TV is Superior to Movies - Smallville

TV is Superior to Movies - Sons of Anarchy

TV is Superior to Movies - The Tudors

TV is Superior to Movies - Star Trek Deep Space Nine (Seasons 4 - 7)

TV is Superior to Movies - Dexter

How can you not like a story where they give you sympathy for a serial killer? I was hyper-skeptical before watching this but picked up a season on sale and was hooked. Turned me into somewhat of a Showtime man with this one.

My favorite parts are when he's trying OH SO HARD not to kill his co-workers. Nice...

TV is Superior to Movies - Deadwood

If you've never seen DEADWOOD you totally miss the delight of having a story build over the course of three seasons. Created by David Milch, the show is an excellent example of creating very specific, believable characters, putting them into situations that make sense, and watching what happens.

The dialogue, while utterly profane, is very sophisticated and poetic. With DVR, my wife and I must have ran back and forth each episode at least twice (my wife's favorite line: "I'm off to suss the trim")

Seasons: 3
Episodes: 36
Status: Dead like Wild Bill

TV is Superior to Movies - The Wire

Jeff's latest example of why TV is superior to movies: The Wire

Title: The Wire
Episodes: 60
Status: Series completed

TV is Superior to Movies - Firefly

A western in outer space. Jeff's latest example of why TV is superior to movies: Firefly.

When this showed first aired on the FOX network, the episodes were famously aired in the wrong order. It was quickly canceled and three episodes remained in the can. Then came the DVD box set. With the time to develop a setting and characters, Firefly created a completely unique and at the same time completely familiar universe. By putting the characters squarely in outer space and drawing a completely obvious parallel to westerns Joss Whedon created one of the coolest settings for a tv series to date.

Buy or rent the box set. Watch them in order. Lament the loss of the never created season two. The cool thing is that with the success of the box set, Universal greenlit a Firefly movie entitled "Serenity" that pretty much wraps up the series. Rent or buy the box set Firefly. Rent or buy "Serenity". Enjoy!

Side note: With Firefly and Battlestar Galactica, we have two outer space shows that are completely and exclusively populated by humans (no alien species or planets). There's something to say for what you can do dramatically when you make that creative decision.

The dialogue is very, very clever.

Title: Firefly
Episodes: 1/2 season (14 episodes + 1 two-hour feature)
Status: Cancelled most heinously

Jeff's favorite quote... Wash (the pilot): "Hey, I've been in a firefight before! Well, I was in a fire." (beat) "Actually, I was fired from a fry-cook opportunity."

TV is Superior to Movies - The Sopranos

I suppose it was going to take a company like HBO to create a serial show and stick with it. I talked about their show ROME earlier but it was clearly THE SOPRANOS that got the ball rolling on recent TV as high art.

When the show first came out, I was clearly in the 'We've had The Godfather, we've had Good Fellas, what else could be told?' camp but man I was totally wrong. Absolutely different point of view on the whole gangster thing. Couldn't help but be fascinated when killing happened during the day, go home to the suburbs at night, kind of thing. I was never a huge fan of the Dr. Melfi psychiatrist arc, but it clearly became one of the set pieces of The Soprano's.

You never quite got a handle on Tony Soprano in all the years of the show. Just when you really, really started to like him, his inner monster would show itself and you'd realize how you were dancing on the edges of something you should probably stay clear of.

As time has passed since the infamous final episode, I've grown to feel like that was good ending. At the time, I was mad and felt a little gipped. Since then, I've latched onto the 'the audience was whacked' theory for the ending. Creator David Chase has somewhat denied it, but I feel that was the best explanation. He killed us. The audience is now dead. We thought all was well and when we least expected us, gun to the back of the head, dead. If I were whacked, I'd be mad and feel a little gipped. We were whacked.

When you dance with the devil, the end is never good. With The Sopranos, we danced for four years. Time to pay up.

Title: The Sopranos
Episodes: 6 seasons (86 episodes)
Status: Whacked

One of Jeff's favorite quotes: Tony calls in Christopher to discipline about something... Christopher, "If this is about the Easter baskets I can explain." Tony, "What? No..." What Easter baskets? It says so much with so little. Brilliant show.

TV is Superior to Movies - Battlestar Galactica

TV is superior to movies example of the month: Battlestar Galactica

There are those of you who feel like the outer space thing is too goofy and silly. Shame on you. Battlestar Galactica is one of the best examples of using a foreign setting to tell a story that would be nearly impossible to tell if it were done straight.

