Is the novel dead in the U.S.? Replaced by deep, nuanced, characterization and subtext-laden TV series? Here’s what one deep thinker has to say:
by Ken Pisani
They say this is a new “golden age” of television, and whenever “they” say something so definitive we should be very skeptical—especially since TV’s first “golden age” gave us shows like Our Miss Brooks, Fibber McGee and Molly, and Heinz Studio 57, an anthology series about ketchup. But let’s concede the point, if only so I can continue writing about it.
The New York Times has posed the question, “Are the New ‘Golden Age’ TV Shows the New Novels?,” while Esquire has written “[T]he TV boxset is the ‘great literary novel of its day.’” Bill Moyers has compared David Simon’s hardscrabble take on Baltimore in The Wire to Charles Dickens’s depiction of “the smoky mean streets of Victorian London.” And I’m pretty sure another smart guy said something smart about smart TV writin’. The consensus seems to be that television has gotten more literary, regardless of the fact that most of us are watching Dancing with the Stars.