Beyond Favorite vs. Best - the Cream of the Crop (TV/Film Discussion)

[The Firebird]

Im curious what makes 8 episodes a slog, but 24 episodes engaging?

Though, looking at my question above, im guessing the self contained episode makes it seem like a complete story. Would you say that is what it feels like?

Yeah, that's it. Like visually, the formats are:

Linear: ------------------------------>

Episodic: ⟳ ⟳ ⟳ ⟳ ⟳
------------------->

where in the episodic format, there is a long term direction, but its constructed of many individual, self-contained narratives. (as well as I can sketch it here. I hope that works).

In the serialized one, its easy to imagine slotting in more episodes that stand on their own. But in the linear one, anything you add just stretches out the main plot. You could make another House episode between S2E13 and S2E14 and be just fine, but if Breaking Bad had to fit content between S2E10 and S2E11 the pacing would be thrown.

 

[payn]

Yeah, that's it. Like visually, the formats are:

Linear: ------------------------------>

Episodic: ⟳ ⟳ ⟳ ⟳ ⟳
------------------->

where in the episodic format, there is a long term direction, but its constructed of many individual, self-contained narratives. (as well as I can sketch it here. I hope that works).

In the serialized one, its easy to imagine slotting in more episodes that stand on their own. But in the linear one, anything you add just stretches out the main plot. You could make another House episode between S2E13 and S2E14 and be just fine, but if Breaking Bad had to fit content between S2E10 and S2E11 the pacing would be thrown.

Part of it, I think, is the unfortunate business side of things. I know Lost originally was a 2-3 season idea that was too popular to end so soon on the corp account. With The Leftovers you can see what a difference in format and expectations can deliver. Many of these shorter format series indeed could be 2-3 hour movies that seem to have been stretched into an 8 hour format too.

 

[Gradine]

Deadwood - Shakespearean in language and tone if Shakespeare also knew the F word. So rewatchable. So quotable.

This is the correct and accurate description of this very excellent show; Deadwood is the show I point to when I complain about people using "Shakespearean" as a name for a dialect, rather than a specific quality of writing.

Deadwood does have fewer dick jokes though