It’s truly incredible how you can love something but, after a while, come to appreciate what came before. One of the great strengths of the modern era of television has been the greater focus on serialised storytelling and that’s something that I certainly appreciate since it has led to many of my favourite shows of all time. It’s interesting then that, over the course of the last few years, I’ve developed quite an appreciation for virtually the opposite, TV shows that tell a complete story over a single episode or even a season. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at anthology TV series and how I’ve come to love them.
I should first start by explaining what an anthology TV series is to anyone who’s unfamiliar with the term. An anthology TV series is a show where the story and characters are self-contained between episodes or seasons while generally following a common theme or concept. They may have main cast members who play different characters each episode or season or may have nearly entirely different casts every episode/season. Now that I’ve covered what an anthology TV series is, it’s time to discuss how I came to love them.
The first show that I ever watched with the words “Anthology TV Series” in my head was the original The Twilight Zone that ran from 1959 to 1964. Of course, anyone who’s familiar with landmark television series will have heard of this legendary series and the number of parodies I’d unknowingly seen was immeasurable. Nonetheless, even with my high expectations, I found myself entranced by the superb writing which deftly mixed sharp themes, twists and powerful acting into a story usually running only 20 minutes. While I can’t say that I loved every single episode, I can definitely say that The Twilight Zone deserves the legendary status that it has built up over the decades and I consider it to be a must watch.
The idea of being able to experience an entire story with a different cast of characters each episode was a concept that I found surprisingly appealing. As much as I love serialised storytelling, I’d found myself becoming overwhelmed by the number of continuing storylines that I was following over the course of years and being able to just experience the story from beginning to end felt incredibly refreshing. As a fan of horror media, I understandably began by acquiring horror anthology series such as Tales from the Darkside and Hammer House of Horror and, while they’re certainly rougher in quality than The Twilight Zone, I found myself enjoying them quite a bit.
While I continued looking for more anthologies, I ended up coming across a new type of anthology, the seasonal anthology. In contrast to the normal format for TV anthologies where each episode contains a new story and characters, a seasonal anthology tells a story over the course of a season before changing the story and characters. Quite famous examples of this would be American Horror Story and True Detective and it’s a fascinating evolution of anthology television.
While I will always love serialised storytelling, I’ve found that mixing it with anthologies can prove to be quite refreshing and I’m always on the search for more anthology TV series to watch. Let me know your thoughts on anthology TV series, how you first came across the concept, what some of your favourites have been, the benefits you think anthology TV series can have over serialised storytelling and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!