oto stress, i've been through all that ♪ ♪ i'm like a marlboro man, so i kick on back ♪ ♪ wish i could roll on back to that old town road ♪ ♪ i wanna ride 'til i can't no more ♪ ♪ yeah, i'm gonna take my horse to the old town road ♪ ♪ i'm gonna ride 'til i can't no more ♪ ♪ i'm gonna take my horse to the old town road ♪ ♪ i'm gonna ride 'til i can't no more ♪ [outro] [cnn original series theme] -do you wanna watch some more? -my vacation day starts now. you wanna invite me in? you ever find yourself complaining that there are too many really good shows on tv? i feel like that needs to be celebrated. -[isa] a new era in television. -[both] peak tv! you are so lucky! [gayle] broadcast and cable networks

face a growing competitor-- online programming. [laverne] it would take a revolution for someone like me to have a career as an actor, and the revolution is netflix. you're right. [man] there's a new player in the original content game. uh, is this a bad time? [man] this flood of actors, writers, ideas just gushing into tv. i don't have time to explain lesbian shit to you. the people who are gonna change the narrative out there is us. [woman] there's an avalanche of new streaming services. word of the year? "binge-watch." when you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. this is gonna be so fun! [theme music]

[david] television used to be, here's what we're showing you, and here's your only chance to see it. [james] when there were fewer tv options, there wasn't as much room for experimentation and the creativity that we've seen an explosion of. [lorraine] coming into 2010, hbo is like the king of the prestige drama. to those beautiful, ignorant bastards. [cheering] when scorsese does boardwalk empire, it just speaks to the power of television at that point. [tom] they had no rules. you were only limited by budget and imagination. hbo was going to the top talent in terms of directing, writing, casting. as an actor, that's where you wanted to work.

you wanted to be on hbo. i was supposed to dump y'all out here, then report back to the cp. then why you still here? i like to watch the new guys sweat. for tv, it felt like the closest place you could get to being in a feature film. and then where tv goes next, also on hbo, is peak tv with game of throne. [game of thrones theme] [james] what hbo hasn't done yet is fantasy. and so the books by george rr martin, in a way they read like an hbo show. it's saying, okay, let's take the lord of the rings and give it the psychological complexity and the realpolitik of an hbo show. when you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. everybody's vying for the throne, as the title suggests. and to get there, they're going to do incredibly violent things to each other. and it's going to prove that adults will watch crazy fantasy,

sci-fi stuff with dragons in it and think it's the best thing that ever happened. no, no, no! one thing that sells it initially is that they do an extremely good job of casting. one of the first characters who pops out for everybody is tyrion lannister, played by peter dinklage. let me give you some advice, bastard. never forget what you are. the rest of the world will not. wear it like armor. it was massive in every respect in terms of its ambitions, in terms of its storytelling, in terms of its budgets, its locations, its attention to detail. it became a huge phenomenon. my mother tells me a king should never strike his lady. ser meryn? the way the show started out was so misogynistic. every woman went through hell. but they perservered, and they ended up as the ones that were really calling the shots,

the ones that were leading armies, the ones that were basically fighting for the throne. and the emmy goes to... game of thrones. [jacqueline] it dominated the awards circuit. it won multiple emmys. it was on the lips of everyone, from catchphrases to moments within the show. and by the end, all of it felt about how big were the dragons, how big was the action, and less about the intricate character studies that we loved at the beginning. [screaming] [paul] hundreds of thousands of people have signed a petition demanding a remake of the final season. [jacqueline] and by the final season, it was just limping to what many just agreed was a very disappointing finale. most great shows are unlike anything that has come before them. what hbo kept doing was going after something else new. that was their secret weapon. this kind of ambitious television that hbo had creatively pioneered, which was when cable channels like fx and amc

get into the original programming business. and they're willing to take chances on shows like mad men. and then the walking dead was an extended creature feature. [walker growling] [daniel] the walking dead on amc was a gigantic zombie show at a moment that people were loving zombie things. [shannon] walking dead really captured everyone's attention. it just has this explosive moment across social media. people can't stop talking about it. and because of that, amc kept renewing it season after season. [daniel] it was a show that people responded to because it was gross and terrifying and fun and visceral in all of those ways that mad men is cerebral and precise. [all] ohm... [chris] the blissed-out, cross-legged don draper, eyes closed up in malibu, is just a landmark moment in television. but the other great moment that people remember is peggy olson striding into mccann like a badass.

there's such a sense of fu to it. it's really powerful. [daniel] amc was no longer american movie classics. what they stood for was quality programming. [vince] we went to amc because, frankly, amc was the only outfit that was asking us to do the show. cooking is art. and the shit i cook is the bomb, so don't be telling me. shit you cook is shit. breaking bad is the story of a chemistry teacher who finds out that he's dying from cancer. and what he decides to do as a means of providing for his family is to make meth with his former student who is now a drug dealer. [james] breaking bad was a show that had struggled to find an audience in its early years. [vince] i was blissfully unaware of the terrible trouble we were in viewership-wise. we were right right on the razor edge of being canceled. [james] but once its reruns started running on netflix in the 2010s, it really took off and exploded

and became a phenomenon in a way that it just had not been before. [rami] from an acting perspective, bryan cranston gave one of the ultimate enduring performances in walter white. a guy opens his door and gets shot, and you think that of me? no. i am the one who knocks! [tom] this was a guy who is hell bent on a very specific philosophy. he was dying, and he was gonna go out rich. and it ended up being both scary and immediately recognizable. it was the birth of a storytelling icon. say my name. heisenberg. you're goddamn right. oddly enough, it wound up being walt's criminal partner, jesse, who became the moral center to the series. i am not turning down the money! i am turning down you!

[vince] which is a funny irony. the writers were all set to kill off jesse pinkman at the end of the first season. it's jesse you want to find a way for him to come out of this as whole as he can, because he ends up losing so very much throughout that series. -and you are? -saul goodman. i'm mr. molina's attorney. and you're in violation of his constitutional rights. when they said that they were gonna do a spinoff of breaking bad about saul goodman, i couldn't imagine what they were thinking. better call saul! [vince] peter gould and i set out to keep our crew working and to keep working ourselves. so we said, hey, let's do a spinoff. let's do better call saul. and we sold it without really knowing what we were gonna do. people would be amazed at how little we knew in those early days. [alan] they revealed that he was not really saul goodman. that before that, he was this guy named jimmy mcgill who was a much more complicated person, much more sympathetic. i've been doing the right thing for all these years now, who was a much more complicated person, much more sympathetic.

i've been doing the right thing for all these years now, and where has it gotten me? nowhere. [alan] they wanted jimmy to turn into saul by the end of season one, but the creators saw the same things that we in the audience did, which was, jimmy's a wonderful character. like, we like jimmy. -i'm fine with this. -yeah, me too. wait 'til you see what i floss with. [laughs] if jesse pinkman was the key to unlocking the character of walter white in breaking bad, i think the key to unlocking the character of jimmy mcgill is kim wexler, played by the amazing rhea seehorn. kim wexler may be one of the greatest characters created in the last decade. there's a scene where jimmy brings her in for the first time on a scheme. -come with me. -[kim] what? just...come on, trust me. [aisha] he decides to try and rope this stock trader into paying for this $50 shot of tequila they can't afford. as soon as she realizes what he's doing, there's just a flicker in her eye

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enjoy $0 delivery on all your favorites through may 30th with ihop 'n go. ♪ download the app and earn free food with every order. [theme music] [david] the decision for netflix to go with some original programming at first seemed almost counterintuitive. what the f**k? but it turns out to be absolutely brilliant. [derek] this was a company that used to buy

movies and television shows from other studios, and then stream them through this portal. then it realized, wait, we're becoming too successful, and everyone else is realizing how successful they are. what do we have to do? we have to become a studio. -[cheers and applause] -welcome to washington. [ted] by happenstance, we had a meeting with a production team that was making house of cards. they kind of mentioned david fincher's gonna direct it, and we've got kevin spacey and robin wright starring. and i immediately kind of, you know, lit up, because i loved the original house of cards . i'd seen it on our streaming service before. and we went into the meeting, and we sat and said, we will give you a two season order. no notes, which was completely unheard of at the time. the new netflix drops 100 million bucks to create the tv show house of cards. [ted] i think the writing that emerged from house of cards set the stage for this ability to do deep serialized storytelling. it's kind of like a movie in 13 hours. very nice to meet you, mrs. underwood.

drive safe. there's a lot of ice on the road. [siren wailing outside] i will. you wanted to take a shower after you watched it, but you're like, oh my god, i gotta watch what happens next. they drop all of season one, all 13 episodes, at the same time. and this was when the netflix revolution begins. they really are the streaming video company that people think of first and foremost, and it's because of the original content now. it's not just a place to go and binge watch old episodes of breaking bad anymore. [renee] and then comes orange is the new black, which was based on a book written by a woman who went to prison and writes this book about her prison experiences. it wasn't just women in prison. it's like, what got them there? look at you, blondie. what did you do? are you not supposed to ask that question? i read that you're not supposed to ask that. you read that? what, you studied for prison? [lorraine] piper chapman's like the trojan horse that brings you into these other stories, and you start seeing all these other worlds that you hadn't seen on tv before that.

