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In the world of journalism, we love a good trend. And there never seems to be a shortage of them in entertainment — the industry that once decided we needed two movies at once about volcanoes, and a pair of thrillers at the same time about deadly asteroids. In TV, the trends tend to be by genre; never forget that somehow in fall 1994 NBC scheduled “ER,” a show about a hospital in Chicago, opposite CBS’ “Chicago Hope,” a show about a hospital in Chicago. (“ER” won that Thursday night time period, but “Chicago Hope” continued to thrive elsewhere for a while).
Trends are what sometimes help us make sense of this business, giving us some insight into the pop-culture zeitgeist at any given moment. And when it comes to the 2024-2025 Emmy season, topping that list is the White House. Go figure.
While we experience a real-life horror show currently coming out of Washington, plenty of D.C.-set tales are dominating our TV screens. It’s been 25 years since “The West Wing” gave us an idealized picture of what a presidential administration could be — but this crop of White House shows are a bit more sinister in tone. (Still not as scary as what is actually going on right now, but I digress.) Netflix has “The Residence,” a dark comedy about a murder inside the White House, and “Zero Day,” starring Robert DeNiro as a former president investigating an attack. Hulu’s “Paradise” stars Sterling K. Brown as a secret service agent who must figure out who killed the President of the United States of Post-Apocalyptic America. BET’s “Tyler Perry’s The Oval” is a soapy take on the presidency.
What does this say about our current unease with the political system? As democracy collapses, at least we have TV presidents to guide us, I suppose. Speaking of “Paradise,” that hit touches several trends that we’ve been keeping an eye on this year — including widowers (see also “Shrinking,” “Severance” and “American Primeval”).
Here are some of the more unusual coincidences that you may have noticed if you binge as much TV as we do here at Variety Awards HQ:
POST-APOCALYPTIC CITIES: The world may end, but the survivors still gotta live somewhere, right? Apple TV+’s “Silo” relocates humanity to a massive underground tube with hundreds and hundreds of floors. “Paradise” goes with what must be a terribly-expensive-to-maintain “Truman Show”-style idyllic town, built underground of course. On HBO’s “The Last of Us,” a barricaded section of Jackson, Wyoming, still has power and a plan to keep out those pesky zombies (results may vary, naturally).
EXPENSIVE IBÉRICO HAM: Is this the strangest trend of the year? Ibérico ham plays a major plot point in two Hulu shows: “Only Murders in the Building” and “How to Die Alone” (also from Onyx). Was somebody hungry over there, but has pricy tastes?
SEVERED ARMS: OK, I stand corrected. This is the strangest trend of the year. Severed arms play a role in both Apple TV+’s “Bad Monkey” and Paramount+’s “Colin from Accounts.” “Colin” is a comedy, and “Bad Monkey” is a quirky, comedic drama. In both cases, the comedically twisted minds behind those shows thought a sawed-off arm would add something to the mix.
DANCING OPENS: Opening-credit sequences have made a bit of a comeback in this streaming age, and that’s a good thing. Taking it one step further are the choreographed opens to CBS’ “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage” (a tango between the duo), Apple TV+’s “Pachinko” (the cast exuberantly grooving to “Wait a Million Years,” by The Grass Roots) and Netflix’s “The Perfect Couple,” which turned Meghan Trainor’s “Criminals” into an iconic dance routine.
SIMILAR TITLES: Netflix has “Nobody Wants This,” while Dropout has “Nobody Asked.” Netflix also has “Forever,” while Lifetime has “Terry McMillan Presents: Forever.” Just in time to confuse Google’s new AI algorithms!
STEALING FROM NEIGHBORS: They’ve got nice stuff next door. But trust me, stealing from down the street doesn’t work out for the characters in Netflix’s “No Good Deed” and Apple TV+’s “Your Friends and Neighbors.”
AWKWARD FRIEND VACATIONS: Also, it can be fun to go on trips with your pals, but HBO’s “The White Lotus” and Netflix’s “Four Seasons” show how it also might not.
RON HOWARD: We haven’t seen this much of Ron Howard on our TV screens since Richie Cunningham abandoned the Fonz. This season, he plays surprising versions of himself on Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building” and Apple TV+’s “The Studio.” When in doubt, call up Opie.
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