ThreeLive channel not for me
We keep being told we’re living in the golden age of TV drama. With movie studios obsessed with franchises and blockbusters, television has become the home for quality writing, big-name actors and daring directors.
Shows like Big Little Lies, The Handmaid’s Tale, Doctor Foster, Game Of Thrones and Westworld now dominate cultural conversations, social media interactions and workplace watercooler talk.
However, this month’s announcement proves MediaWorks wants no part of that. Instead, it has set its stall firmly behind reality television – creating a new channel dedicated to the ‘‘dark art’’ in all its guises. Don’t be fooled by its ‘‘innovation’’ of specific nights dedicated to different topics either – Choice TV has been doing that for years and TVNZ1 has been promoting the same idea by stealth by offering wall-to-wall real estate and cookery shows at certain times of the year.
It’s not that I’m completely against resurrecting Dancing With The Stars or avoiding the awful truth as to how popular Married At First Sight is, it’s just that I look down the list and lament the onedimensionality of it all.
Three once championed comedy and drama. It stole Twin Peaks from under TVNZ’s nose, championed The Good Wife, delighted audiences with Boston Legal, Prison Break and House, took a gamble on Outrageous Fortune and Bro’ Town, secured the rights to CSI and House Of Cards, and aired such edgy fare as Skins and Back Of The Y.
Now, it promotes a handful of Law And Order spinoffs and the return of good ol’ redneck Roseanne. It’s a sad state of affairs for the once vibrant and vital network, which for its first 25 years was renowned for some savvy marketing, providing viewers with choice and having a real swagger and character
To be fair, this programming apocalypse has been signposted for the some time. The decision to introduce a succession of stalker movies into early afternoon programming was somewhat questionable, as was the relegation of shows like Good Wife and The Blacklistto graveyard slots and the acquisition of the one-note Bravo channel.
That it has seen fit to introduce ThreeLife seems less a reflection of Bravo’s success and more a frustration that it hasn’t been able to tinker with it as TVNZ did with its initially much-maligned ‘‘blokey’’ Duke channel, which now airs some of the most entertaining shows (Travel Man, Taskmaster – yes, I know they aren’t dramatic fare) on free-to-air TV.
The only outlets that should be thanking MediaWorks for this month’s announcement are Sky TV, Lightbox, Amazon Prime and Netflix, which can now expect an influx of potential subscribers.