So I decided to start up a blog about television. I was so excited. The new fall season is like Christmas for me. I love television the way most men love sports. I know story and character points about shows I will never watch. I love TV. Then I started watching the new fall season and realized…most of this is incredibly average. Now what am I going to do?

I spent the last week watching some of the safest formulaic television ever. There seems to be no one taking a chance or making a statement. Granted most of the shows I watch take a few episodes to get going but this is ridiculous. Some shows forewent an actual pilot. Some shows hit the nail right on the head with pilot but the actors were merely strolling through the scene. Some shows have excellent talent for actors but no writing. Nothing is hooking me in.

I have nothing that has made me say those words I love to say “this is the best thing on TV!” Mostly all I have been saying these days is “this is the best thing on TV?” I used live for the new fall season. The set up shows where networks trotted out their new shows for the world to see. Now they don’t exist. And if they do it is only to prop some other venture by the network. There is nothing out there on network that if they cancelled it I would be outraged by. NOTHING! The networks need to look at the changing landscape and wake up!

So what am I to do? Well I can await AMC to show me the end of Breaking Bad and then give me Walking Dead. Then I have to wait until sometime in February to get to Justified. Then a blink of an eye to try to decipher who everybody is on Game of Thrones. Then it is almost summer time and that means the return of Ray Donovan and Newsroom. Then I am right back here where I started.

Is this it? Is this the cycle? Sit around and wait for business to realize they are dealing in art and hope they take a chance on a show that might be over our heads.  A concept that may take a little more time to figure out than the advertisers would like?  Netflix released three shows this year. Two I like a lot. One let’s just say it’s not for me. They released all the episodes at once and commercial free. I know they are a pay subscription service but still they took the risk because they knew if it worked, and it worked well, it would win on the back-end. Something networks used to do but is no more.

I am really even starting to run out of things online to watch. There just isn’t enough access to shows. Why are there not giant libraries at each of the networks giving me access to the old shows or even the new shows? Why is it in this technological marvel of the information age that I can’t simply find a show to watch? I got to purchase DVD or Blu-ray sets costing hundreds of dollars to re-watch a show that the networks could not see fit to give a second season to? This should be a no brainer. The web is narrow casting for the individual but it is the broadest of broadcasting for the world. Think of the traffic that could be driven to the archives of your company site to find your shows, all of them. This could mean greater ad dollars than what you will get nickel and diming the consumer. I understand business is about making money, but the numbers floating around out there today are so incredible they have no meaning. How much is enough? How much before you just begin to grant access and look at the return on the back-end?

I’m just saying.