TV Madness 2017: This Is Us and Black Sails close out first round
We’ve seen so many of you vote with passion throughout the past week-plus of the TV Madness 2017 article series, but today, the first round of the tournament officially comes to a close! We’ve got two worthy shows that are squaring off, and the list includes the first ever play-in winner. This is something that we hadn’t done with the tournament before, but we’re open to it again as a means to get people discussing a group of shows who we didn’t have space for in the ballot itself.
Also, we do think that the play-in this time produced a really interesting darkhorse contender who could go all the way and win this tournament … though we’ll have something more on that soon. For now, let’s just get to sharing what This Is Us and Black Sails both individually bring to the table.
This Is Us (#2 seed) – We begin here with a discussion on what is arguably the biggest runaway hit of the season. Viewers from all over the country have shown a deep love for the drama, and it’s largely because it finds a way to break things down to the barest essence of who we all are as people. It’s simple, emotional, and poignant. It makes us care about one another in a way that we don’t often get elsewhere. While it may be heart-shattering at times, it’s also uplifting and powerful at others. When the dust settles, there may not be any other new show this year that is as easily remembered as this one when you get around to five years from now.
Black Sails (#7 seed) – We all know that pirates are dangerous, but what may make Flint and company here especially danger is just how dominant they were in the play-in. Not only did they win by a commanding margin, but you could have taken the votes that all of the other shows had and combined them by two and Black Sails still would’ve won. We get the sense that there is a hunger for these fans to see the series end on the highest note popular in the tournament, and that is something that the This Is Us fandom may not crave as much given that they already have two more seasons on the air.