♪ chocolate and vanilla ♪ swirl-irl there's a whole long list of conventional wisdom about what tv stars look like. we didn't have all that conventional wisdom baked into us. pretty much all of the main characters are women, and a very diverse group of women. and not just diverse in terms of race. they're diverse in terms of sexuality and age. and the prison in its own kind of way becomes their community. that's right! burn this motherf**ker! [jennifer] orange is the new black came out of nowhere. i remember people saying, oh my god, you have to watch this. and it was because it was so propulsive. and you loved the characters, and you loved the plot. and you couldn't stop hitting that next button. [grunting, yelping] it's great that the show had a big audience. it's great that it played internationally. but it also broke out incredible stars. uzo aduba, danielle brooks, natasha lyonne. and laverne cox, a trans character in the lead,

who eventually becomes the first trans person on the cover of time magazine. oh, gee! i'm sorry. that's okay, honey. you can look. i spent a lot of money for it. if you didn't have netflix before, you now need to have netflix, because everyone was talking about that show. [james] bojack horseman is essentially an antihero story, except it's animated and a comedy, and it's about a horse. hey, buddy. pass me that bottle of vodka. that's not really how this works. it's open bar, don't be a dick. [rami] with bojack, i love the premise of an alcoholic horse changing the conversation about mental illness. and i thought, oh, i gotta be a part of this. hey, uh, is this a bad time? it's fine. i can talk to you and also judge these women's bodies at the same time. what do you want? a comedy about depression seemed incredibly novel. people really did fall in love with the show because it is so unique. at the end of the day, we really want these stories to be relatable, connected, human. because we don't think about stuff when we're shaggin',

you know? what if i'm not good at this? maybe i'm doing it wrong. maybe she knows i'm doing it wrong. one thing we knew for sure from streaming everyone else's content was people's tastes are wildly diverse. the netflix brand was about personalization. we wanted to make your favorite show and my favorite show. sometimes you turn on tv 'cause you just wanna escape. sometimes you wanna laugh. i'm sorry, are you--are you hiring actors to play wrestlers? -or are we the wrestlers? -yes. sometimes you turn on the tv 'cause you want to connect and you wanna cry, or you wanna be scared. [screams] [ted] and other times, you just want to shut your brain off and just be entertained, and we have to have something for everyone in that model. [stranger things theme] [nelson] the beauty of stranger things for me, it's the goonies meets the spielberg movie, that captured the '80s in a really cool way. and they did a great job of dragging you back into an era. [lorraine] it is the nostalgia factor, but the story's really good too.

it's about these dungeons & dragons nerds that live in the middle of america, where there's an upside-down world with an underground monster that's gonna eat the town. and it's up to these nerds to save that. but then emerges eleven. she has these powers. and she's the only one that can face off against the demogorgon. [screeching] everyone had turned down stranger things prior to us because of this conventional wisdom that you can't make a show that's kind of for adults with kids in the lead, 'cause adults won't watch it. but we really definitely saw something in the duffer brothers that was magic in the making. it was a show that parents fell in love with and introduced it to their kids, and then kids fell in love with it and introduced it to their parents. hey! it made everyone really have to pay attention to what netflix would do next. [screams] [screeching] okay everyone, our mission is complete balanced nutrition. together we provide nutrients to support immune,

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[theme music] what were his exact words, please? [carrie] an american prisoner of war has been turned. [jacqueline] in homeland, damian lewis plays a marine who is captured and held for several years. during that time, he converted to islam. and the central question is when he comes back home, is he a hero or is he a terrorist in disguise? this man's heroism is only in question because of his faith. claire danes' character, this very reluctant antihero,

is tasked with figuring that out. [emily] and also, the main character, carrie, played by claire danes, struggles with bipolar, and that's a thing the show digs into in some really fascinating and meaty ways. my green pen is dry. i've asked four or five, six times for a new one, but there's, there's no understanding. they offer me blue. they offer me black. i mean, is green so hard? is green elusive? i mean, my kingdom for a f**king green pen! [james] carrie mathison, in many ways, is wearing and has internalized the strain and the stress and the damage of these years of war. i just remember this still being a really big deal at the beginning of this decade. claire danes, movie actress, has deigned to come to television to play this complicated character. if i have a chance to work with material of this caliber, i will, in any medium. cable has created this whole new environment that is incredibly fertile. what started in the 2000s was the gradual elimination

of the mid-budget movie. and so you have this great class of character actors looking for satisfying material, and they're not finding it in movies. so they started to come to showtime and places on cable. how would you like your eggs, sweetie? fluffy. [jacqueline] shameless is based on a uk television series about a dysfunctional lower-income family. frank gallagher-- father, teacher, mentor, captain of our little ship. [jacqueline] people just fell in love with this really messed-up family. don't think you're the first person i've dealt with woke up in bed with a dead body. [alan] showtime also makes ray donovan everyone's uncles' or stepfathers' favorite show. they really enjoyed this pulpy descent into the dark side of hollywood that it just kept on going and going. you came at me! because you're a criminal, bob. [alan] in billions , damian lewis comes off of homeland. he plays a hedge fund manager. what's the point of having f**k you money if you never say f**k you?

we're dealing with sort of increasing wealth disparity, increasing shadiness from the financial sector. all of this is tied up in this great battle between lewis and paul giamatti. it's a combination of a lot of crowd-pleasing elements all at once. i came out here to be a movie star. take the screen tests and everything. [david] jessica lange goes to television and gave american horror story the clout the first year. by this point in her career, she was revered. now is not your time. american horror story's an amityville-style haunted house murder story. but by the end of the first season, everyone is dead. and then when they announce the second season, the question was, how? it's an anthology series, so each season has one continuing storyline. and then the next season, it reboots. when they went to year two, they retained almost the entire cast, gave them completely different roles, put them in a new situation.

and they hit it out of the park. this maniac is decapitating women, three of them so far. i see you for exactly who you are. i had four seasons, and each year was a marvelous character. um, you know, i mean, everything changed from one year to another, which made it very interesting for me. life is to be lived. ryan murphy says this is when these women, as actresses, reach their fruition and are getting these incredibly juicy roles. kathy bates, oh my gosh, she was almost really unrecognizable a couple of those seasons. one year, sarah paulson played a woman with two heads! i think she's lying. i think she likes it. shut your disgustin' mouth, you slut! [david] american horror story was so good in showcasing its actors. and fargo, in addition to that, was brilliant at showcasing the possibilities of the anthology format.

are you gonna hit me? that's a laugh-- when i heard that they were gonna make something called fargo, i thought, what, a sequel? it wasn't a sequel at all. instead, it was this whole other sensibility that noah hawley described as "full coen brothers." son, you have three seconds to pick your ass up and get out of here, or i'm gonna squash you like a bug. [tom] what he proved was as long as the logic held and was authentic, you could go anywhere with how cruel and odd and weird this story was. [daniel] each season, as it comes back, it's a different set of characters that is in some way connected to what happened before, but mostly its own thing. [rami] it's a difficult challenge, but they found a unique way around it and brought in some exceptional talent. and that raised the bar for television. in the new age of tv, the anthology gave movie stars a way to feel comfortable doing tv. they're not trapped into this box of working as the same character for 20 years. the same time, there is enough material

that explore character and have different dimensions. woody harrelson and matthew mcconaughey, they bring such stature to true detective. three months, i don't hear a word from you, and-- -you asked. -yeah, and now i'm begging you to shut the f**k up. in true detective , you have the opposite of a buddy cop movie. they're two characters that really don't get along, don't have the same approach, played by matthew mcconaughey and woody harrelson. you are like the michael jordan of being a son of a bitch. come on. [chris] from the movies to tv used to be a step down. for matthew mcconaughey, it was a step up. he mastered these speeches, this worldview, in a way that no one had seen coming. and that is the terrible and the secret fate of all life. you're trapped. [nelson] the broken-down mcconaughey versus the younger one, you just didn't realize he had these different levels. you had the caliber of talent on camera

that you didn't normally get. these anthology-type shows are leading the way to change television in the next decade. general rule is everybody's lying, period. the future is here. we've been creating it for more than 100 years, putting the most advanced technology into people's hands. generation after generation. tool after tool. again and again. bringing you the broadest and most reliable network of service dealers. always moving forward. we lead. others follow.

