Question: I love the new HBO series Rome and I know you like it also. I just read that it has been picked up for a second season. How is it doing in the ratings? Has all HBO's advertising paid off?
Answer: The ratings, from what I gather, are a lot less spectacular than Rome's production design, but I'm not that surprised. The show is a slow build, and my advice to anyone who's resisted its lure is to let a few episodes build up, then watch several at once — On Demand, if you have it — as if you were digging into a good novel. (Many HBO series, in particular The Wire, play much better this way than in hourlong weekly increments.) I'm also not surprised that HBO gave the show a green light for next season. Only four episodes have aired so far, and I'll continue to argue that it gets better as it goes. But even if HBO's masterful and exhaustive marketing hasn't paid off yet in ratings, it at least has put the message out there that Rome isn't like anything you'd find on network TV. (Well,
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Question: You've often said that you have many shows you watch every week and others that you just tune in to occasionally. So what shows are on your "must-see" list every week? And more interestingly (or painfully), if you were away for a week, in what order would you watch your regular shows upon your return?
Answer: This isn't so much a question as it is a game. But I'm game, so here goes. First off, any sitcoms and reality shows on my "must-see" list tend to fall off when I go away for a week's vacation (as I often do midwinter, even if it means skipping a week of February sweeps). The comedy exceptions: Arrested Development, which you can't afford to miss a single episode of; maybe Scrubs and hot HBO comedies like Curb Your Enthusiasm. No "must-see" reality show makes the cut, not even The Amazing Race, Survivor or American Idol. Once an episode has aired, I figure I'll be reading about it anyway if I can't watch it live. So that leaves, as you'd expect, a long list of dramas.
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