Films that would make great episodes of a TV show.
TV is getting better and better, with bigger budgets, larger scopes, better acting and better overall stories than films. There was a time when films, with their 2 and 3 hour stories, were better than shows that rushed to tell their stories in an hour or less. TV series nowadays no longer need to rush to tell their stories and can use time more artistically to build a bigger picture. So some TV shows have story arcs that last seasons or years, whereas films have to start and end in 2 hours or so. TV shows can now experiment - shoot slow scenes, longer dialogues, suspenseful episodes - pieces of a larger puzzle. I'm making this list of films that would make great TV episodes. It would only require a minimal amount of cutting - since the characters don't need to be introduced within the episode (they could be introduced before), the show can get straight to the story of the episode, and since there is no real need to end the major story or every loose thread, some things don't need to end up on the editing room floor, but can end up in the next episode. I picked films that would not only make great TV episodes, but ones that don't cost that much to make. So I'm not creating an impossible scenario where networks give shows infinite time, infinite money and infinite creativity. These are very creative episodes, so it might be a risk with ratings. Having time is important, both within the episode and during the season - you can't do slow, cinematic episodes when you only have 8 episodes a season. So the money was cut to something that was reasonable and doable. The first on my list is Tangerines - which cost $700,000 for 90 minutes. Compare that to Friday Night Lights, which cost $4m an episode for 44 minutes. It's certainly affordable. The future of both TV and cinema is converging. TV is becoming more expansive and cinematic, and films are becoming more serialized, with sequels and prequels being made all the time. The only difference, at the end of the day, will be whether you wait a year to see a 3 hour sequel or a week to see next week's 44 minute episode. With both going online, the difference between the TV-box and the big cinema screen is disappearing. The future of television is cinematic, and it's beautiful.
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