TV Outshining Cinema?
TV, long considered a ‘wasteland’, is enjoying a widely acknowledged creative renaissance at the same time as movies are striking out. Joseph Childers examines why.
They’re both mass audience, visual narrative mediums with big budgets. But TV, long considered a ‘wasteland’, is enjoying a creative renaissance while movies are striking out. Joseph Childers says, “many of the problems revolve around the monopoly of the Big Six studios, and their chokehold on the making and releasing of film product.” “Since the 80’s, television has benefitted creatively from the introduction of niche markets… Relieving the pressure to please everyone all the time, producers can work on quality shows knowing that an audience lies out there somewhere among the cable universe. Movies haven’t really figured out to do this profitably yet.”