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Regular Feature | Film Reviews Film Reviews The Corner An HBO Miniseries (Aired Spring, 2000) These are dangerous days for network television drama. The 1990s saw the birth ofnumerous hard-hitting prime-time dramas exploring some ofthe more harrowing aspects oflife, particularlyofurbanAmerica . ShowslikeNYPDBlueandERunflinchingly showedtherougherside ofpolice workandthe medicalprofession. But while these shows have managed to survive, we've seen a far greater number of shows stumble and fall. Homicide: Life on the Streets, for instance, waged a long battle against those network executives who would just as soon have had the show replaced by something a bit more commercially viable until finally folding in 1999. Other shows, like Chicago Hope, have also fared badly in more recent years. New shows have had an even harder time, often deprived ofthe opportunity to build a solid fan base, their survival dependent on a quick grab ofratings. The difficulty isn't the result ofa simple change in thepublic's taste. Indeed, there's no evidence suggesting that viewers are less interested in watching television dramas. (The consistently high ratings forER and other dramas, in fact, suggest otherwise.) Rather, the problem is that there are much higher demands on these kinds of shows. These shows are, quite simply, among the most expensive to produce, given the typical size of a cast and crew, the variety of locations, and complexity of set-design (as compared, for instance, to the typical sitcom proscenium stage.) Consequently, dramas need a higher commercial payoffthan do most other television genres. As aresult ofthis, recent years have seen a decline in high-priced drama, and an increase in relatively inexpensive domestic (i.e. suburban) or teen dramas (like Once andAgain and Dawson's Creek), as well as situation comedies, game shows, and news magazines. So whatis leftforthose producers who hope to produce a meaningful urban drama? A few have managed to make some inroads onnetworkTVdespite the stackeddeckagainstthem, asdemonstratedby , for example, The WestWing and The Practice. Others have looked to different venues. In particular, some are now looking to cable television as the idealplace forthe development ofnew dramas, and in so doing they have found not only new venues for their "television art," but also new freedoms. And, fortunately, they have often met with considerable critical approval. The Sopranos, for example, has created quite a stir, and has been spared from the commercial and censorial concerns that have long restricted network television. That cable networks are normally ordered as a service, in a kind of all or none proposition, allows these networks to mixcommerciallyprovenprogramming withriskierproductions. Even riskier than The Sopranos has been HBO's The Corner, a grim portrait of life among the drug culture of Baltimore's Fayette Street. The bleak subject matter of the six-episode mini-series is one that would send most network executives running away, but the series found ahome on cable whereits producers, anumberofwhom came from network drama, were able to cut loose. The move not only garnered critical praise for the series and HBO, but, as was the caseforTheSopranos, alsoearnedThe CornerseveralmajorErnrnys. The Corner had its genesis in the book The Corner: A Year in the Life ofan Inner-City Neighborhood (Broadway Books, 1997) by David Simon and Edward Bums. The authors, a reporter for the Baltimore Sun and a retired Baltimore homicide detective, respectively, venturedinto the drug culture ofFayette Street, gradually gaining the trust of its denizens, listening to their stories and following their lives for several years. In so doing they uncovered the humanity that had become buried under the cynicism of the drug trade and a stereotypical view of the street-level world of addiction . But Simon was more than simply a documentary journalist ; he had also authored the book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, whichinspiredthe seriesHomicide: Lifeon the Streets. He'd since become a writer and producer on that show. So a television adaptation of this second book about the underside of Baltimore might seem a natural follow up to the first series. But Simon had his doubts, explaining, "Homicide was about as dark a vision as most networks can tolerate, and the world of an open-air drug market is far more intimidating than that." ButHBO ultimatelyhadthe courageto take onthis project...

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