This article is a polemic. You can claim I’m creating straw men and failing to justify my claims. Go ahead. Come at me. But read this first… (also, I’m talking about drama here, and ignoring comedy and documentary).
There is a phrase frequently trotted out when discussing why some Hollywood actor/director has signed up for a prestige TV show: “The interesting stories are being told on television right now”. If that’s true (and it’s not, I mean, there’s nothing like Get Out or The Shape of Water or Cold War or BlacKkKlansman on TV right now), but if that’s true they’re being told in a worse medium, here’s why…
People claim the long-form nature of television allows for a more detailed exploration of characters psychology, and therefore “deeper” characters. If that was true, the characters in Sex and the City would be deeper than those in The Godfather. They are not. As a thousand performances in a thousand films have demonstrated, a complex character can have twenty minutes of screen time. Give a complex character ninety minutes (or more than two hundred in Lawrence of Arabia) and you can learn more about the human condition than in all ten thousand, five hundred and seventy-eight minutes of Bones.
There is only one thing that television can give in it’s extended runtime that film cannot: detail. When shows use this opportunity (The Wire, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story) they shine, and justify their runtime. But when they take thirteen hours to tell one that could be done in two, they do not.
There is something impressive about the journey a film can take you on from start to finish, all without an ad break. You can absorb a complete story in one sitting. But so many people I know refuse to watch a film because they see it as effort, then they’ll shove on Netflix and proceed to let four episodes of Stranger Things play uninterrupted.
I gave up on Breaking Bad in the third season. I have never watched Stranger Things. Or Game of Thrones. Do you know why? Because in that time I could watch thirty films, experience thirty unique stories. I’ve never seen Laura, A Matter of Life and Death, Two for the Road, or After Hours.
I should see them. You should see them. But instead of seeking out those films, you’ll probably close this window and flick onto Amazon Prime, because that new Jack Ryan series looks quite good, and you might give it a try. Then you’ll realise you’ve watched three of them tonight, longer than the length of Hobson’s Choice.
No one asks what films are good anymore, they ask what shows are good. More old people seem to go to the cinema than young people. People choose Netflix bloat over a Lean film (geddit?). That’s a shame. Next time you feel like watching Fargo, watch Fargo instead, then watch another Coen brothers film, then another, and another, and another, and another, and yet another, and you’ll still have saved hours. Use them to watch some Scorsese. Then Powell & Pressburger. Then, finally, have a look at what’s on this week at your local cinema, because there’s always something great waiting to be discovered.
