Our Overwhelming, Wonderful Age of Television

Too many television shows on too many devices is a good problem to have. If you don’t agree, talk to someone who spent their childhood using a hanger for a TV antenna and a pair of pliers to change channels—all just to watch Eight Is Enough. Yes, the streaming age has been overwhelming. And yes, it’s been expensive, as we figure out which platforms we need in perpetuity and which we can cancel and resubscribe to whenever there’s a new season of their one good show. Still, the industry that kept us rapt and informed in lockdown continues to deliver miracles.

This is Vanity Fair’s third annual TV issue. We’ve tried to capture television as we see it right now, and to track its evolution. Recently, there was a legitimate fear that audiences were watching too many different things for widespread conversations. But, as you’ll see here, thrilling shows have made a mark. R.O. Kwon dives into the making, and meaning, of global phenom Squid Game. Photographer Nick Riley Bentham shoots stars from The Dropout, Euphoria, Yellowstone, and more. And Joy Press has tea with Matthew Macfadyen, whose delicious drama, Succession, is to pettiness and treachery what Ted Lasso is to being super nice.

Not long ago, it wouldn’t have been unreasonable to say that the network sitcom was doomed. Young viewers devoured ancient glories like Friends and Seinfeld on streaming services while new broadcast shows struggled to connect. Now, ABC has scored with Abbott Elementary, a gentle comedy about teachers at a Philadelphia school that borrows its winking mockumentary device from past darlings like The Office while incorporating the perpetual optimism of Coach Lasso. CBS has watched the steady rise of Ghosts, a zany haunted-house comedy closer to the tartness of Liz Lemon than to Leslie Knope’s aggressive sunshine. And in a savage irony, some streamers are now imitating network TV after trouncing it in the revolution.

Streamers have even begun dropping episodes of some shows on a weekly basis, like broadcast networks or old-school HBO. Is the all-at-once, binge-happy dump headed for extinction? Probably not. But the weekly model has given shows a real chance to take hold: Showtime’s mesmerizing mystery box Yellowjackets, for instance, swelled in the zeitgeist after a quiet beginning. You’ll find it in these pages, along with dozens of other series that deserve Emmy attention. Some will be favorites of yours, some won’t. But there’s no denying the scope of what’s out there—and, anyway, as you’ve probably heard, love is blind.