Jeff Jarvis will be our latest Blogcritic! Very exciting news. While we are getting the paperwork straightened out, we will link his excellent review of the HBO lineup:

The HBO Weltanschauung - or - Why we love The Sopranos

There's a reason the return of The Sopranos is getting so much hype and praise. There's a reason that HBO's original dramas and comedies get so many awards. There's a reason we as a nation are taking to these shows with enthusiasm, embracing them like oracles of the age. The reason:

Honesty.

HBO's Weltanschauung — its world view — is the most honest you can find on TV. And it's not a pretty view.

Analyze the lineup:

: The Sopranos is all about corruption, how a family, a business, a relationship can be corrupted by greed, power, sex, selfishness, evil.

: Six Feet Under is about family — a family who might as well be dead, like the dead they care for

: Sex and the City says we're all terribly lonely — and as if that's not bad enough, we're all terribly horny, too.

: Curb Your Enthusiasm tells the story of an everyman — and says that every man can be an ass.

: Oz shows a world drained of any redeeming virtue; it invents hell.

: The Wire finds too many similarities between the means and motives of criminals and cops.

: Arli$$ says sports is show biz and show biz is bull.

: Project Greenlight took real show biz executives and exposed them for the obnoxious boors we always suspected they were.

: Taxicab Confessions brings grim, sad reality to reality TV.

: Mind of the Married Man makes Berman's view of marriage look like Mormon propaganda.

No, it's not pretty, not at all. Yet we love it — because it speaks to us, it speaks for us, it reflects our view of life, it reflects a view you won't find elsewhere on TV or in movies. It's honest.

Compare this to the story in the Wall Street Journal on Friday about how ABC/Disney is trying desperately to appeal to middle America by rounding off every edge from every show. ABC is trying to pander to us. This is not creativity. This is corporate committee think, and committees always kill creativity. This has no voice, no vision. This is essentially insulting to every single one of us in the audience — it says that we can't feel for ourselves, that we can't appreciate the message of art, that we want to be pandered to, that we're all just so much cultural tapioca, media mush. Says the Journal:

It's the opposite of the strategy earning industry praise and envy for HBO, where writers and producers create shows such as "The Sopranos" without much corporate interference. Also, in managing by consensus, ABC runs the risk of turning out middle-of-the-road shows rife with compromises. Many breakout hits — "Seinfeld," "Hill Street Blues" and ABC's own "NYPD Blue" — don't test well or flout the conventions.
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