Call it the kaleidoscopic age of TV drama. Never before has there been such a range
of colorful story lines, styles and sensibilities at work in the genre.
One program producer enthuses that hour-long series are now indisputably “the
jewel in the crown” of small-screen creativity. Inroads into schedules by reality fare
during the last decade and a recent spate of sitcom successes notwithstanding, it is
drama that still sets the tone for most broadcasters—and potentially returns the
biggest rewards to its backers.
Think high-end, high-cost American network series like Smash, Touch or The
River or the current crop of pay cable contenders like HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and
Showtime’s Homeland, as well as basic cable’s Covert Affairs on USA Network
or Breaking Bad on AMC. Never has there been a time when so many top talents,
behind and in front of the camera, were so attracted to, and adept at massaging, the
genre. Nor a time when so much money was at stake.