Golden age of TV gets even brighter

BACK around the mid-noughties, some social gatherings began to take on the air of a strange self-help group. “We did four last night,” somebody would confess.

“Kieran said he was just going down to the loo, but he didn’t come back for three hours,” shared another. Floodgates would open for further tales of all-night sessions, neglected chores, and abandoned children. Of obsessions with Stringer Bell, Tony Soprano, or the fate of the 101st Airborne.

The age of boxset binges had arrived. The Wire, The Sopranos, and Band of Brothers were TV shows, but we weren’t happy hanging around for a whole week to watch one. Like a favourite crisp, they just tasted better when consumed in heaps. Once you pop you can’t stop.