Right Now: Movies Vs. TV?

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Which is currently better?

Poll Results

OptionVotes
TV 42
Movies 20


Eric H., Tuesday, 20 March 2012 14:06 (thirteen years ago)

tv is still nominally free. so.

jesus christ (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 14:21 (thirteen years ago)

i bet this gets a ton of votes and not much discussion

goole, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 14:26 (thirteen years ago)

tv, btw

goole, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 14:26 (thirteen years ago)

for me right now it's tv, mostly just because as a parent of a young child I rarely have enough time to watch an entire movie.

silverfish, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 14:33 (thirteen years ago)

define your terms

Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 14:35 (thirteen years ago)

youtube

iatee, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 14:35 (thirteen years ago)

if it doesn't get discussion it'll be because we've had this discussion so much already (although that hasn't stopped us before). will be fun to have it put to a vote, though.

some dude, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 14:35 (thirteen years ago)

define your terms

If you have to ask, you don't think much of either.

Eric H., Tuesday, 20 March 2012 14:36 (thirteen years ago)

as you know, post-1975 counts as "today" with a fossil like me, sonny

― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Friday, March 16, 2012 10:15 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

everyone else has a smaller window for "right now" fyi

some dude, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 14:37 (thirteen years ago)

TV: bigger budgets, varying episodic structures, a willingness to try new forms of distribution, loosening of formal (conventional) constraints, better talent, steady paycheck and tolerable working conditions for writers/directors.

("Hollywood") movies: smaller budgets, corporate intervention, calcification of conventions, obsession w./ genre and remake, rampant abuse of talent.

World/"Indie" movies: Mixed bag, ehh?

aka vanilla bean (remy bean), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 14:37 (thirteen years ago)

World/"Indie" movies: Mixed bag, ehh?

This means you're not counting "Two and a Half Men" as TV, I guess. 95% of everything is shit.

The best movies being theatrically exhibited anywhere in America are inaccessible to most of our posters. And then when they become available on home media, most don't seek them out. Comfort food tastes best.

I got rid of cable last June and bought an antenna that essentially gets nothing. So film.

Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 14:41 (thirteen years ago)

Alternate, rejected poll: Movie critics vs. TV critics.

I know which group I trust more often.

Eric H., Tuesday, 20 March 2012 14:43 (thirteen years ago)

I haven't read a TV critic regularly in 20 years.

Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 14:47 (thirteen years ago)

MZS has basically crossed over imo.

Eric H., Tuesday, 20 March 2012 14:59 (thirteen years ago)

The best movies being theatrically exhibited anywhere in America are inaccessible to most of our posters.

if a tree falls in new york, nyc douchebags will swear up and down that your life is not worth living if you weren't close enough to hear it

some dude, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:03 (thirteen years ago)

he was the last one I read! (Newark Star-Ledger, early '90s)

xp

Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:04 (thirteen years ago)

The short version of the common wisdom is this, right?

TV: Where critics and (reasonably sizeable) mass audiences can find common ground
Movies: Where critics and mass audiences repeatedly engage in ritualistic bad faith in two-hour chunks

Eric H., Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:06 (thirteen years ago)

tv and reasonably sizeable mass audiences can find common ground w/ shows like mad men because there are about 5 shows like that, total

iatee, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:07 (thirteen years ago)

And last year there was maybe one movie in the top 30 that critics could be bothered with and it involved women hershey squirting in sinks.

Eric H., Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:09 (thirteen years ago)

Sorry, I forgot the new M:I was pretty warmly received too.

Eric H., Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:10 (thirteen years ago)

her name is barbara hershey and apparently i need to see answers to nothing

some dude, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:15 (thirteen years ago)

TV: bigger budgets

("Hollywood") movies: smaller budgets

Really?

Number None, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:26 (thirteen years ago)

TV in a walk, although I absolutely agree that almost all of it is shit.

Soggy Cheeseburgers (Deric W. Haircare), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:30 (thirteen years ago)

almost all of everything is shit

Number None, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:31 (thirteen years ago)

i think he means bigger/smaller budgets than 10 or 20 years earlier

some dude, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:31 (thirteen years ago)

tv: more time to develop characters/arcs

less of the same (darraghmac), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:31 (thirteen years ago)

http://www.phoenixmasonry.org/masonicmuseum/images/the%20new%20ark.jpg

Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:36 (thirteen years ago)

As I've said before, in many cases the 'movies vs. TV' argument often boils down to a 'short stories vs. novels' argument.

