Pandora's Box

How Guts, Guile, and Greed Upended TV

By: Peter Biskind

Narrated by: Robert Petkoff

Bestselling author of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and Down and Dirty Pictures, cultural critic Peter Biskind turns his eye toward the new golden age of television, sparked by the fall of play-it-safe network TV and the rise of boundary-busting cable, followed by streaming, which overturned both—based on exclusive, candid, and colorful interviews with executives, writers, showrunners, directors, and actors

We are now lucky enough to be living through the era of so-called Peak TV, in which television, in its various guises and formats, has seized the entertainment mantle from movies and dominates our leisure time. How and why this happened is the subject of this book.

Instead of focusing on one service, like HBO, Pandora’s Box asks, “What did HBO do, besides give us The Sopranos?” The answer: It gave us a revolution. Biskind bites off a big chunk of entertainment history, following HBO from its birth into maturity, moving on to the basic cablers like FX and AMC, and ending up with the streamers and their wars, pitting Netflix against Amazon Prime Video, Max, and the killer pluses—Disney, Apple TV, and Paramount.

Since the creative and business sides of TV are thoroughly entwined, Biskind examines both, and the interplay between them. Through frank and shockingly intimate interviews with creators and executives, Pandora’s Box investigates the dynamic interplay of commerce and art through the lens the game-changing shows they aired—not only old warhorses like The Sopranos, but recent shows like The White Lotus, Succession, and Yellow- (both -stone and -jackets)—as windows into the byzantine practices of the players as they use money and guile to destroy their competitors.

In the end, this book crystal-balls the future in light of the success and failures of the streamers that, after apparently clearing the board, now face life-threatening problems, some self-created, some not. With its long view and short takes—riveting snapshots of behind-the-scenes mischief—Pandora’s Box is the only book you’ll need to read to understand what’s on your small screen and how it got there.

©2023 Peter Biskind (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

The rise and fall of peak TV

This informative, entertaining audio book explains as much as possible the revolution in tv viewing on networks cable and streaming. There is a lack of attribution at times but author Peter Biskind makes up for it with fast paced storytelling that is chock full of personality profiles, facts, trends and an insiders view. A few years ago there was a boom in programming driven by the rise of Netflix and other streamers. This explains how that led to a lot of innovative tv and why now the trend is back toward network style programs for the mainstream with less edge and the return of commercials. This is a must read for anyone who wants to understand where tv went and where it is going.

Business Vs. Creativity

Peter Biskind is an excellent writer about show business. This book is very good, but the parts I found the most interesting were about how individual shows (Mad Men, The Sopranos, etc.) came to be on the networks/streamers. The business elements (meaning the various executives) understandably need to be covered—I just didn’t find them as compelling personally. Definitely worth listening to if the subject interest you.

From network to streaming

I appreciated the breadth of knowledge the author brings to bear on the shift from network to streamers with specific examples of many of my favorite shows that I have watched and loved or hated over the years. To realize the entire arc of television as a phenomenon gives me pause and allows me to appreciate a daily activity not so much as an escape, but more as a participation in contemporary culture. Biskind takes the subject seriously and adds gravitas to subject often dismissed as a waste of time or guilty pleasure.

A wealth of knowledge and experience

Fun to listen to. So much great stuff here. Highly recommend. Especially if you are interested in entertainment or just want to know how all of these companies have come to be.

The details

You probably need to read the Biskind books to get the total picture. Down and Dirty Pics, Raging Bulls and Easy Riders sets up this book as they are all written sequentially in real time. Also if you read Its Not TV it’s HBO that also connects dots. You will see the patterns.

New Tech comes old guard shrugs. New tech takes over. Promising they won’t be like the old tech. And boom HBO is saddling one of their more experienced writers with enough notes that could be half the script they are crying about. It comes down to risks.

The creators take the biggest risks, they offer their lives to the craft. The suits do not. So when pressure hits the suits flip flop on a dime. That’s why when new tech, cable transmission, home video, the internet, smart phones, they never see the need to at least see if the new tech is of any value. There’s no risks in trying. You put one egg in the basket and see what’s up. But you’ll see that’s not how these bozos think. They’d sit in the beach house all day because yesterday it rained.

Great

I really enjoyed this book. I think it was a great overview of what exactly is going on in Hollywood right now. And in the end it's hard to know what will happen. But it's clear to everyone that Hollywood does not care as much for what it puts out. As opposed to how much money it really wants to make.

Great read

Great for anyone who needs background of the industry, Peter Biskind is an ace! A+