A riveting and revealing look at the shows that helped
cable television drama emerge as the signature art form of
the twenty-first century.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the landscape of
television began an unprecedented transformation. While the
networks continued to chase the lowest common denominator, a
wave of new shows, first on premium cable channels like HBO
and then basic cable networks like FX and AMC, dramatically
stretched television’s narrative inventiveness, emotional
resonance, and artistic ambition. No longer necessarily
concerned with creating always-likable characters, plots
that wrapped up neatly every episode, or subjects that were
deemed safe and appropriate, shows such as The Wire, The
Sopranos, Mad Men, Deadwood, The Shield, and more tackled
issues of life and death, love and sexuality, addiction,
race, violence, and existential boredom. Just as the Big
Novel had in the 1960s and the subversive films of New
Hollywood had in 1970s, television shows became the place to
go to see stories of the triumph and betrayals of the
American Dream at the beginning of the twenty-first
century.
This revolution happened at the hands
of a new breed of auteur: the all-powerful writer-show
runner. These were men nearly as complicated, idiosyncratic,
and “difficult” as the conflicted protagonists that defined
the genre. Given the chance to make art in a maligned
medium, they fell upon the opportunity with unchecked
ambition.
Combining deep reportage with cultural
analysis and historical context, Brett Martin recounts the
rise and inner workings of a genre that represents not only
a new golden age for TV but also a cultural watershed.
Difficult Men features extensive interviews with all the
major players, including David Chase (The Sopranos), David
Simon and Ed Burns (The Wire), Matthew Weiner and Jon Hamm
(Mad Men), David Milch (NYPD Blue, Deadwood), and Alan Ball
(Six Feet Under), in addition to dozens of other writers,
directors, studio executives, actors, production assistants,
makeup artists, script supervisors, and so on. Martin takes
us behind the scenes of our favorite shows, delivering
never-before-heard story after story and revealing how cable
TV has distinguished itself dramatically from the networks,
emerging from the shadow of film to become a truly
significant and influential part of our culture.
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