Soggy Cheeseburgers (Deric W. Haircare), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:39 (thirteen years ago)

i want to say TV but last night i sat down to watch some and the best thing i could find was a late showing of "the Devil's Advocate", which really isretty damning all around

the breaking bad thread is basically pissing me off because it's reminded me that there just isn't anything close to as good as that show

TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:40 (thirteen years ago)

i mean the other options were like Watson & Oliver and fucking Little Britain fml

TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:41 (thirteen years ago)

movies vs tv vs sports cmon now

less of the same (darraghmac), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:41 (thirteen years ago)

Definitely TV. I get less and less excited about new films every day, but have been thrilled by the rise of the HBO-style TV series over the last decade.

Moodles, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:42 (thirteen years ago)

all 5 of them

iatee, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:42 (thirteen years ago)

I know it's supposed to be a TV golden age and all but are there really that many classic shows around?

Number None, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:43 (thirteen years ago)

I hate to burst the bubble re Mad Men, but advertising drones are not that complicated. 90 minutes is plenty of time to know everything about them.

Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:43 (thirteen years ago)

there is also Local Garda's point that even when you decide to watch a movie on TV it just takes.... time, it's like your whole evening. TV feels looser in that respect

Morbs OTM

TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:44 (thirteen years ago)

As I've said before, in many cases the 'movies vs. TV' argument often boils down to a 'short stories vs. novels' argument.

― Soggy Cheeseburgers (Deric W. Haircare), Tuesday, March 20, 2012 11:39 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well i definitely like the sustained longterm narrative aspect, but c'mon the written word is not subject to the overwhelming majority of factors at play here

some dude, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:44 (thirteen years ago)

not that I have ever seen Mad Men, but it does seem enough like "The Problems of Beautiful Rich People Part 1,833,928,188,721,645" for me to have avoided it

TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:45 (thirteen years ago)

i could give a damn about Mad Men, but art is not a wikipedia entry, the point is not to sit down and stare at the screen for a little while and then go "ok, i know all i need to know about that, bye"

some dude, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:46 (thirteen years ago)

there is also Local Garda's point that even when you decide to watch a movie on TV it just takes.... time, it's like your whole evening. TV feels looser in that respect

my attention span is shrinking down to the point where tv feels this way too

iatee, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:46 (thirteen years ago)

I only watch gifs now

Number None, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:47 (thirteen years ago)

sometimes even gifs can be frustrating, like when you have to wait 30 seconds for the joke

iatee, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:47 (thirteen years ago)

sd, prince consort of bayoneting straw men

Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:49 (thirteen years ago)

budgets for gifs have skyrocketed since the success of 'haters gon hate'

less of the same (darraghmac), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:49 (thirteen years ago)

TV has plenty of corporate intervention, by the way, at every level, even on the high concept shows that are apparently standing in for "all of TV" on this thread

what else is on TV besides those shows?

- sports. i like sports
- news. i like news (sometimes)
- cheaters
- monster garage (RIP)

no contest

TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:53 (thirteen years ago)

well i definitely like the sustained longterm narrative aspect, but c'mon the written word is not subject to the overwhelming majority of factors at play here

I dunno, all of those mentions of Subway in the last Franzen novel were odd. Not to mention the coupons in the back.

Soggy Cheeseburgers (Deric W. Haircare), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:54 (thirteen years ago)

If you think about it, movies are also on TV

Number None, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:55 (thirteen years ago)

woah

some dude, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:56 (thirteen years ago)

apart from marquee serial drama and the alleged comedy renaissance we're in, tv has lots of stuff that i totally love

-- off-brand cop procedurals
-- game shows
-- car rebuilding shows
-- the soup

most reality tv drives me up a wall tho, and cheaters was vile, come on

goole, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 15:59 (thirteen years ago)

-- b.d. wong

goole, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:00 (thirteen years ago)

-- mike judge

goole, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:00 (thirteen years ago)

The Soup vs Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:01 (thirteen years ago)

Is that on the Food Network?

butvi wouls (Phil D.), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:01 (thirteen years ago)

The Soup vs Apichatpong Weerasethakul

omg did this happen?

goole, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:02 (thirteen years ago)

No joke, I think The Soup is one of the most important cultural objects currently being produced.

Soggy Cheeseburgers (Deric W. Haircare), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:05 (thirteen years ago)

I think AW would be down with The Soup.

Eric H., Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:07 (thirteen years ago)

xpost

Like, we really need a forum that regularly points out how awful and nihilistic that particular aspect of our culture is without being humorless and didactic about it.

Soggy Cheeseburgers (Deric W. Haircare), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:08 (thirteen years ago)

The ending of Syndromes and a Century is basically a clip of the week.