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the character played by amy poehler, trying to change the world by changing the parks and recreation department in a small indiana town. [leslie] sir, this is a children's slide. you're not allowed to sleep in here. mike schur works with the office, and then he comes in and brings us parks and recreation. the first season very much paints leslie as sort of a new version of michael scott from the office, this boss that everyone kinda can't stand. from time to time, when i think of an eloquent saying or a phrase, i have tom write it down. he's collecting them for my memoirs. here's leslie's quote from wednesday. i think they realize that that energy doesn't work for amy poehler, who's a much sunnier person . -everybody ready? -[others] yes! all right! [amy] this character, leslie knope, is a huge optimist who overpromises, um, but she has zero skills. and there's nothing cool about her. and i really like playing that kind of character. this is gonna be so fun! i'll bring s'mores. [chris] just as the decade turns ,

parks and rec gets a revamp. they go from cringe to a kind of wide-eyed optimism. and when they change, that show takes flight. giddyap! giddyap! [laughs] they found a way to make leslie knope aspirational. mike schur is an optimist. he believes that if you get good people together, sometimes you can get good results. mike schur followed parks and recreation up with brooklyn nine-nine, which, in its own way, is perhaps even more challenging, because you're attempting to do an optimistic show about how the nypd blue operates. captain, hey! welcome to the murder. what are you doing here? [melaine] if you look at the throughline of what mike schur does, he creates this workplace family. brooklyn nine-nine was able to get away with that mike schur magic-- not only get away with it, excelled with it. nine-nine! [all] nine-nine! [daniel] but it became more and more difficult with every passing season

because we were supposed to find their bumbling loveable as the bumbling of actual cops became more and more disturbing and terrifying. i promise you, we are gonna get you justice. yeah...we'll see. i think that at a certain point, mike schur did realize that grounding these optimistic stories in our actual world was becoming more and more complicated. oh, look at this! we added a tenth dimension. [zap] [gasping, exclaiming] [daniel] and suddenly the good place is a show where its connection to the real world is very, very limited. the good place is a comedy set in the afterlife. kristen bell plays this awful person who gets into heaven. your life on earth has ended, and you are now in the next phase of your existence in the universe. i don't feel bad at all doing a spoiler alert about this 'cause it's been enough years. the entire first season, you thought ted danson was her angel in heaven

guiding her through this transition, except it turns out-- this is the bad place. oh, no, no, no. it's not heaven at all. [evil laugh] and the whole series changes. you thought we would torture each other. and we did for a little. but we also took care of each other. [jacqueline] it's a workplace comedy that manages to be one of the most thought-provoking shows about death, showing up for each other, and our communal human condition. they're just going to grow up and become boring old white people. most of our friends are white, actually. okay, can everybody just calm down and go back to their own conversations? [chris] modern family-- this was a phenomenal show. this was a show that took every single second that it had on screen, and it was going to make you laugh. oh, you look adorable! adorable? i'm not a puppy. honey, it was meant as a compliment. all right, i got this. honey, you look super sexy. ew. well, we tried everything. modern family is an interesting one

in that you have these characters who are upper upper middle class. also, you have a gay couple adopting a child. that's in the first episode. you know exactly who they are. there's no attempt to hide anything. it's time to play everyone's favorite game. let's blame the gay dads! you know who had straight parents? -adolf hitler. -charles manson. -shall we go on? -naomi campbell. [melanie] we have two men together living as a family, being a part of a larger family. their identity is part of the show. it's part of the fabric of the show. but the tensions that are there are not necessarily related to sexual orientation, or race, or class. you'll see the mythical and majestic black family out of their natural habitat, and yet still thriving. go ahead and wave! they'll wave right back. [renee] what kenya barris does with black-ish is he has this family, dre and bow and their children, they are solidly upper middle class. but he has these weird misgivings about it. this keeping it real bs has got to stop.

i'm not gonna have you running around, torturing my son. what was that? what are you wearing? [renee] and i love the fact that the robinsons of black-ish exist in real life, in that they weren't siloed off from what the rest of black america was dealing with. they have to deal with police violence, and what that means, and what they tell their children about dealing with police, and how they have very opposing views. the police are damn thugs. not all police. yeah, only 92 percent. the other 8 percent are advisors on law and order episodes. [daniel] kenya barris comes from the norman lear school. it says, we are going to tackle these things. we are going to make it uncomfortable, and we are going to make it funny, like a number of family comedies on abc did. if we get separated, try and join a white family. you will be safe there until i can find you. [shannon] fresh off the boat was like a watershed moment for taiwanese american representation. for asian american representation. ah, i miss the taiwanese markets back in dc.

they make me feel so calm. [shouting] it's telling an immigrant story, but it's, like, very funny, and each character is not a stereotype. everyone has depth and nuance. my parents were born in taiwan, but my brothers and i were born in dc. oh! your english is very good! [laughs] are you all sister? [all laugh] [jacqueline] we got shows that are coming in with a full breadth of different aspects of society that have not been seen on screen, which is really refreshing, and all of that sort of began in the 2010s. i researched the history of quinceañeras, and found out they're totally misogynistic! she's been reading again. why do you let her read? [jacqueline] one day at a time is a remake that centers on a family of three generations of women, headed by rita moreno. mom says i'm too young to date. but never too young to flirt! [audience laughter] when i came out of my mother's womb, i winked at the doctor! [audience laughter] [daniel] one day at a time was a really good example of a project that when it was announced it was happening--

by normal lear himself, who was behind the original-- people started to step back and went, why do we need that? and then you watched the show about this cuban american family, suddenly you saw exactly why you wanted it. nothing like that's gonna happen to abuelita. she's not gonna get deported. she could be. you know they're deporting cubans now too? what? that doesn't make sense. they should be importing us. [audience laughter] [daniel] this is a show that is all about validating the immigrant experience in america, and so it became all the more political and all the more beautiful for that. take my leg, bruto! ugh, i get it, we're cuban! azúcar! meet the team... behind the team. the coach. the manager. and the snack dad. all using chase to keep up with their finances. the coach helps save goals here, because she saved for soccer camp there. anddd check this out... the manager deposited a check.

