Ever since TV made its way into people’s homes in the 1950s, it has become an increasingly dominant part of our lives—especially American TV series. Many people have a favourite series that they follow and a majority of those series, like it or not, are American, and their impact on Sweden and Swedish popular culture has been monumental.
One such TV phenomenon was Dallas. In the 80’s and early 90’s, this was one of the most talked-about TV series in Sweden and even people who didn’t follow it knew who the scheming J.R. was. This was the series that had it all: money and power, intrigue and whiskey, love and revenge, cowboy-hats and outrageous outfits… You name it—Dallas had it. Perhaps its appeal was partly due to the relative novelty and scarcity of American light-weight entertainment in Sweden. With only two channels to choose from, both of them public-service, frivolous TV series were fairly thin on the ground.
Today, however, the flood of American soaps, sitcoms and reality shows in Sweden is endless, and very few reach that almost universal appeal that Dallas had. Perhaps that is because, instead of having merely two state-owned TV channels, many people have several commercial channels as well and no longer have to wait a whole week for their next fix of American light-weight entertainment. More often than not, the supply far outweighs the demand. Viewers today can choose between Prison Break, 24, Grey’s Anatomy, CSI New York, Desperate Housewives, The Simpsons, Big Brother, E.R., America’s Next Top Model... plus all the re-runs, of course.
Personally, I am a die-hard fan of 24, that action-packed, heart-stopping, never-ending cliff-hanger in which CTU agent Jack Bauer chases bad guys across LA. I have always loved action films just as much as I have loved high-brow BBC historical dramas and Astrid Lindgren-style children’s series, and I think I always will. There is something quite alluring about losing yourself in a full-speed action thriller which does not require as much mental processing as, say, a dramatisation of Dickens’s Bleak House. But what about you? For your second blog assignment, I would like you to tell me what it is about your favourite TV series that makes you love it—or perhaps why you shun TV altogether.
The deadline for this assignment is Sunday, 26 April.
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That's my blog. María
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