Theory: Television is better than movies

At the recommendation of my dad, I watched the PBS documentary series called America in Primetime, about the evolution of American television. There are four episodes and they're all on Netflix and you should definitely watch if you have any interest in TV or stories or happiness. I'll summarize the four episodes here and give my own two cents on the topic.

The first episode is about male characters. Men on TV started out as wise, composed, Father Knows Best types. Then they went to the opposite extreme and became bumbling idiots a la Homer Simpson.  Both representations are clearly unrealistic. Finally we're seeing intricate, flawed, realistic male characters on TV.

The second episode is about female characters. Women on TV started off as the model housewife: polite, respectful, beautiful and always making a cake. Then we started to see comedic roles like in I Love Lucy and then, at long last, career women! How modern! Current day women characters can be practically anything and just as complex as their male counterparts.

The third episode, about misfit characters, explains the outsider's evolution from the butt of the joke to the star of the show. Really, though, what show features a lead character that is popular and universally well liked? And how many people are like this is real life? It's important for characters to be relatable and misfit characters generally are.

The final and fourth episode dealt with heroes, crusaders. They're gone from wholesome, upstanding, totally good guys who fight totally evil bad guys to being submerged completely in the gray area. Gray area is actually the best thing ever. Of course, Breaking Bad's protagonist is breaking all the rules for traditional "heroes" but there are a ton of modern TV characters who do the right things for the wrong reasons or the wrong things for the right reasons. And sometimes they screw up completely. This is so much more interesting than white and black, good and evil. Not to mention, it's more reflective of the real world.

Watching this show made me super excited about my current dream job: being a TV writer. It was said that the main focus of TV shows is really character development, and that process is a collaboration between actors and writers. Everyone else involved in making a show is much more on the periphery than they are in movies. The main message of the show is that we've reached a new golden age of television, where TV shows are actually better than movies. I couldn't agree more. At least if you're looking for drama and storytelling, you're not going to find it in theaters near you. Not with any frequency.

Obviously, it's easier to build characters over several years as opposed to two hours. But it can be done and it has been done. It's just not done very often anymore. Why? Movies have obviously become big budget, CGI, 3D fests, even ones that shouldn't be (The Great Gatsby, anyone?). Movies are visual spectacles the majority of the time. Although a lot of TV shows have really great special effects these days, the lower budget of television could actually be an advantage. Maybe a bloated budget is too tempting, and unneeded, expensive effects are thrown in for the heck of it. In TV shows more focus is placed on the story and characters. And hearing all this made me bounce up and down in excitement.

I've had plenty of ideas for TV shows... Mischief Managed (heh heh), but also a wholly original one lately as part of my epic, sci-fi franchise that's gonna happen soonish. I've finished the pilot episode ("Awesome Pilot is Awesome") and know pretty much what's going to happen in the first two seasons.

I've also been downloading and reading as many teleplays as I get my hands on and let me tell you - Vince Gilligan (writer/director/creator of Breaking Bad) writes darn good teleplays. He makes it just about as interesting and entertaining to read the script as to watch the show - and that's not easy to do. I clearly have a lot to learn... and I need need need screenwriting software. Want to donate to the cause? Haha, kidding... But seriously. Please donate.

Being a TV writer would be ridiculously amazing. More of it is dialogue than if you're writing a novel and I'm a beast at dialogue. Just saying. And you get to take in feedback as you go and adjust according to what your viewers want. Which is something I've already been doing because of the way longer fanfictions are posted: chapter by chapter. And giving your dedicated readers/viewers what they want is a great feeling; it changes from writing because I love it to writing because they love it. And I really love that.

So find America in Primetime either on Netflix or right here and watch it. Maybe it will make you as excited as it made me!