It’s summertime, when the regular TV season ends, the off-season reality shows get rolled out and TV critics start writing manifestoes. Well, two of them, anyway. The last couple of weeks have seen big TV think pieces by Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter and Todd VanDerWerff of The AV Club, staking out very different positions on the debate: who’s making better TV shows, the broadcast or cable networks?
On the face of it, Goodman’s saying that cable is making the only great series now, while VanDerWerff counters that broadcast networks have the creative momentum. If you look past the caveats, both really agree on a fundamental, less-traffic-generating premise: that the broadcast networks are better at doing comedy right now and cable better at drama.
But two critics agreeing with each other is no fun! So first, let’s look at both arguments:
