Pandora's Box
The Greed, Lust, and Lies That Broke Television
Published on 7. November 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
400 pages
978-0-14-199275-4 (ISBN)
Description
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. Through exclusive, candid and colourful interviews with writers, showrunners, directors and actors, Biskind brings us face to face with the people whose creations we encounter every day on our sofas, and reveals the dynamic interplay of art, commerce and technology. We follow executives down the corridors of power and see how their money and guile cultivate, then crush creativity; we witness the making - and unmaking - of TVs biggest hits. There has never been a more exciting time in entertainment history, and Peter Biskind, the ideal insider guide, captures it all.
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. Through exclusive, candid and colourful interviews with writers, showrunners, directors and actors, Biskind brings us face to face with the people whose creations we encounter every day on our sofas, and reveals the dynamic interplay of art, commerce and technology. We follow executives down the corridors of power and see how their money and guile cultivate, then crush creativity; we witness the making - and unmaking - of TVs biggest hits. There has never been a more exciting time in entertainment history, and Peter Biskind, the ideal insider guide, captures it all.
Reviews / Votes
A binge-worthy book * Economist * Thoroughly entertaining... Pandora's Box is essential viewing -- Rebecca Nicholson * Guardian * Biskind is the perfect person to chronicle how we got here ... The writers and showrunners are compelling figures, and Biskind's story is larded with stories of their triumphs, creative crises, neuroses and episodes of appalling behaviour * Financial Times * Pandora's Box explains, in punchy, propulsive prose, how we went from Tony Soprano to Ted Lasso ... Biskind is skilled at the quick character sketch ... [and] lays out a sprawling, amoral ecosystem with the dispassion of an omniscient narrator * New Yorker * Peter Biskind's Pandora's Box is not only a richly detailed and colorful account of how TV has defiantly superseded the cinema in the last thirty years, but also an important historic document. Biskind brilliantly maneuvers his way through a panoply of cinematic and television endeavor with the precision of a surgeon's scalpel. A gripping and compulsive read -- Brian Cox Peter Biskind has always been the most rigorous and amusing Hollywood historian we have, taking on the great men of the past--and now with his trademark cheeky intelligence he takes on the giants of the present age of television-as-cinema. Despite my having lived much of the book's arc, Biskind offers a fresh perspective on the new Wild West of home entertainment -- Lena Dunham This brisk, blistering overview of how streaming has changed where we put our eyeballs is classic binge-worthy reading. I had no idea the people who created culture-altering shows are as entertaining as the shows themselves, but Peter Biskind did, and you'll never look at them same way again -- Steven Soderbergh Peter Biskind takes on a wild, whirlwind tour of the birth, life, death, and rebirth of cable and streaming services, introducing us to the people behind them who turn out to be as ferociously nutty as the characters they put on the screen -- David Nasaw, author of The Last Million: Europe's Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War Peter Biskind catalogs real-life misbehavior by the principals responsible for an array of lauded series with the same unsparing eye that he detailed the excesses of New Hollywood in Easy Riders, Raging Bulls -- Fall 2023 Must-Reads * Entertainment Weekly * This gossip-filled overview of the past 40 years of television will keep readers glued to their seats * Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 193 mm
Width: 127 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
296 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-14-199275-4 (9780141992754)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
11/2023
Penguin Books Ltd
€10.99
Available for download
Person
Peter Biskind is a cultural critic and film historian. He was formerly editor-in-chief of American Film magazine and executive editor of Premiere magazine. His writing has appeared in scores of national publications, including The New York Times and Rolling Stone, as well as several film journals. He is currently a contributing editor at American Vanity Fair. He has published eight books, including the bestseller Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, and is Executive Director of the FilmColumbia Festival held in the Hudson Valley.