Sunday, August 28, 2022

Spring Renewal Is Out. It’s All About Fall TV Energy.

I can't wait to tell my grandkids about how we had to wait all summer for new TV. I don't have grandkids, or kids, so I'm unsure how this will occur, but I've never been beholden to the tyranny of reality. I was, however, beholden to the agony and ecstasy of the old TV schedule. New content would end mid-May, and the TV would tell you to "Go outside! Find a pool! Cultivate a personality!" Tough love. Ah, but then fall would roll around, the TV Guide would debut its supersize Fall Preview issue, and the channels would be filled with NCISes in a variety of cities, townships, and unincorporated lands.

Nowadays, TV comes at you all kinds of way at all times of the year. Late last winter and into spring, largely due to COVID delays in production, we saw a huge wave of new shows and new seasons just as the traditional TV season would have been winding down. Fan favorites like Barry, The Flight Attendant, and Hacks were jockeying for attention with new fare like Abbott Elementary, Heartstopper, and Severance. It was a lot and I entered the summer months a little discombobulated. Was TV season over? Was it just beginning?

I know that beyond the TV and school schedules, fall is not typically the time we think of for starting something new. But, as I will soon tell my grandkids, I think that's incorrect. I've had it with the tyranny of spring renewal. When the winter months wind down, everything from the natural world to our own internal drive is supposed to be infused with a fresh energy, a verve, a drive to create out of the darkness and barrenness of the coldest season. I think idea this is propaganda—a disinformation campaign put out by Big Plant.

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