Comments on: Open Forum Friday: Has TV Surpassed Movies as the Mainstream Entertainment Medium of Choice?

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 04:24:32 +0000

I’ll always prefer movies to TV even though movies are getting more and more frustrating to get excited about since the majority of them are just rehashes. But, at least movies are self-contained stories and a lot of TV shows are coming up with movie-worthy concepts that may work in an extended pilot episode, but when it comes to longevity, they have to really reach to continuously come up with interesting stories. I prefer graphic novels to comics for the same reason. They have to think of some pretty ridiculous stuff to keep those things going month to month, but graphic novels are typically fantastic one-off stories with a beginning, middle, and end. And on top of all that, good TV seems to be a very small percentage of TV as a whole. Reality TV is the spawn of Satan and with that in the mix, TV will never win.

By: rus in chicago

rus in chicago — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 15:13:05 +0000

I read an interesting article that explain how critical darling shows (30 Rock, Mad Men) which get far fewer viewers than typical TV (Two and Half Men, NCSI) actually benefit the smaller cable networks thorough reputation and exposure. The idea is FX becomes a known channel through the critical (but low ratings) hit, therefore, the channel gets viewers for OTHER shows & timeslots. (FX isn’t lost in a sea of cable channels)

So in this way, TV is doing the EXACT OPPOSITE of film studios – they are using critical / innovating TV to get overall interest. Movie Studios KILL critical / innovating movies because they don’t want to invest in the marketing. Get it? The problem is partly to blame on movies being viewed as singular, whereas, TV shows are viewed as part of a family / brand / station. BOOM!

By: Maopheus

Maopheus — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 15:14:57 +0000

The best TV shows are up there with the best films in terms of quality and cultural impact. Of course, the worst TV shows are pretty goddamn awful. But TV shows are different from movies in many ways, and it’s hard to compare that apples to apples. The shows are a slow burn for obvious reasons, they take much longer to tell the story and require much more time investment. And all of the good ones are really fancy soap operas. We just don’t call them soap operas. But the format is essentially the same, isn’t it?

By: SunGun

SunGun — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 13:56:58 +0000

The question is has TV surpassed movies as the mainstream media of choice. The answer is simply yes. The big reason this is so is not that the quality of TV has surpassed that of movies but rather it is simply more convenient and with the advent if wide screen telesion sets, surround sound and high definition, the insentive for people to get out of their homes and head out to the theatre simply isn’t as strong as it use to be. I remeber when all we had was a black and white TV set going tl the movies was the ultimate treat. The picture was hugh, in colour and the sound was loud. Now, and this has already been discussed in the past on this blog, people are loud and disrespectful. Because of this and the fact that there is good quality programming on TV i get the the movies less often.

Anither huge factor i believe that TV has surpassed movies as the mainstrean entertainment media of choice is simply that one episode of any show monopolizes a lot of the viewer’s time. A movie on average will run 2 hours while any tv show episode will run 1 hour max and if you pvr it you can strip that down to 45 minutes. For most people with families, like myself, by the time the kids are fed lunches for the next day made, and the house is squared away for the next day there often is little time to sit down in front of a 2 hour movie. Also the shorter running time offers the possibilty of choice. You can chose to watch 2 one hour espisodes of a tv show or 2 different shows in the same time it takes to watch a movie.

As for quality yes television has gotten a lot better and since X Files has taken on a much more cinematic feel. So people are getting the same feeling, aestheticaly speaking, as they do in the movies now on tv. Well, kind of.

Ciao

By: scott

scott — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 14:42:49 +0000

SHIPPING WARS: THE MOVIE could even the scales.

By: PlanBFromOuterSpace

PlanBFromOuterSpace — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 02:45:23 +0000

@25 — Mainlining them is usually how I got into them in the first place, as I was late to the party on a lot of my favorite shows, but if I have the ability to watch new episodes as they air (translation: if it’s on free TV/basic cable), I’d rather do that, so as not to have things ruined for me. I don’t think there’s anything I got into mid-run where I didn’t have at least SOME idea of where things were headed already, which ruins some of the fun. After I get caught up on things and start watching new episodes as they air, that’s when I start mainlining something ELSE. People who still complain about how they can’t find anything to watch on Netflix or so, so, soooooooooo unbelievably full of shit.

