{"id":49,"date":"2006-07-10T20:59:00","date_gmt":"2006-07-11T03:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2006\/07\/10\/tv-vs-film\/"},"modified":"2006-07-10T20:59:00","modified_gmt":"2006-07-11T03:59:00","slug":"tv-vs-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2006\/07\/tv-vs-film\/","title":{"rendered":"TV vs Film"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <a href=\"http:\/\/markhorne.blogspot.com\" target=\"blank_\" title=\"markhorne.blogspot.com\">Mark<\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/markhorne.blogspot.com\/2006\/07\/tv-and-movies.html\" target=\"blank_\" title=\"TV and Movies\">posted briefly<\/a>&nbsp;a few days ago about finding TV more compelling than movies lately.&nbsp; I don&#8217;t know whether I agree or not, but it something I&#8217;ve thought about (especially as a film buff who only&nbsp;a few years&nbsp;overcame a prejudiced and condescending view of television), and his post made the wheels of my mind start turning on the subject again. <\/p>\n<p> I tried to come up with a cohesive essay-type thing with a thesis and everything, but it didn&#8217;t work&#8230;it&#8217;s too large a topic with too many variables and exceptions to deal with so quickly and with so little thought.&nbsp; So here&#8217;s just some observations.&nbsp; Make of them what you will. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> Television really has improved over the last five or ten years.&nbsp; Its reputation as the &#8220;bastard stepchild&#8221; of cinema is quickly falling by the wayside as actors and writers and directors and producers move more fluidly from tv to movies and back, bringing both quality and respectability.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li> The fact that the average TV drama runs 18 hours per season (22 one-hour eps minus commercials) and may run for 3-7 seasons or longer means that a good showrunner can delve into much more complex plots and develop many more fully fleshed-out characters than is possible in the average two-hour film, yielding a more fulfilling and longer-lasting experience for the viewer.&nbsp; On the downside, if the showrunner doesn&#8217;t have enough plot ideas or character development to fill the time, you end up with the &#8220;let&#8217;s try this, nope, let&#8217;s try this instead&#8221; style of writing that plagued the last couple of seasons of <em>The O.C..<\/em><\/li>\n<li> As well as being longer than film, TV is also shorter than film.&nbsp; Each episode of a TV drama is roughly 45 minutes long without commercials, a much more easily consumable chunk than a 2-hour film.&nbsp; This isn&#8217;t really a point for or against television&#8217;s quality, but just an observation that smaller chunks are appealing.&nbsp; (Even books with lots of short chapters are a lot easier to read than ones with a few long chapters, even if the total page count is the same.)<\/li>\n<li> Because a television show carries the same characters, world, and overall story (or at least setting) from week to week, it begets familiarity.&nbsp; Sometimes different is good, but a lot of times familiar is good.&nbsp; When I get home from work, tired and glad to be home, I tend to opt for the next episode of a TV show I already know rather than a movie that&#8217;s unfamiliar.&nbsp; TV has the capability of being new and familiar at the same time.&nbsp; And because it&#8217;s meant to be that way, it doesn&#8217;t suffer from sequel-itis like movies tend to do.&nbsp; (Although it can, if the TV execs somehow manage to keep it on the air for a couple of seasons too long rather than cancel it a couple of seasons too early.&nbsp; Can I trade two seasons of <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">The X-Files<\/span> and a few of <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Friends<\/span> for a little more <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Wonderfalls<\/span> and <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Firefly<\/span> and <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Arrested Development<\/span>?)<\/li>\n<li> TV is more available and availably eclectic than film.&nbsp; There are five major networks, each of which has ten to fifteen shows a week.&nbsp; That&#8217;s at least fifty possible shows a week available.&nbsp; Any given week, you won&#8217;t find more than twenty films or so in release, at least not in St. Louis, and that&#8217;s including independents. These shows are split between relationship-based dramas, science fiction, procedurals, sitcoms, reality shows, competitions, sports.&nbsp; And that&#8217;s not even including cable channels, which adds in every sort of show imaginable.<\/li>\n<li>  Related to the previous point&#8211;film has a dichotomy of production\/distribution models.&nbsp; Mainstream Hollywood is often a very different thing from independent and world cinema.&nbsp; Television does not have this dichotomy.&nbsp; I suppose you could make a case that the big five equate to mainstream and cable equates to indie, but that doesn&#8217;t work entirely, simply because network TV itself contains more variety than mainstream film offers.&nbsp; What multiplex would show <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Veronica Mars<\/span>?&nbsp; or <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Arrested Development<\/span>?&nbsp; These are cult shows that have a very devoted following, but simply aren&#8217;t mainstream (not that TV is a safe haven for them either, judging by the cancellation of <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">AD<\/span> despite an Emmy win).&nbsp; The point is, if these shows were movies, we&#8217;d be watching them at indie theatres, not multiplexes.<\/li>\n<li>  I&#8217;ve put forth a lot of thoughts about TV over film.&nbsp; But really, these are just the areas in which TV does have advantages over film by nature of its medium.&nbsp; In other areas, film has it all over TV.&nbsp; The ability to sustain moods&#8211;TV can&#8217;t sustain a mood for longer than fifteen minutes because of the commercials.&nbsp; Immersion&#8211;for the same reason.&nbsp; I don&#8217;t know how to term this, but storytelling that covers only a short period in someone&#8217;s life&#8230;a turning point, or an epiphany.&nbsp; <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Garden State<\/span> was an amazing and beautiful film, but it would&#8217;ve been a horrible TV show, because it&#8217;s about one weekend that changes a man&#8217;s life.&nbsp; You can&#8217;t make that happen every week on a TV show.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> The crux of the matter is this: Is TV really more compelling than film right now?