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View Full Version : What do movies have over TV shows?



Rart
11-23-2009, 12:48 AM
I've recently been watching Entourage and the agent of the "movie star" in the show blasts TV shows, saying that he would never let his client do a TV show (ironic that a TV show would talk down on TV shows...). That got me thinking, what do movies have over TV shows?

What was said does have some merit. Movies rake in cash. And a lot of it. They receive far more publicity as well. Just look at The Dark Knight/Twilight movies. Insane amounts of media attention. I don't think I've ever seen a plain old TV series to receive such massive amounts of hype.

That being said, I still predominantly prefer TV shows. My downloading of movies has fallen dramatically recently and I have really begun to lose interest. I just tend to like TV shows for one simple fact: they last longer. When major shows can last multiple seasons, I feel like their stories, characters, and concepts can be developed far more than a movie ever could, providing deeper plots, more character development, among other things.

Movies lack just that. Perhaps maybe to fit the average American attention span, they rarely tend to span over the 90-120 minute mark, maxing out at around 3 hours. When fitted with such time constraints, we are often forced right into the plot, with little information about the surroundings, characters, and their backgrounds. Stories tend to be more brief than their TV counterparts, and could never reach the depth or complexity of an established TV series. That's why I tend to be reluctant to download another movie: it's not as developed, in my opinion.

What do movies have over TV shows?

beansis
11-23-2009, 03:34 AM
U can watch a movie in teh theatre

The_Martinator
11-23-2009, 06:14 AM
Precisely what you hate: they're shorter.

You can get addicted to a TV show (says the guy who once watched 15 episodes of SG-1 in a day), it's really hard to get addicted to movies, even similar ones. They're still different and if you say you're gonna watch just 1 a day, you can do just that (at least I can).

clocker
11-23-2009, 01:33 PM
Why is this a either/or decision for you...it's an "apples/oranges" comparison.

How many TV shows even have characters or premises that are worthy of extended exposition?
Certainly, I'll grant you a few- Cracker and Prime Suspect come immediately to mind- but the majority of television writing panders to the lowest common denominator, jumps the shark quickly and then wobble on for as long as possible (see: Lost or Heroes) till they're replaced by a slightly tweaked clone.

Would a spectacle like The Dark Knight have been better if it was stretched over 26 weeks and filled with commercials?
What more do you need to know about the characters in The Hurt Locker that you didn't get from the two hour runtime?

Both mediums have advantages and ignoring one for the other just denies you the pleasure to be found in their differences.

Sarcoidosis
11-23-2009, 06:58 PM
well ..
first of all, i can go to cinema
and it only takes 2 hours to watch a movie and u r done
with tv shows u can watch alot of episodes ... u will waste alot of time :P

JVJ
11-24-2009, 08:22 PM
Precisely what you hate: they're shorter.

You can get addicted to a TV show (says the guy who once watched 15 episodes of SG-1 in a day), it's really hard to get addicted to movies, even similar ones. They're still different and if you say you're gonna watch just 1 a day, you can do just that (at least I can).

I can beat that, about 15 years ago I watched Star Trek Next Gen for 18 hours straight, only stopped to rewind the tapes (young ones google VHS:D), loo breaks and even had my mum bring my food upstairs for me (bless her).

On topic... They condense a 15 hour story (if it was tv) into 100 minutes so tend to be more intense/exciting whatever.