In my TV review in this section, whenever pertinent, I’m apt to rehash my theory that almost all TV used to be rubbish. This makes people very cross sometimes because they remember it fondly, but it’s not my fault they’re wrong. True, proper great TV, I’ll invariably continue, actually began in 1999, with The Sopranos. Although in Pandora’s Box: The Greed, Lust, and Lies That Broke Television Peter Biskind says I’m wrong. By a year and a half.

Actually, Biskind contends, the golden age began with Oz, an American prison drama that began in 1997 and aired over here, too, but with little traction. It was reinforced in 1998 by Sex and the City (“Instead of men behind bars it featured women in