Is the era of peak TV over? David Chase thinks so

Last Updated on January 24, 2024

Recently, HBO celebrated the 25th anniversary of The Sopranos by posting episode recaps on TikTok. However, this doesn’t seem to be the biggest problem of modern day TV, according to the show’s creator. David Chase, the creative mind behind the highly acclaimed, much beloved HBO mob series, thinks something is dying in the current days of scripted television. The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Chase’s attitude toward the show’s anniversary is a lot more somber than celebratory. Chase spoke with The Times U.K., where he insists that the anniversary is more of “a funeral.”

Chase explained that the inclusion of ads on streaming platforms is just cycling back to regular television. “We’re going back to where I was. They’re going to have commercials [on streamers like Prime Video].” Chase continued that he had recently pitched an idea he had for a series, which would chronicle the life of a high-end escort but was “told to dumb it down.” He expounded, “We are more into multitasking. 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. We’re going back to where we were.”

In an era after The Sopranos concluded on premium cable, it seems as if episodic television became as popular as ever with the convenience of binge-watching on streaming devices. Even critically acclaimed, popular shows like Breaking Bad, which originally aired on broadcast television, get repeated viewings and newer audiences thanks to Netflix and Prime Video. However, Chase would refer to this post-Sopranos era as a “blip,” saying it’s “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. So, it is a funeral. Something is dying.”

Chase would also explain that the TV plane was in a rut before he had come along with The Sopranos. “Back then the networks were in an artistic pit. A shithole. 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. I made them regret all their decades of stupidity and greed.”