“I think that there is still a desire for epics in Western culture, and that that desire of probably most satisfied by television drama. These stories are also long, but they are also truly episodic, and thus fairly relaxed in terms of how and by what means they work towards their conclusion. Often, that conclusion is nowhere in sight. This kind of storytelling owes much more to the oral tradition of the Gilgamesh poet, Homer, and other bards (a tradition continued in written literature by Virgil, the authors of the Medieval Romances, Milton). And there’s a kind of poetic wastefulness, or at least largesse, in how programs such as Mad Men and The Americans lavish every expense in getting the historical details right, even to the extent of overdoing it. ”
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