[contextly_auto_sidebar id="xsRN9Irj889DZIdZgx4NQ6tyZZUOY1S9"] THE answer to this question, I must admit, eludes me. But the era of deep and complex narrative television born with The Sopranos (and carried through Deadwood, Mad Men, etc) seems to have moved into another chapter as HBO and CBS announce streaming services. Here's the beginning of my new piece on Salon: The most prestigious of … [Read more...]
Tom Perrotta’s “The Leftovers”
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="MrCO2VFKSM6GvoqcLDS6xaupSfsgna7y"] RECENTLY I spoke to the author of the novel HBO has adapted into a Sunday-night series. Both the novel and the show concern a small town from which a small but significant number of people have mysteriously vanished; most of the storytelling concern the way people deal in various -- and variously conflicting ways -- with the loss. … [Read more...]
Tom Stoppard and "Parade’s End"
THIS week on HBO, Americans can catch up with a literary adaptation that hit hard in the UK last year: Parade's End. Godlike playwright Tom Stoppard adapted this series of four short novels by the underrated Ford Madox Ford -- published in the '20s and set around World War I.Yours truly had a story today on the miniseries and the process of adapting a very long and difficult text. It meant, among … [Read more...]