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Also Monk, Royal Pains. What is fascinating is that all these shows were very popular but were kinda ignored between the stale network fare post 90s (Raymond, Two and a Half Men) on one hand, and premium mediocre HBO-grade “golden age” TV.
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When I look back at this period, it strikes me that this basic cable genre was the soul of pre-Weirding American culture before being basic/normie became impossible due to Weirding, culture wars.
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Obviously I really enjoy this stuff and have rewatched all of these shows a couple of times. They are post 9/11 and recession and have cellphones (transitioning to iPhones halfway through), so they’re modern in almost every way, except for that innocence that was lost after.
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Something liminal about this little chapter of mediocre but very satisfying television. The last attempt at universal appeal before TV turned into some mix of reboot hell, self-consciously quirky non-basic subcultural shows, and shows clearly targeting narrower demographics.
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The aughts were generally a zombie decade for network television module random bright spots like The Office. I think everybody agrees with that. The contest was basic vs premium cable. A bit like Android vs iOS. USA was Android, HBO was iOS.
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Makes me sad to think the start of this era is already over a decade ago. Somehow it seems like a forgotten era. I think because they were not very meme-worthy shows. It was basic entertaining storytelling, without gif-able shots or iconic lines. Now TV/movies aim for the meme.
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I think it’s this kind of TV that best explains why I’m generally team normie/basic/mediocre. There’s a lightness of being that I prefer to the neuroticism of supposedly “better” TV and the non-normies it appeals to. Tropey self-awareness without heavy handed meta/irony tone
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I mourn this quiet, unheralded end of the last chapter of consensus reality. We moved so quickly to our current multiverse of alt TV realities we forgot to mark this. But we will rerun and remember.
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