Entertainment is Dead; Long Live Entertainment!

[captain_slinky]

Once upon a time I wished that more of my favorite things (comic books, cartoons, books, etc) would be turned in to Movies or Prime-Time TV Shows; Experience and age have taught me that this is the worst possible thing that could ever happen to a beloved story. It had gotten to the point where if I read a headline like "Judge Dredd to be adapted to the Big Screen featuring Sylvester Stallone", I cringed. I learned that these stories are to complex and involved to be told in just 90-minutes. I wished that they'd just make a Prime-Time TV show of these things, that's the only way it could be done properly...

...And then we got stuff like "Birds Of Prey" and "Mutant X" which, while *watchable*, were hardly able to capture the awesomeness of the comics that they were trying to mimic.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer paved the way for the New Entertainment - Episodic television that you didn't HAVE to watch every episode in order to understand and appreciate, but when/if you watched the whole thing you got an incredible, decompressed story that left you GLOWING.

Movies are done; if Hollywood has any more great ideas, they should all be done in 13-to-22 episodes rather than crammed in to a 90-minute movie. You want to make a movie, make it a two-part episode instead!

Game Of Thrones.
Breaking Bad
Mad Men
Boardwalk Empire
Orange Is The New Black
Arrested Development
The Walking Dead
Falling Skies
Lost
Heroes

I'm sure I'm missing some, but those are the shows that come to mind that have done this formula (mostly) right. I WANT MORE OF THESE!!!

Comments

[lynna12000.livejournal.com]

I'd say that Disney/Marvel is the exception to that. (thus far) Of course, they are smart enough to build a universe around their heroes, i.e. Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and link it all together. (The Avengers) Each movie can be viewed on it's own, or as an episode of the story.

Pity DC/Time Warner hasn't learned that. They should just prove your theory about episodic stories and stick to doing the television versions of their heroes. Smallville was good, and scarily, Arrow is pretty good too. I was pleasantly surprised.

Then again, Disney is about to launch 'Marvels' Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' Who knows they may prove that you can do movie AND television comic books, and give the characters the credit they are due.

[aurora77]

I hardly ever watch movies anymore. There's enough good TV available.

Mad Men is fantastic. Orange is the New Black is amazing in so many ways. GoT is of course great. I can't quite watch Walking Dead or Breaking Bad, but I'm sure they're great for the types of show they are. They're just not for me. Heroes Season 1 was good. S2 fell flat. I enjoyed Arrested Development, but I can't watch much of it at once. Maybe one episode and then I'm good for a few days at least. There's something about it that stresses me out while watching it and it builds if I keep watching it. I don't know Falling Skies. I tried to get into Lost but never really did.

I love a good long epic TV series. ^_^