Films vs Television

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Here's a rub question but maybe it'll go somewhere. If you had to give up watching films (incl. on video) or give up watching television programmes, which would you choose and why?

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 09:47 (twenty-two years ago)

ILx.

― Pete (Pete), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 09:58 (twenty-two years ago)

I Love Film.

I watch tv for Six Feet Under, The Simpsons, The Shield, documentaries, and football. The rest can suck it. Except Cribs!

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 10:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Cribs, CSI, Eastenders, Big Brother, The Shield, CSI: Miami, televised football convenience, mmmmmm.

― Cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 10:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Films, simply because I watch more TV. Although what would my world be lke if I could never see What's Up Doc? EVER AGAIN??

― alix (alix), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 10:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Are we allowed watch films on the telly? Not Sky Movies, but stuff they put on the terrestrial channels? It is surely a vital part of the national culture (no, it isnt. Ed.)

A1: Ask me when Buffy's ended. Then TV will have lost it's appeal.
A2: Ask me when I've seen The Matrix. Ditto.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 10:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd give up films, I'm afraid. I need the variety and the comfort and the transience TV gives me.

― Mark C (Mark C), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 10:14 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd go with film: there's a lot of good stuff I haven't seen yet. the only TV I really care about is Buffy and Simpsons reruns.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 10:18 (twenty-two years ago)

i've done the latter for about 4 years now, since the tv broke one evening and we never bothered replacing it. the only stuff i really missed was the news and buffy. however with the power of computers and dvds i'm can now watch buffy (season 4 dvd in the post) and all the good films they have on dvd in my local video shop.

as to the why i think i tend to prefer the more 'complete in one sitting' narative of films (with an obvious exception), and also i had a terrible habit of just sitting in front of the telly all evening watching it no matter what rubbish was on, so it's good to be more productive/social with my free time.

in the pre-dvd drive days the thought that you'd never get another chance to see it was a great motivator for getting out to the cinema.

― angela (angela), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 10:23 (twenty-two years ago)

TV is becoming an ever smaller part of my media life, I think - football and occasional couch potato sessions aside. You can get much better news/information/opinion from the internet and the radio... and with more broadband facilities one is less reliant on tv for live footage of things. I think the turning point will be when the Govt switches off the analogue tv transmitters and goes completely over to digital - will I be bothered about getting a new telly? I doubt it. On the other hand there are over 100 years of films I want to see.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 10:32 (twenty-two years ago)

TV. I'm sure there's some good stuff but you have to get through ten layers of shit to get to it.

with cinema (esp in London) you have yr specialized cinemas so its 'interesting' at least.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 10:35 (twenty-two years ago)

all u tv hataz explains why this thread died i guess

big brother starts in two days

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 10:38 (twenty-two years ago)

films can eat my fuc. too much sitting still for a start.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 10:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Big Brother Yay.

Since I spend more hours of the week in the cinema than I do watch TV, you'd think I say TV must go right. But no, I could lose film I think, for two reasons:
a) Emma would go looney if TV went, and a looney flatmate is a rough prospect
b) I think there is better, more interesting stuff being done on TV. From a news and analysis point of view TV is generally a pretty useful adjunct to the internet. There has not been a single film as funny as a good TV sitcom for about twenty years. So movies would go (shockah).

As long as I can sit in a dark room on my own every now and then.

― Pete (Pete), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 10:46 (twenty-two years ago)

What was the last funny film, Pete?

― Sam (chirombo), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 10:57 (twenty-two years ago)

i prefer TV - it shows films

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 11:05 (twenty-two years ago)

for that matter, what was the last good TV sitcom?

I don't think "Cambridge Spies" got shown over here. maybe I'd like TV more if I lived in Britain: two-thirds of the shows discussed on ILX I've never even heard of.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 11:05 (twenty-two years ago)

The last film I really laughed at was Undercover Brother, but that had a guffaw rate of about one every five minutes - nowhere near as much as I was even laughing to Adam and Joe Shock Video on Monday (which is low com denom clip TV but funny).

Last film funnier than a really good sitcom would probably be Spinal Tap.

― Pete (Pete), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 11:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Pete if there was no film you would be in the house about 400 hours a week more than you are now and no doubt talking through the good bits of Eastenders / Cutting It / Bad Girls / etc. So I would be looney either way.

― Emma, Wednesday, 21 May 2003 11:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't have a TV set, so the choice would be rather easy.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 11:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Point taken. Also my Masters would be useless.

― Pete (Pete), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 12:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Death to TV as such. I would spare the Food Channel.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 12:16 (twenty-two years ago)

TV Channels I Love (or Really Like): Food Network, BBC America, VH1 Classic, Discovery Health Channel, Discovery Channel (on Tuesdays), Court TV (on Wednesdays), TLC (when I'm off, for the afternoon programming), Bloomberg TV, Tech TV, PBS (on Saturday afternoons), NBC (mostly affiliate-related), ABC (mostly affiliate-related), Encore Real Stories, HBO, VH1 (sometimes -- I do like the "I Love the '80s" and "The Most Outrageous Game Show Moments" specials), Game Show Network, CNBC, Fox News Channel (you have to remember what party I'm affiliated with), MSNBC, IFC, ESPN News, our local cable "all local news, all the time" channel, A&E, Weather Channel, Comedy Central (only when they're being good and airing stand-up comedy or "Win Ben Stein's Money"), Style, Oxygen (only for Isaac Mizrahi), Fine Living, Encore (the regular channel), and the New Wave audio channel.

