Good Bad Bad Good

At this year’s Emmys, the biggest names in television presented their usual awards, while the show itself represented an industry in flux. The hostless proceedings saw record low ratings even as new television shows and streaming services continue to infinitely expand. In the October issue of Harper’s Magazine, Adam Wilson considers the market and technological forces that gave rise to the “Golden Age of television,” and how it has subsequently led to “Peak TV.” Wilson asks how shifts in the consumption habits of the small number of viewers who watch “prestige” television (rather than comedies on the Big Three networks) have changed the ways the major players do business—and whether they truly have. In this episode, Harper’s web editor Violet Lucca talks with Wilson, the author of three books, including the forthcoming novel Sensation Machines, about the questionable label of prestige television, experimentation in visual narrative media, and the shifting nature of stardom—i.e., what it’s like to get tweeted at by Lizzo. Read Wilson’s essay: https://harpers.org/archive/2019/10/good-bad-bad-good-golden-age-of-television/ This episode was produced by Violet Lucca and Andrew Blevins.