TMC
11-26-2021, 12:37 AM
https://www.avclub.com/hbo-oral-history-tinderbox-offers-little-more-than-amus-1848088275
"The massive, 1,024-page book is built on interviews of dozens and dozens of key players in HBO’s past," Bradley Babendir says of Miller's Tinderbox: HBO's Ruthless Pursuit Of New Frontiers. "There’s Edie Falco and Laura Dern. Davids Chase, Simon, and Larry. There’s executive after executive after executive. Miller did an exceptional job getting important people on the record and at length. That, unfortunately, is only half the job, and often the better you are at it, the harder the other half of the job—putting the book together in a cohesive way—gets. There is so much ground to cover, from 1971 to the present day. Organizing it all so that it flows well and gives readers the context they need is a gargantuan task, and Tinderbox doesn’t come close to fulfilling it. There are a number of amusing stories for fans of HBO’s biggest hits. A standout is J.B. Smoove’s account of his Curb Your Enthusiasm audition. He recalls walking in and saying, 'Okay, Larry, let’s do this baby, and since this is improv, I might f*** around and slap you in the face.' But that story is quickly followed by a section that exemplifies the book’s flaws. Less than a page later, there’s a quote from John McEnroe about his appearance on the show. 'When I saw the outline, I thought, "How the hell can somebody even come up with this? This guy’s out of his mind."' That is immediately followed by bolded, italicized transitional text about a former executive returning to the HBO building because they were naming a theater after him. If you’ve never seen Curb or perhaps don’t remember the plot of a television episode that came out 14 years ago, Miller won’t help you. He never explains it. This quick gloss is not in exchange for depth in other areas. Little in this book rises above the level of trivia."
"The massive, 1,024-page book is built on interviews of dozens and dozens of key players in HBO’s past," Bradley Babendir says of Miller's Tinderbox: HBO's Ruthless Pursuit Of New Frontiers. "There’s Edie Falco and Laura Dern. Davids Chase, Simon, and Larry. There’s executive after executive after executive. Miller did an exceptional job getting important people on the record and at length. That, unfortunately, is only half the job, and often the better you are at it, the harder the other half of the job—putting the book together in a cohesive way—gets. There is so much ground to cover, from 1971 to the present day. Organizing it all so that it flows well and gives readers the context they need is a gargantuan task, and Tinderbox doesn’t come close to fulfilling it. There are a number of amusing stories for fans of HBO’s biggest hits. A standout is J.B. Smoove’s account of his Curb Your Enthusiasm audition. He recalls walking in and saying, 'Okay, Larry, let’s do this baby, and since this is improv, I might f*** around and slap you in the face.' But that story is quickly followed by a section that exemplifies the book’s flaws. Less than a page later, there’s a quote from John McEnroe about his appearance on the show. 'When I saw the outline, I thought, "How the hell can somebody even come up with this? This guy’s out of his mind."' That is immediately followed by bolded, italicized transitional text about a former executive returning to the HBO building because they were naming a theater after him. If you’ve never seen Curb or perhaps don’t remember the plot of a television episode that came out 14 years ago, Miller won’t help you. He never explains it. This quick gloss is not in exchange for depth in other areas. Little in this book rises above the level of trivia."