After many, many glowing reviews from those whose opinions I trust, I recently got season 1 of the Wire off of Netflix. I've only watched one episode so far, but man... I'm ready to go undercover. I want to bust up a drug ring, and I want to do it before I watch episode 2.
Does anybody else wonder why HBO makes such good series? Sure, they've misfired a few times; John from Cincinnati was both stupid and incomprehensible, and Tell Me You Love Me features slightly more male nudity than I can watch comfortably. Everything else is consistently great, though.
Are the higher-ups smarter over there? Are the creative types better? Does it have something to do with not worrying about advertisers? Does HBO offer such excellent benefits that mediocre contributors become superstars? (By excellent benefits, I am specifically referring to free haircuts at work. I bring this idea up at work at least once a year, and it's never taken seriously. Maybe my boss would change his tune if he knew that this seemingly strange perk single-handedly produced the Sopranos.)
One thing that always interests me is how certain small organizations can consistently produce cooler, more appealing products than larger organizations. Think Apple versus Microsoft, HBO versus all the major networks, anyone in music versus Toby Keith.
There's an answer, and it's free haircuts. These people are beautiful due to their hair, thus they spend less time worrying about their appearance, thus they have more time to create crazy drug lords like in the Wire. They're more confident in their hair, thus they're more confident with their artistic talents, thus they create better scripts. They have more money from getting their hair cuts for free, thus they can spend more on fancy pencils and Garfield notebooks into which they feel more comfortable pouring their souls.
It's the little things.
Posted by Cody at October 10, 2007 7:37 PM