The Remote Island

That's what a new article says. You know, in more grown-up words...

This from Mary McNulty of the LA Times:

Where once Tony Soprano, "Deadwood's" Al Swearengen and " The Wire's" Jimmy McNulty ruled their hellish fiefdoms with a righteous love of the f-word and a fistful of bullets, now a sweet-voiced Botswanan lady detective solves crimes without a cellphone much less a weapon, a sassy Southern gal explores the nature of love with a very sad and sensitive vampire and the once-rough-and-tumble hunk Gabriel Byrne sits around listening to a bunch of neurotic New Yorkers talk about their feelings.

Girly girl stuff, on the network that brought you this?

Can you get more masculine than two drunk policemen talking about shooting a mouse? Now HBO is this:

Very different detectives, huh? According to Miss McNulty (who is not married to Jimmy McNulty, because he is fictional) this is a good thing:

It's almost as if the gun-control lobby or women, to whom many of these new shows are clearly skewed (possibly because more women watch television than men), have secretly taken over television.

Except of course it isn't and they haven't. The pendulum swings one way and then it swings another, and the world in which "The Sopranos" and "The Wire" and "Deadwood" were revolutionary television has changed, mostly because of the existence of "The Sopranos," "The Wire" and "Deadwood."

Though no one can replicate the greatness of such shows, their tone and their envelope-pushing sex, violence and beyond black humor have been replicated over the years into nonexistence -- even the best photocopier will wind up with only shadows at a certain point.

So those looking to continue or reestablish their reputations as industry innovators are taking another tack -- the psychological over the physical, the lush over the gritty, the adult over the sophomoric, the feminine over the masculine.

It's a big gamble, particularly that last. Yes, women are still a slight majority, but conventional wisdom, buttressed by market analysis, has always held that though women will watch and read stories about both genders, most men limit themselves to stories about other men.

Guilty as charged. It's a good piece, one that makes your humble correspondent want to watch more of shows like In Treatment and The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency, despite my fears that these shows will turn me into a girl. You win, Mary McNulty and HBO. We will explore our feminine sides. Just as soon as we're done shooting that damn mouse.   

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