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'Formulaic, repetitive – and brilliant': in praise of daytime TV

All hail Loose Women! In the age of prestige drama, sometimes we need warmth and familiarity, making Bafta’s new daytime telly award long overdue

Daytime television has long been treated as a punchline; as bad, repetitive, cheaply made TV designed exclusively for people who haven’t got anything better to do. Indeed, this reputation has only been amplified in the age of streaming. After all, when you have a near-limitless library of the best television ever made permanently on hand, why on earth would you spend an hour watching yet another tedious documentary about traffic wardens?

However, hopefully, daytime is about to get a boost. This month, Bafta announced the creation of a new awards category just for daytime television, and it is much overdue. Man cannot live on prestige drama alone. Sometimes we need warmth and familiarity, and the promise that a dead relative has placed an antique of life-changing value at the back of our cupboard. When we need this, we turn to daytime television.

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from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2G8o17i

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