• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, May 28, 2024

TV shows come and go today at a rate that was once unthinkable.

You might think that this never-ending supply of new shows -- dramas, comedies, reality shows, docuseries, documentaries, made-for-TV movies, stand-up comedy performances and much more -- would represent an embarrassment of riches for a TV Blog published five days a week.

But think again. Just because a TV show is on TV or coming to TV, that doesn’t necessarily mean it needs to get a day’s worth of attention from the TV Blog.

More often than ever before, shows come up here for reviews or commentary based on the way their subject matter reflects current trends in TV content, and also social issues in the outer world beyond just television.

An example of the latter over the last few years is the frequency of drama series based in a future world in which current events that are in play today lead to dire, often apocalyptic, end-of-the-world consequences.

The causes include unchecked climate change that wreaks havoc on weather patterns to create superstorms that kill and displace millions, and tensions between great powers that literally explode.

The quantity of apocalypse dramas, from zombies conquering the earth to communities of catastrophe survivors scratching out an existence in a savage world, reflects very real fears people have today around climate change and global tensions.

Some of these shows have technology components. Even before AI became the hottest topic on the planet, its uses and abuses have been a part of TV’s negative and disastrous future-thinking shows for years. Look for more dramas on the evils of AI coming soon. 

Clearly, there is a trend here -- and one that the TV Blog returns to again and again.

The TV Blog clings to other content trends that reside on a much less serious plane than the prospect of the world ending.

These include the state of situation comedy on TV -- often on network television, but also in the streaming universe.

The contents of TV shows in the areas of violence, sex and language are also something the TV Blog has followed and chronicled for so long that I see no reason to stop now, even if the whole thing is a lost cause.

Another trend springs from today’s fast and furious, 24/7 development and production of content for the great TV leviathan.

Sometimes, the scenarios they come up with are head-scratchers. A case in point is a new Netflix drama called “Eric” that premieres this Thursday, May 30.

It’s a drama series about the disappearance of a small boy in New York City in the 1980s, and what his dad then does to find the boy when he feels the police are dragging their feet.

The show stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the dad. The story of the missing boy is a serious one.

New Yorkers will note its similarities to the most famous such disappearance in the city’s modern history -- the 1979 disappearance of 9-year-old Etan Patz who went missing while walking to school in Soho. Neither he nor his body has ever been found.

In “Eric,” the dad understandably grows more emotionally distraught with each day that the boy remains missing.

His emotional state leads him to adopt an imaginary friend -- a furry creature named Eric. Like a latter-day Harvey, Eric can be seen only by Dad. 

In this way, Eric (seen with Dad in the above photo), brings the dad closer to his son because Eric originated in the boy’s imagination. Dad conjures the character based on drawings the child made of his imaginary friend. 

I realize that the father’s delusional adoption of this furry friend relates both to his son and his profession as a puppeteer. 

But at the same time, the storyline of this show seems to be: A man goes looking for his missing son with the help of an invisible Wookie.

The TV Blog’s skepticism should in no way deter anybody from sampling and enjoying this show called Eric. These remarks are solely the opinion of yours truly.