‘The Sopranos’ Creator Says Prestige Television Is Dead, Reveals He’s Been Asked To “Dumb Down” Recent Projects
Spencer Baculi
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According to The Sopranos creator David Chase, thanks to an ever-growing fear among Hollywood that audiences are either unable or unwilling to engage with any level of complexity in their storytelling, the era of ‘prestige television’ – if not the entire idea of the medium as an actual art form – has officially come to an end.
The storied creator offered his take on the current television landscape during a January 12th career retrospective interview given to UK news outlet The Times.
Met therein with the observation from his host Jonathan Dean that the current year would mark the 25th anniversary of his seminal series, rather than respond with any overtly joyous sentiment, Chase instead lamented, “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.”
As to a whose services they would be attending, Chase explained that the deceased was none other than the era of prestige television – a catch-all term for shows, such as Breaking Bad or The Sopranos, which present audiences with more mature, intricate, and overarching stories than usually offered by the average network production.
“That was a blip,” he sadly admitted to Dean. “A 25-year blip. 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.”
Moving to provide context to his feelings, the television creator recalled to his host that, when he first made a play at becoming a television screenwriter, he did so with the intention of showing Hollywood just what the medium was capable of.
“I made them regret all their decades of stupidity and greed,” said Chase. “Back then the networks were in an artistic pit. A s–thole. 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.”
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To this end, Chase noted that at this point in his career, in light of the absolute creative freedom and ad-free airtime The Sopranos was eventually afforded at HBO, he felt like he “had the best job in Hollywood”.
Now, however, he laments the fact that the industry is “going back to where I was”.
“They’re going to have commercials,” noted, referencing the recent introduction of ads to both Netflix and Prime Video. “And I’ve already been told to dumb it down.”
In support of his opinion, Chase then told Dean that one of his current projects, a series described by the latter as being “about a high-end prostitute forced into witness protection” and co-written by FX’s A Teacher miniseries screenwriter Hannah Fidell, has found itself stalling in development because their unspecified network partners are worried that viewers will find its story too complicated to follow.
“Who is this all really for?” he then questioned. “I guess the stockholders?”
Closing out his thoughts on the topic, Chase asserted, “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,” he added. “We’re going back to where we were.”
“So, it is a funeral,” Chase concluded. “Something is dying.”
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