Television has entered into a golden age in drama, but the same can be said for comedy. "Silicon Valley," for example, is a quick-witted, intelligent comedy that, unlike many others, is a serialized show.

But the process of serializing a comedy is not very common. The majority of comedies are episodic in their nature. Many television comedies follow this formula, which keeps characters static, never getting from point A to point B.

As stated, all writing moves from point A to point B. Within comedy, however, on an episode basis, this never really occurs.

Episodes begin, go through the various quarrels, but by the end when the story meets resolution, the characters are in the same standing as they were at the start. Even in a clever show like "Silicon Valley," the characters find themselves on the bottom at the beginning and ending of most episodes. As a whole, their stories evolve, but that is based on season mobility versus episode mobility.

In "That 70’s Show," by contrast, the characters never really moved on in their lives. Throughout the eight seasons, the only characters that really progressed were Eric and Kelso. All of the characters developed and found changes in terms of their relationships and occupations, but where did they always end their day?

Foreman’s basement, even after he left the series.

The worst offender, however, is laugh track comedy

Within these shows, a laugh track accompanies each joke, and that encourages viewers at home to laugh along with the fake TV audience. It prompts viewers to laugh at what the writers deemed funny. The issue with this formula is it tends to set up jokes that aren’t all that funny, but because we hear laughing, we unconsciously join in.

"How I Met Your Mother" was a favorite of mine during it's first few seasons. However, with the show's lack of mobility, it grew stale. The writers kept falling back onto the "Ted loves Robin" storyline and the series never moved away from that concept. Additionally, it lasted longer than it's concept could really entail, and the jokes became weak and began to rely on a laugh track.

Soon, the only audience laughing was the fake TV one, rather than those watching from home.

Shows like "Silicon Valley," "Divorced," or "Entourage" garner laughs based on clever dialogue and funny situations, whereas shows that rely on laugh tracks are not typically as funny. The jokes simpler, and the set up is less thought out.

Above is a scene from "Entourage" versus a scene from "How I Met Your Mother." Admittedly, the "HIMYM" scene is funny, however, the laugh track takes away from the scene and the laughs almost feel as if they were arbitrarily placed.

In this case, the formula doesn’t equate to predictable TV, but it does equate to a lack of storytelling

As stated, the characters are typically at point A in the beginning and remain there by the time they reach the end, despite any new developments during that episode.

Thus, the real issue is that the storytelling suffers, because it remains in this structure. The characters never fully grow and the story remains still rather than progressing on to new and better ideas.

"Silicon Valley," on the other hand, has shown a real change in its protagonist, Richard Hendricks. In the show's premiere season, he was nervous and scared of his shadow. Currently, while he still has those nerve-filled moments, he is more ruthless and willing to “play dirty” in order to achieve success.

In order for comedy to truly evolve, it should move away from its inherent episodic nature and instead transition to a more serialized development. Laugh tracks should also be foregone, so that the audience genuinely laughs at moments of pure humor, rather than being prompted to do so.
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