The Sopranos, The Wire, Six Feet Under, Mad Men, Breaking Bad: what do they all have in common? They were American drama series produced by cable channels and created by driven characters with an unbending vision. They were also exceptionally good.
According to American film journalist Peter Biskind’s new book, those shows formed the centrepiece of a golden era of US TV that burnt brightly in the first decade of this century and then fell victim to economics and ego.
Biskind is best known for his 1998 book, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, which told the tale of another golden era, that of American movies of the 1970s, and the seamy excess it engendered. The celebrated screenwriter Robert Towne once told me that he thought Biskind should be “horsewhipped” for what he wrote.
His latest book, is subtitled which suggests that it’s another helping of
