[KneeCo]

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So then I guess the writers of the Sopranos were bad writers up until they started writing for The Sopranos

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If everything they did before sucked (I'm not saying it did)? Yes.

If you are a writer, and you write [censored] for the next 10 years, and then in 2018 you write something amazing, in the end you're judged based on your whole body of work (what else could there be to judge you on?? There's no better measure, not even close, and the one you suggested, how many Americans are worse, is stupid).

Now, let's say in an alternate reality, you get hit by a car and die in 2017. Unlucky as it is, because you died having written nothing but [censored], when people look back on your life (which they wouldn't, but let's pretend), and ask 'was he a good writer?', the answer is no.

Anything else is an argument akin to:
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Im sure there are lots of amazing novelists who will never break in because they don't want to go through the hassle of writing a novel.

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Which someone else posted in the thread and I think you agreed with me was a stupid thing to say.

As for my supposed ego in saying I decide what's good tv and what's not, you're the one who has been listing shows as either good writing or bad writing, not me. The only value judgment I've made of TV writing in this thread is that the best of it is brilliant but most of it is crap; and I think that's not a controversial statement in the slightest, in fact I would guess most people would agree and of those who don't the majority would think the statement is too generous to TV writers, not too harsh.