For decades, medical dramas have been a comforting staple of television, reliable entertainment without the expectations of being groundbreaking or necessarily good. Suddenly, this genre has become a rejuvenating force in a dying landscape, thanks to two new offerings, ABC’s Doctor Odyssey and Max’s The Pitt. Both shows are generating actual conversation, attachment to characters, and anticipation for upcoming episodes. That these shows are wringing new life out of the genre that gave us ER is just one of the indicators that people are finally excited about TV again.

It’s strange to think that TV could be in need of a “comeback.” For decades, you could come home from work, sit on your coach, and enjoy a show that you could chat about the next day with your friends and colleagues. Nowadays, this experience feels more like a luxury. “Prestige” TV is seemingly on its way out, with big shows appearing and flopping before viewers can even register their existence. Meanwhile, the only televised drama people seem eager to talk about is happening on reality shows like The Traitors and Love Is Blind.

For the first time in a while, though, you can go online and sense what shows people are actually engaged with and not just mindlessly consuming. Along with Doctor Odyssey and The Pitt, there have been plenty of social media chatter surrounding series like Hulu’s presidential drama Paradise and Netflix’s romantic comedy series Nobody Wants This, which premiered last fall. The flailing prestige arena even has a few bright spots, with the third installment of White Lotus and the recently completed second season of Severance being huge talkers.

On paper, most of these shows aren’t particularly flashy or unique (okay, except for Severance). In fact, they sound like the hackneyed ideas of some uninspired network executives, from their recycled premises to their familiar casting. Yet their popularity reflects an exhaustion brought on by the streaming era and how isolated the TV-watching experience has become.

For a while, it seemed like the days of watching TV at a collective pace and falling in love with characters over a long stretch of time were gone. However, it seems like a change in........

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