Pandora's Box

AN ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR

From The Sopranos to streaming: the scandalous behind-the-screens story of the TV revolution by the author of the cult film classic Easy Riders, Raging Bulls.
The revolution has been televized. From The Sopranos to Stranger Things, the shows we watch - and the ways we watch them - have been transformed over the past fifty years. Out of the bland wasteland of 'play-it-safe' broadcasting came astonishing stories of sex, violence, and corruption shown first on cable, and then by way of streaming. Today, the power of viewers to select what they want and when they want it is greater than ever before. In short, we are living in a new golden age of television, but golden ages don't last forever. Revolutions have a habit of eating their own, and the era of 'peak TV' may have an unhappy ending.
Pandora's Box is a major new account of the small screen from cultural critic Peter Biskind....