The series that opened Julia Roberts’ eyes to the ‘Golden Age of TV’
Many might assume that, given their appearance on both the big and small screen, actors must be equally enthralled by television as they are by cinema. However, that’s not always the case as evidenced by Julia Roberts’ lack of faith in the medium today.
Speaking to The Times, Roberts discusses how she grew up on television but has since become disillusioned with the small screen, “I don’t watch it that much because there’s not great content for kids my kids’ age. That’s different from what there was when I was young — Family Ties, The Cosby Show, all this stuff for a family to sit down and watch. There’s just not as much any more. TV just doesn’t bring a family together on a regular basis like it did. I miss that.”
Clearly, for Roberts, the problem with TV today is its inability to bring people together like it once did, what with tens of different streaming services and hand-held gadgets to watch your own choice of show on. Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, Roberts would have witnessed the golden era of family television, when everyone came together over dinner to watch their favourite shows.
This could well be the reason that Roberts had avoided starring in television shows, except for a few guest appearances, until 2018. Starting her career in the 1980s with breakthrough parts in Mystic Pizza and Steel Magnolias, Roberts went on to become the It-Girl of 1990s rom-com after her iconic role in Pretty Woman. This meant she was a movie star in an era before smartphones, social media and streaming platforms.
While television has, in many ways, taken a turn for the worst when it comes to recent streaming originals, many consider the past twenty years to be a new Golden Age for the medium. Starting with the likes of The Sopranos and Sex and the City in the 1990s and going on to include Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones and Mad Men, this era has provided some of the best television in history. It’s a show from this era that Roberts touts as the turning point for her feelings towards “grown-up television”: 2013’s British period drama Peaky Blinders.
She spoke about her first experience watching the show, “I was, like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ It was so masterful — the costumes, the performances, the locations. I was so blown away that this was a television show. Not being an avid viewer, that was a huge turning point in my feelings about television and what it can do.”
The show centres on the Peaky Blinders street gang and their cunning crime boss, Tommy Shelby, played by none other than Cillian Murphy. The show has been a huge success, garnering praise from critics, audiences and huge stars alike – and inspiring a generation of flat cap-wearing lads. So, it’s this unlikely show that can be credited for Roberts’ turn to television in her own critically acclaimed television show, Homecoming.
Based on a podcast of the same name, the show stars Roberts as a caseworker who has just quit her job at the mysterious Homecoming facility that helps soldiers transition back into civilian life.