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[theme music] not only is there more tv than ever, but many would say there is more great tv than ever. so much, in fact, that it's impossible to watch it all. hey, marshal! right there is good. [ted] some of the best acting on television that nobody ever noticed was on justified on fx. is it okay if i come a little... a little closer? is that okay? you take one more step, i'll shoot ya. that's all i'm gonna say. [alan] raylan givens is a us marshal

played by timothy olyphant. raylan often likes to circumvent justice and manuever people he knows are bad into circumstances in which he can shoot them and it will be considered justified. marshal, i wanna tell you something important. [gunshot] [shell clinks] [melanie] justified is a western that's brought into a southern cop show. would you shoot me if you get the chance? you make me pull, i'll put ya down. [daniel] you watch the first season of that show, he's killing people at a rate of two to three people per episode. and then the second season rolls around, and oh my goodness, the leap the show takes with margo martindale, with kaitlyn dever. i had a life. me and my daddy were just fine! -no, you weren't. -shut up! okay, loretta. [daniel] suddenly there you find the humanity behind all of this, and it is one of the great second seasons in tv history, one of the great leaps that any show has taken.

gm can't make these fast enough, huh? yeah, it's a great car. [daniel] the americans is itself a great part of the fx brand as well. the americans concerned two kgb agents--they're spies-- stop. [renee] --pretending to be a married suburban couple. you're my wife. is that right? [james] elizabeth, very interestingly, is the sort of hardcore ideologue believer, a role, honestly, that past tv shows probably would've tended to give to the man. i would go to jail. i would die. i would lose everything before i would betray my country. [james] phillip is more drawn to the idea of doing what he feels gives a better life in america for his children. -is that what you care about? -no, i care about everything. not the motherland. i do, but our family comes first. [emily] the central metaphor of the americans is that every marriage is kind of a cold war.

it's two people locked in combat that never actually boils over into combat, and i thought that was just very smart. i think fx did so much good work that it moved television forward. [daniel] a lot of these networks have been trying to expand their brands. and a lot of how you expand your brand is with a really, really good scripted title. sundance tv had rectify, a show that i will always tell people to watch. it's a contemplative show that's a meditation on faith and spirituality, about a guy who was on death row for 20 years, and gets released, and is traumatized to see what the world looks like. shows like that get to exist because things keep expanding, and there keep being room for more ideas and for more different versions of what quality looks like. [alan] cinemax had always been the less-respected little brother of hbo. people called it skinemax. and rather than try to compete with what hbo was able to do on sort or a high-class level,

they start doing these action shows. [daniel] these are great, elevated, b-movie tv shows. and then sometimes cinemax struck gold, like the knick. you turn a block of programming over to steven soderbergh, and in this case, it was brilliant television. gentlemen, atomizers on. everyone scrubbed, washed, cleansed, deloused, purified by god. [jacqueline] the knick is set in a hospital in the early 20th century. clive owen plays their premier physician. and he's well respected, but he's also completely addicted to heroin. he's a madman. though this is madness, yet there is method in it. [jacqueline] steven soderbergh as the director really set the show apart, particularly because of the camera style. it was a show that was absolutely filmed like a movie as opposed to a television show. [alan] usa had had this reputation-- they were the blue sky network. they had all of these shows set in very sunny locales, very lighthearted,

and then along comes mr. robot, which is this dark cyberpunk drama about a hacker named elliot, played by rami malek, who is trying to bring down the biggest and worst corporation in the world. [elliot] they're so big, they're literally everywhere. a perfect monster of modern society. [rami] i remember opening up that script, and i could tell this was just special. a young man who was so anxious, but unafraid to take down the system. it just felt powerful. it resonated with me. [elliot] if mr. robot was here, what would he do? the first thing he'd tell you is to stop talking to your imaginary friend. that is about as perfect a casting as you're gonna come across. that character had to be brilliant, mercurial, odd, and driven. and he was. [elliot] i'm crazy. i have to be crazy because that didn't just happen, right? this is a delusion. is this a delusion? shit, i'm a schizo. there's a sense of him being off balance, which keeps the audience off balance.

and i think that was not something we wanted to do to, to trick the audience. but it was a way of essentially bringing them into his world, understanding how conflicted he was. for me, it was one of the most cinematic shows of the decade. i think the angles we used were very unpredictable, and you didn't often see shots like that on television. [alan] mr. robot strikes a chord in part because rami malek was incredible, and you just wanted to watch him do anything. but there was also sort of a level of rising anger at the time about income inequality. it was channeling a level of anger that i think a lot of people were starting to feel around then. you know what? what? sometimes it is a big dick competition. [alan] succession suddenly became the talked-about show for hbo. it's basically a fictionalized account of the murdoch family's life.

brian cox is logan roy, the longtime indomitable head of the family. you've got a number of his children all jockeying for position constantly and hoping that ultimately they will be the one to inherit the empire. guys, what dad is saying is just, uh, just know your role and execute. my worry is that kendall may come across as too cool and likeable. succession is the top shelf of television. succession is television that seems to be playing at its highest intellectual level and still being incredibly funny. oh, dude, if it's true, he's gone. i mean, nazis-- terrible, right? -nazis? -yeah. yeah. yeah, they're, they're the worst. yeah, sure, we all hate nazis. it is a phenomenal dive that's detailed and rich. it feels very authentic about families at that level and power, and business, and politics. and you just can't stop watching. mm, yes, mm, very serious, mm.

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[theme music] [music] welcome to downton. [david] downton abbey goes all the way back to upstairs downstairs, the tv series that launched pbs masterpiece theater. [jen] downton abbey is about the aristocrats who lived upstairs,

and then the people who live downstairs and are working for those people. and if anyone thinks i'm going to pull my furlock and curtsy to this mister nobody from nowhere. oh, right. were you discussing mr. crawley? [melanie] with downtown abbey, you have this wonderful show that is strangely old fashione, but with these modern ideas of soap opera. you must be mad. i am. i am in the grip of madness. i think the turning point for people in downton abbey is in one of the early episodes, where mary sleeps with this man who's visiting downton, and then he drops dead in the bed, and they have to figure out how to get him out and keep it under wraps. [grunts] [jen] in the traditional masterpiece theater world, that is not what you would see on a show like that. and i think that is what really drew people in. [david] it's a singular vision of julian fellowes and a lot of different, wonderful actors just making it work. and of course i'll have the weekend. we'll discuss this later. we musn't bore the ladies.

what, what is a weekend? [melanie] it's a fantasy, of course, what would it be like to live in this time with titles and manors. it's almost this last element of the monarchy affecting life among people who are not born royals. -are you my wife or my queen? -i am both. i want to be married to my wife. [jen] the crown is a netflix series that traces the history of queen elizabeth throughout her life. the show appeals to people just because it feels like you're inside the palace, watching what happens in a way that we don't often get to see. [elizabeth] your actions, your breaking of that trust, was irresponsible. [renee] there's always this weird interest in the royal family. and it was sort of fascinating watching queen elizabeth as a young woman. she's so young when she rises to the throne because her father dies, and it's on her to do this thing. [all] god save the queen! [renee] and you appreciate the fact that some of this is fictionalized for dramatic purposes.

but it just makes elizabeth so much more sympathetic. [ted] i think that the biggest shot we took was the sixth season commitment on the crown, that nobody really knew back then how it would play out. if you go back to season one, and you've got claire foy playing that character so iconically, the last thing you wanna do is start all over again. but it didn't bloom until olivia coleman, and it's phenomenal. [jen] there's connective tissue that you can see in those performances. it doesn't feel like this is just somebody else stepping into the role. you feel like you're getting to know the queen in a way that you could never possibly do were it not for this show. [jennifer] with downton abbey and the crown, we did kind of have this, like, british mania. we've got ourselves a serial killer. i love those. there's always something to look forward to. [jennifer] you have these beautiful people having tea and talking calmly in pleasant accents. and of course they have problems. that's what's so interesting to us about it, right? the most privileged people still have problems. what do you wanna do? i wanna build a time machine out of your f**king carcass and go back and make it unhappen!

[alan] catastrophe's a show with sort of a trans-atlantic connection even though it was made and set in england. he's an american businessman on a trip to london. they hook up for what's supposed to be a one-night stand. she finds out she is pregnant. you just don't think that stuff like this will happen. well, the repeated sexual intercourse between two healthy adults will do the exact thing it's supposed to do. have you ever done a science class? so it's a whole relationship playing out in the wrong order. they get pregnant. they have the kid. then they get married. and only then do they kind of fall in love. and i'll be sure to treat you like a nasty little bitch. um, that was a joke. -oh, no, i know, i know. -yeah, okay! [laughs] i was like, oh, okay! 2010s in many ways were the decade of the comedy auteur. like phoebe waller-bridge, who created fleabag. it's about this self-destructive woman who gets into all these bad relationships and can't stop herself. [jennifer] her name is fleabag. that is how she sees herself, if that tells you anything. she's grieving her mother's death and the death of her best friend.

[renee] she has this really dysfunctional family, a dysfunctional love life. it's very outward in its attitudes towards sex. i've never managed to actually... up the bum with anyone before. to be fair, he does have a large penis. [renee] and also constantly breaks the fourth wall. you know, she will address the audience. so we're in on it. the only thing harder than having to tell your super high-powered perfect anorexic rich super sister that you've run out of money is having to ask her to bail you out. [jennifer] you kind of get from the beginning that she's almost trying to tell you how bad she is, 'cause she feels it herself. and i think that's probably the magic of that character, 'cause we all kind of feel awful at times. the first season is very dark, and sad, and weird. and the second season is kind of a rom-com without ever becoming a rom-com. what happens is you realize that the fourth wall breaking is an attempt to disconnect from reality a little bit, and she gets called on it. where did you-- where did you just go?

what? you just...went somewhere. -where? -there. and at the end of that series, she waves goodbye to us and walks off with such a perfect ending to say, i've found the ability to believe i'm worthy of love, and i don't need this coping mechanism anymore. one of the highlights of the 2010s was getting to see women get to make shows like that. welcome to my midlife crisis! pamela adlon co-created better things with louis ck, the now-disgraced comedian. [alan] she appeared in a number of episodes of louie, and helped him co-write the show. and then they went off and they created her own autobiographical show. [aisha] there's definitely a little bit of dna from louie in this show. but pamela adlon really took over, basically wearing the hat of both star and director. i want my face and neck to stop being old looking. that's all. [aisha] it's not directly autobiographical. but it feels, in a way,

as though we've learned something about pamela adlon through the character of sam fox. you're my mom! i want you to know if i have sex or if i wanna get high. yeah! no! hide things from me, please! [alan] you watch it and it feels intimate in a way that you're almost spying on somebody. and in many ways, i think it's a better show than the one that inspired it. -you gonna invite me in? -[chuckles] no. -why not? -i can't afford it. come on, you really think i'm here for money? we do, yes. [lena] i remember seeing the pilot of atlanta, and i was like, oh shit, you just knew it was all gonna be different with this motherf**ker here. [renee] donald glover can pretty much do anything. he's actor, he's director, he's a writer, he's a producer, he's a recording artist. if he's not an auteur, then nobody is. [aisha] atlanta is a black show. it is about black people that we have not seen before on tv. and it's about people who are just trying to make it. what i'm scared of is being you. you know, someone everybody knew was smart,

but ended up being a know-it-all f**k-up that just let shit happen to him. [renee] donald glover plays ernest, who's a college drop-out, kind of a ne'er-do-well. he just can't get his life in gear. but he has these friends. and one of them is an aspiring rapper who has a rap career. so, you know, ernest decides, i'm gonna be your manager. you know where the word "manage" come from? manus, latin for hand. probably, but i'mma say no for the purpose of my argument. "manage" come from the word "man," and, um, that ain't really your lane. [nelson] in another era, he would've been an independent filmmaker. and i think that's part of why it's been successful, because in a wave of a lot of new african american-themed content, he doesn't really do any of the things that are obvious. where are your ancestors from? congo? ivory coast? southeastern bantu region. i don't know. this spooky thing called slavery happened, and my entire ethnic identity was erased, so... [aisha] each episode, you're gonna get something a bit weird, a bit off kilter. sometimes you'll laugh. other times, you might be cringing. but through it all,

these characters are really showing who they are and how they react to each situation. ma, what about your first day in america? that must've been pretty exciting. no, i just got dropped off from the airport, and your father went to work. i didn't know nobody, and i barely knew your father. [ted] aziz came in with this pitch that blew us all away in the meeting. what about that first day, though? did you go out and explore the city? no, i sat on the couch and cried. [ted] an immigrant story that was a comedy that had a lot of heart, that had license to get very, very serious in any given episode. this was the opportunity to give someone a shot at television who didn't have one before. one, two, three... stop what you're doing! this is citizen's arrest! this is real! this is a real thing that people can really do! [jennifer] lena waithe came to most of our attention on master of none. she was a real standout from the very beginning, you know? it's kind of one of those, like, wait, who's that? -what? -here's the deal. she's straight, but lately i've been getting some serious vibes from her. ooh, vibes that she wants to become a lesbian?

no, vibes that she's curious about an adventure with denise. the goal was never to be an actor. i'd already sold a pilot to showtime, which was the chi. but once i read with aziz the very first time, we could feel it. we just knew there was something interesting about the two of us. what? she came eight times in 30 minutes? like, how is that even possible? look, i don't have time to explain lesbian shit to you, okay? we cum more than anyone. [lena] the character was straight at the time, and i think was possibly gonna be a love interest. and then he just said, this is more interesting. you're more interesting. and we're gonna create a character around you. and i'll never forget alan yang asking me, so how did you come out? wait, are you trying to tell me that you're, you know... lebanese? and i started to talk about what that process was like. and they said, this is an episode. and aziz said, you have to write it with me. [chortles] but i'm just glad you're in college and you ain't pregnant and on drugs. you ain't gotta worry about me getting pregnant. [lena] i made sure not to call my mom to tell her i was doing it, because it was a very... difficult time for her as well.

-mom? -hm? i'm gay. so i think what i learned in the process of writing that episode was that i wasn't the hero, and she wasn't the villain. -mom, why are you crying? -mm-mm, mm-mm. [music] i just... i don't want life to be hard for you. [lena] it's a moment and a time i'll never forget, just writing that scene exactly as i remember it. and then of course the fast forward, to be sitting across from angela bassett and reliving that moment. [sighs] i'm happy for you. [lena] for us to win the emmy for that, it was like a dream. [man] aziz ansari and lena waithe... [cheers and applause] [lena] and when that did happen, and for me to give that speech, i knew it was bigger than i was. my lgbqtia family, i see each and every one of you.

the things that make us different, those our are superpowers. and it was a moment that said, we have to tell our stories. we do. thank you for embracing a little indian boy from south carolina and a little queer black girl from the south side of chicago. young lady who was, mid 30s, couple of kids, recently went through a divorce. she had a lot of questions when she came in. i watched my mother go through being a single mom. at the end of the day, my mom raised three children, including myself. and so once the client knew that she was heard. we were able to help her move forward. your client won't care how much you know until they know how much you care. ♪

i have moderate to severe ulcerative colitis. so i'm taking zeposia, a once-daily pill. because i won't let uc stop me...from being me. zeposia can help people with uc achieve and maintain remission. and has been shown to reduce symptoms in as early as 2 weeks. zeposia is the first and only s1p receptor modulator approved for uc. don't take zeposia if you had a heart attack, chest pain, stroke or mini-stroke, heart failure in the last 6 months, irregular or abnormal heartbeat, if you have untreated sleep apnea, or take maois. zeposia may cause serious side effects including infections that can be life threatening and cause death, slow heart rate, liver or breathing problems, increased blood pressure, macular edema, swelling and narrowing of the brain's blood vessels, and increased risk of pml-- a rare brain infection that usually leads to death or severe disability. tell your doctor if you are pregnant or plan to be. don't let uc stop you from doing you.

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nor unexpected detours with a 20 foot drainage pipe, can stop the ruggedly capable telluride x-pro from getting you to your dinner reservation on time. okay! ♪ kia. movement that inspires [theme music] i'm a vapid narcissist when you mix me with alcohol. in case you were wondering. i know that. we get into the 2010s, and we have more women telling women's stories.

a pioneer of the flawed main female character is meredith grey from grey's anatomy. i make no apologies for how i chose to repair what you broke. you don't get to call me a whore. [jennifer] and so shonda rimes, who created that show, got us sort of used to this idea of complicated women. -people are going to hate her. -mm-hmm. but i like her. [jennifer] female antiheroes could really run a gamut depending more on their show. [screams] [jennifer] the flaws can be small. they don't have to be murderers. but sometimes they can be. i got all of this from being very smart. and then you have somebody like selina meyer on veep. have you ever been called a c**t? many times. well, now i have too apparently, once. [renee] julia louis-dreyfus plays selina meyer, vice president of the united states. not necessarily capable, but definitely with higher political aspirations, and is never quite respected. you do your best! you try to serve the people,

and then they just f**k you over! and you know why? because they're ignorant, and they're dumb as shit. and that, ladies and gentlemen, is democracy. [clea] selina meyer is one of my favorite characters on tv ever. she is so ambitious and so ruthless. i'll go put together a list of some fun causes, mom. oh, that "mom" thing, let's not do that here either. -selina. -well, uh... -ma'am. -yeah, that's it. [clea] she feels, like, inconvenienced by being a woman, and it's something that i've never seen a character do before. excuse me! [alan] enlightened was a show co-created by laura dern, who starred in it, and mike white. -amy, amy? -what, what? you look insane. [alan] laura dern plays a corporate executive, amy jellicoe, who is so narcissistic and self-involved that nobody ever wants to listen to her. you think i'm stupid? is that what it is? [elevator dings] you think i'm a f**king... [chuckles] that show starts with an absolute wallop, where she's just having a complete breakdown.

i will bury you! i will kill, you motherf**ker! [jen] she eventually gets her job back at this big corporation, but they have her working in the basement. she's trying to be like a whistleblower and uncover some things about the company that are not great. this was a show about an angry woman before we saw a lot of shows about angry women. it's a show about corporate dissatisfaction. it's a show about feeling alienated from people around you. i think it was really delving into these things maybe before people were ready. i don't wanna freak you out, but i think that i may be the voice of my generation. or at least...a voice. of a generation. girls on hbo is very much the vision lena dunham. it is a show that is simply life as seen through her eyes. seriously, i have never met anyone else who thinks their own life is so f**king fascinating. i wanted to fall asleep in my own vomit all day listening to you talk about how you bruise more easily than other people.

[lorraine] girls is sex in the city for a new generation. it is girlfriends living in brooklyn in their twenties, navigating dating, navigating careers not very well. and that's kind of what made it great, in that wasn't polished like sex and the city. no, they were in crappy apartments. they were broke. they're dating, like, guys that are treating them poorly. and it's messy. -what? -[laughs] oh my god! oh my god! you're peeing on me! oh my god! oh my god, stop it! [jennifer] people did not like that it was not glamorous and it was not aspirational, as we like to say. and we had a main character who was not 90 pounds. that was very upsetting for people, and i think really does say a lot more about people than it says about her. why you talk like a white girl? [class laughs] you caught me. i'm rockin' blackface. [laughs] [crickets chirping]

that's racist. insecure comes out a year before girls ends, and so it was hailed as, like, the black girls. but when you actually watch the show, issa rae introduced us to this awkward black girl and these awkward black people who were beautiful on the screen, and yet they're insecure, they're uncomfortable, and that's also part of our humanity. ooh, i like that! -you gonna do it with the-- -mm-hmm. -and then the-- -duh! -what about-- -i can't move in those. you right. and today is all about me and the dancefloor. ♪ i said-a me you never get the impression that the girls life was an option for issa and molly. these are women who had to push forward and had to work to establish themselves. there hadn't really been a show that centered black women in that way since living singl. but this was so much more sophisticated. you act like shit is black and white-- you f**ked another man when your man was fixing his shit for you! bitch, you don't even deserve lawrence. [renee] you know, issa didn't always do the right thing. she didn't always pick the right guy. she didn't always get along with her friends,

because that's not the way real life works. i think the show really wants to do its best to reflect that. i just wanna fast forward to the part of my life when everything's okay. at the same time the show comes out, you have this moment of, like, black excellence. there's issa rae, and then there's shonda rimes. and so then you have more storytelling about black people, but also black women. the question i have for you now is what are we going to do about it? [jennifer] scandal is about olivia pope, who is a washington dc fixer, not really caring that much about morals. pleasure doing business with you. i thank you. my client thanks you. and i hope to never see you again. [chris] one of the things that scandal did was it increased the velocity of the storytelling as far as you could possibly turn the dial. it was really exciting television. i just saw the dirtiest sex tape i have ever seen in my entire life, and it stars his teenage daughter! i think there's very few creators in the history of television who have been as successful and prolific as shonda.

her storytelling is so contemporary. how to get away with murder. shonda rimes is the reason why abc owned thursday nights. grey's anatomy, scandal, and how to get away with murder, all created by shonda rimes. [jennifer] it's literally called scandal. it's literally called how to get away with murder. the central characters, you could probably guess, like, about where they are on the moral spectrum. your own f**king brother? don't you look at me with that blame in your face! i've spent my whole life protecting him! this is yours! you did this! [ted] laura linney, i don't think it's crazy to say, is one of the greatest actors on the planet. her opportunity to bite off a real antihero character was the opportunity of a lifetime. and i'm gonna kill you! i'm gonna kill you if you don't tell me! no, you won't. no, you are not. [ted] i think if you look at julia garner, she absorbs characters, and she makes this person who is arguably a very bad person very, very likeable. you're gonna be a good sheriff, ronnie.

just...be careful driving home. it's slicker than spit out. [salamishah] now you have so many female heroes, antiheroes, and i think it's opening up lots of possibilities for artists to find their voice. smile. [jennifer] the more we have different voices out there, that means we're gonna get different kinds of women. get ready for some ice cream, bitch. [jennifer] it still feels truly exhilarating for me to see women doing badass things, whether or not they're bad. your mom is a monster. i ate someone. ( ♪ ) unique style, ( ♪ ) cutting edge innovation... ( ♪ ) ...and thoughtful details... ...inspired by you. ( ♪ ) from the brand that delivers amazing ownership experiences, this is the first ever, all electric, rz. this is lexus,

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and get the best price for 2 lines of unlimted. visit xfinitymobile.com today. [theme music] you got a review on yelp. oh, wow. [gasps] one star. is that good or bad? it's the lowest rating. in the 2010s, there's a bunch of shows that started on the web, which was a relatively new thing at the beginning of that decade. shows like portlandia, that's how they started. portlandia is a sketch comedy show set in portland with fred armisen and carrie brownstein playing a variety of characters, like a couple who is losing their entire life because they're trying to binge battlestar galactica. -next one! next one! -whoa, wait. -wait, wait, wait. -what, what? -that's the last one. -[screams] comedy central was another tv network that's also looking for talent on the internet. -all right. -you can do it, no big deal. okay, all right.

that's my friend abbi. she's such a slut. -yeah? -yeah. no, no, no, i am too. [jacqueline] broad city was another show that gave birth on the internet, but eventually got put on to mainstream television. it was the creation of ilana glazer and abbi jacobson. came to the attention of amy poehler, and then eventually on to comedy central. i just degraded my friend for you, and i thought we were gonna be paid! i can pay you in blocks. you're not a baby! you're a man! no. i'm a baby. broad city is its own special thing i feel like, too. it's got--does some really unique things, one of which is this incredibly intense central relationship between just two women. well, hello my fancy girl-- no, don't, i'm not fancy. i'm disgusting. i went to the bathroom, and then-- and then i was going to the bathroom, and then a condom fell out of me. [classical music] it was also, like, pretty groundbreaking on a lot of sex stuff.

it's a shit show. like, i still really remember the pegging episode. right in the butt. the broad city ladies really brought it to a new level, those kinds of discussions. ♪ she's the crazy ex-girlfriend ♪ what, no i'm not. ♪ she's the crazy ex-girlfriend ♪ that's a sexist term. [jacqueline] rachel bloom co-created crazy ex-girlfriend. she started on the internet making musical parodies. those caught on. and then hollywood realized, oh, we could probably make a show around this. ♪ she's so broken inside the situation's a lot more nuanced than that. [jennifer] crazy ex-girlfriend is a show that i think we have to start with the title, because i have to tell you that i did not wanna watch it at first. [whistles cheerfully] [jennifer] it wasn't until it was very clear to me that it was a joke about that idea that i waded in and was vastly rewarded. i was in new york. i ran into josh. he made me feel warm inside, like glitter was exploding inside me. then i moved here. i did not move here because of josh, because that would be crazy, and i am not crazy. [shannon] it's exploring this relationship she has with josh

and how it's very unhealthy, and it's the depiction of mental health. but also just really fun to watch. ♪ 'cause i'm about to get ♪ a diagnosis ♪ a diagnosis [shannon] she writes songs related to her own experiences. ♪ my life's about to change [shannon] and because of that, the show just feels really authentic to her personal life. [all shouting at once] before we melt, we better go-- transparent came out very early on in the streaming era. amazon would have people make pilots, and then they would post the pilot episodes on amazon for people to stream and then vote. and transparent was from the second wave of that. dad, what are you wearing? so i have something to tell you. [alan] it is the story of a trans woman named maura, who comes out to her children. joey soloway, the creator, based it on their relationship with their own trans parent.

