From Hill Street to The Sopranos: Prestige TV

Hill Street Blues serialized the cop drama in 1981. Twin Peaks brought surreal authorship to prime time in 1990.

Oz proved HBO could do hour drama in 1997, and The Sopranos in 1999 fused film craft, antihero depth, and ratings. The Wire and Deadwood followed, and the 2000s became the decade critics called the new golden age.

Television stopped being the smaller sibling of film and became its rival for serious storytelling..