Eric H., Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:08 (thirteen years ago)

deric otm

some dude, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:10 (thirteen years ago)

i think he means bigger/smaller budgets than 10 or 20 years earlier

― some dude, Tuesday, March 20, 2012 8:31 AM (1 hour ago)

yup.

aka vanilla bean (remy bean), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:37 (thirteen years ago)

i think that increased TV budgets +/- tend to result in better talent/production values, whereas (already) inflated studio movie budgets +/- tend to result in Transformers 2.

aka vanilla bean (remy bean), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:43 (thirteen years ago)

^

less of the same (darraghmac), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:43 (thirteen years ago)

bigger tv money means more episodes, bigger movie money means less script

less of the same (darraghmac), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:44 (thirteen years ago)

dunno guys, there have been loads of crappy big budget shows in the last few years. Spielberg seems to have been responsible for a lot of them

Number None, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:45 (thirteen years ago)

narrowing your definitions right on schedule, Godfrey Daniel

Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:46 (thirteen years ago)

You know what would be rad? The resurgence of movie serials. I would totally go see a quality series in the theater every week.

Soggy Cheeseburgers (Deric W. Haircare), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:48 (thirteen years ago)

number none otm, i was gonna say that big budget stuff like Terra Nova, The Cape, etc. has started to resemble bad megaplex fare more and more

some dude, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:48 (thirteen years ago)

I guess The Pacific cost something approaching Avatar levels to produce?

Eric H., Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:49 (thirteen years ago)

You know what would be rad? The resurgence of movie serials. I would totally go see a quality series in the theater every week.

― Soggy Cheeseburgers (Deric W. Haircare), Tuesday, March 20, 2012 9:48 AM (2 minutes ago)

limited run series are the best of all worlds

aka vanilla bean (remy bean), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:51 (thirteen years ago)

I don't really have any trenchant analysis, but for my buck:

Ratio of good (studio system) movies to bad (studio system) movies < ratio of good (studio system) television shows to bad (studio systems) television.

If we expand to include All Movies Everywhere vs. All Small Screen Media (TV, computer, youtube, et al.) I think I'd go with movies.

aka vanilla bean (remy bean), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:53 (thirteen years ago)

i don't think ratio of all existing good and bad matters nearly as much as which one you actually have to pay $$ for each lousy thing you choose to watch

some dude, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:54 (thirteen years ago)

like my cable bill isn't any higher if i turn into a total idiot for a day and decide to watch "Ice Loves Coco" or "Californication"

some dude, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:55 (thirteen years ago)

minute to minute, i actually think there's more good movies in a year than tv.

ryan, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 16:56 (thirteen years ago)

also movies (though this is rare) seem to be less beholden to an advancing "plot" built around characters and events. TV shows dont go for pure mood very often, or if they do it cant last very long before stuff has to start happening so people tune in next week. i like that a movie ends when it ends.

ryan, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 17:01 (thirteen years ago)

right now, this very very second? tv.

althea and (donna rouge), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 17:02 (thirteen years ago)

ryan, i can't name a single movie that isn't built around characters or plot. i don't exactly understand your point.

aka vanilla bean (remy bean), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 17:04 (thirteen years ago)

"quality" TV has refined a formula for interminably stretching plot over the duration of a boxed set, i kinda hate season-long story arcs, TV drama was better when the eps were more thoroughly self-contained unless they were feeling extravagant and ran a two-parter, voted movies forever

red is hungry green is jawless (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 17:06 (thirteen years ago)

perhaps it would be better to say that a movie can go for pure "formalism"? Like an Uncle Boonmee or the creation sequence in Tree of Life or even David Lynch--granted these movies dont go into Brakhage territory but they have a looser relationship to what I'm calling plot as a mechanism to keep you watching since they only need to keep you watching a few hours. I'm not good at articulating what I'm trying to say here!

ryan, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 17:07 (thirteen years ago)

Nah, I realized I was being a little disingenous. I think that a two hour experience is easier to sustain w/o a profoundly visible structure than a 6-25 hour series. But (excepting Brakhage and Warhol and ilk) there are not tons of exceptions of successful, effective movies that don't have some strong sense of structure/unity.

aka vanilla bean (remy bean), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 17:16 (thirteen years ago)

this thread is turning into 'lou1s j@gger talks about art rock'

some dude, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 17:18 (thirteen years ago)

that is an excellent display name

aka vanilla bean (remy bean), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 17:19 (thirteen years ago)

i hear about the great tv that people watch just as i do the films but it seems like (relative to expectations) more of a hassle to seek it out. tv that is as available as tv should be (i.e. the kinda thing tracer was referring to), with a few exceptions, seems to be largely shite.

nv also otm.

