Difficult Men

May 13, 2013
Martin (The Sopranos: The Book) names the period spanning 1999 to 2013 “the third golden age of television,” after those of the 1950s and the 1980s, and shows how it was made possible by a unique moment in entertainment history. The 1980s saw premium cable services with their shorter seasons and the advent of the VCR. The new landscape encouraged developing original programming to help fill 168 hours a week and taking chances with serialized narrative, as opposed to the syndication-friendly stand-alone episodes common in broadcast television. A little later, shows like The Wire, The Sopranos, and Mad Men subverted network formulas to present flawed, even nihilistic antiheros wrestling with inner demons. Over the course of a dozen episodes a season, each show explored such dark themes as addiction, psychotherapy, and failure, and this boundary pushing made them as revolutionary as the very idea of “good television.” Martin’s book recognizes the small-screen auteurs that made it all possible—including Grant Tinker, a television executive whose high regard for writers made the most creative ones flock to him; Steve Bochco, who established the role of autonomous writer/show runner; and frustrated screenwriter David Chase, a TV scribe with a scathing disregard for the medium. Martin deftly traces TV’s evolution from an elitist technology in a handful of homes, to an entertainment wasteland reflecting viewers’ anomie, to “the signature American art form of the first decade of the twenty-first century.”

Starred review from June 1, 2013
The new golden age of television and how we got there. GQ contributor Martin traces the sea change in American television of the past decade and a half, which saw the medium evolve from a repository for numbing mediocrity (with some notable exceptions) to a venue for material that enjoys artistic parity with the best products of film, theater and literature. While the author clearly lays out the financial and technological conditions that made such high-quality, idiosyncratic TV possible--the proliferation of cable stations demanded more content, and more nuanced demographic targeting by advertisers and the relative indifference to ratings enjoyed by subscription channels made niche programming profitable--his real interest is in the protean creators ("showrunners," in industry parlance) who brought highly personal, genre-redefining, boundary-pushing series to the small screen. That's a wise strategy, as they are a singularly compelling group--The Sopranos creator David Chase, pathologically morose and embittered; The Wire's David Simon, the fire-breathing investigative reporter intent on exposing the corruption in American institutions; David Milch, the mystical, oracular literary prodigy who redefined the Western with Deadwood; and Matthew Weiner, the abrasive, loquacious, obsessive mind behind Mad Men--that's as complex and fascinating in Martin's account as their antihero protagonists are on the screen. Shows like these (and Breaking Bad, The Shield, and Six Feet Under) have dominated the recent cultural conversation in the way that movies did in the 1970s, engendering a passionately engaged and intellectually stimulated audience eager to debate, parse obscure details and evangelize about their favorite programs. Martin thrillingly explains how and why that conversation migrated to the erstwhile "idiot box." A lucid and entertaining analysis of contemporary quality TV, highly recommended to anyone who turns on the box to be challenged and engaged.

COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 1, 2013
The title of this fascinating study refers to the antiheroic male protagonists of some recent popular television series (Mad Men's Don Draper, The Shield's Vic Mackey, The Sopranos' Tony Soprano), but it also, to a slightly lesser degree, refers to some of the men who made those showsDavid Chase, for example, the demanding creator of The Sopranos, and David Simon, the ambitious creator of The Wire. The author's premise, that around 1999 there came a third golden age of television (The Sopranos debuted in '99), might not sit well with all readers, but the argument that a new kind of TV series started to flourish around that time is undeniably true. Can you imagine any earlier point in television history when Breaking Bad, The Wire, Mad Men, Six Feet Under, and Deadwood could have existed? Martin combines standard making-of stuff (behind-the-scenes production battles, stories about the stars, etc.) with in-depth profiles of the people who, in a very real sense, changed the modern face of television. Fans of the shows he discusses, and especially those interested in television history, should consider this a must-read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

February 1, 2013

Television used to be safe, seemly, and insipid, but then came the late 1990s, and, as award-winning GQ correspondent Martin calls them, writer-show runners like David Chase (The Sopranos), David Simon and Ed Burns (The Wire), and Matthew Weiner and Jon Hamm (Mad Men) redefined the medium by addressing sticky issues of sex, love, death, and social chaos in daring, edgily inventive ways. Both cultural commentary and behind-the-scenes stuff for fans.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2013

Tony Soprano and Don Draper are "difficult men," symbols of what Martin (The Sopranos: The Complete Book) sees as a renaissance in television programming during the past decade. He explains that award-winning cable and pay television dramas such as The Sopranos, The Wire, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad took the viewing experience to a new level: they were edgier and morally ambiguous and had long narrative arcs with flawed antiheroes. Delving behind the scenes into how these programs were created, the author profiles the showrunners--the writer-producers--of these programs, exploring the personalities and sensibilities of these predominantly middle-age writers who are themselves "difficult men." Although Martin dedicates a majority of the book to Sopranos creator David Chase, whom he sees as having paved the way for the increase of creative, quality TV, he also provides interesting studies of Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner, Breaking Bad writer Vince Gilligan, and The Wire showrunner, David Simon. VERDICT A must-read for fans of the shows discussed, aspiring TV writers, and media studies students.--Donna Marie Smith, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., FL

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.