Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, True Detective. HBO’s TV series are among the most widely watched, recognisable, and popular shows in the world. In the Golden Age of Television, HBO stays on course, producing high-quality dramas that break through the framework of the typical ‘television series’.

When looking for the precise moment that brought modern TV shows to the world’s biggest film festivals, we should look at the second half of the 1990s, when one of America’s premium cable networks – Home Box Office – decided to reject the traditional formula and turn towards so-called quality TV. Their main catchphrase was ‘It’s not TV, it’s HBO’. This may have sounded like marketing hubris back then, but from today’s perspective those words were prophetic.

Unbound by the limitations of mainstream networks, financed by viewers’ subscriptions, HBO could afford the risk of making more ambitious content, bolder in both story and form. Production reins were given to showrunners – versatile executive producers who would oversee not only the budget, but also the writing and directing of a show. The network employed famous Hollywood directors, and casts often included names well-known in the movie world. HBO ‘transcended television’, treating their viewers to engaging plots told through cinematic language.

The real breakthrough in this regard came with The Sopranos, the 1999 drama series created by David Chase that tells the story of a mob boss who ends up on psychotherapist’s couch. An eccentric antihero, a tragicomical plot, and formal experiments were such a novelty back then that the show’s ratings skyrocketed into critical success. For the first time in history, a cable network production was nominated for an Emmy.

From that moment on, the shows produced by HBO dominated the most prestigious TV award ceremonies and soon became the hallmark of ambitious TV entertainment. Today we can safely admit that without such shows as The Wire, Band of Brothers, True Detective, and Game of Thrones, the TV drama genre would not be anywhere near as rich as it is.