Upt0eleven, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 17:28 (thirteen years ago)

tracer's experience doesn't ring true to mine but then i live in america and pay for almost every premium channel i can get

some dude, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 17:32 (thirteen years ago)

the premium channels over here basically just get you..... more movies

(and more sports)

TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 17:43 (thirteen years ago)

Paying for sports. Brrrr.

Eric H., Tuesday, 20 March 2012 17:48 (thirteen years ago)

We're still not quite to the point where lazy writers end articles with "I enjoy watching Mad Men once in awhile, but most nights I'd rather cool it in front of premium station broadcasting sporting event live."

Eric H., Tuesday, 20 March 2012 17:51 (thirteen years ago)

it's what rupert murdoch built his empire on

TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 17:52 (thirteen years ago)

TV definitely - the best TV comedy can do way more than most comedy movies, for a start. Also you can watch TV at your own pace with boxsets and whatever so you can mainline like 5 episodes of Breaking Bad or just one to fit around your schedule. Though I still love the anticipation of a good film.
(I would still never get actual TV while I'm in the US, though, and I dunno if I could go back to watching one episode a week of something great)

kinder, Tuesday, 20 March 2012 17:57 (thirteen years ago)

last night of 2011 baseball regular season ground the rest of American TV into dust.

(glad I had a laptop to watch on)

Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 20 March 2012 21:18 (thirteen years ago)

fwiw, Vulture (via MZS) calls The Wire the winner: http://www.vulture.com/2012/03/drama-derby-finals-the-wire-vs-the-sopranos.html

hot and brothered (Eric H.), Monday, 26 March 2012 16:15 (thirteen years ago)

Oops, wrong(ish) thread.

hot and brothered (Eric H.), Monday, 26 March 2012 16:16 (thirteen years ago)

1. Movies don't have reality shows (ok, here was The Real Cancun$

2. If Luck were a movie, I'd've gotten to see it through to the end.

I Fucked Up (jer.fairall), Monday, 26 March 2012 18:52 (thirteen years ago)

Television now encompasses hundreds of cable channels, filled with thousands upon thousands of hours of purest sludge, within which float many dozens of watchable shows and a few choice ones.

The movies now encompass a couple of Hollywood big budget films most weeks, and a few more chunks of Hollywood filler, together with a whole world full of indie flicks, foreign films, documentaries, animations and other short subjects of varying interest or pretention.

The average film merely hovers around the vicinity of mediocrity; the average television program is like being drenched in lukewarm spit.

Aimless, Tuesday, 27 March 2012 01:39 (thirteen years ago)

Well a least it's warm.

Nicholas Pokémon (silby), Tuesday, 27 March 2012 01:42 (thirteen years ago)

Movies should be better.
TV could be worse.

hot and brothered (Eric H.), Tuesday, 27 March 2012 03:14 (thirteen years ago)

If sports counts as tv I vote tv, otherwise it's movies

neutral sequence for flute (blank), Tuesday, 27 March 2012 03:16 (thirteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Saturday, 31 March 2012 00:01 (thirteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Sunday, 1 April 2012 00:01 (thirteen years ago)

And we have a winnaaaaaaaaahhhh!

You made the right choice.

Marty McBrundlefly (Deric W. Haircare), Sunday, 1 April 2012 00:52 (thirteen years ago)

six months pass...

Two episodes into The Wire, and, yes, you have made the right choice.

Bobby Ken Doll (Eric H.), Monday, 29 October 2012 15:36 (twelve years ago)

eight months pass...

TV is not better than movies, so stop saying so.

The TV-is-better argument is, above all, an attempt to narrow the range of what sophisticated viewers feel obligated to watch. Yes, such polemics sometimes serve other purposes. (Shaming Hollywood studios out of making another board-game-inspired blow-’em-up and turning to taut, Breaking Bad–style thrillers instead, for instance.) But generally the TV-is-better argument is a way of saying, “I don’t have to keep up with the movies anymore, and neither do you.”

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/07/stop_saying_that_tv_is_better_than_movies_these_days.single.html

playwright Greg Marlowe, secretly in love with Mary (Dr Morbius), Friday, 19 July 2013 15:45 (twelve years ago)

How many board game inspired movies are there? Other than battleship.

