31 Jul 2013 01:56:09
Summer is the season for TV as well as reading. Let's put that slightly differently – summer is the time for binge viewing. Which means that Brett Martin's Difficult Men: Behind the Scenes of a Creative Revolution: From The Sopranos and The Wire to Mad Men and Breaking Bad is the perfect book for this time of year.
Martin's book is a companion to the best series of the 1990s and 2000s. If you're watching (or re-watching) The Wire, Deadwood, Breaking Bad, Mad Men or Six Feet Under this summer, Martin has the inside scoop on how these shows got made. And for those of you who went back to watch early episodes of The Sopranos in a state of shock after James Gandolfini's sudden death in June, this book will be irresistible.
Martin has the inside scoop, in part because in 2007, the GQ correspondent was hired by HBO to write an official behind-the-scenes companion to The Sopranos. He was given incredible access to the show's production of its final season.
Martin is a deft writer who used his contacts wisely – which is to say he doesn't fall in love with the people who granted him access. There's no glossing over the flaws here. Instead, the actors, the suits and, particularly, the showrunners/executive producers are presented in their full egomaniacal glory.
The book begins with the disappearance of James Gandolfini while The Sopranos was in expensive mid-shoot: "one cold winter's evening in January 2002, Tony Soprano went missing and a small portion of the universe ground to a halt."
