25 moments that changed TV forever, as told by Nicole Kidman, Quentin Tarantino and Simon Cowell
Looking back, it was a testament to the great work of the cast – and Dunham’s deft writing – that people held such strong views. “Even if that attention was at times a little bit scathing, it felt like, at least we’re making something that is substantial enough to withstand all of this poking and prodding,” she says. Besides which, newer generations – many of whom discovered Girls amid its post-Covid renaissance, driven by social media platforms like TikTok – seem more empathetic. “People see the selfishness… but they see it within the context of someone who’s just trying to do her best.” Ultimately, the ripple effect of Girls has been to create space for more authentic stories about unlikeable, dysfunctional women on screen. — JK
13. House of Cards kickstarts the Netflix revolution
It’s pretty open and shut, really: being at the forefront of one of the biggest cultural and technological revolutions of our lifetimes, House of Cards is the most impactful TV show of the 21st century.
Starring Kevin Spacey as Francis Underwood, a ruthless South Carolina congressman with aspirations for the Oval Office, the breakneck political thriller was Netflix’s first major foray into original programming. Though Lilyhammer technically came out a year earlier, it premiered on Norwegian TV before its debut on the streamer – and it was House of Cards, a widely-watched hit with critics and viewers alike, that really allowed Netflix to stick its flag in the TV landscape. It was executive-produced, and partially directed, by David Fincher. The first season cost a reported $100 million to make. With it Netflix proved that it was a viable competitor to traditional TV, to whom streaming would eventually prove an existential threat.
“We had no idea it would be the phenomenon that it was, or that TV would change so fundamentally in terms of the way it is consumed,” says Beau Willimon, the series’ creator. At first, it was expected that House of Cards would go to a traditional network, with the producers speaking to HBO, Showtime and AMC all on the same day. Then Netflix got wind, and stacked their chips high. “They offered two seasons up front, which was pretty much unheard of at the time, and a large degree of creative control,” Willimon continues. “So the feeling was, let’s try something different… let’s put our show on the internet, and see what happens.”
The streamer followed up with Orange is the New Black, another high-quality show that reinforced Netflix’s position as a major TV player. From there, the popularity of Netflix snowballed, and streaming became an everyday part of our lives. In the present, the service hosts some of the most watched shows in the world; the likes of Adolescence and Baby Reindeer have generated our talkiest cultural moments in recent memory. And it all goes back to Frank Underwood breaking the fourth wall. — JK
14. Game of Thrones’ invites us to the Red Wedding
It’s not like Game of Thrones was the first big show to kill off its major characters. Nor was The Walking Dead, which premiered around the same time and also made a point of throwing out plot armour. But it’s hard to think of another series that made death – and gnarly deaths, at that – such a core selling point. It’s a reputation that the show cultivated early on, when Ned Stark (Sean Bean), the protagonist of the first season, was beheaded in its penultimate episode. “It was a thing that TV had not done to that point,” says writer and critic Emily St James, who was the TV editor of The AV Club when Game of Thrones was on air.
