I recently read an interview with David Lynch, creator of the instant classic & recently revisited Twin Peaks where he talked about how TV had become the new cinema. & I believe that since most shows now run a 12 or 13 episode model, & great ones are essentially extended features. Some have confirmed this through their greatness by being self-contained, stand-alone tales. I’m talking True Detective, American Crime Story & The Night Of as examples. Single seasons that stood alone. Anthologies even.
While one of the hallmarks of great cinema is character arc, there’s always been a limit on how much of that character can be explored simply because of the restrictions a 90 to 120 minute screenplay presents. On the other hand, the way television writing has evolved –particularly in this era – its created a new forefront for seeing characters expand & show all kinds of new, undiscovered recesses & elements of their personalities & backstories that richly inform the stories developing before our eyes. When done with the utmost attention to craft, the impact is awesome to put it simply.
Besides the bigger salaries offered to A-list thespians to star in the new television landscape, the biggest draw for them is the breadth of strong, full characters presented. I mean, how do you say no to playing Frank Underwood (House of Cards), Frank Griffin (Godless), Bernard Lowe or Dolores Abernathy (Westworld)? You don’t.
It’s a beautiful thing when you can create a character in a story which you can take the time to explore over the course of 10 to 15 hours & then move on because the story may have evolved around them, but the show concept doesn’t. Will it always work? Well we’ve seen failures. But the experiment of the medium is what makes the great successes exactly that. & hey, achieving great success usually involves some risk-taking, right? As Mr. Lynch says, ‘the arthouse film –land of risk for cinema –is already dead’. But instead, just maybe, it’s really evolved into the new TV.