• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, December 1, 2023

“You should watch [fill in blank].”

This is the No. 1 TV topic people talk about today. How many times have I heard this? Too many times to count.

Yesterday, I wrote about “The TV Topics No One Talks About Anymore,” as the headline said. But there is a flip side to everything. 

Today’s TV Blog is about the opposite, the TV topics everyone talks about, starting with three words “streaming, streaming, streaming” -- and more to the point, the content to be found therein.

It has become part of everyday conversation. For example, “Have you ever seen ‘Better Call Saul’?” someone asked me recently. “We’re binging on it, and it’s awesome!”

That’s one of the key characteristics of TV today that people talk about -- namely, that it does not matter at all whether a show is old or new, when it first appeared, when it ceased, or how many seasons it lasted.

People I know are binging on “Friends,” “Seinfeld,” “The Sopranos,” “The Wire,” “Breaking Bad,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and heaven knows what else.

They are mainly younger people who were not of age when these shows and others were in their high-rated and critically acclaimed heydays.

One friend told me recently that he has embarked on a mission to watch every single episode of “South Park” up to the present day.

This show started in 1997. At the present time, the episode count stands at 326. My friend is undeterred.

Today, shows remain alive forever in the vast, infinite space of the streaming universe. People find them there, perhaps motivated by others who say to them: “You should watch [fill in blank].”

The titles come at me seemingly at random. Some I have seen and some I have not. 

Two shows that came out of nowhere recently were “Fleabag” and “Derry Girls.” I am well-aware of the former, but not the latter. 

“Fleabag” is a British-made dark comedy consisting of 12 episodes produced over a period of nearly three years, 2016-19. It can be found on Amazon Prime Video. 

“Derry Girls” is a sitcom about a group of teens growing up in Derry, Northern Ireland, in the mid-1990s -- the final years of the tumultuous era that has become known as “the troubles.”

Consisting of 19 episodes, this series was produced in the U.K. between 2018 and 2022. It is available on Netflix.

A friend texted me recently urging me with great excitement to watch both of them. I have not gotten around to that yet.

In none of the conversations about streaming that I have had with others has anyone ever complained about how the monthly subscription costs are adding up, or whether they are entertaining thoughts of dropping some of them.

Certainly, this may be due to demographics. My friends and acquaintances have largely moved on from network TV and basic cable. These are past history for them.

But many other people still seem to support the networks and cable channels, otherwise they would go out of business, right?

In that universe, some shows still emerge occasionally as shows people talk about. One example right now is “The Golden Bachelor” on ABC, which concluded last night. 

But as mentioned here in previous TV Blogs, such “talkers,” as they were once called, are rare today.

Something I never hear from anybody are day-after questions about network TV shows. 

“Hey, did you catch ‘Blue Bloods’ last night?” Or, “How about that ‘Press Your Luck’ last night? Wasn’t that a doozy?”