and the show was so much more about how her kids deal with it. can you keep your voice down, all right? i'll keep my voice down, huh? because that's our family religion, right? secrecy! [emily] i think transparent is a show that got a lot of credit for advancing the conversation on trans issues that felt sincere in 2014, and that feels increasingly insincere with every year that passes. and now its legacy is kind of tarnished. [rahel] actor jeffrey tambor is leaving the show transparent after being accused of harassment. according to the website deadline, allegations were made by two of tambor's transgender colleagues. tambor insists the claims are untrue. [emily] also the fact that he was cast to begin with in the role of a trans woman. it's a very weird piece of television that feels incredibly locked in the time in which it was made. [neon lights buzzing] [pray tell] live... [jacqueline] pose is created by steven canals and ryan murphy. they had a specific mandate to cast authentically

queer and transgender people of color. [emily] pose is about drag ball culture during the height of the aids crisis in america. it is about queer family structures, about the ways queer people come together and form families that are not of biological origin, but rather of choice. [pray tell] keep livin'! put on your tallest pump and go on and get back out into the world. you ain't dead yet. there is nothing more tragic than a sad queen. i'm not sad. [jacqueline] billy porter as pray tell is the central father figure throughout this entire series, playing both announcer and mentor to pretty much everyone. [pray tell] the recipient has taught us that a house is much more than a home. it's family. [jacqueline] pray tell was an unapologetically authentic character. [emily] billy porter is terrific as pray tell, who has hiv and is sort of just waiting to die.

in the episode love is the message, he performs a song. ♪ tomorrow ♪ may never come [emily] it's gutting and it's groundbreaking, and it's forcing american television to look at this period in history that american culture still doesn't quite want to look at. [jacqueline] the history that was made with that show just in its creation is incredible. (man) it's pretty simple. i kinda just want things the way i want them. (woman) i want a network that won't let me down. even up here! (woman #2) with an unlimited plan that's truly right for me. (woman #3) with verizon's new myplan, i get exactly what i want. and only pay for what i need. (man #2) now i'm in charge... ...of my plan. (vo) introducing myplan from verizon, the first and only plan where you choose what goes in, from apple music to disney bundle. so you get exactly what you want and only pay for what you need. and it all starts at just $30. on the network you want.

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trinet. people matter. [theme music] [key and peele theme] every decade has at least one or two great sketch comedy shows. key and peele is definitely one of them for this decade. saggitariutt jefferspin. texas a&m. d'glester hardunkichud. university of wisconsin. [renee] a lot of what they did was around race stereotypes, things that people normally don't talk about. and not only did they talk about them, they made them funny. one sketch was at a time when everyone was making zombie movies. and the zombies are avoiding them because the zombies are racist. ain't that some [bleep]? these are some racist mother[bleep] zombies! and they start to figure out, oh wait, wait, oh, oh, you gonna just walk by me like that? like, you're just not gonna come after me?

oh, what is that? they seriously wouldn't let her eat us. [renee] mocking the idea of race and racism, but in a really sharp and unpredictable way. i just wanna say to my critics, i hear your voices, and i'm aware of your concerns. so maybe if you could chill the hell out for, like, a second, then maybe i could focus on some shit, you know? [renee] one of the things they were best known for was luther, the anger translator, where jordan peele would play president obama and keegan-michael key would play his anger translator. i have a hot diggity doggity, mama say, mama signed my birth certificate, you dumbass crackers! -okay, luther? -yes? -rope it in. -dial it back, luther, damn. [renee] obama knew he couldn't be the angry black man. all he could do was roll with the punches. we're gonna need to stay focused on some big challenges, like climate change. hey, listen y'all, if you haven't noticed, california is bone dry! [matt] there was this really incredible moment at the white house correspondents dinner when obama brought out keegan-michael key

as the anger translator. what about our kids? what kind of stupid, short-sighted, irresponsible-- whoa, whoa, whoa! turns out barack obama lit it up! [matt] jon stewart decided to leave the daily show in 2015, which was just as donald trump was coming up. there was so much speculation about who was going to replace him. and then it ended up with trevor noah, this relatively unknown south african comedian. and what he did is came in and really brought a totally different perspective to the show. that's south african president jacob zuma sounding a lot like donald trump. you see that, sir? light xenophobia with just a dash of diplomacy. [audience laughter] which is also the title of paula deen's new book. [audience laughter] the nighttime hosts that made us laugh in the trump era were veterans of the daily show. our main story tonight, and i cannot believe i'm saying this, is donald trump. and i say that--i say that knowing that every time his name is said out loud, he has a shattering orgasm.

[lorraine] last week tonight with john oliver is all about activism, but thoroughly researched. he'll pick one subject, drill down it. net neutrality. the only two words that promise more boredom in the english language are "featuring sting." [lorraine] they basically encourage viewers to be citizens, to pay attention. this isn't just a passive democracy. you have to be involved in it. hello, nation! [audience cheers and applause] [mat] when stephen colbert replaced letterman on the late show, it was a really big transition for him. and it wasn't until he dug back into his political leanings and got opinionated, that's when audiences really started to respond to him. you're not the potus. you're the blotus. you're the glutton with the button. you're a regular gorge washington. you're the presidunce. but you're turning into a real pricktator. samantha bee also comes out of the daily show, and she gets her own show, full frontal with samantha bee.

let me just say, one mother to another, do something about your dad's immigration practices, you feckless c**t! he listens to you! this is a male-dominated field. there aren't many women. and we finally that perspective to counter trump's, and, and she's great. when it comes to allegations of sexual assault, it's like what i say about rat tails. one is too many, and absolutely disqualifies you from the supreme court. [audience laughter] [audience cheers and applause] [matt] when the brett kavanaugh hearing started on snl, with matt damon as brett kavanaugh ranting about how much he loves beer. boys like beer. girls like beer. i like beer. i like beer! [matt] in this decade, the show has moved more and more towards bring in either former cast members like maya rudolph as kamala harris, or just big celebrities, most famously alec baldwin as donald trump. i've turned over all my businesses to my two sons,

beavis and butthead. [audience laughter] [lorraine] the pinched face, and not understanding things, it was perfect. the characters in the trump administration were just a gift to snl . i would like to begin today by apologizing on behalf of you to me! [jesse] melissa mccarthy just conveys this impression of sean spicer, which is just this sort of bulldozer of bluster. i think you're really gonna like the hillary clinton that my team and i have created for this debate. [tim] kate mckinnon had numerable roles. she was remarkable as lindsay graham. she was great as rudy giuliani. and she was also doing attorney general jeff sessions. so vote for jeff sessions, because i will bend over backwards for you, alabama, and bend over forwards for mr. trump. the downtrodden attorney general who could never do anything right for trump. good evening. i'm dr. anthony fauci. first, i'd like to thank all the older women in america

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[theme music] [anthony] choosing what to watch on tv is getting more complicated. internet services such as amazon, hulu, and netflix are launching more and more original programming. towards the end of the decade, you're getting these streamers coming in and television fragments. it's just an abundance. i mean, you can pick your own niche. well...good morning, girls. hulu's big show's the handmaid's tale, based on margaret atwood's novel about a dystopian future. america's been split after a civil war.

it's now a theocracy run by the religious right. [aunt lydia] you will bear children for them. oh, you are so lucky! [jennifer] women are in bondage, essentially. when they are of childbearing age, they are put in service of more powerful people to give birth to their babies, whether they want to or not. it's a pretty bleak vision about where we might be headed in terms of women's rights. we believe fred micklen to have been central in creating an environment that silenced women who came forward-- no, f**k, f**k. those motherf**kers! when apple tv+ comes, you're thinking, what are they gonna do? and then you start getting the morning show and ted lasso. -let's go kick their butts. -yeah. -butts on three. -watch for me. -one, two, three. -[all] butts! the streaming wars are escalating with disney+ launching today. it's the latest streaming service competing with current offerings like netflix, hulu, cbs all access, and apple tv.

