I turned on my AppleTV to get to our Amazon app -- I have this habit lately, on nights when I don't know what to watch, of choosing a streaming service and just deciding I will watch something on this particular service on this particular night. I don't know, maybe that's what everyone does. Then I rotate them. It was Amazon's turn.
On the AppleTV home screen, I'm exposed to whatever thing AppleTV+ is advertising as its latest release.
Last night it was High Desert, starring Patricia Arquette. Curious, I allowed it to play me the trailer.
Now, I didn't know whether High Desert was a TV show or a movie, but as I was watching the footage and feeling interested enough by it, I started to get a familiar chant: "Movie. Movie. Movie."
I wanted this to be a movie so I could watch it once and be done with it. But as the trailer continued and there seemed to be too many distinct images from too many distinct locations for it to fit in one 100-minute package, I decided it was probably a TV show. And that ended up being correct.
See, I'll watch 100 minutes of anything. I'm a lot more particular about how I spend six to ten hours, and that's just the first season.
Simply put: I might have commitment issues.
I wonder if people who love TV shows are sort of "serial monogamists," to quote Hugh Grant from Four Weddings and a Funeral. They are happy to get into a relationship with a particular source material and stick with it for a long time -- maybe forever if that show happens to be The Simpsons.
Those of us who love movies? We're sluts who want some strange every night.
Of course, it's an imperfect comparison. To be a serial monogamist, it suggests you are faithful to just one show for however long it lasts, and when that relationship inevitably ends -- hence the "serial" part -- you move on to exactly one other new show.
We all know that's not how television works. Most people are watching at least two and more likely three shows at a time -- heck, some people could be watching two or three times that depending on their commitment to it and what their schedule allows. So really, they're serial polygamists, remaining devoted to several relationships simultaneously. Fortunately, unlike real relationships, this is possible because of the relatively small time commitment required by each relationship.
But with people who like movies, there's no relationship at all. It's all one-night stands, one after another, until the end of time.
Fortunately, I do also like TV shows, and as we've said, this metaphor breaks down if you try to pick at it too much.
I do think, though, that it's an interesting lens with which to view particular brain types vis-a-vis their preferred entertainment types. I do think that some people don't see the appeal of movies because they don't understand how you can build an emotional investment in something when you are done with the characters inside of two hours. I have no doubt that the reason everyone is raving about the current season of Succession -- a show I still have not watched one minute of, by the way -- is because they've developed that investment over time.
I do like those sorts of experiences as well. But I also think the profound thing about a good movie -- a well written movie -- is that you can also become incredibly entwined in a character's life just from what a screenwriter gives you over an economically few number of script pages. In a way, there's something more profound about it because you are transported to this state so quickly. With a movie, there's none of the peak TV joke that goes something like "The first season is a bit slow, but if you can get through seasons two and three, it becomes amazing by season four." Nope, the screenwriter can't afford to be slow for even five minutes, and in those five minutes, can do a modified but no less powerful version of what it takes a television show a season to do.
I guess I like reaching the end of these emotional arcs within a limited period of time, and then I'm ready for the next one. And I won't try to extrapolate that onto a romantic relationship metaphor, in part because it doesn't really work for me. I've never been a one night stand sort of guy. That's not to say I've never had one night stands, just that I am far more likely to become attached to someone who doesn't want me attached to them than I am to walk away from a relationship prematurely.
And that's about enough soul searching for today I think.
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