TV. Lovecraft Country was the first step towards HBO’s pivot to a streaming audience and it was not without its mistakes, of course. This series kicks off a new style that pays homage to old TV but is not quite like it. Lovecraft Country has standalone episodes with loose internal rules for its universe, each episode usually pays homage to movie tropes (horror episodes, thriller, war), they are quite different from each other, they are all connected by a thin but important arc and even with all the differences they are all very much canon.

And this is not just a TV thing. Maybe the inspiration for this new era came from the success of the most successful movie company today and its Marvel Cinematic Universe. A big universe of standalone movies, a thin arc connecting them, every movie is canon and impactful for the whole arc but each movie can have its own universe rules. It also develops a following, a captive public, which allows it to take more risks, such as The Guardians of the Galaxy. Notice a pattern? With money flowing freely and a loyal public, streamers can be prone to take a lot of risks nowadays.

This structure is different from what existed before in TV. Even in the most boundless popular series such as Lost, Star Trek, Fringe and The X-Files it was known that each episode took place inside the series’ universe rules, different matches of the same game. Episodes that broke the rules were special and either explained or put clearly out of the canon, like musical episodes. Today what I notice is a different kind of series. The Mandalorian, the first Disney show of the new age, shows this new trend even more clearly in its second season. The main arc still works almost like a road movie to find a home for “The Child”, but I have a western episode, a samurai one and even a heist movie. Notice the pattern here: standalone episodes, with their own rules, all canon; movie tropes and homages to the old era; thin arc that connects everything (usually but not necessarily in the beginning or end of episodes).

The streaming era and the big pivot from Disney and Warner/HBO may bring a true and relevant change. Shows that are not truly movies nor TV, but streaming shows. Multi-media, multi-window and soon, multi-sensorial. Disney’s bold roster plan only shows that they will launch this new kind of shows in a growing scale, at least with Marvel and Star Wars expanded universes. WandaVision has just arrived in 2021 and can already be classified as a show of the new age. And not for being a hero show but for its structure. It is completely different from Marvel shows that were produced for Netflix. Lovecraft Country is neither Disney’s nor a hero show but also follows the same structure, it is a show of the new age of TV (even though as said earlier “it’s not TV”).

I believe that only now, almost a decade after House of Cards, the first big budget production for streaming, only now we are concretely coming to a new age for TV. This new age needs a name. Following the same logic that brought us the golden age and the silver age of TV, I suggest the Vibranium Age of TV. It just makes sense, a precious but totally virtual metal, it does not exist in our physical world, yet we all know it. It is also future-proof for a while. The metaverse trend will only grow, we will interact with virtual worlds and shows productions are trying to follow this change in behavior, to cater for the new world that may radically change what is considered worthy. As usual, technological evolution changes consumption which changes creations. Nothing more natural than the fluidity of our mediums being reflected in the fluidity of our media.