the golden age: cheetahmaster

the golden age

"We all know that the quality of television has spiked in the last 10 years, as cable channels such as HBO arose to lead the whole industry, networks included, through a creative, competitive boom. And how did it get to this apex? Through stealing from movies, of course. The best dramatic television of recent years, the shows that cause critics to write that we are in a golden age of drama - Dexter, The Shield, The Sopranos, Mad Men, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Friday Night Lights, The Wire, Battlestar Galactica, Lost and others - have lifted storytelling, cinematography, character development and, often, actors from movies. Before the writers strike, it was physically impossible to keep up.

"Duh, you might say.

"But there's a certain kind of story, and in particular a certain kind of antihero - one who is profane and morally compromised, yet righteous and magnetic - who now belongs to television. Daniel Day-Lewis' Daniel Plainview, with his rage-filled ambition and tiny cracks of humanity and love, is exactly that guy. And There Will Be Blood proved to me that movies can't have him back."

the golden age

lurching towards a finale

on the end of Serial season one

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