The exact moment when TV surpassed film in quality is debatable, but the moment the first crack started to show is in 1997 when the world was exposed to OZ. OZ was the ground/mind breaking prison drama, and the first one-hour dramatic narrative series from HBO. The lid really came off two years later when The Sopranos started bringing in the awards, the viewers and the cash. From there it's been pretty much a golden shower including Deadwood, 6 Feet Under, Boardwalk Empire, The Wire, True Blood, Game of Thrones and many, many more.
Of course, with such amazing success, others would be foolish not to take a crack at making "a HBO" show. Nexflix recently tried with the very popular House of Cards, an incredibly acted and well-paced White House political drama. Kevin Spacey is the main star and plot line as a man just turned down for Secretary of State with his equally power-hungry wife at his side. Then there is a congressman hopeful with a checkered past, and of course rounding out the story lines are the tenacious reporters.
House of Cards certainly doesn't rush anything, as the first several episodes are all character building, which is fine by me. Like any serialized drama, there comes a point where you have to ask yourself if you care enough about these people to see where the story is going. There were a few ho-hum episodes but all in all, I stuck with it.
That said, I will not be watching any more simply because how the final episode was left. If you're familiar with serialized dramas, you know the second-to-last episode sets up all the plots that have been building for a season, then there is some closure and maybe a little cliff hanging. This series had no closure at all.
In the end, nice try Netflix, but you're going to have to hire better writers if you want to truly compete with the best. Thankfully, Game of Thrones Season 3 will be starting soon to set the bar even higher for serialized dramas.
Many great HBO shows are available at our library and of course, online.
