On The Night Of and the slowing down of television.
By Alisha Giampola (Writer/Performer)
Behold the face of evil, maybe. HBO's immediately-addictive miniseries The Night Of concluded, appropriately perhaps, on my birthday. Since the finale on Sunday, the internet has had plenty of opportunity to decide how they felt about it, tear apart the plot, admire John Turturro's subtle, touching, eczema-plagued performance, and try to figure out if the fucking cat did it. Because in this new post-Breaking-Bad world, audiences not only accept intricate, realistically-paced drama on television, they practically demand it. The first gripping episode of this particular show was plotted in almost-real time. By the time Naz was sitting in the police station I felt like I too had been on an all-night E/coke/ketamine bender complete with a temporary blackout.
I was listening to a podcast recently and learned about the Norwegian obsession with "slow TV". Hours upon hours of a cross-country train ride. Bus rides. Boat rides. Salmon fishing. Knitting. KNITTING. The thing they all have in common being simply the ultimate and most logical conclusion to the reality television phenomenon. What's realer than a camera giving you a straight up uninterrupted view of the window of a 6 hour train ride? Even media giant Netflix thinks more than just the Norwegians might be ready for this next step of entertainment and has brought a small handful of these programs to their streaming service. I watched some of one of these "slow TV" programs (a "scenic" train ride from Bergen, Norway to Oslo, Norway- tunnels included) and I'm here to tell you that while I wasn't as riveted as some claim to be, I (dare I say?) get it. I do. I get it. Who doesn't find themselves transfixed by the passage of scenery on a train? In a car? Who hasn't sat and watched someone drawing or sewing or cooking quietly for a long time and not found it both slightly mesmerizing, and also meditative? You can figure some shit OUT on a long, quiet train ride. Why not replicate the experience in the comfort of your own home?
image via.
Television has been creeping closer and closer to moment-by-moment-reality for years now. Streaming TV has made shows willing to explore long, complicated, detail-filled plots. Episodes can focus on one tiny thing for long periods of time without any concern of losing viewership (remember that amazing "Fly" episode of Breaking Bad?) There were long stretches of real-time scenes during The Night Of that had me wondering, "would the television audience of my own childhood have stood for this?" Can we imagine people accustomed to the near constant one-liner comedy of Friends accepting entire 20 minute blocks of television programming where characters barely even speak to one another?
As our world gets faster, our focus on media that requires large, focused swaths of our time grows more plentiful. Dramas willing to drag one important yet totally quotidian task into half an episode are far less unusual these days. Particularly shows made exclusively for streaming, such as HBO or Hulu or Netflix, almost feel as if their refusal to be rushed is not just deliberate but edgier somehow. We have the technology to make things happen as quickly as we want not- we have an entire generation who has grown up prepared to absorb content in incredibly brief, flashy, YouTube-esque spurts -and yet. And. yet.
Who better to represent for us the ultimate slow down of TV than that ultimate symbol of mammalian relaxation, the humble housecat? Don't get me wrong, I can't stand cats. Pretty much for the same reasons John Turturro's character is initially turned off. I'm deathly allergic to them. When he picked the cat up with those ridiculous yellow kitchen gloves, I laughed hard and long. But cats know how to take it easy. Cats cannot, will not be rushed. Cats have epic attention spans when they are in the mood.
I think we are going to see a lot more thoughtfully paced, real-time dramas like The Night Of in our future, and possibly a lot more 9-hour programming slots of pastoral scenery. As we turn more and more to television to (perhaps ironically) fulfill our need to unplug, the inevitable slow-down will probably only grow slower. And maybe that's not a bad thing. Especially if you're a cat.
ALISHA GIAMPOLA is an NYC based actor/teacher/writer whose really awesome husband's birthday is today. Happy Birthday, Daniel!
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