hmmm

i was reading an interesting article in idealog the other day (i was at the GPs, and the doctor was running 45 minutes late)

it was an arguement that tv is not being dumbed down, but that the quality is actually improving. as an example, he compared the old seventies show "starsky and hutch" with "the sopranos". using that comparison, i can see his point, but i think that he only used the sopranos as it is an example of "quality" programming reaching a major audience.

I am currently working my way through "the wire' which as it works in the same genre of "starsky and hutch" would be a better comparison.

S&H is about two policeman, who always manage to solve their crimes within the commercial hour and is effectivly shown in bright primal colours-cops are good, criminals are bad, goos always triumphs over evil, usually involving an exciting car chase, the odd gun battle and some well-timed quips

"The Wire" is about a series long investigation into a drug crew. I've seen eight episodes so far, and it looks like getting the crims arrested is still a long way away (and even if they do, it won't solve the problem of drugs in the community

it shows both the cops side and the crims. the cops are not angels-there are brutal cops, and a lot of political game playing. the crims are not total villians either. one of the main characters, d'angelo, who has already killed two people and is in charge of sales in the pit (as they call it) is musing on why they need to kill people.
another crim, wallace, who is in his early twenties, is having a crisis of consience about having told his bosses over the wherabouts of a rival, only to find the rival haveing been obviously tortured and killed and dumped in his neighberhood.

overall, i'd say the wire is a deeper, more satisfying watch. it is like reading a book; its certainly not a show you can dip into from time to time, you actually have to watch it.

but the differecne is that S and H was one of the most popular shows of its era. the wire is at best a cult show. some of this is the time it screens (in nz, the fifth and final series is screening at 1.40am on a tuesday morning), but ai think a lot of it is that it is a show that you have to concentrate on. i would suggest that more people have watched the show on dvd than have actually seen it live (extra bonus, you don't get the ads interuppting the narrative flow. because this was made by hbo, they didn't feel the need to put an artifical cliff hanger in every seven minutes or so)

prime time is full of "reality shows" and more generic cop, doc and lawyer shows. some of the best shows of the last few years; deadwood, firefly, veronica mars and so on tend to get shoved into unflattering time solts and quickly get cancelled to the dismay of the few fans who find the shows.

they say that the future of television is the internet. i'm not so sure. the increasing sale of dvds of shows indicates that in many cases people will start to collate and programme their own home channels from their dvd collections.

i already do that already to a large extent

if the audience wants quality programming, they will have to find it themselves