Movies vs. Television

Can someone please explain to me why actors want to graduate from television to movies? I’ve really never understood the appeal. Working on a television is steady work, hopefully over a number of years. The hours are incredibly long and surely can be exhausting, but you do get several months off every year.

If the issue is creativity, you have the hiatus to work on other pet projects. But really, if you want to tell a story you should need more than 2 hours to accomplish the goal. Movies have the big budgets and big names, but television consistently has the best stories. If you want your character to be more than a caricature, you’ll need to devote some years to the process.

Think about romantic comedies, the incessant bread and butter of the movie industry. You have to describe an entire love story in 90 minutes while including some sort of back story for the other characters. This is obviously pretty difficult, based on the number of failed attempts. If you have two characters on television who are ultimately supposed to fall for each other, you can tell your story more organically.

What’s even better is that you can have a television series about absolutely anything, and have the love arc be part of the series. You ever see a movie with much nuance? Movies are one dimensional by definition, but a long running series can tell all the stories within the story. You get to create an entire world. Movies rarely achieve that goal.

And the love story example is just a simple angle, science fiction necessitates a suspension of disbelief that can have a far grander scope on television than in a movie. Star Trek is an excellent example because the movie franchise necessitated the short running series to create context. The movies are successful because they built off of television, not the other way around.

It just makes me wonder why George Clooney graduating up from ER is a good thing. It’s certainly more profitable, but is his acting and story telling better or worse for making the jump? Now that premium television like HBO and Showtime et al are putting together great original content (avoiding much of the “networks” butchery) it seems like television is the way to go.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy movies and always will. There are certain things that can only be done well in movies. But let’s dispel with the rumor that they are a better medium.

Life Changes

I’ve had a vague feeling of discontent my entire life. The degree varies over the years, but the underlining feeling has always been there. It’s a little bit of sadness, a touch of dread, and a heaping scoop of malcontent. It’s probably a problem that I need to change before it eats me alive.

Fortunately, I think I’ve decided what can cure my ailment. Lust! I need a little bit of lust in my life. I need someone (or several someones) to become completely and illogically enamored with the C. What do you think? It sounds awesome, I know.

I know people like to talk about love and la de da de da. All you need is love and all that jazz. Friends, family, lovers, blah, blah, etc. bullshit, bullshit. Love is great until someone rips your still beating heart from your chest to be trampled by a herd of hopes and dreams. Which apparently happens all the time. I watch a lot of tv, and it’s pretty thematic of every goddamn show.

Look folks, I’ve been bummed about things and all, but all of my drinking binges have been purely recreational. People take their relationships way too seriously. Hell, people take life way too seriously. And that’s why I think I need to reduce my existence to pure innate attraction.

Now all I need to do is find a way for people to lust after me without adjusting my lethargic lifestyle…

Aussies

They have a great accent, don’t they? You hear someone with an Australian accent and you just assume that they are badass. It could be some fat bastard, but when you hear him talk you figure he’s wrestled crocodiles and swam with sharks. You see a fat American and you assume he shops at Wal-Mart. It’s not quite fair, is it?

And what’s with the language? You hear an Aussie guy say “G’day mate!” with such enthusiasm that you smile politely. But hey man, it’s not a "good" "day" and we ain’t gonna mate. But when the chick (who is obviously badass) says “g’day mate!” it’s all “Hey-ho-helllooo!” And mating is required, obviously.

Weird stuff: “put shrimp on the bahbie” What the hell? I ain’t putting any shrimp on Barbie, that’s just a sick fetish thing. What’s wrong with that country? Although I hear that those crazy Northern Asians also have some sort of sushi version.

You can’t trust these people, they all come to the U.S. and sound like us, take our “badass dude” and “hot badass chick” acting gigs away from hard working Americans’. Then you hear them in the interview and it’s all “g’days” and “bahbies.” We’re being invaded, and it’s obviously a conspiracy.

It’s almost as bad as the Canadians, but you already know what they’re aboot.