TV shows were so poor in 2024

Agency,London, Dec. 25: As the year comes to an end and everyone takes a look back over 2024's best TV offerings, for some there may be a collective form of amnesia. What was that Apple TV+ crime series with that big actor in you watched – was it Presumed Innocent or Sugar? What was that nice rom-com starring Adam Brody called again? Did you watch that series where Nicole Kidman played a wealthy woman who floated around in designer dresses looking worried because her son went missing (Expats), or where she played a wealthy woman who floated around in designer dresses looking worried because someone was murdered on her estate (The Perfect Couple)?

If, perhaps with a quick Google search as a prompt, you realise you did watch The Perfect Couple, it's a show that seems to encapsulate where such interchangeable TV is at in 2024. The Perfect Couple burst onto Netflix in September, a soapy, glossy and silly adaptation of Elin Hilderbrand's 2018 novel of the same name. With a decent cast – including Kidman in a dodgy wig, Liev Schreiber, Meghann Fahy and Dakota Fanning – the six-episodes series unravelled a murder mystery set at an upper-class wedding in Nantucket. The tone of the show was off, slightly; was the melodramatic telenovela-like style in earnest or was this some kind of satire on the murder mystery genre? It was unclear. Also shoe-horned in was a cringey all-cast dance routine on the beach to Meghan Trainor's song Criminals that introduced each episode; even Fahy told Variety: "Everyone [the actors] was saying they didn't want to do this because we just didn't understand." The audience lapped it up – it was most watched on Netflix's TV chart for two weeks in a row – then it seemed to vanish from memory.  

"I had actually forgotten I had watched The Perfect Couple," says Manori Ravindran, a TV industry journalist who writes for The Ankler and Broadcast. "And all I can remember about that now is the dance, which, even when I was watching it, felt like a very orchestrated device to make it stick in people's minds; a visual element to make a show memorable." While the dance gave the show a viral moment at the time,  the drama as a whole didn't inspire the same cultural conversation. The Perfect Couple was the essence of a 2024 television phenomenon: the rise of Mid TV. 

That term was first coined by New York Times journalist James Poniewozik in a piece for the publication in April 2024, where he suggested that the so-called "Golden age of TV" was over. Gone were the captivating and creative dramas of the mid-noughties that were a masterclass in storytelling, like The Sopranos, Mad Men and Breaking Bad, which then led to streamers like Netflix and Amazon breaking further creative boundaries as they entered the market with shows such as Orange Is the New Black, BoJack Horseman and Transparent.

Now, Poniewozik argued, the small screen is increasingly being populated by shows that look good, are fun to watch, and often feature A-lister actors – but are the very dictionary definition of "nice", and as such are instantly forgettable. Shows he placed under this banner include the likes of Apple TV+'s Palm Royale and Platonic, Amazon's Mr & Mrs Smith, and Peacock's Poker Face.

Poniewozik expanded: "Mid is not a strict genre with a universal definition. But it's what you get when you raise TV's production values and lower its ambitions. It reminds you a little of something you once liked a lot. It substitutes great casting for great ideas… Mid is based on a well-known book or movie or murder. Mid looks great on a big screen. Mid was shot on location in multiple countries. Mid probably could have been a couple episodes shorter. Mid is fine, though. It's good enough."

"I think it has been extremely prevalent this year," Ravindran tells the BBC. "I would characterise Mid TV as shows with big stars, generic characters, well-trodden storylines; nothing distinctive and just forgettable."

With a glut of shows that could be classed as Mid TV hitting screens this year, and with many of these coming from streamers such as Netflix, Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video, cynics might say that the decision to have its cast bopping on the beach was indeed a move to make The Perfect Couple stand out from the other Mid shows of the time. Showrunner Jenna Lamia even signalled that it was there to indicate the show was not meant to be taken seriously, despite revolving around a murder case. She told Tudum: "Susanne [Bier, the director] had this really brilliant thought that if we were to use a dance like that as the opening credits, it would tell people right away that, yes, this is a murder mystery, and yes, it's a thriller, but you're also going to have so much fun, so sit back and enjoy the ride."

However, Ravindran believes that Mid TV is something that viewers themselves have identified as a phenomenon, rather than a concerted strategy coming from TV makers. "I wouldn't say Mid TV is something the industry – producers, broadcasters and streamers – are necessarily talking about," she says. "But from an audience perspective, this is how it's received and it's quite right." 

Certainly, the idea that we are living in an age of Mid TV is supported by many of the tepid reactions to the TV year from critics. Inkoo Kang of The New Yorker says that until a few late arrivals at the end of 2024, "I wondered whether I'd have enough entries for a conventional top 10 list", while Jen Chaney at Vulture said: "It was surprising how much 2024 felt like an uneventful wake for the Peak TV era. There was still great television, but there was so much more mid or meh television and far fewer exceptional offerings or moments when a critical mass of viewers seemed equally excited about the same series." 

On the other hand, perhaps Mid TV is not necessarily such a bad thing, argues TV critic and commentator Dan Barrett, who writes the newsletter Always Be Watching. "TV is actually at its best when it helps serve the function that most viewers ask of it: they want TV to help them relax and unwind," he tells the BBC. "While it's great to be able to sit down and really get stuck into a weighty, substantial drama, most viewing is done after a long day at work or looking after the kids. TV that pushes the boundaries and strives for excellence should be respected, but we need to be better at celebrating the TV that meets the viewer's needs by striking that delightful balance of being a bit smart, while also not being too taxing."  

There are several reasons that we've seen so many of these distinctly average shows about recently, believe Ravindran and Barrett. "The demand for such a high volume of content from the streaming services has resulted in a lot of money spent on TV shows that look amazing with lush production values, but are often created by writers with limited TV experience," says Barrett. "It results in a lot of TV that isn't very memorable. The shows seem prestigious from the outset, but once you start watching, very quickly you realise they are 100-minute feature film ideas stretched out to 8-10 hour-long episodes."