Tarantino on why movies are better than TV shows

[George K]

Link to video

[Jolly]

Interesting. Rogan barely got in a dozen sentences.

Tarantino is partially right. A lot of tv is now serials and serials can become forgetful. But I think he's giving short shrift to episodic tv.

He admits it's more memorable. Think of the better episodic tv shows and there's more good ones than they talked about. And you can add anthology tv to it.

Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The Andy Griffith Show, Playhouse 90, The Twilight Zone, and others, all have memorable episodes.

I think the best comparison would be a novel (movie), a novella (mini-series, or current short season tv) and short stories (episodic tv).

[jon-nyc]

I’ve watched very little modern tv. I think I’ve streamed exactly two shows on Netflix unless you count the DVD days in which case my total is five.

And even I recognize that he’s right.

[George K]

I think @Mik commented on Day of the Jackal - it's a perfect novel for a miniseries.

Perhaps the reason is that storytelling has to have a beginning, middle and end. The example of "Deadwood" is good for pointing that out. After Cody dies, the writers said, "Now what???"

OTOH (getting into the Sci-fi arena), shows like Babylon 5 and The Expanse were pitched with a goal of telling a long story, with an appropriate end. However, you run into problems when the network decides not to renew your show at the end of the penultimate season (like both of these series). You have to have a "trap door" to close it out prematurely.

[Mik]

Is filet mignon better than veal rib chops? Silly. Is classical, music better than classical jazz? Trying to establish which is "better" is rather a fool's errand. He may like movies better, but that doesn't make it so.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Mik said in Tarantino on why movies are better than TV shows:

Is filet mignon better than veal rib chops? Silly. Is classical, music better than classical jazz? Trying to establish which is "better" is rather a fool's errand. He may like movies better, but that doesn't make it so.

It would be quite surprising if a film maker thought TV shows were better than movies.

[taiwan_girl]

I think that one thing US TV has shifted to, especially with streaming, is to have shows with a fixed number of shows. I guess what Jolly calls mini-series. From what I have hear, these were not too common before.

I think it is a good thing. Allows a longer story telling, but not too long.

Oftentimes, shows with no end date go on too long. I remember, boy it was probably 10 years ago, I watched a show called "Sons of Anarchy" about a motorcycle gang. Quite interesting to watch at first, but after a while, it should have stopped. It just went on too long.

[Mik]

Yeah, I initially thought SOA went on too long, but there was an arc and definite character development. I think the viewers' weariness echoed Jax's downward spiral until the end. Pretty Shakespearean actually.

[Copper]

He makes a living selling movies.