Thoughts on Movies
Their time has passed.
Over history, the preferred form for storytelling has changed with the times and technology. Before writing, tales were told as long poems — it’s easier to memorize poems than prose because the rhymes provide structure. In Shakespeare’s time, the play was the thing. The novel appeared in the mid-1700’s (Pamela, 1740) and movies were born at the turn of the 20th century with the invention of electric light.
Movies, or cinema, settled into a formula. They last something like 90-150 minutes. There is a limit to how long people can sit without a bathroom break, so longer movies include an intermission. However, the cost of production being what it is, shorter rather than longer became the preferred format. Television appeared in homes soon after World War II. TV shows, black and white only at first, lasted either 30 or 60 minutes. A new episode typically appeared every week at the same time.
A radical new format was born in 1977. According to critic Matt Zoller Steitz, “Roots is the most important scripted program in broadcast network history. It aired across eight consecutive nights in January 1977 — a go-for-broke gesture by ABC, which made the mini-series out of a sense of social obligation and wanted to ‘burn off’ the entire run quickly in a mostly dead programming month” (New York Magazine, 5/27/16).
Roots was a phenomenon. Afterward, more books received miniseries treatment, including notably Shogun (1980), Thornbirds (1983), and V (1983). My personal favorite is A Town Like Alice (1981), an Australian production aired by BBC/Masterpiece Theater. I read the book later, and for the first time I realized that a dramatization could be equal to or better than the book it came from.
The miniseries came into its own with Netflix. Netflix released entire seasons of TV programming available for the first time be “binged,” one episode after another, on demand.
In search of content, Netflix and other streaming services began producing shows of their own. Some, like the old TV shows, are intended to run multiple seasons open-ended until cancelled. However, others follow the traditional narrative arc of Introduction — Conflict —Crisis — Denouement. The story ends. These are being marketed as “limited series.”
Popular film stars are willing to commit to a limited series when they might not have contracted for a years-long tv series. Filming is intense for a predictable time and then it’s done. Crash Landing on You (2018) took six months to film 16 episodes. There is no second season; the story ends and it’s finished. Caveat — a popular series may get additional seasons added, such as the Korean series Dr. Romantic (2016), Dr. Romantic 2 (2020), and Dr. Romantic 3 (2023). Also, multiple books may legitimately require multiple seasons. Bridgerton’s first season was comprised of eight 90-minute episodes in Season 1 and there are nine books in the series. Each book and presumably each season will feature the romantic journey of one of the Bridgerton siblings.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that Hollywood’s future role will be focused on producing content for home consumption. The industry is already adapting. Recently released theatrical movies are available online for a fee. That’s still a bargain price compared to the multiplex, especially if more than one person wants to watch.