I love movies. I don’t want there to be any confusion there. I spend way too much money on seeing movies in theaters every year and then I buy them on Blu-ray when they come out. Film is my third favorite form of entertainment, behind television and video games. This is in no way an article bashing the film industry, even if it has been over-saturated by sequels and remakes as of late. I am simply going to explain why I think television, as a medium, has become more impressive than film in the last few years.
First and foremost the writing is consistently better on television shows than it has been in movies. That isn’t necessarily the fault of the filmmakers though, considering they have to fit an entire beginning, middle, and end into two hours. When you contrast this with the 10 plus hours that TV writers have to build a story, it becomes clear that there is far more artistic freedom in television, and this isn't even taking into account the possibility of multiple seasons. That kind of long form storytelling is what makes TV more immersive than film. Look at shows like Breaking Bad or The Wire for example. Breaking Bad had some of the most incredible writing I’ve ever seen from a movie or TV show, but it didn’t start out as the incredibly popular show everyone knows it as now. In fact it almost got cancelled, but it survived because people couldn't stop talking about how good it was. Then there is The Wire which is a show a lot of people consider the best of all time and that’s because the writing was so good. What makes good writing? I’m glad you asked. I think it’s the fact that, over time, you begin to truly care about the characters you’re watching on the screen as if they people you knew. No matter how good of an actor Bryan Cranston is, if the writing was horrible we wouldn’t care about Walter White’s slow transformation from a loving father doing what needs to be done to a bad guy. It just wouldn’t be the same.
That brings me to my next point which is that, because TV writers have more time to work with them, their characters tend to be much more fleshed out. My favorite show is Community. It wasn’t an incredibly successful show by any means, but it has a very dedicated following and was critically acclaimed for its consistently funny and clever writing. That show had 22 episodes in each of its first three seasons. Unfortunately it was brought down to 13 after that because it wasn’t getting the numbers NBC wanted. Within those episodes there were so many personal character moments that built up over time and made me care about these seven dysfunctional, yet lovable, people who were constantly making mistakes and learning meaningful life lessons from them. The show got significantly more ridiculous as the years went on, but it maintained those moments throughout. I could literally write an entire article about why I love Community, and I just might at some point, but that’s not what this is about. My point here is that when you have that much more time with characters you begin to connect with them because you see what really makes them tick. That, to me, is what makes TV more enjoyable.
My last point is not so much a reason for TV being better, but more like a result of it. In the last few years we have seen big name actors and actresses signing on to TV shows more and more. There is obviously something there that draws them to it. I’m sure most, if not all, of you have heard of House of Cards. It is a Netflix original series that is immensely popular. The main character, Frank Underwood, is played by the great Kevin Spacey. It's not like he was a washed up former A-lister either. He was still a very well-known movie star and he still chose to sign on for this show. Then you have Matthew McConaughey and, to an extent, Woody Harrelson signing on for True Detective on HBO. That was during a time some people refer to as the “McConaissance” because McConaughey was in so many great things and was delivering his best in all of them. He and Harrelson were nominated for Emmys that year and so was the show. The current season of True Detective has Vince Vaughn, Rachel McAdams, and Colin Farrell; not names to scoff at, by any means, even if you’re not a fan of Vaughn’s recent films. One of my favorite shows, Justified, just had its final season. The main antagonist in that final season was the legendary Sam Elliott. There is a trend here, I for one hope it continues because I’m loving every second of it, and I don’t think I’m the only one.
