I recently got some new interest in TV series but I guess I rarely my TV anymore (except for cyclocross racing and the classics) and I don't know how I can access them. I can't afford any DVD's, too expansive for me. But I'm really tempted by ➩ "True Detective", "Longmire" or "Justified", these are the three that interest me most, I've seen some excerpts and liked them.
Hmm well, the problem is some posters on this thread who also like them, so that raises doubt in my mind
, I guess but to me they seem like a good depiction of the daily life in the American "Heartland", far away from Hollywood satanism. Oh well the problem with True Detective is of course HBO, which means Warner Bros, which means Hollywood but well sometimes Hollywood can deliver some nice surprises, so why not.
I think current series have the potential to make cinema corny, a thing of the past. The problem with cinema has always been temporality, a film typically last for 2 hours, sometimes 3 or 4 but rarely more. This is too short to develop a well-constructed story with dialogues that make sense and with well developped characterization and character evolution.
That's why it's impossible to adapt a good novel into a film without omitting essential parts of it. Adapting short novels or short stories is possible but a classical novel, that's impossible. The temporality of a novel should be sort of 8 hours. A film can never last for 8 hours.
The great French dialogue writer Michel Audiard has always fancied adapting Céline's Journey to the End of the Night into a film but he realized that it was impossible and quickly gave up that project. Then well I've seen Sir David Lean's "Doctor Zhivago" which I loved but afterwards I read Pasternak's book and realized that it was something else...
After all it's no wonder that cinema throughout the years evolved into an "art" of action stories, full of destruction, the fast cutting technique which is unbearable! Film stories for teens, in a way.
With the new concept "Season series" (if I may say so) you have a lot more room for characterization, slow tempo, great presence of well-constructed secondary characters too (very important!). With 8 episodes of let's say 1h each, you have 8 hours of film, which brings us back to the temporality of a novel and a good novel. For all these reasons series have the potential to put cinema to shame and there's hope that some great work can be produced in the future.
I also learned that David Chase (The Sopranos) was a die-hard Balzac fan, like me. So perhaps if these Americans had the ability to do it, they should adapt the Human Comedy in series, why not?
For the moment, I'll have to contend with "The Prisoner" as the all-time greatest series, one that I consider a masterpiece. I enjoyed the political message behind it, which was beware of brainwashing and of political correctness. The idea that democracy is flawed. The idea that N°1 was an ape, God's Ape which means Satan (Patrick McGoohan was an Irish Catholic who almost entered the seminary). The idea that liberty should never be dissociated from human dignity ("I am not a number, I am a free man"), etc. A very profound work.
Then I also enjoyed "The Persuaders" and "Columbo". To some extent "The Saint" and "Wanted Dead or Alive". But these are minor work. Among the current series, I'll have to contend "Murdoch Mysteries" but well, it's just a classic whodunit detective series.
Hmm well, the problem is some posters on this thread who also like them, so that raises doubt in my mind
, I guess but to me they seem like a good depiction of the daily life in the American "Heartland", far away from Hollywood satanism. Oh well the problem with True Detective is of course HBO, which means Warner Bros, which means Hollywood but well sometimes Hollywood can deliver some nice surprises, so why not. I think current series have the potential to make cinema corny, a thing of the past. The problem with cinema has always been temporality, a film typically last for 2 hours, sometimes 3 or 4 but rarely more. This is too short to develop a well-constructed story with dialogues that make sense and with well developped characterization and character evolution.
That's why it's impossible to adapt a good novel into a film without omitting essential parts of it. Adapting short novels or short stories is possible but a classical novel, that's impossible. The temporality of a novel should be sort of 8 hours. A film can never last for 8 hours.
The great French dialogue writer Michel Audiard has always fancied adapting Céline's Journey to the End of the Night into a film but he realized that it was impossible and quickly gave up that project. Then well I've seen Sir David Lean's "Doctor Zhivago" which I loved but afterwards I read Pasternak's book and realized that it was something else...
After all it's no wonder that cinema throughout the years evolved into an "art" of action stories, full of destruction, the fast cutting technique which is unbearable! Film stories for teens, in a way.
With the new concept "Season series" (if I may say so) you have a lot more room for characterization, slow tempo, great presence of well-constructed secondary characters too (very important!). With 8 episodes of let's say 1h each, you have 8 hours of film, which brings us back to the temporality of a novel and a good novel. For all these reasons series have the potential to put cinema to shame and there's hope that some great work can be produced in the future.
I also learned that David Chase (The Sopranos) was a die-hard Balzac fan, like me. So perhaps if these Americans had the ability to do it, they should adapt the Human Comedy in series, why not?
For the moment, I'll have to contend with "The Prisoner" as the all-time greatest series, one that I consider a masterpiece. I enjoyed the political message behind it, which was beware of brainwashing and of political correctness. The idea that democracy is flawed. The idea that N°1 was an ape, God's Ape which means Satan (Patrick McGoohan was an Irish Catholic who almost entered the seminary). The idea that liberty should never be dissociated from human dignity ("I am not a number, I am a free man"), etc. A very profound work.
Then I also enjoyed "The Persuaders" and "Columbo". To some extent "The Saint" and "Wanted Dead or Alive". But these are minor work. Among the current series, I'll have to contend "Murdoch Mysteries" but well, it's just a classic whodunit detective series.
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