Five trends for the 2011–2012 TV season
Per The Wrap:
The Endless Fall: So far, only Fox and NBC have unveiled their official schedule, and the fourth-place NBC seems to be taking a major lesson from “The Voice,” this year’s biggest hit. NBC has ordered 12 new shows in all, six comedies and six dramas. But rather than unleash them all at once, it is staggering its slate by releasing half the shows in the fall and half in midseason.
Funny women: The most obvious trend of the upcoming season is the rise of women-centered comedies. Much as we’d like to attribute it to a breakdown in sexism or male insecurity, it’s largely thanks to the power of marketing.
Baffled men: Once again, television perfectly mirrors reality. While most women’s problems involve the people with whom they split the cable bill, men spend most of their time impotently struggling to find their place in a world suddenly taken over by ladies.
Sexy Throwbacks: The hardest part of the “Mad Men” formula to reproduce? The richly detailed writing and beautifully calibrated performances. The easiest? The sex. ABC’s “Pan Am” and NBC’s “The Playboy Club” (left) revel in the slinky, swanky aspects of the 1960s, eschewing “Mad Men”-type references to “Mediations on an Emergency” in favor of clothes people don’t wear to work anymore.
Looking for the Next “Lost”: If Fox’s mid-season “Alcatraz” can’t recapture the magic, it’s time to call off the search. The J.J. Abrams-produced show brings back fan favorite Jorge Garcia and once again puts him a storied island with an interesting relationship to the space-time continuum.
Nothing like Funny Women, Baffled Men, and Sexy Throwbacks to spice up the ol’ network schedules, eh?
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