Why TV series are worse than movies

[Bravosi]

Have you ever gotten into watching an addicting TV series? When you understood the lore of that universe, learned about the characters, and you sit down every evening just to find out what will happen next?

Well I’ve got news for you. It gets worse.

Although I can relate to the given situation, being a TV series fan myself. I came to realize that watching good movies is far more pleasing. Not only because you don’t have to wait for days or even years to find out what happens next, but primary because the TV series can go downhill and it won’t meet your expectations with time.

What do you think? Which one do you prefer?

[najam]

I prefer Movie because with in two hours, there is complete entertainment package.  while TV series is so boring. we have to Waite a lot of days to understand the whole story. which keeps us in our mind all the times. 

[Chormingo]

While I can sympathize with the frustration of waiting for the next installment in a television show only for it to disappoint when it finally airs, I would have to disagree with your assertion that said frustration makes tv somehow worse than movies. I also would disagree with your premise that this is a black/white issue and that one is better than the other. Television and Movies are different expressions of the audio/visual medium, which begun to diverge because of the separate screening technologies in which they evolved (television existing in a form that kept the viewer interested through commercial breaks, movies existing in a form intended to satisfy viewers with a value worth the cost of admission). In our time however, streaming platforms have increasingly blurred the lines that caused the difference between these two mediums. For example, we can now watch entire television series without having to wait between episodes and seasons, and some television shows are designed to be viewed as long movies, split into multiple "episodes." That being said, I would argue that the episodic nature of television provides it with strengths that are absent from movies. For example, television allows more time to "live" with the characters in a story, and see them in situations that would be cut out of a movie to keep it under a certain length. While any movie with a length over 3 hours would normally be deemed gratuitous, television series can total over 10 hours a season. The anticipation between seasons of television shows makes them feel more like an event to the people who watch them, and there is a shared joy in consuming something as a community. 

On 12/3/2018 at 3:25 AM, najam said:

I prefer Movie because with in two hours, there is complete entertainment package.  while TV series is so boring. we have to Waite a lot of days to understand the whole story. which keeps us in our mind all the times. 

I would also have to disagree with your assertion that the length of an artwork can be used as a measure of its merit. For example, you would not ding a great work of literature for being longer than 90 pages. Why ding a television show for containing over two hours of content? Yes, a strength of movies is that they are often self contained narratives with a complete story, but sometimes the longer length of a television show allows for the experiencing of more emotion, more story, and more catharsis. And, as I mentioned before, the existence of streaming platforms should alleviate your concerns of waiting for that next episode or season. 

[Lena Lvova]

I think that TV series' and movies are two different art forms, and thus should be approached as such. I agree that TV shows can be soul sucking, especially with new features on services like Netflix that let you easily binge watch without a pause. However, TV can be beneficial in bringing a book series, or even just one book, to screen - movies have a time limit, and fans of the book are often disappointed in all the details left out. A TV show, however, could follow a format like having one episode be one or two chapters, or one season being one book of the series. 

[FIREWOMAN]

I find that TV series are worse that movies only because the TV series almost becomes a part of your make up.. It has now trickled its way in your life as a thing to do on a regular basis. Characters almost become people you know. You get attached to a character and often times cant see them in another role which can be a detriment to the actor. Although I do enjoy the regularity and familiarity of the characters as sometimes in a movie it can just 'end to soon' . I have left some movies feeling like man I wish I can find out what happened to so and so. on the other hand the use of the imagination is what movies leave you with.. you can ultimately right your own ending however you want.