TV vs. Movies

I just read a post from Jim Emerson's blog. He's the editor of RogerEbert.com. He asks if movies can live up to TV. I think this is a brilliant question. I have become more and more convinced over the past several years that television is a better medium for storytelling than film. Part of this decision is personal. I enjoy the slow, developed characterization that can happen in the best of TV shows. You just can't get that in a movie, even an excellent movie. There's not enough time. My DVD purchases over the past two years have illustrated this preference in my life quite drastically. I have probably purchased 20 or so movies and approximately 60 seasons of TV. I would much prefer to buy one season of television over three movies. I'm also much more likely to buy a TV show I haven't seen yet than a movie I haven't seen yet.

One interesting development in television is the idea that you could purchase your shows and/or channels a la carte. You would pay for exactly what you want to watch and only that. At first glance, this seems to be a good idea. The only glaring flaw I see right now is that educational programming will suffer. Networks are required by law to have a certain amount of public or educational broadcasting.

Another option that has been floating around is that we could download specific programs to a TiVoesque machine and bypass the network all together. This is VERY appealing to me. If this worked, there would be a direct link between the public and the production company. For example - I could buy Firefly episode by episode and the stupid network-that-will-not be-named (*cough*FOX*cough*) couldn't cancel it! A production company could figure out exactly how many viewers it needed to make a profit and if they were out there - the show succeeds. None of this crazy (and highly inaccurate) Nielsen business. Am I willing to pay $1 per episode of a show? I don't know. That actually ends up to be a little cheaper than my current cable, especially if you take into account that I won't be paying for re-runs. However, I wouldn't have access to shows that I didn't plan ahead for and order. It's an interesting thought worth exploring.