...and the three examples I mentioned are three TV shows. Humphrey Bogart, Marlon Brando and Orlando Bloom are all actors. William Shakespeare, David Hare and Ray Cooney are all playwrights. But my point is that there's a gulf as well. The Sopranos kicked the door down for this 'new wave' of television: it was the first, as far as I can tell, to hit upon the thus far unique combination of cinema-style censorship (ie much less than in network television) whilst also recognising that thirteen hours of character development was a luxury that no mainstream film could ever have. Then, much of what followed in its wake was lauded because it was part of this new wave of television with a difference: but to lump The Sopranos together with, say, Sex And The City (both HBO shows, both breaking barriers in terms of what you could actually depict on the small screen, both hit UK televisions in 1999) seems to me a lazy comparison that disregards the fact that they have very little in common indeed. Then it was 24, the first series of which was undeniably exciting, but still prey to the 'advertisement break-orientated peaks and troughs' (it's nearly time for a break, so let's build to a climax; and The West Wing too served this convention to the letter) that goes with the territory when you're not HBO. But the second series was laughable: racist, incredible and proof positive that, as Hitchcock pointed out, if you explode the metaphorical bomb, you lose all the tension. And then there's The West Wing: if anything, the most perfect example of what David Chase was talking about when he pointed out to Mark Lawson that mainstream American television is obsessed with reassuring you: there's a lawyer, or a police officer, or a President that is different from all the rest: that can make a difference. One that you can trust.

So...when I slightly clumsily chose my musical analogy, I was just trying to say that yes, they're all pop groups. One of them's ok but overrated. One of them kicked a few doors down. One of them made loads of money despite being (or because they were) comforting, mainstream and utterly predictable. If we choose to, we can lump them all together as groups of the 1970s; or we can recognise the inherent differences and not unite them simply because it's easy. And, five years ago or so, I came across a lot of people that did the same with American television. And it annoyed me.