big screen, little screen
It’s so funny how people really get into TV shows. I’ve never been one to get into shows and follow them week after week. I suspect my indifference towards TV shows is due to my affinity for finality. The “to be continued…” aspect of TV shows leaves me very uneasy. When I start watching a movie I like to fully go from point A through Z. I like to know that eventually it will end and I will find out how it will end. And I like all of this to happen within a 2-hour time frame or so.
When I do get into shows, it’s when they’ve been long cancelled and I can casually catch them on syndication or get the DVDs.
I know of some mighty dedicated people who will structure their whole day around a TV schedule so they can come home on time and catch their favorite shows. It’s a routine that induces the kind of stress one might experience from missing a life-changing appointment.
TV shows and movies are different though. I find that those who follow TV shows get a lot more involved with the characters and in a way they develop a sort of personal relationship with them. Some seem to actually care for them and what may happen to them on the show. A movie seems to have a different purpose. A filmmaker usually has about 90 minutes to introduce a group of characters that were generally unknown to the audience and present them with a set of conflicts and a resolution — while ideally promoting a main point throughout the movie. After the movie has ended, the characters become part of some sort of mythical past and we analyze them in that way, from afar. Characters from a TV show live in the viewer’s present.
I am conflicted as to which medium I should consider superior. Is the filmmaker a more creative individual since he has such little time to work with and thus has a more difficult job to efficiently create a story line? Or is the TV show a better medium to create more complex and multi-dimensional characters that give way for meatier story lines and more in-depth plots?
Or maybe asking which one is superior is the wrong question. Maybe they shouldn’t even be compared in the first place.
Even with all the qualities that TV shows seem to have, I still find them sort of bland. I can’t quite put my finger on it but they simply do not have the effect on me that a movie does. Certain movies have changed my views on things; some have deeply touched me in a way that precisely related to me at the time; some have evoked all sorts of emotions in a roller-coaster manner; and a select few have changed my life completely.
I haven’t found a TV show that achieves this.
Some shows are mighty entertaining and this is why I watch them after they’ve been cancelled. Heck, I might even catch an episode on first-run if I happen to be flipping through the channel. But so far, I haven’t found an incentive to follow a show and be eternally teased with a never ending plot.
