We’re Doing Little Movies

It’s the biggest cliches of the TV season. You hear it in almost every interview with a showrunner or a star (particularly movie stars who have moved to TV) hyping their new show:

"This show is like a movie every week."

Or the popular variations:

"We’re doing little movies."

"The entire season is like a 22-episode movie."

"We’re bringing feature film production values, feature film writing, and feature film acting to the TV screen every week."

I wonder how many times we’ll hear it this season ( I’ve already read it in four interviews today, hence the rant). Just once, I’d like to hear them say "We’re doing a really good TV series." What’s so damn impressive about comparing TV to movies? The fact is, what’s on TV these days is a hell of a lot better than what’s in theatres. I’d like to see the cliche turn… and to start hearing feature directors and stars saying:

"This movie is like an entire season of a TV series crammed into 97 minutes."

2 thoughts on “We’re Doing Little Movies”

  1. Movies or TV

    The truth is that I get so much more satisfaction from TV than movies these days, mainly because there are so few films that are actually willing to place any demands upon their audiences the way that continuity driven, ensemble shows like BSG, Veron…

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  2. Love what you say here. Always thought what’s so impressive about movies that TV should feel the poor country cousin. A lot more can be done with a season of TV, even an hour of TV than can be done today with the special effects love fest. Not saying that I don’t like movies, but I haven’t found one worthy to go to in months… the last one being “Must Love Dogs” which I was shocked to see that others didn’t like, yet there’s good stuff going on on FX, TNT, and USA right now.
    Loved your comment about 22 episodes crammed into 97 minutes… loved the sentiment, but if only…

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