Jeff, Friday, 19 July 2013 16:07 (twelve years ago)

from last October; you get the idea

http://games.yahoo.com/blogs/unplugged/hollywood-still-rolling-dice-board-game-movies-191329569.html

playwright Greg Marlowe, secretly in love with Mary (Dr Morbius), Friday, 19 July 2013 16:15 (twelve years ago)

Amazing

Jeff, Friday, 19 July 2013 16:17 (twelve years ago)

“I don’t have to keep up with the movies anymore, and neither do you.”

this is otm, no one should "keep up with the movies"

sleepingbag, Friday, 19 July 2013 16:42 (twelve years ago)

or TV.

playwright Greg Marlowe, secretly in love with Mary (Dr Morbius), Friday, 19 July 2013 16:44 (twelve years ago)

well if it's a good show they should, otherwise no

sleepingbag, Friday, 19 July 2013 16:45 (twelve years ago)

and this is different from a good film, how?

playwright Greg Marlowe, secretly in love with Mary (Dr Morbius), Friday, 19 July 2013 16:48 (twelve years ago)

Not reading the whole thread, did anyone ever explain what "better" is supposed to mean in this context? If so, please show your work.

it itches like a porky pine sitting on your dick (Phil D.), Friday, 19 July 2013 16:50 (twelve years ago)

And when it comes to quality, TV remains, for the most part, a great simplifier. Ask nearly any professional critic—not to mention many amateur ones—for the best TV shows of the last decade or so, and you will get a very familiar list, starting with The Sopranos and ending, probably, with Breaking Bad, or maybe, say, Homeland or The Americans. You will almost certainly have heard of every show. You are not likely to encounter the sometimes bewildering variety that a collection of film critics is likely to present you with.

... So while the best movies come from an intimidating diversity of sources, and present a similarly wide range of aesthetic approaches and aims, the best TV shows tend to come from three or four American cable networks and frequently follow a familiar model. (It’s like The Godfather, only in modern-day New Jersey—or in the advertising world, or the New Mexico meth market, or in Hollywood …)

playwright Greg Marlowe, secretly in love with Mary (Dr Morbius), Friday, 19 July 2013 16:51 (twelve years ago)

This is pretty much true. It seems the parameters for what constitutes "good TV" are far more uniform than what people regard as "good movies."

Boven is het stil (Eric H.), Friday, 19 July 2013 16:54 (twelve years ago)

There is no single movie that will appeal to everyone with an interest in movies. There are at least a few shows that are basically universally acclaimed.

Or else, I'm following way too many contrarian movie assholes on Twitter.

Boven is het stil (Eric H.), Friday, 19 July 2013 16:55 (twelve years ago)

yeah, "good movies" for most Americans is the best of "films within the purview of Ben Mankiewicz."

at least I'm not on Twitter, right?

playwright Greg Marlowe, secretly in love with Mary (Dr Morbius), Friday, 19 July 2013 16:56 (twelve years ago)

Noting that this all basically applies only to dramas, not comedies, where all bets are off as usual.

Boven is het stil (Eric H.), Friday, 19 July 2013 16:57 (twelve years ago)

there should be a Movie Assholes podcast

playwright Greg Marlowe, secretly in love with Mary (Dr Morbius), Friday, 19 July 2013 16:58 (twelve years ago)

maybe there's not enough tv shows for people to start all the social positioning about "taste" yet.

ryan, Friday, 19 July 2013 16:58 (twelve years ago)

yeah, "good movies" for most Americans is the best of "films within the purview of Ben Mankiewicz"

Not exactly fair. "Good TV" for most Americans is NCIS.

Boven is het stil (Eric H.), Friday, 19 July 2013 16:58 (twelve years ago)

Yeah, that's not getting me there, especially from a writer who in the very next paragraph says with an apparently straight face, Take today’s Emmy nominations, which, though there were, as always, a few surprises and snubs, generally rewarded the prestige dramas—House of Cards, American Horror Story, Game of Thrones, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Homeland—that most people regard as the best stuff on TV. Compare that to any year’s Oscar nominations, which encompass multiple filmmaking styles and span the studio and indie world and still rarely scratch the surface of what critics and serious moviegoers consider the best of the year.

Yes, let's all sit back and consider the implications of Oscar making a habit of rewarding prestige dramas, what a world, etc. (Not to mention that until they expanded the BP nominee list from 5 to "up to 10," there wasn't quite so much style- and studio-spanning going on.)

it itches like a porky pine sitting on your dick (Phil D.), Friday, 19 July 2013 16:59 (twelve years ago)

i'd rather watch NCIS or Monk than most of the beautifully crafted 13 ep plot arc acclaimed tasteful shit tbh

what makes a man start polls? (Noodle Vague), Friday, 19 July 2013 17:00 (twelve years ago)

'Find the Writer's Fatal Flaw' will always be the ILX way to nuke entire article premises, right?

playwright Greg Marlowe, secretly in love with Mary (Dr Morbius), Friday, 19 July 2013 17:03 (twelve years ago)

It works for critiquing movies.

