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From beginning to end - two totally different shows!
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00:00The TV game is a hard one to break. Myriad shows are chucked against the wall every season,
00:05and it's almost impossible to predict what will stick. Many a long-running program has started
00:10out providing one kind of content, and ended up doing something totally different. With that in
00:15mind, I'm Adam from WhatCulture, and here are 10 TV shows that change dramatically.
00:20Number 10. New Girl
00:21In 2011, Fox felt absolutely certain that the sheer force of Zooey Deschanel would be enough
00:27to sell a sitcom. Every advert and poster for New Girl featured Deschanel as Jess,
00:32the titular character, front and center, with her co-stars way out in the background if pictured
00:37at all. She was, we were promised, adorkable. And to be fair, Deschanel was a great fit for TV.
00:43Then at the peak of her powers, her public persona worked perfectly in 20-minute chunks.
00:48This simple premise saw her quirky school teacher character move into an apartment with a disparate
00:53bunch of boys, wearing hijinks couldn't help but ensue. Quickly though, the writers realized
00:57that there was life in this project beyond Zooey Deschanel, the show.
01:01As the rest of the cast, Jake Johnson, Lamorne Morris, Hannah Simone, and the exceptional Max
01:06Greenfield, found their feet in the supporting roles, the show was reshaped around the ensemble.
01:11It transformed from a star vehicle to the era's best hangout show.
01:15So distinct was this transformation that Jess could be written off the show for a spell
01:19while Deschanel gave birth. Smart writing and great cast chemistry turned what could have been
01:24a flash in the pan into one of the great modern network comedies.
01:28Number 9. The Leftovers
01:30This masterful drama created by Damon Lindelof and Tom Parada, on whose novel it's based,
01:35is by design in a constant state of flux. We're dropped into a terrifying reality in which
01:402% of the world's population has disappeared without trace or explanation. And from there,
01:46we follow an evolving cast of characters as they make sense of the new reality and hope to rebuild.
01:51Most obviously, each season takes place primarily or entirely in a different location.
01:56For the first run, we're in a small town in New York State, where our series-long protagonists,
02:01Kevin and Nora, find each other among a landscape of religious fundamentalism, nihilism, and grief.
02:07After this, we decamp first to Miracle Texas, a town unblighted by the rapture-like event,
02:12and later, Australia. Beyond this though, the tone and genre shift perceivably, sliding from
02:17psychological drama into something akin to sci-fi. The series remains rooted in realism
02:22commendably throughout. As time passes, we see the departure fade into the background.
02:27Life, as it must, goes on for those who remain.
02:30Number 8. Peep Show
02:32Jesse Armstrong and Sam Baines' sitcom will rightfully be remembered as one of the 21st century's best.
02:38But uncommonly for a British comedy, it didn't half-outstate its welcome. For long-term fans of
02:43the show, watching the dying days of Mark and Jeremy was like watching an entirely different
02:47programme. At the outset, Peep Show was as well observed as British comedy had been in years.
02:52Everybody is a Mark or a Jez, two diametrically opposed characters who were nonetheless equally
02:58dysfunctional. From romantic failures to thwarted careers, delusions of grandeur, and unreliable mates,
03:04Peep Show was a painful laugh precisely because so much of the content was recognisable. Somewhere
03:08along the way, though, it turned into a cartoon. While that's hardly uncommon for long-running comedies,
03:14it's rare to see a show once so grounded go so totally wild. Low-key disappointments were replaced
03:19by snakes, electric fences, and decisions no human would ever make. The show never forgot how to tell
03:25a joke, but the limping form of Peep Show's final days is something of a blight on a show that could
03:30have been perfect had it ended earlier. Number 7. Entourage
03:34For the first few seasons of HBO's Entourage, we were presented with a satire of the vacuity
03:39and banality of modern Hollywood. We followed burgeoning actor Vincent Chase and his co-tail
03:44riding friends as they enjoyed life in the lap of luxury without much in the way of discernible
03:48talent. For the remainder of its run, Vince and the boys got everything they could imagine,
03:53be that wealth, material goods, beautiful women, or inexplicable career success, again,
03:58without a discernible talent between them. Each season was more pointless than the last,
04:02setting up conflicts that would be overcome an episode later or some of the most ludicrous
04:07Deus Ex Machinas in TV history. While the show initially poked fun at these greedy,
04:11amoral characters, by the end it was clear the writers thought they were to be celebrated.
04:16The incessant product placement, meaningless celebrity cameos, and casual hate speech entirely
04:21replaced the compelling stories of the first three seasons. The movie, in which it transpires
04:25Vince is also a great director as well as the world's greatest actor, is the cherry on top of the
04:31Sunday. Number 6. Parks and Recreation
04:34This Amy Poehler-led sitcom went through several iterations in its seven-season tenure. When it
04:39started off, it was quickly dismissed as another office imitator, not least because of its mock-doc
04:44style and the personnel involved on both sides of the camera. It quickly switched its tone into
04:49something akin to a live-action Simpsons, much for the better. The town of Pawnee felt incredibly well
04:55realized, and while they maintained the talking head format, creator Michael Schur was less strict
05:00with the Fox reality format. As the show became more satirical of modern politics, it changed again,
05:06with seasons 3 to 5 carefully plotted, perhaps hitting its peak with Paula's Leslie Knope running
05:11for city council in a massively compelling run of episodes. In its endgame though, it pioneered a
05:17bizarre trend of modern comedy, and became a show about how important it is to be nice to one another.
05:22Gone were the well-crafted relationships and dramatic tension, gone were the jokes,
05:26for the most part. Unfortunately, Parks and Recreation limped over the line,
05:30and was indirectly responsible for the likes of Ted Lasso.