Back in the day, the way you told a story you weren't allowed to tell was to make it a western. You wanted to talk about racism during the fifties... you made a western about a cowboy falling in love with an indian. You wanted to talk about communism or discrimination or drug use or anything taboo, you made it a western. One of the reasons the western died was that there was no longer a need to have this fictional backdrop to tell a compelling story.

But even today, there are taboo topics that in and of themselves invoke emotional responses that would make it difficult to tell an honest story without the baggage of today getting in the way. Today, it is no longer the western that serves this purpose, it is science fiction. Enter Battlestar Galactica.

On the surface, this is show taking place 'a long time ago in a galaxy far, far way' but it is anything but. The whole arc about the occupation of New Caprica can really screw with your brain when you realize which characters represent the US and which character represent the Iraqi's.

How can you have a show where religion is a central theme and not have preconceived notions about Christianity or Judaism or Islam? Simple... make up whole new religions and invert who you feel you should be rooting for.

How do you have characters curse like sailors without saying real curse words? Frakkin' watch the show and you'll see.

Program: Battlestar Galactica
Episodes: 78 episodes (Pilot miniseries, four seasons, post series episode) and a series of webisodes that aired between seasons.
Status: Series concluded

There is a prequel series called Caprica that looks very, very promising as well.

TV is Superior to Movies - Mad Men

TV is superior to movies example of the month... Mad Men.

When I first broke into television oh those many years ago, there was a pretty strict philosophy that television shows were to be 'episodic' as opposed to 'serial'. This meant that each episode of a television show was to be somewhat standalone and if you started watching somewhere in the middle then you wouldn't miss all that much. This is one of the reasons that genre's like police shows and hospital shows always showed up because you could have a different case every week and maintain rules of the show without having an ongoing story.

Think about it... comedies like FRIENDS or CHEERS are all basically standalone. Cop shows like HAWAII FIVE-O and LAW AND ORDER are standalone. The reason was simple: you could build an audience and syndicate a show without a new viewer having to have much pre-knowledge of a show. In my opinion, most all television was still a second class artistic venue. Movies were superior. It was not until episodic television really took hold that TV started to fulfill its artistic promise. This month...

Program: Mad Men
Episodes: 3 seasons, 39 episodes
Status: Season 4 begins in 2010

This is the kind of show that would have very little hope of being any kind of movie. Capturing the tone and feel of USA in the early 60's, it plays on a world that few of us have any idea about. The cool thing about it is how by looking at America through the prism of the 1960's, you learn more about today. Multi-layered, character driven, funny, and fascinating. Like reading a book...

One of Jeff's favorite scenes: the Draper family out for a picnic. Time to go so Betty shakes the blanket off, throwing all of the food wrappers and garbage on the ground - Don crunches up beer can and tosses it in the grass. As the family leaves the park, they pull back to show litter everywhere! For those younger tykes out there, I remember a time when you just tossed trash out the window of the car... that's just what everybody did!

Jack Purcell TV Commercial - France

TV is Superior to Movies - Rome

I'm pretty sure this is going to be the best evidence to date that I am indeed Uncool so here goes... TV is superior to movies example this month: ROME

Without A DOUBT, when done correctly, the best of television is far superior to the best of movies. Period. End of story.

The best novels are better than the best short stories... the best pro is better than the best college... It's all physics.

Think about it. How well can you tell a story if you have 22 hours versus two hours? Sure, the pacing is different and there's more hit-or-miss and there's clearly art going on during a concise two hour flick but... please.

Let's look at characters: In a well made television show, you can develop real characters over time. Changes and arcs are more realistic and believable and true to life. You can show many, many more characters to minimize the use of the dreaded 'composite' character. Your characters can interact more realistically and without having to rely on character who serve contrived story purposes. The stakes for characters are greater because we have more sympathy and investment. More characters are truly dynamic.

Let's look at story: Plot can unravel at different, realistic paces. You can have multiple arcs that are more complex and layered. With a TV show, you can have true epic proportions for even a small story.

An example is one of my favorite shows...

Title: ROME
Episodes: 2 seasons, 22 episodes
Status: Cancelled

How else can you truly tell the epic tale of ancient Rome's transition from republic to empire? How can you possibly tell this story in a two hour slug fest. Like a fine novel unfolding, we see the complex relationship between Julius Caesar and Mark Antony and Augustus Caesar and all of their families, soldiers and enemies.

Too expensive to continue, too quick to die. For an absolute treat on a grand scale, ROME.

Uncool Hollywood Report 10 - October 9, 2009