Legendary drama creator David Chase says TV is 'dying'
Entertainment
The golden age of television is over
(Web Desk) - The Sopranos creator David Chase, who changed TV forever with the success of his legendary mafia drama, has declared that the golden age of television he helped usher in is officially over.
HBO is celebrating the 25th anniversary of The Sopranos' premiere this month, but Chase isn't exactly in a celebratory mood.
"This is the 25th anniversary, so of course it's a celebration. But perhaps we shouldn't look at it like that. Maybe we should look at it like a funeral," he told The Times of London in a new interview.
"As the human race goes on, we are more into multitasking. Your phone is just one symptom, but who can really focus? Your mother could be dying and you are by her hospital bed taking calls," he said.
"We seem to be confused and audiences can't keep their minds on things, so we can't make anything that makes too much sense, takes our attention and requires an audience to focus.
And as for streaming executives? It is getting worse. We're going back to where we were."
"We're going back to where I was. They're going to have commercials [on streamers like Prime Video]," Chase explained.
"Back then the networks were in an artistic pit. A sh--hole. The process was repulsive. In meetings, these people would always ask to take out the one thing that made an episode worth doing. I should have quit."
More recently, Chase has been trying to make a show with filmmaker Hannah Fidell about a high-end sex worker forced into witness protection.
"I've already been told to dumb it down," Chase revealed. "Who is this all really for? I guess the stockholders?"
The boom of complex, ambitious and intelligent TV programming that followed The Sopranos, an era that included iconic shows like The Wire, Breaking Bad and Mad Men, was just "a 25-year blip," Chase said.
"And to be clear, I'm not talking only about The Sopranos, but a lot of other hugely talented people out there who I feel increasingly bad for."
"So, it is a funeral," he added. "Something is dying."
