Television

Every now and then, from deep within the stagnant filth that is the very bottom of the television barrel, comes a show sent as a gift to those who love to be righteously outraged.

The last time writer-producer David Simon tried a television series on HBO, it was viewed as a sort of social experiment: could you tell the day-to-day story of one of the bleakest corners of American civilisation to a comfortable audience that can afford to add HBO to their cable bills?

Ask Gary Busey about his life these days, and he's likely to flash his trademark toothy grin. He might also jump up and declare, as he did in a recent interview, "It's CRAZY good!"

Last year, the world watched, riveted, as 33 Chilean miners were pulled to safety after 10 weeks underground. Days later, cable network Spike announced Coal, a series about coal miners in West Virginia, where 29 miners had died in an explosion just months earlier.