Boven is het stil (Eric H.), Friday, 19 July 2013 17:04 (twelve years ago)

He also manages to conflate "critics polls" with "best" and then imply that even better stuff is coming during Morbs's favorite time of year, Oscar Season. That's when the real quality shows up, and among such an embarrassment of riches already!

it itches like a porky pine sitting on your dick (Phil D.), Friday, 19 July 2013 17:06 (twelve years ago)

if TV was better than the movies in some kind of objective (?) way, it's not like Morbs would ever know it, much less admit it.

some dude, Friday, 19 July 2013 17:21 (twelve years ago)

It's not about the medium, it's about the era. To wit: TV then > movies now

Boven is het stil (Eric H.), Friday, 19 July 2013 17:22 (twelve years ago)

well having cable is a bitch when you're rent-poor. xp

FIP and DIPS are far superior to ERA.

playwright Greg Marlowe, secretly in love with Mary (Dr Morbius), Friday, 19 July 2013 17:23 (twelve years ago)

TV is more about RBI

Boven is het stil (Eric H.), Friday, 19 July 2013 17:24 (twelve years ago)

yes. only context makes it look good.

playwright Greg Marlowe, secretly in love with Mary (Dr Morbius), Friday, 19 July 2013 17:25 (twelve years ago)

going out to the movies regularly feels more prohibitively expensive than having cable, in my own experience as a broke american. i still get to see most of the movies i want to see, just 6-18 months after they're brand new.

some dude, Friday, 19 July 2013 17:28 (twelve years ago)

If you're talking about American studio productions, television. Otherwise it's clearly movies.

polyphonic, Friday, 19 July 2013 17:40 (twelve years ago)

As he points out tho, there is no such thing as "independent television," at least not in a way you can seek it out. (Acknowledging that YouTube does not make lists/discussions like these.)

playwright Greg Marlowe, secretly in love with Mary (Dr Morbius), Friday, 19 July 2013 17:51 (twelve years ago)

There very well could be "independent television" in the near-future - produce a short run, stream it first-run on your own site, then sell it to Netflix for future streaming, make a few bucks on the side with Blu Rays for the super fans.

Kiarostami bag (milo z), Friday, 19 July 2013 20:01 (twelve years ago)

also this is a giant argument about nothing - who gives a fuck what other people follow? Why do you care about all the dastardly television fans of ILX, Morbs?

Kiarostami bag (milo z), Friday, 19 July 2013 20:02 (twelve years ago)

"who gives a fuck what other people follow?"

oh, c'mon

playwright Greg Marlowe, secretly in love with Mary (Dr Morbius), Friday, 19 July 2013 20:07 (twelve years ago)

what if it's HITLER

"""""""""""""stalin""""""""""" (difficult listening hour), Friday, 19 July 2013 20:08 (twelve years ago)

it's impossible to get into 'a movie' the same way one gets into 'a tv show' imo. by that vague metric, i have never seen a movie that even comes close to being as good as something like THE SOPRANOS

sleepingbag, Friday, 19 July 2013 20:09 (twelve years ago)

what's "gets into"? Making you wanna be a nmade man for months and years on end?

playwright Greg Marlowe, secretly in love with Mary (Dr Morbius), Friday, 19 July 2013 20:12 (twelve years ago)

i've never really seen a movie like the Sopranos, but i've never seen a tv show like Vertigo or The Tree of Life or Andrei Rublev. nor do i think what those films do can be done in a "tv show" as we understand it now.

ryan, Friday, 19 July 2013 20:15 (twelve years ago)

yeah i was thinking about it earlier, for obvious reasons TV shows are much more formally constrained than films, and if there's auteurship in TV it general resides with writers rather than directors.

what makes a man start polls? (Noodle Vague), Friday, 19 July 2013 20:23 (twelve years ago)

oh, c'mon

No, really - this isn't about the merits of television, or the merits of movies or actual criticism at all.

It's about caring deeply that fans of the other exist and haven't picked your team and then a strawman that there are rogues out there telling you not to bother with movies. Why is any of that worth caring about?

