The Rise of the Continuous Dramedy

So this fall, several shows have premiered that are incredibly similar to one another in how they tell a story and use drama/comedy. Atlanta, Better Things, and Fleabag all tell very different stories but do so in a way that I completely enjoy.

First off, there’s Atlanta, check out my review of it here, which tells the story of Earn Marks (Donald Glover) who is trying to make it in the music industry. Then there’s Better Things which tells the story of Sam (Pamela Adlon) an older female actress who tries to juggle her own life, the life she shares with her children, and her acting career. And then there’s Fleabag which stars Phoebe Wall-Bridge as Fleabag who is struggling to come to terms with her life after the accidental suicide of her friend.

All three shows tell a different story in a similar way and I cannot help but be excited for the future of television if this is the direction it is moving in. First and foremost, I’m not a huge fan of episodic television. I stopped watching The Flash because of how formulaic and unoriginal the monster of the week storyline was. Modern Family also became uninteresting to me as the characters only seemed to move and grow outside of the episode and often this was not the focus of the episode, rather, some problem of the week was. I fear for The Good Place for exactly this reason. Her growth may not be the focus of the show, but rather the problem and tasks that she is given week to week will be and, for me, that will probably become boring after a while. Granted, I still love The Goldbergs, which is very formulaic, and I’m warming up to Speechless, but those shows offer something more than Modern Family and The Flash, in my opinion.

But I digress, the reason I love these shows is because they are more like chapters in a book rather than an episode in a television show. We see the characters moving towards something and not every episode has a clean ending with a lesson and a pretty bow, often times they are dark and depressing, But they also manage to mix comedy and drama so interchangeably, that it seems to be closer to life then television. Fleabag often uses a break in the fourth wall to create humor but it is also through this break that we find out, eventually, what she is hiding from. Atlanta uses language and people to create humor while the language and people can also break your heart. And Better Things uses the idiosyncrasies of everyday life to show us how great people can be and how awful they can be as well.

These stories interest me and the way they are told make me fall in love with them even more. So what do you think of these shows and do you like the direction that television is moving in? Comment below and let me know!