I like to think of myself as a guy with pretty decent taste in film and television. I don't go to the movies every weekend to see such formulaic, high-concept dreg as EPIC MOVIE, NORBIT, and PREMONITION, and I rarely turn on (the Emmy-winning, sigh) TWO AND A HALF MEN, or other hack job sitcoms. I appreciate the work that goes into making movies and television a reality, and I believe that I can separate the good from the bad pretty well.
Ever since I saw the final installation of THE LORD OF THE RINGS in theaters, I've been soaking up movies like a kid using 'Hooked on Phonics' soaks up vocab. Over the past year or so, though, I've really began delving into television as well. Shows such as ABC's LOST, Fox's 24, HBO's THE WIRE, FX's RESCUE ME, THE SHIELD, and NIP/TUCK, and even NBC's newest drama THE BLACK DONNELLYS are all favorites of mine. I believe them all to be ambitious, smartly-written shows with deep meanings and exceptional entertainment values. I find myself often asking, though, can they touch the movies?
Take LOST, for instance. I consider it to be TV's best, and most frustrating, work of art. Deeply meditative and simultaneously thrilling on several levels, it teases its audience constantly, throwing question after question after question at its audience, and not always bothering to answer those questions. It isn't hard to comprehend though, and as deep as it is, it often succumbs to formula and repetition, staying in the audience's comfort zone to retain viewers who may not want to keep up with a true head-trip. If you want something that will truly make you say 'What the hell was that?!', rent a David Lynch film. MULHOLLAND DRIVE, BLUE VELVET, and LOST HIGHWAY are truly disturbing, fascinating looks at crime, insanity, and morality.
THE WIRE, HBO's most under appreciated and best (take that, SOPRANOS) show, is a sprawling epic, a true-life tragedy of the downfall of an American city masked as a cop procedural. It tells the tale of the drug dealers, pimps, cops, students, dock workers, and coke heads in Baltimore with an almost documentary-like quality, instead of vying for the slick, over-stylized look you might find on CSI: MIAMI or the like. And even though it may be the best show dealing with crime and violence in America ever produced, can it touch THE DEPARTED? The performances, writing, and direction are superb, but are they even worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as Martin Scorsese (the best director of this generation)'s masterpiece? The film was so great it was almost distracting, because one keeps thinking 'this is so effing awesome!!!'
There isn't a better character on TV than 24's hero, Jack Bauer. Just the name makes fanboys excited. 24 is the most exciting, revelatory action show in TV history, one of the first to use real-time production well. With the budget alotted to it, the action sequences are as spectacular as TV offers, with explosions and "Put down your WEAPON!"s galore. Pound-for-pound, though, they aren't even comparable to those of big-budget Hollywood films such as the normal Michael Bay production (THE ISLAND, BAD BOYS, TRANSFORMERS) or the common superhero film.
Of course, there is also the issue of how watching movies are better than watching TV. The best of TV shows are usually non-procedural shows (the exception being LAW & ORDER), and shows such as LOST and 24, as great as they are, really need to be seen every week to be able to keep up with. Movies are much easier: a two-hour investment, and then you part ways forever.
Winner: Movies. Hands down.
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