[phil] i thought disney+ was gonna take over the world because if you have children, guess what? you gotta get disney+. [chris] the mandalorian's awesome. they've taken the whole star wars concept, and they've refined it into a western again. they've simplified it. john favreau was a genius. oh, and he came up with baby yoda. come on, baby! do the magic hand thing! [coos] [chris] it was a show designed for you to be able to watch it with your parents, your grandparents, your kids, your grandkids. and that was rare, even in the 2010s. [naomi] with the rise of the streamers, there's been an absolute explosion of content, scripted or unscripted. [music] [steven] i don't wanna be a criminal. i wanna be normal. [chris] true crime moved the needle for everybody. it came to the fore as a format that could be reliably counted on to increase viewership.

wild wild country was something that seemed to come out of nowhere. the footage was unbelievable. [screaming, crying] you just watched it like that, you know? it had everything! [daniel] i think that the recent wave of true crime has been based on a desire for almost diy justice. sometimes what you need to fix an injustice is a dogged storyteller. and that's why the best example of the genre is probably the jinx. [music] there is a twist in the jinx where the perpetrator is caught on tape confessing to the crimes. i remembered that confession. everybody was talking about it.

[chris] it's still being talked about. it's still very controversial. but conversation was what the point of it was. [forewoman] we the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant, orenjal-- orenthal james simpson not guilty of the crime of murder. [tom] oj simpson: made in america went so far deeper than the melodramatic aspect of the oj simpson story. it talked about race. it's going back an awfully long time. it ended up being a much greater examination of certainly los angeles, but also the united states of america. [chris] i think oj: made in america is certainly the most powerful docuseries of the decade, and may be the most powerful television period of the decade. [daniel] and it happened to premiere in the same year as ryan murphy's american crime story installment about the oj simpson trial. i did not, and could not, and would not commit this crime.

and so here is this story that we were obsessed with, and now here we are, obsessed with it again. it became this kind of reference point for younger generations to understand the way that those murders and the trial consumed the country, and how we as an audience turned this into a circus. we couldn't see it at the time, and the series forces us to look at that. [ted] people are used to learning a lot from television in the form of miniseries. and i think this mixing of somewhat documentary storytelling and the art of scripted storytelling was so compelling. i didn't see a lady or hit anyone. raymond saw you hit her! who's raymond? you like to stick your cock in white ladies, huh? you f**king liar! you f**king-- [ted] when they see us was the untold story that ava duvernay wanted to bring to the screen next. i think people knew the story of the central park five. they thought they did. but being able to dig deeper and do it through these performances really connected audiences to that story

in a way that they hadn't before. and it turns you didn't know much about the central park five at all. when they see us fit into a moment where a lot of shows were trying to that, where they were taking an ending that we knew, something like chernobyl on hb. there is no core! it exploded. the core exploded. [daniel] you know that story. you know the tragedy of it. but seeing the faces, it becomes a different thing. it's a horror story. [music] [pants] [daniel] on the other hand, watchmen is a show that used both real history and alternate history and wove trauma into a superhero story. [jacqueline] david lindelof did an incredible thing. he took the history of the tulsa massacre, and then wove it into the tapestry of the watchmen. that was probably the first time many people learned about the tulsa massacre. it really framed questions about race, white supremacy,

and policing via the character played by regina king, a member of the watchmen-style police force. if you don't want your kids to worry you're a cop, then why are you a cop? [daniel] i think regina king is giving this incredibly assertive and corrective performance. it's like she's fighting bad guys, but she's also fighting hundreds of years of history. i got a nose for white supremacy and he smells like bleach. need to be at your best? you need an antiperspirant that goes beyond. introducing new dove men with 72h protection plus care for your skin. so you can forget about your underarms and focus on being unforgettable. new dove men forgettable underarms, unforgettable you. the chase ink business premier card is made for people like sam who make...? ...everyday products... ...designed smarter. like a smart coffee grinder - that orders fresh beans for you.

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[theme music] my wife would love this. come next time with your wife. nope. [laughter] i thought maybe people wouldn't wanna watch somebody feed phil during the pandemic. why would we wanna see this schmoe going out and enjoying food in different countries when we can't go anywhere? sometimes i feel bad for you people. but not today! [phil] but you know what i found? it was the opposite. people were desperate for some kind of escape. any good show transports you. queen's gambit can transport you to a world that you didn't know--chess. son of a bitch. [clock ticking] [loud thump] do you think the pandemic had something to do with the fact that we care about chess? or was it just well done? [ted] queen's gambit was a failed movie pitch.

and scott frank turned it into an incredible limited series. and i think during covid, there was a huge fascination with it. in the early days of the pandemic, when people had a lot of time on their hands, they became very adventurous. and tiger king i think was one of the ultimate covid sensations. ♪ 'cause i saw tigers ♪ now i understand [daniel] it was a show that was designed at every step to make you go, holy cow, is that real? there, i got every animal rights person all in one row! [ted] truth is truly stranger than fiction. you know you have a moment in zeitgeist when people start dressing like your characters from your shows on halloween, and tiger king might've been the king of that. we needed things to watch so bad. i remember feeling just desperate. miss bridgerton! [music] [grunts] pardon me. [jennifer] shonda rimes goes to netflix

and does bridgerton, which is one of the biggest recent success stories on netflix. [ted] we gave her the ability and scope and scale and budgets to make increasingly big worlds. and we had complete confidence that she could fill them. and i feel like that needs to be celebrated. [chris] schitt's creek became the ultimate pandemic show. here was a family leaving the big city and going into the wilderness, and sort of finding their heart again. that's what every family in the big city wanted to do during the pandemic. we're all pitching in these days, dear, like communists or non-union actors. [tim] schitt's creek is a beverly hillbillies in reverse. instead of hillbillies going to beverly hills, you have beverly hills going to the hills. david! what does burning smell like? [tim] and this story is about how the town, over time, has an effect on these narcissists. oh my god. -what are you doing? -i was trying to give you a hug. -i get--i get the gesture. -should've undone the seatbelt.

okay, well, then let's just leave it at a gesture. -let's just leave it. -yeah. [tim] so this show is capable of both very broad comedy, but also of intensely moving human scenes. our lives are like little baby crows, carried upon a curious wind. [david] everybody had a human side, and everybody was rewarded in that final episode. and boy, did it end up being the perfect show for the pandemic. [cheers and applause] [lorraine] you have these shows that are taking risks. you have shows that would've never been on television 15 years before. do you wish i was different? [nelson] donald glover, issa rae, all these folks who have unique and specific voices, are now in your living room. -clearly she's not a virgin. -of course i am. that's a mistake. -that's not a mistake. -or it's a hormonal thing. exactly--pregnancy hormones. [lena] i'm really just honored to be a part of some of the shows

that kind of got to be these new voices for people. you swear you won't tell anyone? oh my god, i swear. you swear too? i swear, yeah. [lorraine] you have homeland in 2011, and then in 2019, you get ramy. i didn't know that you were muslim-muslim. yeah. [lorraine] somebody that's grown up that was looked at as one of those guys that they were scared of in homeland. that whole decade really, really moved the needle in terms of representation. you should probably brace yourself for some light vomiting, followed by life-altering hallucinations. [gasps] [ted] now all the greatest characters are on television. and the audience definitely is on television. -i look forward to this journey. -great. -watch your toes. -oh-- [ted] and i think it's the opportunity to tell great stories in a way that doesn't come with preconceived notions of what tv's supposed to look like or what tv stars are supposed to look like, or even what language they're supposed to speak. that great storytelling rules the day. so good! how is it so good?

what time is it? [birds chirping] it's like daylight already. how did that even happen? we just stayed up all night. do you wanna watch more? my vacation day starts now. [music] -so intense. -oh my god, so good. we'll just watch the first episode of season two. -that's all i wanna see. -one more season. [music] i don't remember the last time i've gone to the bathroom. my legs are, like, asleep. it literally feels like i have a bladder infection, but i'm just gonna get antibiotics after the next episode. [music] >> television on. >> hbo did a lot of its best work when it was bending a genre.