Why Anthologies are the Future of Television

Setting aside the nostalgia goggles for a minute, I can safely say that we are now in the Golden Age of television. The sheer amount of well-written, well-acted and well-directed shows airing right now is proof that television is no longer the underachieving little brother of movies. While the TV Renaissance is itself a huge topic, what's more interesting is the format it gave new life to: the Anthology Series.

For the uninitiated, an anthology series is one where the plot takes place over just one season. The next season features a completely different story and characters and has little to no connection with prior seasons. This doesn't seem like a big change, but in an industry obsessed with cliffhanger finales and dragging things out, the new format is what made American Horror Story, True Detective and Fargo the fantastic shows they are. Here's why:

Better Acting: Until recently, television actors moving on to do movies was akin to graduating high school to go to college. You don't go back to high school if you're in college, right? Talented actors would much rather do movies than be tied down by a series for 4-5 seasons. But with an anthology series season lasting around 10 episodes, many high-profile actors are now showing an interest in television roles. From Martin Freeman in Fargo to Matthew McConaughey in True Detective, it's amazing to see how a single stellar performance can increase the quality of a show by so much.

Time Frame: We've all seen good movies suffer because of rushed endings and great shows lose track because they ran for one season too many coughHIMYMcough. The runtime for an anthology series is perfect because it gives the writers enough breathing room to plot a coherent story with character development while still having a definite point when it should end. No fillers, no abrupt endings. Truly the best of both worlds.

Creative Control: Picture this- you're the head-writer of the space zombie apocalypse series The Moonwalking Dead, and everyone's favourite character is a swashbuckling xenophobic space cowboy named Squirrel. Now Squirrel was supposed to die horribly in episode three, but since fans adore him, you give him a heroic death in the finale. Happy with yourself, you go home to see that fans have already started an online petition to save Squirrel and #IfSquirrelDiesWeRiot is trending on Twitter. Executives swoop in and make you rewrite the ending at the last minute, and when the finale airs everyone complains oh how the season “ended in a stupid copout” and has the “worst writing ever!!1” Since they don't have the will of the fans swaying every decision, the executives of an anthology series have to put more faith in the artistic vision of the writer, and that's almost never a bad thing.

Freedom of Choice: Back in 2011 when American Horror Story first aired, the creators announced that AHS was going to be an anthology, an unprecedented move at the time. Now in 2014, AHS has had four seasons with completely distinct settings and is still going strong. If you like carnival themed horror you can start with season 4 or if you like asylums you could watch season 2. You could technically do this for every anthology. This level of freedom the viewer gets, where one could start watching from wherever one feels like is what made the anthology format famous. Continuity was no longer a necessity, and with every rule broken, the resurgence of the anthology had begun.

Shuprovo Arko copes with the soul-crushing amount of studying he has to do by trying to be funny. He writes about movies, video games and music normal people don't listen to. This generic blurb was brought to you by facebook.com/shupro.arko