&nbsp; If by &#8220;TV&#8221; you mean <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Gilmore Girls<\/span> and <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Veronica Mars<\/span> and <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Lost<\/span> and <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Buffy the Vampire Slayer<\/span> and <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Farscape<\/span> and <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Babylon 5<\/span> and <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Arrested Development<\/span> and <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Grey&#8217;s Anatomy<\/span>, and if by &#8220;film&#8221; you mean whatever wanna-be blockbuster is playing at the multiplex, then YES.&nbsp; But that&#8217;s the cream of TV&#8217;s crop versus the mediocrity of mainstream Hollywood.&nbsp; Good TV may be easier to find than good film, just because it&#8217;s there on your TV set right next to all the <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Everybody Loves Raymond<\/span>s and the <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Yes, Dear<\/span>s and the <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">King of Queens<\/span>es and the third season of <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">The OC<\/span>.&nbsp; But good film is out there.&nbsp; Here&#8217;s a few great films I&#8217;ve watched this calendar year: <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Match Point<\/span>, <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Good Night and Good Luck<\/span>, <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Cache<\/span>, <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Pickpocket<\/span> (a bit of a cheat, since it&#8217;s from 1959, but I did see it in a theatre, so there), <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Primer<\/span>, <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Wallace and Gromit<\/span>, <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Walk the Line, Sophie Scholl: The Final Days<\/span>, <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Inside Man<\/span>, <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Thank You for Smoking<\/span>, <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">The Constant Gardener<\/span>, <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Brick<\/span>, <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Downfall<\/span>, <span style=\"FONT-STYLE: italic\">Thumbsucker<\/span>.&nbsp; Only three of those played at the multiplexes.&nbsp; I think three of them didn&#8217;t even play in St. Louis at all.&nbsp; I realize I sound elitist.&nbsp; But I think the dichotomy of film distribution is making people think that good film is more scarce than it is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mark&nbsp;posted briefly&nbsp;a few days ago about finding TV more compelling than movies lately.&nbsp; I don&#8217;t know whether I agree or not, but it something I&#8217;ve thought about (especially as a film buff who only&nbsp;a few years&nbsp;overcame a prejudiced and condescending view of television), and his post made the wheels of my mind start turning on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,8],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":36221,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/challenge-week-33-videodrome\/","url_meta":{"origin":49,"position":0},"title":"Challenge Week 33: Videodrome","author":"Jandy","date":"September 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I went into Videodrome with both anticipation and some amount of apprehension, as I have some Cronenberg films I love, but I'm also not really into body horror that much (though my favorite Cronenberg is eXistenZ, and it definitely delves into some of the same territory as Videodrome). And the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;2016 Movie Challenge&quot;","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/tf-feat-videodrome.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":802,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2007\/11\/writers-guild-strike-videos\/","url_meta":{"origin":49,"position":1},"title":"Writer&#8217;s Guild Strike Videos","author":"Jandy","date":"November 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It's pretty hard to subscribe to as many film\/television\/media blogs as I do and not hear a LOT about the WGA strike. Which is fine; I really hope the writers get what they're asking for. I can't believe they only get 4 cents of a $20 DVD purchase. Anyway, here's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Film&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36130,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/07\/challenge-week-28-quiz-show\/","url_meta":{"origin":49,"position":2},"title":"Challenge Week 28: Quiz Show","author":"Jandy","date":"July 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I've known about this movie forever and that it was supposed to be good, but I never really knew that much about it - I think I thought it was some comedy about folks going on quiz shows or something. Well, it is about people on quiz shows, but not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;2016 Movie Challenge&quot;","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/tf-feat-quiz-show.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":603,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2007\/09\/dvd-pick-of-the-week-the-office-season-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":49,"position":3},"title":"DVD Pick of the Week &#8211; The Office Season 3","author":"Jandy","date":"September 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Film&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2325,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/on-theatre-vs-film-or-my-biases-become-clarified\/","url_meta":{"origin":49,"position":4},"title":"On Theatre vs. Film, or, My Biases Become Clarified","author":"Jandy","date":"May 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Look, it's not a scheduled series post! Didn't know I could still do those, didja? I had to write this down, though, while I was thinking about it. A compulsion, you might say. My friend Lis and I have a sort of ongoing casual conversation regarding our likes and dislikes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Film&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":588,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/dvd-of-the-week-heroes-season-one\/","url_meta":{"origin":49,"position":5},"title":"DVD of the Week &#8211; Heroes Season One","author":"Jandy","date":"August 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"With less than a month before the fall TV season starts, most of the studios are releasing the DVD sets of last year's seasons--just in time for people to catch up. Of all the releases this week, I'd recommend Heroes Season 1. 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