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Three brilliant TV series- plus a rant..

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Cateale,

I'm on the verge of tossing my slowly failing 27" Sony out the window and using the $70 per month cable charge to buy better tubes for my SP10 and a new cartridge.

But, there were three television series that I think must rank as the intellectual, artistic, and dramatic equals with some of the best feature films:

"I, Claudius"
"The Jewel in the Crown"
"Brideshead Revisited"

Note the country of origin (and the decades since) of these three series.

Ephemere has a very good point that the success of this kind of televsion has to do with working within the medium and not imitating cinema. A long series does not need the severe time compression that movies must use to establish drama, so it becomes possible in televison to use nuance that would be too time-consuming in features. Plus, somuch of movies now imitates television but with higher production values and unwatchably hysterical editing..(re" Matrix Reloaded"

These series did what televsion could have done in the US in the absence of commercial pressures- and I know several of the wierd, insecure, second-guessing bottom line poll sitters involved in American network TV. Just when I think television has reached bottom, I hear of a new deal with Paris Hilton or Geraldo as "Senior Correspondent". "Reality Television" should be called "Prozac-Schizoid/Psychotic-Escapist Televsion".

When TV is done well, it can be done well, but well done things are rare!

Thanks for the rant opportunity- I feel well enough now to take a bit more of CNN..

Cheers,

Bambi B


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