psychology dector

David Simon , creator and writer of The Wire (HBO, 2002-2008) and Treme (HBO, 2010-2013) , author of the nonfiction crime classics, Homicide:   A Year on the Killing Streets (Houghton Mifflin, 1991) and The Corner:  A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood (Broadway, 1997), and former reporter for the Baltimore Sun , can now add cultural critic and riveting public speaker to his resume, although I would argue that his work has always involved sharp and barbed cultural criticism whether in television fiction or in signed pieces of simmering nonfictional journalism.   In every case, in every word, he is a force of nature. My love for his work led me to his blog, The Audacity of Despair , a perverse reworking of Barack Obama’s 2008 memoir and political wax job.   The subtitle is “prose, links and occasional venting,” which about sums up the content.   Simon’s writing is piquant and cutting at times, but he also does a good job, better than most write...

It is a resounding truth that the best work in television these days is being done on cable.   The soapy, poorly acted, and ad-filled network fare simply cannot compete.   Given the production schedule, it is every producer’s dream to do a 13 episode season on HBO rather than a 22 episode season on one of the networks.   Add to that the restrictions on nudity, language, and violence, there is just more creative freedom and the ability to foster superior production values on the cable end of the spectrum. However, it is a little bit of a stretch to call cable offerings the second coming of Charles Dickens.   I never bought into The Wire or Treme , both from producer David Simon , as being “Dickensian.”   Nice try.   I’m sure if Dickens were alive and kicking today, he might be tempted to write for television.   After all, he did serialize his novels in popular magazines of the time.   But every art form is unique to itself.   Television can b...

Arguably, television is culture.   And I’ll add, television, good and bad, reflects culture.   We turn on the tube to feed our obsession with cop shows and law enforcement, terrorism and shadow governments, health care and the drama of the emergency room, and of course, our voyeuristic need to look in someone’s window and observe “reality,” which in reality, is often not even close.   But the glass tube has been cracked open; cable channels own the monopoly on the most interesting work being done in T.V. land right now while networks keep commissioning false reality and scripted fare in the vain hope that the lonely hearts on the other end of the digital signal will find romance with The Bachelor or take the stage as the next American Idol .   Meanwhile, viewers have moved on to computer screens and tablet pixels, and the old school Nielsen ratings are ancient history.   We DVR our shows now and watch them wherever and whenever we like, and some of the best are...