The Anthology Renaissance: A New Golden Age Of TV?
By Josh Sandy

There is no doubt that television is the medium of the moment. Over recent years, the popularity of TV has exploded with the likes of Game of Thrones, Mad Men, Breaking Bad and The Sopranos achieving more critical success than even some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters. However, this increase in popularity has led to a conundrum for viewers – how is it possible to keep up with all the episodes of all the different series available?
The solution to which may lie within something that will likely bring back painfully repressed memories of GCSE English – the anthology. This, in entertainment terms, is a TV or radio series in which each episode or series exists as a self-contained story with no continuous narrative between episodes or series.
The anthology has many advantages over the traditional series structure, most notably the ability to keep a series feeling fresh with new original ideas instead of falling into the trap of relying on a tired formula. In addition, the ability of an anthology to utilise a new cast and director for each episode or series provides massive potential. It enables the show to both showcase rising actors without banking an entire series on their ability, and equally to lure big-name actors without the commitment that a full-time series would require.
Traditionally anthologies were associated with the so-called ‘Golden Age of Radio and TV’ that took place in the US during the 1920 to 30s and 1950s respectively, during which the bulk of non-news programming took the form of unrelated science fiction, horror and mystery stories under an umbrella title. Of course, the most iconic of which was the enormously popular CBS science-fiction anthology The Twilight Zone. However, the rise in popularity of situation comedies and procedural dramas brought with it a fall in interest, leading to the format being all but confined to history by the late 1960s.
However, the increasing popularity of online streaming has led to an anthology renaissance. This is most evident with the Jordan Peele-fronted revival of The Twilight Zone which is shunning its traditional CBS home to instead take centre stage on their online streaming platform CBS All Access. It may seem counter-intuitive for streaming services, whose business models are based on the ‘binge-watching’ culture, to champion these series. Their potential variety, uniqueness and broad appeal is very attractive to new subscribers who are becoming increasingly elusive due to the sheer number of potential streaming services available.
Of course, not every series is suited to this format, and there will always be a place for long-form drama which, when done well, can be one of the most satisfying forms of entertainment. However, the promise of an anthology is both a valuable asset to any production company and an exciting prospect for audiences. Perhaps overall this is an indication of the cyclical nature of entertainment, and we have gone full circle back to another ‘Golden Age’. Either that, or we’ve entered TV’s ‘Twilight Zone‘ and proved there truly is nothing new under the sun.