What Makes a TV Series Great

By: Gigi 

Ever wondered why people are always looking at you in utter disbelief when you tell them you haven’t watched Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, or The Sopranos. That’s because these shows are ranked somewhere in the top 20 greatest show ever made. And right now you may be saying, “well that’s very subject” I agree it is subjective but I couldn’t help wonder if there are certain elements that if included in a show are bound to make it great. Hence, my question of the week “what makes a TV Series great”. I will be focusing on just three things which I found really important in the drama category of TV series, however these aren’t the only things that make a show worth watching.

3. Great Imagery

Think about this, you’re sitting in front of the TV and scrolling for something to watch. What you usually settle on something that has intense colors or visuals, has good looking actors is shot at angel that doesn’t make sense. The lighting, custom design and a memorable image are what gets your mind buzzing and wanting to watch the show. You loving how a show looks means you tune in, the show has great ratings, the network makes money off of advertisers, then we have season 7 of Game of Thrones. And just for us to appreciate how far we’ve come with great acting and set design watch the clip.

2. Characters that have depth and are relatable.

The characters of the show have to be complex and real. The complexity of the characters is what gives them depth and allows for people to look at them as real rather than fictional. Yvonne Grace is an award-winning Television Drama Producer who argues that a story must have “characters capable of exploring a plot line and going on a journey that we the audience want to follow.” Here she highlights the importance of characters and how they are the eyes in which stories come to life. So how can a show be great without characters that are well developed. The easiest way to develop this as seen by vulture.com is to let the characters have secrets and a  traumatic past because to be honest we wouldn’t have loved a meth cooking old man(Walter White) if we didn’t know he had cancer and a pregnant wife. 

1. A well written script.

Okay, so now how do we get iconic imagery, or impressive characters? A great script, I can’t emphasis enough how the script is the soul of the show. The script gives birth the characters and the set design it is what “get people to stick it out for the long haul -- to binge watch something, to take 30, 40 hours out of their lives to watch something” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Rentrak. The ideas of the show, will never come out robustly if the script is not detail, well thought out, clear and cohesive. Ultimately a great show has its roots cemented on a great script.

So the next time you want to decided whether a show is great or not trying using these three points to see whether they’ll be a season two or not.