Network television is all talk. I think there should be visuals on a show, some sense of mystery to it, connections that don't add up.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I actually think there's a potential, a crazy potential, that network TV could become something valuable and worthwhile, just because of fear on the part of the networks.
Television is a powerful medium that has to be used for something better than sitcoms and police shows. On the other hand, if you don't recognize the forces that play on what people watch and what they don't then you're a fool and you should be in a different business.
Cable series have more time to focus on characters, and a structure that allows for a development in character as you go along. Network shows have a pressure of time and space that is completely different.
The shows you can do in cable are just more buzzworthy and are about subject matter that's more unusual or dark. And broadcast shows tend to be more mainstream or middle-of-the-road.
There are only a few TV networks that really invest in production in the way that I think they should. HBO, obviously, is one of them.
I think that the problem with network television is that they cling to the whole business model like they are clinging to the side of a cliff.
I think it's really important to have good quality drama on TV.
I think that in order for anything to work on television, you have to have conflict. Nothing can be too happy or it's boring. People don't want to watch that - they want to watch things that are exciting and dangerous and sexy and have tension.
'Heroes', 'Desperate Housewives', 'The Sopranos' - they're all very stylised. 'The Wire' is much more rooted in realism and honesty. In American television, I can't think of anything I'd rather have been in because it has got something to say and that is the kind of thing I want to do.
I actually think we should be trying to be rigorous in our thinking about television and the way it enters our lives and shapes the way so many people think.