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The Age
Friday November 7, 2008
It's generally accepted that we're living in the Golden Age of American television. Much of what audiences once hoped for - and occasionally even got - from the movies is now more readily found once a week on the small screen. Even a quick roll call is impressive: dramas such as The Sopranos, The Wire, Six Feet Under, Lost, not to mention comedies like Arrested Development and 30Rock. Mostly fostered on cable networks, these shows and the many more that have fervent admirers make comic-book movies look like what they generally aspire to be: child's play. It's well established that most of the creative talents behind the scenes on these series are people who have been burnt by making films in Hollywood, but where are the future movie stars coming out of their shows? James Gandolfini is worshipped for his performance as a Mafia boss on The Sopranos, but in the cinema he remains a character actor. Movie stars require a mystique, while television actors establish an intimate bond with those watching. George Clooney, despite 1997's nightmarishly bad Batman and Robin, remains the best example of the latter becoming the former, and there's something of Clooney in the next candidate looming. On Foxtel's Mad Men, the celebrated new cable series about a 1960s New York advertising agency, the star is undeniably Jon Hamm, the 37-year-old actor who plays the enigmatic but undeniably masculine Don Draper. It's a terrific show - nuanced and entertaining - and it's earnt Hamm the main supporting role in the Boxing Day blockbuster The Day The Earth Stood Still. Then again, dealing with Keanu Reeves as an inscrutable alien (what perfect casting) might not be the best use of Hamm's talent. Perhaps he'll be the first television star to happily stay where he is. -- CRAIG MATHIESON
© 2008 The Age
