Will the Anthony Kiedis HBO series be the next great US show?
Sometimes as a reporter you come across a story that makes your heart dance, as mine did this morning when I discovered that HBO, the channel behind The Wire, The Sopranos and Six Feet Under are developing a series based on Anthony Kiedis's memoir, Scar Tissue.A
terrifyingly frank account of the Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman's
life, it begins with Kiedis moving from Michigan to Los Angeles to live
with his father, a drug dealer to the Who and Led Zeppelin during the
1970s. The young Kiedis became his sidekick, hanging out at the
Rainbow, and imbibing kid-size bumps before he even hit his teens. Cher
was his babysitter. The most astonishing thing about the book is that
it gets even more shocking as it goes on. However, the series will be a
Wonder Years-style comedy focusing on his early life. Kiedis
spent years in the grip of addiction (though he doesn't sound like he
regrets much of it) before emerging as a rehab bore (and didn't
sobriety ruin his band?). And there are serious conversations to be had
about responsible parenting and the glamorisation of substance abuse.
But we won't be having those debates here. If the series is packed with
half the rock'n'roll war stories, stranger-than-fiction anecdotes and
crazed characters as the book, then it promises to be the next great US
TV show, hinging on a surprisingly touching story of a father and son.
The get out clause being that you know, eventually, there is a happy
ending. [read more @ Guardian ]