By: Gerry

Gerry — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 00:02:55 +0000

@PlanB.

If you’ve got the patience to wait for shows on DVD / Blu ray, mainlining them is a frakking awesome way to watch them.

By: Gerry

Gerry — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 23:39:15 +0000

For me movies and TV can both be excellent forms of entertainment.

Lately TV seems better because film studios focus on huge blockbusters, franchises and sequels at one end and ultra low budget at the other end with precious little in between.

I think this studio policy has been introduced because of the recession, with studios unwilling to release mid budget films as the outlay on them is big enough to put a dent in studio finances if they don’t succeed.

I’m hoping that this policy changes with either the end of the recession (unlikely any time soon) or because of intelligent and forward thinking studio heads and execs.

There has been no doubt that TV has led the way regarding quality in the last few years with the very best American series.

There’s a lot of mediocrity and dross below that top layer however.

Even in the lighter, more throwaway shows, e.g. Smallville, Nurse Jackie, the best American shows are fairly excellent.

Battlestar Galactica, Dexter, Game Of Thrones and Breaking Bad are some of my favourites of the top American shows. Their series arcs rival the story arcs in movies.

Re British TV you are only seeing the tip of the iceberg. There is a lot of ‘continuing drama’, i.e. hoary old soaps and hospital shows that have been churning out mediocrity for years on the main channels.

My blu rays and DVD’s are nearly a 50/50 split between movies and TV. I hope that this continues because of good quality from both mediums.

By: PlanBFromOuterSpace

PlanBFromOuterSpace — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 20:50:26 +0000

I don’t think people realize just how important DVD was (and then Netflix, networks streaming their own shows online, video on demand) to TV, as I don’t think I’ve ever seen ANYONE mention how it’s changed the way that shows have told their stories in the last decade. Sure, it’s helped shows in picking up new viewers and allowing them to catch up in the off-season, but it’s also made it so that network shows in particular (which unlike many cable shows are limited to an airing or 2 during the week) don’t have to be as new viewer-friendly as before, allowing for deeper, more-involved storylines, giving it more of an overall cinematic feel, because it doesn’t have to stop every so often to let the slow kids catch up. To be fair though, I think it’s also led to some shows getting OVER-complicated as well. If a lot of the bigger shows that are on now were on in the 80’s or 90’s, you’d be screwed if you missed a week or two (imagine if you were trying to start a couple of seasons in!), but there are so many outlets now where you can see them that it’s almost impossible to get too far behind. It’s funny, because I know people that won’t watch a show if it’s on for free right NOW, but they’ll plop down 40 bucks for the season on DVD. I remember when “I’ll just wait ’til it’s out on video” only applied to MOVIES that you only kind of sort of wanted to see.

By: Tum Tum Tyranus

Tum Tum Tyranus — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 12:28:07 +0000

“But when it comes to dramas I sometimes get the feeling that there are side plots and filler thrown in just to drag out the runtime and fulfill the quota of episodes per season.” – Steve

Agree 100%

By: Tum Tum Tyranus

Tum Tum Tyranus — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 12:22:01 +0000

“You can just download both, which I think most “geeks” do.”

Oh wait, are you taking about pirating or netflix/itunes. If latter, not a lot of options. If former, many geeks don’t pirate or don’t know how to pirate effectively to where almost every movie is available to watch.

By: mushroomyakuza

mushroomyakuza — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 12:18:09 +0000

Hard to qualify this, but I spend WAY more time watching TV than movies these days. TV has certainly risen over the last decade to a really high quality level whereas film generally seems to be going the other way.

On the other hand, I think as J pointed out TV is mostly plotting though.