Kiarostami bag (milo z), Friday, 19 July 2013 20:25 (twelve years ago)

maybe im misunderstanding him, but i think Morbs' target isn't so much TV but the proud "middlebrow-ism" of the "tv is better than movies" arguments.

ryan, Friday, 19 July 2013 20:27 (twelve years ago)

I am a dr. morbius whisperer.

ryan, Friday, 19 July 2013 20:27 (twelve years ago)

xxxxp i dunno, kinda? also, developing and exploring many multiple different facets of its characters and locations, actual progression through time, having more than a single or couple of fixed storylines, always having the capacity to surprise with the next ep, having you reconsider things you've seen in the series sometimes real-time months or years earlier, etc? i said it was a vague metric

sleepingbag, Friday, 19 July 2013 20:28 (twelve years ago)

i firmly believe episodic tv is a flat out better medium fwiw

sleepingbag, Friday, 19 July 2013 20:28 (twelve years ago)

I think you can easily say that there's been a clear increase in quality tv series over the past decade. I also have a sense that there's been a corresponding decrease in quality films in that same time period, but I know that's a more controversial claim.

Moodles, Friday, 19 July 2013 20:32 (twelve years ago)

the film market is wildly diffuse--i think when people have this discussion it invariably boils down to middlebrow prestige TV versus middlebrow Movies. (like "Lincoln" vs "Breaking Bad" or whatever). which is an overly restricted argument to bother having.

ryan, Friday, 19 July 2013 20:34 (twelve years ago)

i mean, there's like 4-5 "quality tv series" at any one time? how many "quality movies" are there out right now? can we add up all the hours and see which has more? it's just silly.

ryan, Friday, 19 July 2013 20:35 (twelve years ago)

starting with The Sopranos and ending, probably, with Breaking Bad, or maybe, say, Homeland or The Americans.

haha, no

|citation needed| (will), Friday, 19 July 2013 20:45 (twelve years ago)

A couple of days ago Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad showrunner and writer) did an interview for some Australian show in which he basically said hes so glad hes in TV right now and that the movie biz is fucked and devoid of any creativity. I'm going from memory here but his explanation was that these days studios, producers and whomever have become completely unwilling to roll the dice on most scripts that aren't superhero based action blockbusters so fewer movies are being made and of those movies that are being made huge amounts of money are being thrown at them to make sure they succeed at the box office. Unfortunately these movies are all aimed at teenage boys so there aren't m/any movies for adults anymore. Now cable channels are putting out original content and imposing little creative restriction on the makers/writers, adult eyes have moved from the big screen to the small screen.

So, like ive always said, tv rules.

educate yourself to this reality (sunny successor), Friday, 19 July 2013 22:32 (twelve years ago)

xp I've never watched Homeland, but I'd rank The Americans among the best shows on tv right now.

Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Friday, 19 July 2013 22:33 (twelve years ago)

something that really surprises me about tv is how many people 50 and up tell me they love the big bang theory

educate yourself to this reality (sunny successor), Friday, 19 July 2013 22:37 (twelve years ago)

i mean, really?

educate yourself to this reality (sunny successor), Friday, 19 July 2013 22:38 (twelve years ago)

my parents. i will watch with them for kaley cuoco's shoulders.

"""""""""""""stalin""""""""""" (difficult listening hour), Friday, 19 July 2013 22:39 (twelve years ago)

Middle-aged people and their youngish children have always been the target for shitty sitcoms, I think - 18-35-year olds weren't watching According to Jim or Home Improvement.

Kiarostami bag (milo z), Saturday, 20 July 2013 00:19 (twelve years ago)

No, but tween girls were.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lG3dnmilpB8/TahFv_J4Y3I/AAAAAAAAE2M/gAP5oeJgjo4/s400/Tiger.jpg

it itches like a porky pine sitting on your dick (Phil D.), Saturday, 20 July 2013 01:04 (twelve years ago)

nm, you covered that with "youngish children"

it itches like a porky pine sitting on your dick (Phil D.), Saturday, 20 July 2013 01:04 (twelve years ago)

I'm not convinced that there's quite as much "Great TV" consensus as some have argued here.

Simon H., Saturday, 20 July 2013 01:31 (twelve years ago)

i firmly believe episodic tv is a flat out better medium fwiw

better for what?

again, using "the movie biz" as a representative for the medium of cinema is disingenuous or dumb.

playwright Greg Marlowe, secretly in love with Mary (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 20 July 2013 02:43 (twelve years ago)

When it comes to stories that are "serious" or "quality" or "adult" I think that TV these days hits a better balance between that and a more poppy sensibility. Those kinds of movies often get way too lazy. It's like arty filmmakers have come to expect that you've already paid for your ticket and you're going to sit there for 2 hours and watch what they're showing you no matter what. But the more poppy movies are too often aimed at brain-dead 10 year old boys. TV writers are used to having to fight to keep the viewer's attention and as a result I think they have a better command of dramatic craft in some ways. It would be interesting to see netflix statistics for critically acclaimed period dramas on TV vs. movies and see which discs get returned more quickly.

wk, Saturday, 20 July 2013 02:45 (twelve years ago)

sunny, let me know when these adventurous cable execs discover their Pedro Costa or Carlos Reygadas.

playwright Greg Marlowe, secretly in love with Mary (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 20 July 2013 02:46 (twelve years ago)

Rectify / Ray McKinnon brings 'em a little closer, anyway.

