Movies vs. TV

[Gustavus Adolphus]

The discussion in the Matrix thread got me thinking: which medium do you prefer?

For me, I think we are currently in the best era for television. So much stuff out there, and I think a lot of it is interesting and creative. I'm not sure I can actually remember the last time I was excited to go to the movies (and maybe the cost of this factors into things), but to see a story develop over the course of episodes I think is really cool.

 

[Omeletpants]

I prefer reality shows on TV

 

[Gustavus Adolphus]

I prefer reality shows on TV

Real Housewives of Sunnydale Retirement Community?

 

[BaBaBlacksheep]

I like both. But a good TV show is gold since you get so much more character development/plot than in a two and half hour movie.

 

[number51]

This is definitely the golden age of television, HBO, Showtime, FX, and more are all cranking out gems. I know the trend started before this but IMO The Sopranos really got the 'premium channels' making cinematic shows going. Any 2 hour chunk of The Sopranos is as good or better than most movies.

The big 4 broadcast networks are generating mostly shit, with a few exceptions.

Always love the movies, the best ones are still great.

 

[Warden of the Northeast]

The discussion in the Matrix thread got me thinking: which medium do you prefer?

For me, I think we are currently in the best era for television. So much stuff out there, and I think a lot of it is interesting and creative. I'm not sure I can actually remember the last time I was excited to go to the movies (and maybe the cost of this factors into things), but to see a story develop over the course of episodes I think is really cool.

TV is definitely more appealing than movies right now, so many good shows.

 

[Warden of the Northeast]

I prefer reality shows on TV

Laugh-In is still on the air?

 

[Houston]

It's hard to ignore the turnover rate for movies. I love HBO for example. I watch Game of Thrones, The Leftovers, VEEP, and Silicon Valley. Then I watch them again the next year, and the next year, and again and again. It's nice, but I like how the end of every year has a unique list of films that defined it. Any half movie geek can tell you what films came out in 1994 and 2007.

You still get more quality movies than TV shows every year and in general I think only a small handful of the best of the best shows can compete with the best films.

 

[Houston]

I prefer reality shows on TV

One thing I respect about some reality shows is the niche market they have a monopoly on. Ice Road Truckers for example. If that lifestyle for whatever reason is something that interest you, what other media provides it? I imagine there are no novels about it, certainly no films or scripted series either. I like how reality TV has stretched out to all aspects of life and in many times is the only thing doing it.

 

[BaBaBlacksheep]

One thing I respect about some reality shows is the niche market they have a monopoly on. Ice Road Truckers for example. If that lifestyle for whatever reason is something that interest you, what other media provides it? I imagine there are no novels about it, certainly no films or scripted series either. I like how reality TV has stretched out to all aspects of life and in many times is the only thing doing it.

Is Ice Road Truckers still on? I watched a couple episodes of that years ago.

 

[Ares]

TV at this point... but there are stories that lend themselves to movies.... stories where the arc is much more finite.

LOTR movies were good.... I don't think a LOTR TV show would be as good.... it was good they did it with a big budget and did justice to the big battles and fights and such.

Titanic a well known movie.... that kind of story is very finite, belongs in movie form.

However I do think more stories are TV worthy or could work in TV or Movie form than the number of stories that only work well as a movie or a series of movies.

Sometimes you watch movies based on a book series and wonder how much character depth is being sacrificed in the name of time.... I wondered that with the Hunger Games movies.

I don't think one medium purely replaces the other, but I do think right now if you have a good story in a series of books or comics, it is most often best told as a TV series where it can develop more characters as compared to a movie or movie series where thousands of pages of writing needs to be condensed into 3-4 movies of 2-3 hours.

 

[Hawkeye OG]

I like a combination of them. What I mean by that is I prefer TV shows, but I like to binge watch them on Netflix like they are a movie.

 

[Aesopian]

TV has it's problems some TV series tries to stretch the story line out as far as possible just to keep it going when it could have been told in a much shorter time frame. I hate spending 60 minutes watching a show when the only memorable part was the major cliffhanger they left in the last few minutes, then in the next episode it turns out not to be a problem or they show small parts of it throughout the season.

 

[Crystallas]

I like the new formula for shows with progressing storylines, the premium cable/AMC approach. I don't like modern sitcoms as much, the humor is just too obvious. Animation was really strong about 10 years ago, and IMO, its much more flat now. Reality TV is what it is. Game Shows in the 70s and 80s are hard to beat, just because of the sheer amount of them compared to what is attempted now. Nature documentaries have pretty much been the same for a while, not much changes, but I do wish more things like Meerkat Manor was put together now. Lot of survival shows, best era for those IMO. A decent horror resurgence recently, so that's excellent in current shows. Sci-Fi is hurting, among the worst it has been in a while. All out action style shows have been curbed for a while, switching to some comedy blend or part of a courtroom drama if it exists at all recently. And of course, there are examples of good shows in bad eras, so anything I say considers that in my personal opinion.

 

[Monster]

I like finding good ones with a bit ch of seasons.
Then it's like a buffet for a couple weeks.
Just did Boardwalk Empire.

 

[AussieBear]

dont spend much time on either anymore.. but i do like that the future has given us the ability to stream and binge-watch series.. if ur behind like me...

 

[Houston]

One thing I don't like is how TV shows can in my opinion, bastardize a genre or style. Take zombies for instance, that used to be a cool relatively unique thing. Thanks to The Walking Dead I probably don't wanna see another zombie movie ever again, and it's probably impossible to get one green lit anyway now. TV series can easily over-saturate the market.

 

[number51]

One thing I don't like is how TV shows can in my opinion, bastardize a genre or style. Take zombies for instance, that used to be a cool relatively unique thing. Thanks to The Walking Dead I probably don't wanna see another zombie movie ever again, and it's probably impossible to get one green lit anyway now. TV series can easily over-saturate the market.

I was going to list all the zombie movies and TV shows that have been and are currently being made since TWD started, there are literally too many, I don't feel like wasting my time.

If they keep cranking them out at the current rate the public will eventually reach saturation and they will stop. I guess if you are really compelled you could blame the massive amount of zombie related movies and TV shows on the unprecedented success of TWD. It doesn't really matter, we already knew your bias, FTWD > TWD, it's creepy, but you stand up and own it. When I saw you post ITT I knew it would be a shot at TWD.

BTW there is way more zombie content out there today than any other time since the original Night of the Living Dead. Your premise is absurd.

 

[Houston]

In the decade leading up to The Walking Dead we had 28 Days Later and it's sequel, Resident Evil, Shaun of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead and it's sequel, and Zombieland. All were major releases. In the decade following The Walking Dead, so far we've had World War Z and Warm Bodies. Two projects that were in the works before The Walking Dead even came alone.

Your premise is absurd.

No it's not. You don't understand it.

 

[Crystallas]

I really love The Walking Dead, but I'm also not big into the Zombie genre. So there is my bias laid on the table.

That being said, if you have one successful show, that doesn't mean other shows in the same genre aren't allowed to be good. I'm not sure I understand the correlation. If anything, the genre was a bit tired for this generation, and TWD may have helped extend it a bit. Like I said, I'm not a big zombie genre fan so take that as an outsiders observation at best.