You can't blame HBO for choosing philistine commercial survival over artistic bankruptcy (if that is indeed the choice it has to make) but it still is sad. It seems ironic though, that even with the enormous potential for diversity that the modern TV industry has, the product tends to gravitate to one monotonous common denominator.

It's not the first or only time this has happeneded, remember when FM broadcasting was going to inaugurate a new era of diversity and innovation in broadcasting? After a while all the stations started sounding the same.

I know there is a mind-set that tends to find this reassuring and validating, that it somehow confirms some ideological principle or world-view. Well, maybe they're right, but it doesn't mean we have to celebrate it. Having this technology and artistic talent pool not be used for what it is capable of is like having a fleet of working spaceships rusting in hangars because it isn't profitable to fly them.