Great TV Can Now be Seen in a Whole New Light

The late 90’s and early 00’s were a busy time for everyone – while we were out enjoying bistro pubs and happy hour shooters (I confess the later was more up my street), TV land was producing episodic drama of the highest order. They certainly passed me by during my university years, but now is the time to make up for what I missed. And with media distribution companies going under left, right and centre it can be done for as little as 0.32pence an episode!

Apologies to those readers who were at the forefront of these TV experiences “live”, but I feel that even if you were, these imminent times of “change” will provide a much different backdrop to watch them in. I find that I am watching TV from only 3 years and it can be seen to be a historical reference to a much different time.

Take the Democratic-administration based The West Wing which ran from 1999 to 2006, which acted as a shining light for liberal America during those years – a this-is-how-it-should-be-done in the face of the real-life administration. And now it is here! Throughout its run, many web poles pronounces that the fictional President Bartlett would be many American’s choice given the option and the series ended with a young, minority Democrat in the race for the Presidency. I find myself watching thinking how many people thought that this was a pipe-dream and the day will never happen. The similarities run so close that many people may think we are living in a real-life spin off series. Does the election of Obama and the wave of change bring with it a cast of characters similar to those in the West Wing? Are they patriotic, caring and just enough to live up to their fictional forerunners? Or maybe the sometimes admittedly sickly sweet liberal characters in the West Wing are now a turn off in light of the latest elections –who would win a pole of Obama vs. Bartlett?

We can hope that the world can strive to meet those goals of high morality set down by some TV programmes, but so to can TV show us that maybe we cannot change or the ease of change is not as simple as an election. Acts of selfishness and greed are no more typified than in the character of Tony Soprano in the HBO series The Sopranos which ran from 1999 to 2007. The get as much as you can mentality and the need to climb over everyone else, can be applied equally to bankers and city traders, who are blamed for the mess the global financial market is in, as it can be applied to the gangsters who make up The Sopranos. But by no means is this the crux of the programme. Beneath Tony’s poisonous exterior there lies a great deal of hope and a want for change, to break out of the greedy mould and find a sense of honesty about how we live our lives.

So if you are finding those long nights in a bit of a drag, get yourself some dirt cheap box sets and try and see things in a new light. Just don’t buy them on credit!