Simon H., Saturday, 20 July 2013 02:50 (twelve years ago)

two months pass...

Oh Morbs, I'm talking Hollywood here.

No more kisses (sunny successor), Thursday, 10 October 2013 15:41 (twelve years ago)

challops: novels continue to kick the ass of both these media

Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 10 October 2013 17:35 (twelve years ago)

I loved Gravity and all, but this was lol:

@johnaugust
Wow, Gravity is as amazing as everyone says. It's like Cuarón saw TV was winning and said nope: MOVIES.

midnight outdoor nude frolic up north goes south (Eric H.), Thursday, 10 October 2013 17:39 (twelve years ago)

oh god

No more kisses (sunny successor), Thursday, 10 October 2013 22:54 (twelve years ago)

challops: novels continue to kick the ass of both these media

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, October 10, 2013 1:35 PM (5 hours ago)

there's no way this is true

Mordy , Thursday, 10 October 2013 23:19 (twelve years ago)

It's like Cuarón saw TV was winning and said nope: MOVIES.

That is a noxious quote and yet is there a piece of television that has stuck with me more than Children of Men since I saw Children of Men? No. Wait, maybe Archer.

Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 11 October 2013 01:19 (twelve years ago)

As for novels, they suit the times -- this is now a text-driven culture in a way the culture of my childhood was not, and novels know how to exploit that.

Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 11 October 2013 01:22 (twelve years ago)

Novels are cheap to make and distribute and they don't require that everybody read them at the same time (not that current episodic TV _requires_ this, exactly, but it seems a part of the form.)

Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 11 October 2013 01:23 (twelve years ago)

The median TV show probably more enjoyable than the median novel but we're not talking about the median, right?

Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 11 October 2013 01:24 (twelve years ago)

Back-of-envelope ranking: median pop record > median movie > median TV show > median novel >>>> median stand-up comic

Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 11 October 2013 01:25 (twelve years ago)

for me to poop on

j., Friday, 11 October 2013 01:30 (twelve years ago)

six months pass...

It’s been something to watch, this televisionification of the left. Open a window on social media during prime time, and you’ll find young journalists talking about TV under Twitter avatars of themselves in MSNBC makeup. Fifteen years ago, these people might have attended media reform congresses discussing how corporate TV pacifies and controls people, and how those facts flow from the nature of the medium. Today, they’re more likely to status-update themselves on their favorite corporate cable channel, as if this were something to brag about.

http://www.salon.com/2014/05/05/stephen_colbert_wont_save_us_game_of_thrones_is_not_that_good_this_golden_age_of_tv_is_a_big_sham/

images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 7 May 2014 05:38 (eleven years ago)

TESTIFY

nostalgie de couilles (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 7 May 2014 08:10 (eleven years ago)

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/why-nobody-writes-about-popular-tv-shows/361872/

i think there has obviously been a change in people's behavior (my elders in academia sure aren't reveling in their netflix binges) but the media picture of it seems distorted by interest in those few 'quality' shows and its own need to generate crit-clicks.

j., Wednesday, 7 May 2014 23:14 (eleven years ago)

otm

▴▲ ▴TH3CR()$BY$H()W▴▲ ▴ (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 8 May 2014 00:30 (eleven years ago)

four years pass...

The overpraise of television was the final rearguard action of a reactionary commentariat desperate to co-sign on a tidy, fallacious social-cultural narrative. 21st century insanity is truly visible through the preeminent art of the last century, cinema, and that of today, memes.

— 𝕿𝖗𝖔𝖚𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝕰𝖛𝖊𝖗𝖞 𝕯𝖆𝖞 (@NickPinkerton) August 1, 2018

a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Monday, 6 August 2018 15:25 (seven years ago)

luv2disparage a tidy, fallcious socio-cultural narrative and then immediately call cinema 'the preeminent art of the last century' with no apparent irony

Rogan Twort's highly portable product (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 6 August 2018 15:34 (seven years ago)

p much all of Pinkerton's tweets are tongue poking all the way thru cheek

a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Monday, 6 August 2018 15:48 (seven years ago)


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