TV’s Dwindling Middle Class

Re:TV’s Dwindling Middle Class by gregmac on Tuesday May 03, 2016 @10:50AM (#11621156)

Modern Family, 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, The Middle, Raising Hope, How I Met Your Mother, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt were all fairly recent examples of decent modern sitcoms (and wow that list is bigger than I thought it'd be), and for the most part, generally centered around middle class families/people. Some are a bit more outlandish and over-the-top at times, but that can also be their appeal.

By modern, I also mean they follow a continuing story arc episode-to-episode, so while you could watch any episode in isolation, you get a lot more if you know backstory and the characters. They're also all "single camera" shows (no laugh track) which IMHO is a much better style, and allows them to be more creative, have a continuing story, and frankly, be funnier than the (pause for laughter) lines in a show like Big Bang Theory.

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Re:TV’s Dwindling Middle Class by saturdaysaint on Tuesday May 03, 2016 @11:20AM (#11621411)

Those are all interesting cases that I had in mind when writing the parent post. At the risk of sounding the "No true scotsman" alarm, to me, many are just evidence that contemporary TV needs a pretty big dose of the fantastic (Kimmy Schmidt and 30 Rock).

To me, even the most "everyday" of those fall prey to the usual U.S. tendency to elide class at all costs - even the no-good slackers in a lot of these shows seem to have the comforts of someone in the top 20%.

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