TV series

@PBR_81

It feels a bit like movies are on the decline and television shows is in the ascendant. Movies are usually more limited than TV shows, although they are similar to series in have a beginning, a middle and an end, but the time span in between are very different. A film may be about 120 minutes long and then it´s over, if there are sequels, the story becomes a bit longer. TV shows can go on for several years, where various scriptwriters and directors can move the story forward, new characters can come and go.

It also feels that the status to take part in a TV series has improved. In the past, it felt like it was the B-cast that made the series, the quality was quite poor sometimes. Now the boundaries are getting thin, maybe they even disappeared completely. It´s hard to say when this transition began, but after series such as The Sopranos and Six Feet Under, it feels like you look at TV-series in a completely different way.

Iconic roles as James Galdolfini´s; Tony Soprano, Michael C. Hall´s; Dexter and Jim Parsons; Sheldon Cooper become almost a hallmark, and they have become more well-known than many actors who only makes feature films. This is not actors who stars in TV series just because they did not receive any roles in the movies, they are really good actors. They win a lot of awards and have equal stardom, or even greater than the classic Hollywood stars.

Some years ago I believe that most actors would rather star in feature films then somewhat cheap TV productions. Nowadays, it can almost be a bigger boost to go the other way. Like Kiefer Sutherland; 24 and Charlie Sheen; Two and a half men, they certainly got many more devoted fans by featuring in their long running television series.

The image quality, the screenplay and character development has come a long way from charming but repetitive series such as MacGyver, Seinfeld and Sex and the city, where stereotypical characters barely have any significant character development. Looking at old series today it is also hard not to be bothered by the music in the background, which today usually come in much softer.

I usually say that Seinfeld gave us The Big Bang Theory, there are many similarities between the two series, although in some ways they are very different. The Sitcom has despite its rigid framework evolved a lot. Sex and the city gave us the Desperate Housewifes, where the friendship between four women develops into something more than just comedy and the simple stories of standard soap operas, it has another level of mystery.

Then there is the series that became and remained iconic pieces as David Lynch; Twin Peaks and Lars von Trier 's; The Kingdom. The directors created their own worlds that don´t follow our real world but shows a completely different reality.

I wonder how the actors from the Harry Potter films, that for years played the same characters in many movies, would do in TV series. Their characters development is spanning over many years similar to the characters in TV shows. I read somewhere, (and even if it may just be a rumor, the idea is interesting), Emma Watson, who plays Hermione Granger in the previously mentioned films, might play in a kind of Beauty and the beast Katie Chandlerrole as Linda Hamilton did in the eighties. This would be directed by Guillermo del Toro, who previously made Pan's Labyrinth, so I guess it would be a darker version, I heard it would be named Beast. If this would even be a TV serie, and not just a movie, I don´t know. The story could in the hands of Guillermo del Toro have the potential of being as timeless as Twin Peaks. But since there already are a new Beauty and Beastversion that unfortunately, I have to say, is another in a row of those doses teen TV series that overflows TV today, but they have a market obviously.

I wonder how other TV serie actors will continue their careers. It is easy to become a typecast after some roles. Like Marcia Cross, who played the pedantic housewife Bree Van De Kamp in Desperate Housewife’s, or Eva Longoria from the same series who played the former model Gabrielle Solis. Can they tackle new roles? Or are they stuck in their iconic roles for the rest of their careers? It's the same thing with Jennifer Carpenter and her role as Debra Morgan in Dexter, who talk like a Die Hard movie, cursing in almost every sentence, not just once, double, triple and quadruple curses, and it still sounds completely natural. I am less worried about Michael C. Hall, who plays Dexter, he has already made a big role in a TV series before Dexter as David Fisher in Six feet under. I actually saw him in Dexter first, and found it difficult to see him as someone other than Dexter at first, but his convincing performance made me see him as a David too. It's nice to see that some ´Dexter characteristics´ in his acting was showing there already and it was of course his brilliant acting in Six feet, who gave him his own series Dexter.

What I feel is that television shows have more texture than movies these days, of course, with some exceptions. The strength is that you can really get to know the characters in depth, the weakness is of course that a series concept after a few seasons can get pretty drayed out. 

Or what do you think?

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