Movies vs. TV Series | Moviemasterdigvijay

MOVIES VS. TV SERIES: WHO IS THE ULTIMATE WINNER?

"Come on now guys, TV series is the winner by a mile!"

"To heck with you and your overrated boring shows. Movies are the eventual winner, easy-peasy"

Movies vs. TV series - who knew that the two media of entertainment would be locked in an intense battle among audiences? Ever since the first public screening of short films by the Lumiere brothers in Paris on 28 December 1895,and the premiere of the first television drama 'The Queen's Messanger' on 11 September 1928, audiences have been bombarded with increasingly large number of movies as well as television dramas. In their early days, television dramas and movies were strictly regarded as two separate forms of entertainment - directors and actors were strictly pigeonholed to either movies or TV shows- with virtually no opportunities for them to cross over from one media to the other. Alfred Hitchcock, regarded as the 'master of suspense' by the movie community worldwide, was one of the first personalities from the movie industry who made the television show 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' that ran from 1955 to 1965, with Alfred directing a handful of episodes in addition to appearing as himself in the title sequence and providing a plot exposition at the conclusion. Such a bold step, though decades ahead of its time, did not inspire movie directors to try their hand in television dramas.

In the 80s, Bruce Willis was one of the first stars who successfully made the switch from television to movie - he was the lead in the TV drama 'Moonlighting' before he became an overnight success after the release of the movie 'Die Hard' , which was only his third movie in a lead role. More actors from television soon followed suit, with Will Smith, Steve Carrell, Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Joseph Gordon-Levitt ,who got their starts in television, becoming bonafide movie stars. The advent of streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon, with their bold strategies, like investing on actors like Kevin Spacey to play the lead in 'House of Cards', releasing the entire season in one go instead of releasing a single episode weekly, and pumping more and more money to ensure higher production values in television dramas as well, has increased the quality of television shows by leaps and bounds, resulting in a more heated debate among audiences - Are TV shows really better than movies? Is it the 'Golden Age' of television right now?

Without much further ado, let us analyse movies and TV shows on various aspects:

1. Character Development:

This is one of the most important aspects of both movies and television dramas - in which television seems to be clear winner here because of the obvious fact that television dramas get to have a much longer running time than movies! I have seen a large number of movies in which certain characters undergo drastic changes in their behaviour, which looks rushed and illogical more often than not. One moment a character is cowering in fear, and after a few minutes, he manages to take on a large number of goons single-handedly just to save the damsel in distress! One prime example that comes to my mind is the movie 'Collateral' released in 2004 starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx which I feel is grossly overrated. How could Max Durocher(played by Jamie Foxx), a cab driver with a soft-spoken personality suddenly transform to a hero and fight against a trained hitman named Vincent(played by Tom Cruise)?

TO BE CONTINUED.......