Can somebody point me to a TV series that does action better than Fury Road? And while we are at that, can somebody point me to a TV series that makes a love story better than Blue is the Warmest Color?
I’m with Tom. I love my TV series, and they do some things better than films (essentially long form being impossible to do on film. Which means the amount and depth of themes they can touch is greater). This is a personal opinion/taste issue, obviously, but the quality versus quantity argument is very strong, with even the best TV shows I can think of (except maybe The Knick, and that’s not finished yet, so plenty of time to mess it up) having many more weak points that the best movies I can think of (which have none, really).
In normal production schedules a TV show makes around 10-12 hours of content in 9 months. A film makes 2-3 hours of content in around 2 years. Those 3 hours tend to cost more (and thus have better talent working more time on each second on-screen) than the whole 10-12 hours of the series. There’s a different level of care in the product in general (there are series with excellent care put on them, of course, and they are the best series, but then you have to compare them to the best movies).
I have been a huge sucker for the Arrow. The fight choreographer in that series has been excellent. As for romance, I would say the season of How I meet your mother.
I am sure that Tom will find fault with both, because that is what he does these days, but I find both had excellent value.
I would point out that Netflix and Amazon have no need to stick with any particular format. They arent selling adds, and they dont put shows up weekly. Instead they put them all up at once. They can just as easily generate movies as they television series. But they seem to be focused on making television series instead. I think that is pretty telling.
Because you get more content for less money, as indicated? They are content portals, so they want to offer exclusive content. You want to find a perfect intersection between content people want and content that is cheap enough to produce so you can offer more and make your alternative more appetizing than the competition. It’s not necessarily about quality, at least not directly. For the money they spend they are producing what, 6 series a year each. That would amount to 4-6 quality movies a year, tops, if they produced films, and that’s probablynot enough to sway their audience, even if the movies have better quality than the series.
Anyway, comparing how I Met Your Mother with Blue is the Warmest Color when talking about quality and intensity of a romance is a little bit misguided.
Is it. That last season was one of the most heart warming and endearing things I have ever watch and than very sad.
Also, to talk about emotional depth is television, I invite everyone to watch the very last season of Black Adder, and than tell that last scene did not touch a nerve, when they all resigned to going over the top of the trench during world war 1.
I’ve watched two episodes so far and I’m really liking it a lot. It’s been rather calm and sober so far, and the performances are good all around. Claire Foy is wonderful, as is Matt Smith who conveys the conflict about Philip’s role in the bigger picture as well as his famed potty mouth. Lithgow’s Churchill delivery is splendid.
Looking forward to consuming more episodes over the weekend.
The Crown won the Golden Globe last night for Best Television Drama and Claire Foy won the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama. Both highly deserved wins, I think.
John Lithgow did not win the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television. That went to Hugh Laurie in The Night Manager, which I guess I can’t be too upset about since both were fine performances.
Also, sorry for tagging your statement from August, but this whole post is incredible in light of what we actually got for the first season. As far as I’m concerned, the central conflict of trying to remain steadfast, measured, and “boring” as you put it, when surrounded by drama turns out to be pretty compelling.
As it was in the movie The Queen; my question was about how sustainable it is over multiple seasons.
Still, everyone has been raving about this, so I’ve added it to my queue. I’m definitely on board for at least the “origin story,” if you will, which certainly has the elements needed for good TV.
Finally got around to watching this, and found myself really engaged. So many layers and constraints to the Royal Family, particularly in those days. You can see the road to Diana (as well as her death) being laid down with the treatment of Margaret and Group Captain Townsend. And the queen’s marriage to Philip is fascinating.
Claire Foy is really great in the role, and glad that she’s finally got something substantial (I remember her from a really crappy Nicolas Cage fantasy movie, Season of the Witch; that and Bleak House).
Also, the lovely Vanessa Kirby, who Tom really dug in Kill Command, is excellent as Princess Margaret.
The show is completely BBC/Masterpiece Theater in its style and talyor made for the Downton Abby crowd. Still it’s production values are superb, the writing good, and some terrific acting. Lithgow as Churchill while about a foot to tall reminds what a great actor he is.
Watched a few episodes and liked it, but it didn’t compel me to keep watching. The upstairs/downstairs thing you see in Downton Abbey doesn’t work as well when the upstairs is the highest branch of royalty. I’m finding the same thing with the recent Victoria series from the BBC on PBS.
It could also be historical versus fictional. We never know for sure what’s going to happen in Downton because it’s fiction, but we sort of know the historical of Elizabeth and Victoria.
So, season 2 is out and available now. I’m five episodes in and am enjoying it as much as the first season so far - John Lithgow’s absence notwithstanding.
I’m really liking the cast. On the one hand it’ll be sad to see Claire Foy et al go after this season, one the other hand I’m glad they decided against using the same actors with ‘old-people make-up’.
