Jonathan Franzen on anger, TV and adapting The Corrections for Netflix

Jonathan Franzen told The Guardian that he was "relieved" when HBO abandoned plans to adapt his 1999 novel The Corrections in 2012, saying he and co-writer Noah Baumbach produced "one of the worst pilots anyone has ever made" because neither understood how to write for television. Franzen had long viewed TV as the "enemy" of serious literature, famously complaining in a 1996 Harper's Magazine essay about television's "banal ascendancy," but changed his view after watching acclaimed dramas including Breaking Bad and Silicon Valley.

The Corrections is now being adapted into an eight-part Netflix series with Meryl Streep cast as Enid Lambert, a mother attempting to orchestrate a final perfect family Christmas while her husband deteriorates from Parkinson's and dementia. In the interview, Franzen reflected on why he was "angry for so long" and discussed how he now sees television as a "friend" in an era of social media and artificial intelligence.