Daniel Roberts
I don’t work for Home Box Office, Inc. I’m not being paid to write this piece, brimming with praise though it may be. Still, I cannot deny it: no program on basic cable rivals those carefully crafted HBO Original Series.
Each episode of The Sopranos leaves me full and satisfied, as though I’ve just polished off a Gandolfini-sized steak, smothered in the sauce of riveting fringe characters like Joe Pantoliano’s menacingly snide Ralph Cifaretto or Steve Buscemi’s creepy portrayal of cousin Tony Blundetto.
The same experience is delivered by a single episode of The Wire, Oz, and even Curb Your Enthusiasm. Just when you think, “Wow, HBO really nails drama,” then you get thirty minutes of comedy gold with Larry David, and you actually start to believe that pompous tagline, “It’s not TV. It’s HBO.”
Sorry NBC, CBS, and the other eight channels we received before my dad sacked up and ordered premium cable, but you aren’t leaving me full. Besides, I’m a growing boy with a substantial appetite— for food, girls, and yes, television.
The only non-HBO program that leaves me equally happy is ABC’s Lost. It’s perfectly cast and manages to artfully blend action and excitement with gripping emotional character stories. Once you’ve seen even one episode, you’re hooked. My dad watches Lost. That cute girl from geology class watches. Her uncle probably watches. This fictional world (yet a very real one for fans) brings people together at the proverbial water-cooler to debate their theories.
There is nothing else this good on basic cable. Don’t bring up Grey’s Anatomy or 24. Sure, they might be really exciting or addicting, but these shows are disrupted by ads, and the plotlines feel forced. I am left wanting more, and not in a good way. Yet after an episode of The Sopranos I feel more like I’ve completed a movie than an hour of television. So when will the basic cable channels catch up?
Like I said, I’m not being paid by HBO. Of course, if they offered to give me cash to lie on my couch watching their programs, I’d shake my head “yes” so violently it would pop off. Hey, I can dream, can’t I? Perhaps the Entourage slogan holds promise: “Maybe you can have it all.”
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