The Sopranos is 25 years old. A quarter of a century. Outposters, we are back to one of those moments where entertainment makes you feel old. It will be the 50th anniversary of Jaws soon… and then we will die. At least we will pass knowing we had the best of TV, and it is downhill from here. That is what the creator of The Sopranos, David Chase, says.
In a feature in The Times newspaper, he declared television’s Golden Age as over and says it is much worse than you think. He says it is not just audiences who have regressed, by TV executives too.
“Yes, 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….We’re going back to where I was. They’re going to have commercials.”
That is a reference to ad-supported tiers making their way into the world of streaming. He says the attention span required for episodic, weekly TV simply isn’t there and he gets told to dumb things down nowadays:
“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.
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. So, it is a funeral. Something is dying.”
He is referring to his brand new show that he has partnered with Hannah Fidell to develop. It follows a sex worker forced into witness protection and was originally to be launched on FX. Now he says executives have told him “the unfortunate truth” is that it’s “too complex” for current television audiences.
You can read his full damning assessment over at The Times.
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