"Like everything wonderful and good in the entertainment industry, the limited series has become so trendy that it is threatening to overpopulate itself into extinction," says Mary McNamara. "Everyone who’s anyone has a limited series about or starring them, although not everyone is happy about it. (Jerry West, have you heard of Olivia de Havilland?) Although I enjoyed The Offer for many reasons, I came away from it with a renewed appreciation not for The Godfather (being a woman who has dated men, I did not need to have the importance of this film explained to me ever again) but for the powerful economy of movies. Even a three-hour movie suddenly seemed like a much more tantalizing option than yet another limited series....In just this last year, we have been treated to a surging welter of what used to be known as miniseries (I guess 'mini' does not sound cinematically grand enough). Maid, Inventing Anna, WeCrashed, Winning Time, The Girl from Plainville, The Dropout, The Thing About Pam, Pam and Tommy, Dopesick, The Staircase, Gaslit. (I am limiting my examples to nonfiction for purposes of comparison and also because if I had to list all the limited series that dropped in the last year, I would die and come back as a Wikipedia page.)"
TOPICS: The Offer, Dopesick, The Dropout, Gaslit, The Girl From Plainville, Maid, Pam & Tommy, The Staircase (2004), The Thing About Pam, Peak TV, Prestige TV