63
enjoying both the volume and variety of
platforms this era off ers. In addition to
her Showtime drama The Chi and BET
showbiz comedy Twenties, she and Mas-
ter of None creator Aziz Ansari had the
freedom, on Netfl ix, to create a poignant
season about her supporting character
Denise’s marriage.
Just about every creator I spoke with
agrees with Waithe that “our business
is in transition.” Calderón Kellett’s next
project is Amazon’s With Love, a holi-
day romance that follows a big Latinx
family with a variety of gender identities
and sexual orientations. While pitching
it, she was delighted that “the more I
would talk to [execs], the more they
were like, ‘Oh my God, this is exactly
what we need. We want it tomorrow.’ ”
Even creators with more tradi-
tionally marketable sensibilities, like
Kripke, have found a godsend in stream-
ing, with its shorter seasons and fl ex-
ible formats. “Working in broadcast, I
spent my time just trying to stay one
step ahead of the ravenous production
machine, throwing scripts at it so it
wouldn’t eat me alive,” he says.
An atmosphere that’s welcoming to
the widest possible range of creative
worth it to them. Most of the experts
predict that we’ll start to see more merg-
ers like the one currently in process that
aims to combine HBO Max with Discov-
ery+. Giles, the ViacomCBS executive,
suggests that we’ll mostly see consolida-
tion among niche streamers. But move-
ment in the opposite direction seems
possible too, with streamers doubling
down on their strengths. Why wouldn’t
Apple TV+ go all-in on comedy to retain
the Ted Lasso audience?
However it shakes out, this likely
contraction of the streaming land-
scape does give some creators pause. “I
wouldn’t be surprised if, fi ve to 10 years
from now, we’re eff ectively back to the
big three or four networks,” says Goyer.
“I’m a little worried about what that
does to the creative world in the distant
future.” Just look at the fi lm industry,
where decades of mergers and acquisi-
tions have led to a few big studios that
pour huge sums into mostly franchise-
driven slates. In recent years, TV has
been a refuge for fi lmmakers like Jane
Campion and Steve James, who favor
grounded, character-driven stories.
As a professional watcher of televi-
sion, this is the kind of show I cherish,
that reaches for insight into the human
experience, rather than papering over
it with formulaic genre plots and CG ef-
fects. Sure, plenty of IP-based series be-
long in the former category, but I’m con-
cerned that brilliant sui generis ideas,
like Pen15 and I May Destroy You, will
be the fi rst to disappear. Because Marvel
and The Walking Dead aren’t going any-
where; neither are all the inexpensive
reality shows, even if the end of peak
redundancy means fewer of them. As
much as I enjoy bingeing The Circle in
a half-asleep haze, I would never trade it
for art that keeps me wide awake.
But here I go again, relying on my
own blurred vision when most within
the industry take a longer view. “I take
great comfort in seeing that, at the very
heart of it, people are telling stories they
really have an urgency to tell—and audi-
ences are getting excited about them,”
says Gamble. And, perhaps most heart-
ening, she adds, fresh voices are being
invited to join the conversation. “Isn’t
that the only thing that’s gonna keep
us from being bored to f-cking death?”
—With reporting by MARIAH ESPADA voices is also, of course, good for
the broadest possible cross section
of viewers. Not that we’ve reached
peak representation. Several creators
brought up the dearth of transgender
protagonists on TV, as well as how rare
it still is to see TV characters with dis-
abilities. “I’m dying to see a period
piece with Latinos in it,” says Calde-
rón Kellett.
The long-term future of TV is
shaping up to be a balance—if not a
battle—between multinational cor-
porations and singular artists, billion-
dollar franchises and quirky pilots.
But, happily, this period of unprece-
dented redundancy can’t last forever.
Yes, in all likelihood, Netfl ix will con-
tinue to be the best at off ering every-
thing to everyone. But even as their
platforms expand, other big stream-
ers claim to have no interest in com-
peting with Netfl ix’s volume. Disney’s
Walden says Hulu is focused on highly
curated originals; Salke says Amazon
believes in “targeted content strate-
gies that actually pay off .”
Still, that fi fth-best-Netfl ix prob-
lem persists. Consumers will need to
decide how many subscription fees are2016
THIRD QUARTER
2021
THIRD QUARTER
71% 46 %
12 %
8 %
6 %
6 %
7 %
8 %
5 %
3 %
OTHER
14 %
OTHER
14 %
CROSSING THE STREAMS
Over the past fi ve years, the streaming landscape has seen many
players enter the fray, all competing for viewer attention. Here’s where
that attention has been directed, at least in terms of original content: