Unpopular Geek Media Opinions

[trappedslider]

Speaking of streaming: I'm convinced streaming media was better when Netflix was effectively a monopoly. Once we got competing platforms, the streaming experience turned into "Cable + DVR" v. 2.0.

Unpopular opinion?

If it is, i'll share my food with you on our island

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

@Staffan
Babylon5 is not prestige TV. In addition to the fact that they had to do a lot of "monster of the week" episodes early on, it also lacked a few of the the hallmarks that we think about today in addition to the complete serialization (high budget etc.).

@Ryujin
I can't even. The X-Files' best episodes were, by far, the stand-alone episodes. The "mythology" episodes were only decent until you realized that there was never actually any point to them.

Regardless, people can (and do) argue about the proto-shows. Oz? Hill Street Blues? Buffy? Sure. All those and more. But Sopranos definitely marked a stark diving line in terms of television product.

 

[payn]

Speaking of streaming: I'm convinced streaming media was better when Netflix was effectively a monopoly. Once we got competing platforms, the streaming experience turned into "Cable + DVR" v. 2.0.

Unpopular opinion?

Just how it is. Why folks didnt see this coming is beyond me.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

It might be worth considering that this is actually a very modern mindset. In the early days "film" was often serial based, including newsreels, story serials (e.g. Perils of Pauline, Andy Hardy, etc), or short form stories (Three Stooges, Looney Tunes, etc). And during those days, full length movies were often much longer, with intermissions.

I'm no film historian, but the idea of a "traditional movie" as you frame it probably originates somewhere around the advent of scheduled show times. IIRC, that started around when "Psycho" was released.

So, in a lot of ways, what we're seeing with non-standard number of shows, personalized viewing schedules, different show lengths, and changing release cycles is much more of a return to form for film than it is a new idea.

I have to disagree with this. Many of the things you mention are the serials that played before movies. The idea of movies as single events goes back to the earliest days of the Business. D.W. Griffith (not in the highest repute today, for obvious reasons) was making "modern" features in the '10s, and by the 20s the movies as spectacle was well-established (look at the first Academy Awards in 1929 for examples).

That doesn't mean that there weren't serials as well, but the movie qua movie that we think of today was well-established in the infancy of the industry.

 

[payn]

@Staffan
Babylon5 is not prestige TV. In addition to the fact that they had to do a lot of "monster of the week" episodes early on, it also lacked a few of the the hallmarks that we think about today in addition to the complete serialization (high budget etc.).

@Ryujin
I can't even. The X-Files' best episodes were, by far, the stand-alone episodes. The "mythology" episodes were only decent until you realized that there was never actually any point to them.

Regardless, people can (and do) argue about the proto-shows. Oz? Hill Street Blues? Buffy? Sure. All those and more. But Sopranos definitely marked a stark diving line in terms of television product.

I tend to view most of these as "missing links". Sort of the stepping stones into serial prestige television with Sopranos being the arrival.

 

[Ryujin]

@Staffan
Babylon5 is not prestige TV. In addition to the fact that they had to do a lot of "monster of the week" episodes early on, it also lacked a few of the the hallmarks that we think about today in addition to the complete serialization (high budget etc.).

@Ryujin
I can't even. The X-Files' best episodes were, by far, the stand-alone episodes. The "mythology" episodes were only decent until you realized that there was never actually any point to them.

Regardless, people can (and do) argue about the proto-shows. Oz? Hill Street Blues? Buffy? Sure. All those and more. But Sopranos definitely marked a stark diving line in terms of television product.

The best being stand-alone episodes in no way eliminates that there was a consistent through-line in the series

 

[Bedrockgames]

I remember this being a point made by a horror movie guide from the early 1980s. There's a real difference in experience with a horror movie in the theater vs watching on a television in your own familiar and comfortable home where you control the lighting level.

Even with our large wide screen TVs, it still doesn't capture the size of the big screen. That makes a difference if you are watching a director who knows how to use that space

 

[Reynard]

The idea that "serial" is new completely misses a huge force in television for decades: the daytime (and sometimes evening) Soap Opera.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

The best being stand-alone episodes in no way eliminates that there was a consistent through-line in the series

A consistent through line is not the same as serialized story-telling. TNG has a consistent through line, but it's not serialized story-telling. To me, this is pretty easy.

If I asked you to list the best Y episodes of the X-Files, what is the value of Y before you would get one (ONE) mythology episode? Twenty? Thirty? More?

I genuinely love both the X-Files and B5, but I think that they aren't antecedents for Sopranos. IMO, that comes from a Rockford Files / Hillstreet Blues / Homicide line.

I'd argue that there is a separate sci-fi line that started seeing increasing serialization in the late 80s and especially in the 90s, with shows trying out variations of the "monster/problem of the week" with some type of overarching ideas that were loosely involved in the "arc" of the show.

 

[payn]

The idea that "serial" is new completely misses a huge force in television for decades: the daytime (and sometimes evening) Soap Opera.

I do not think folks are claiming serial to be new, but that at a point it took over as the majority format.