What a good TV series can do is take you away and bring you to a new place you have never been and most likely will never visit. I know that you will say that a movie can do the same but its effect is finite and over way to quickly. A movie has at most two hours to paint in the details and still tell a story. A long running TV series can sketch in so many more details that gives you a real feeling for the setting in a way that a movie almost never does.
Now the setting might not be a place you ever want to go. I wouldn't want to hang with the corner boys in Baltimore while a drive by is going on but it is totally engrossing and interesting. The story arch of the young kids in school who were being integrated into the drug trade was particularly engrossing. In the wire there were a couple of characters who really took you into the heart of that lifestyle. Dookie who was an innocent who was destroyed by the maelstrom that is drugs and Michael who went from a caring brother and friend to as stone cold killer and drug lord are just two people you meet and get to know. You get to see the development over several weeks and years in a way that a movie could never do in the short time it has available. I am of course speaking of "The Wire" which is just about the best television series ever produced.
The places you can visit can also be much more benign. I love to watch a long running series and be transported to a locale far away from my troubles and concerns. A small Cornish fishing village called Portwenn in "Doc Martin." The Florida Keys in "Bloodline." A picturesque Caribbean island called St Marie in "Death in Paradise." The East End of London in "Call the Midwife." The underbelly of LA in "Harry Bosch." The mud filled thoroughfare of the Old West in "Deadwood."
All places I have never been and will most likely never go. But I can experience them and live vicariously through characters who I come to learn about and even care about as they go through their own lives. It transports me from my own reality and into theirs if only for just a little while. In the way that a flash bang movie never could.
A movie is a Poloroid. A good TV series is an oil painting.
8 comments:
I agree a good TV series can take you inside a world you would never go to. That's one reason why I liked "The Sopranos" and "Breaking Bad" so much.
Depends on whether or not you take it personally. Since I know from personal experience that blacks don't regard me as human I return the favor and can't watch a TV dramatization of their "plight." Correction: it's a choice: I won't watch a TV show about them.
Well it all depends on how you look at it. The Wire was unflinching and honest about both sides. Very unusual for any entertainment media.
Some TV is so politically correct that it is unwatchable. All of the Law and Order series come to mind.
I agree... I love TV shows via Netflix, and I rarely want to commit more than an hour to a storyline.
I just finished Psych, which I think started off slightly unbearable, but I was able to get into it. After a few seasons the main character's goofy dynamic grew on me, and I was able to get over a lot of the stupid stuff. I found myself genuinely attached to the characters and sad to see them go...
It wasn't the first time. In high school, I borrowed the entire DVD collection of Cowboy Bebop from a friend and watched it in three days. It was amazing, after the end I was completely devastated and in a daze. Like a brother's funeral.
Movies are great once in awhile.
Oh I am sure that some movies are pretty good. But I would much rather see them on my TV. For free.
So I can bail right away.
A couple of years ago we went to the movies with some friends of ours to a really nice joint in Queens. We went on an off hour like a Friday afternoon so there were no crowds. But it was extremely hit and miss. We saw "Thor" which was pretty cool on the big screen. But then we saw "Outbreak" which was torture and then this dreck called "Hannah" or something where this twelve year old skinny minny girl beat the crap out of German mercenaries who went around 250 pounds. It was ludicrous nonsense.
Oh and thanks for posting a comment Steg. I appreciate it.
I'll try more often! OH and I am with you on the movies. By once in awhile I mean- off Netflix. I am a control freak, where I need to be in control of my life all the time. I don't like it when other people control things for me. So public places? Less control. My home? Anything.
Omar scares the crap out of me still. And I see Stringer Bell everywhere. He does a wicked good British accent!
Love "Call the Midwife". If you like Chummy, check out Miranda Hart's sitcom called, surprisingly enough, "Miranda". It just wrapped. 3 seasons of 8 episodes each and two Christmas specials to wrap it up in a big bow. Highly recommended. Such fun! Lisa might love the posh mom, Penny.
Have you ever dug through an old ShowTime series called "Dead Like Me"? Two seasons and very good. A very cool look at Purgatory. Or that's this Catholic girl's take on it. Plus: Mandy Patinkin. Love him.
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