About thirty channels in all. I think TV wins.

― Dee the Semi-Lurker (Dee the Lurker), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 14:27 (twenty-two years ago)

five is the best terrestrial channel in the UK at the moment - its Matrix night tonight and they're showing one of the animated episodes

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 15:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Ooh, Matrix tonight? Goodie! I'm *defintely* not going to the indie club in Oxford then!

― Sarah (starry), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 15:06 (twenty-two years ago)

five is my favourite too. and tomorrow night they're showing some particularly sterling television

9pm The Curse of Big Brother: Caggy and Ginger Tim and the Dadshagger talk about how the series ruined their lives. Good

10pm Celebrity Detox Camp: Watch Tamara Beckwith and Richard Blackwood having enemas

― j0e (j0e), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 15:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I would split the difference and choose Turner Classic Movies. Unfortunately I don't get TCM, so Films it is.

I can totally see why someone would choose TV however. It requires a kind of sustained interest (i.e. most shows aren't fully rewarding unless you stick with them a long time) that in turn requires a kind of planning (i.e. "be at home at 8 PM every Tuesday") that I can't (don't want to) muster.

― amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 15:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I cannot decide.

Films = good.
Television = mostly bad, but it's there, and I must watch.

My life would lose balance.

― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 16:43 (twenty-two years ago)

oh, and I would not be able to get through a summer without days of watching test match cricket. So, I'm moving toward TV.

― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 16:48 (twenty-two years ago)

I think its unfair to seperate the two. The are part of the same continuum, with plasma screens and video projectors between.

And 3G phones and IMAX screens on either side.

― Judge Mentalist (Judge Mentalist), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 20:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd get rid of movies- cinema is one of the few art forms that simply hasn't appealed much to me at all, evah...in fact, this year I've made a point of going to the cinema every week just so I could learn to appreciate movies more (it hasn't been working very well, no.) Reasons I prefer TV: brevity (same reason I prefer three minute choons over eighteen minute pieces, tho oddly I prefer endless novels over short stories), greater possibilities of covering a wide range of styles w/o coming off as convulted ("Buffy" is the best example here of course, as if I would need to point that out on this of all forums), plus TV shows can go on for like decades, and I'm an immense sap so I hate it when stuff ends.

Btw, back when ppl actually cared about "Big Brother" ova here in Portugal, I routinely described it it as the collapse of western civilization (no, not in a good way), and looking back on it I still can't see a single redeeming feature, it still all seems truly hateful. Can someone please explain its appeal?

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 22:01 (twenty-two years ago)

it is the collapse of western civilisation

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 22:05 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, but what a collapse.

― j0e (j0e), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 22:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I was actually expecting a serious answer from you mark and pretty sure that it'd convince me, too (the "end of western civilization" stuff was said by fifteen year old me remember, I now realise the triteness of that stance but still can't see anything faulty with the sentiment behind it)

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 22:18 (twenty-two years ago)

TV sucks, Film is incredible

― A Nairn (moretap), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 22:42 (twenty-two years ago)

that animated matrix episode was awful

― Matt (Matt), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 22:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Western Civilization is over-rated.

There are plenty of old Big Brother threads where the pro's of the the form are endlessly debated.

― Pete (Pete), Thursday, 22 May 2003 09:45 (twenty-two years ago)

pete has lost it.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Thursday, 22 May 2003 10:38 (twenty-two years ago)

I never had it.

― Pete (Pete), Thursday, 22 May 2003 10:44 (twenty-two years ago)

I think you did!

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Thursday, 22 May 2003 10:44 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, that animatrix thing, what rot! Pervy striptease animation for a few minutes, then everyone gets killed. And the thing is it probably took them years to make it.

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 22 May 2003 14:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Tv has commericals intermixed within the programming
Film has commericals, but only before it starts
PBS has commericals, only before it starts.

how does Tivo work?

― A Nairn (moretap), Thursday, 22 May 2003 15:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Filmists have that slightly smug sense of moral superiority that you find in, say, vegetarians....

― Mark C (Mark C), Thursday, 22 May 2003 15:47 (twenty-two years ago)

ah, but some films are just one long commercial, Minority Report anyone?

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 22 May 2003 15:48 (twenty-two years ago)

In the Portuguese Big Brother contestants were using vibrators in the shower.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 22 May 2003 16:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Jerry did you see this old thread, when N. was Nick?

I would do without films because without the Daily Show I would not know what to do. Well okay I do: I'd watch Monster Garage.

Sometimes I think that even when films are really good they're kind of bad in way. I was wondering about Kogan's idea of the "free lunch" in relation to this—similar to Walker Percy's idea of "the rotation" in The Moviegoer—where a text(e) of some kind hands you get an unexpected treat. Awfully hard for films to deliver here, since we're paying big bucks, sitting in a darkened room, expected to be quiet: everything says "pay attention! don't miss a thing!" TV on the other hand seems full of free lunches (a particularly striking commercial being an obvious example).

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 22 May 2003 17:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Choosing movies over TV is like choosing poetry over prose.

― Chris H. (chrisherbert), Friday, 23 May 2003 01:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Tracer Hand that is a very good point. I've often thought about this not only in relation to movies, but in relation to music as well--since the current options on radio are so dire, it's difficult to be surprised let alone astonished. Maybe I should read Kogan's essay. I've been put off by the jocular/referential tone of his posts here; I was afraid it would be slow goings for me. But now my interest has been aroused.

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 23 May 2003 02:55 (twenty-two years ago)

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