05:33Number 5. Moral Oral
05:35This criminally underrated adult swim stop-motion series from Dean Ostamatopoulos,
05:40Community Starburns, was a bold proposition from the off. Spoofing American sitcoms and religious
05:45kids programming, it was an acidic take on small-town fundamentalism. The gist of the early show saw
05:51our titular character get into scrapes through far too literal interpretation of Christian
05:55messages. For the ensuing havoc, he'd then be punished severely by his father, Clay, one of
06:01the most hauntingly well-realized stop-motion characters ever depicted. The episonic nature
06:06of the first two seasons was turned on its head for the final full-length run. Season 3 is one long
06:11arc, delving into incredible darkness, as Stamatopoulos and his co-writers shift focus primarily to Clay,
06:17his past, and what made him the abusive, hate-filled figure we've followed and laughed at thus far.
06:23It's easily the show's finest season. The writing is immaculate, maintaining moral aurels
06:28often shocking comedy while presenting a character study as well as a note of genuine earned hope
06:34that the majority of live-action shows could only hope to achieve.
06:38Number 4. Orange is the New Black
06:40One of Netflix's earliest hits, Orange is the New Black is a show whose lofty aims only grow as it
06:46goes on. Set in a women's prison, by design viewers are introduced quickly to a large cast of inmates
06:51and guards. The entry point though is Piper Chapman, who sticks out like a sore thumb in her capacity
06:57as an unworldly wasp convicted of a historic one-off offense. As the show goes on though,
07:02the writers smartly realize that Piper is by no means the most interesting character they have
07:07at their disposal. Indeed, Orange is the New Black is commendable for the diversity of its cast,
07:12and through flashbacks we're introduced to women from all walks of life. With Piper's story pushed
07:17to a supporting role, it allows showrunner Jenji Cohen to examine topics like the education system,
07:22immigration, mental health, and the cycle of poverty. The show isn't always the most subtle,
07:27but its ability to reshape and refocus allows it to examine important issues on a major platform.
07:33While Piper remains the de facto lead, by its conclusion the show is a true ensemble piece,
07:38and arguably has its finest moments in the last couple of seasons.
07:42Number 3, Line of Duty. What a difference a budget makes. The first three seasons of Line
07:47of Duty were made from the standard British drama purse, that is to say, savings were made possible.
07:53The cast was kept small, AC12's internal affair coppers, their subject, and a few baddies. Plots
07:59were sharp, plenty of moving pieces, but action, location, and set pieces were at a premium.
08:04Once the broadcaster realized they had a genuine sensation on their hands, though,
08:08things changed sharpish. From a small team of straight arrow police investigating a few bad apples,
08:13Line of Duty's plots became labyrinthine, involving vast conspiracies, gunplay, code names,
08:18and a lot of scenes involving baddies piling into or out of Black Land Rovers. It's a matter of taste
08:24which you prefer, but as the show and the budget took off, it's noticeable that the stories became
08:29a whole lot wackier. The stuff of action movies, rather than the stuff of real newspaper headlines.
08:34The final left a lot of fans disappointed, but the mundanity of the ending was almost the point.
08:40Crime often isn't exciting or glossy. After three seasons of daftness, though,
08:45that's not what the viewers were conditioned to expect.
08:48Number 2, Atlanta. FX's Extraordinary Atlanta is an example of what can happen when a network
08:54puts total faith in a creator. When the show began in 2016, star and writer Donald Glover
08:59was already somewhat of a hot commodity. Around this time, he blew up to a significant degree
09:04thanks to his renaissance man, Prolificacy. Luckily for fans, the network was smart enough
09:09to leave well enough alone. Atlanta's elevator pitch, and the focus of its first season,
09:14is simple enough. Glover plays Earn, a smart but often unlucky man attempting to break his cousin,
09:20a rapper on the rise by the name of Paperboy.
09:22The show is a character piece, a slice of life in the titular city, as well as a satire of the music
09:28game, one Glover knows well in his childish Gambino guise. There were surreal moments from
09:33the off, but once Glover is let off the leash, things go really wild. As in when he wishes,
09:39Atlanta goes off on location, set episodes in a haunted house, with Glover playing Teddy
09:44Perkins, one of TV's wildest one-off characters, or excuse the main cast altogether.
09:48TV is hardly an auteur's medium, but Atlanta, more than almost any show, has a defining vision
09:54throughout, even when it shifts its style, personnel, and continent from episode to episode.
10:00Number 1. Breaking Bad
10:02Watching Walter White laugh manically wedged under his floorboards, or inadvertently cause the death
10:07of his brother-in-law, or barely flinch as a child is murdered, and it can be easy to forget that
10:12Breaking Bad was, at one time, a black comedy. One of TV's great premises, Breaking Bad sees a meek
10:18teacher decide to make a fortune from crystal meth after being diagnosed with cancer. The measured
10:23pacing of season 1 gave us plenty of time to watch Walter Blundell through the drugs game,
10:28enjoy a culture clash with former student Jesse Pinkman, and gradually assert himself in a world
10:33that has often made him the butt of the joke. It doesn't take too long for things to take an
10:38incredibly dark turn though. Creator Vince Gilligan's intention was to show us a good man
10:43turned evil, how logically that might play out, and as Walter embraces villainy, the laughs
10:48certainly dry up. The show embraces a lot of genres, western, gangster, thriller, but the
10:54most shocking transformation is its tone. In comparison to the weighty themes and plots examined
10:59in its last days, the first season is a downright knockabout.
11:03But what did you think of our list there? Please do let us know about our entries,
11:07and also let us know which TV show do you think changed the most, for better or for worse.
11:13If you want to follow me on socials, I am at strong87 on Instagram and on Twitter,
11:17come and chat to me on there if you like. Thank you for watching everybody,
11:20I hope you enjoy the rest of your day, and until next time, take care.
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