Caught the first episode of the Sopranos last night. I think that show is more darkly funny than the majority of fans would like to admit. For all of Tony Soprano's machismo and bravado, he's just a big baby -- except when he doesn't get what he wants he doesn't cry...he shoots people. I never really got into this show before, though I'm a sucker for a lot of other HBO series. I firmly believe that HBO is the future of non-reality based TV. Between the Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Sex and the City, and Curb Your Enthusiasm, we are getting a glimpse of what non-network controlled television can be like and it is glorious.
It's not just the ability to say "fuck" or show a breast. It's the fact that these shows are allowed to show the characters in all their flawed beauty. They can be despicable or devious or even evil and then turn on a dime and do something worthy of the audience's affections. As much as I love "Friends", they are charicatures of themselves, playing out on the same jokes from 1994, with only minor evolution to sustain the series. I find I connect to people like the Fishers because they are real and not in the "Survivor" sense of the word. While it is always obvious that I am watching a television show, that doesn't stop me from thinking I might run into one of them at the supermarket.
Granted, none of this means I won't watch "Friends" or some of the other network crap that I am wont to watch. It just means I know what good television is and hope that one day NBC, et al learn that as well.