On a BAFTA podcast with David S. Goyer, the screenwriter recounts a conversation he once had with Jerry Bruckheimer. When asking for his take on the Television vs. Movies battle, the Pirates of the Caribbean producer responded saying that the battle was in fact over, and TV had won. With the quality of shows such as the recently ended Boardwalk Empire, as well as the likes of The Sopranos and The Wire in the last decade alone, few could justifiably argue with him.
Other than through single directors and in odd patches, you can probably assert that film’s last true heyday is already forty years behind it. Not since the explosion of American independent cinema in the seventies has film had any semblance of a meaningful movement, or lengthy period of particularly merited artistic output. Conversely television, with HBO as its cornerstone, rose to prominence with increasingly brilliant original programming, attracting both the very best in acting talent and enormous audiences as they went.
The two avenues of entertainment were never really considered rivals until reasonably late in the lifespan of both, as they traditionally offered different things. Going to the cinema was an experience, while watching the television killed time. Perhaps a combination of cinema tickets rising to exclusionary prices, coupled with the accessibility of television, started the ball rolling. But over a seemingly short space of time, television emerged as a potential home for the very top-level of acting talent, no longer the elephant’s graveyard of has-been film actors.
Film seems to have been on a relentlessly self-destructive path of dumbing down for at least the last two decades, taking for granted the intelligence of their dwindling audience. Although television can naturally take more risks with an audience who can already have a thirty/forty hour investment in characters and plotlines, they continue to push boundaries and genuinely shock viewers.
HBO are doubtlessly at the forefront of small-screen entertainment, having produced some of the greatest series of all time. As well as accessibility and the availability of binge-watching hours at a time, television has doubtlessly surpassed its big-screen counterpart in terms of quality. With comedy, there has been nothing for a decade to come close to what Louis CK has achieved with his FX show Louie, and with drama, HBO continue to decimate almost anything in comparatively popular cinema. For at least the last fifteen years, television ruled supreme across all mediums of entertainment, providing compelling, entertaining and intelligent programming for a huge audience.
Most recently, their big-money love affair with twenties America sputtered to a disappointing conclusion as Boardwalk Empire finished its five season run. It was allegedly offered the same deal as similarly expensive historical dramas Rome and Deadwood, who, like Boardwalk, couldn’t find the viewing figures to match their enormous budgets. The deal offered in such situations reportedly proposed a shorter, final season in which to wrap up any unfinished storylines. The creators of Deadwood said no, holding out for a never-to-come film, but Boardwalk followed Rome’s lead and crammed three or four seasons worth of plotline into just eight episodes. The result was a disappointing ending to a series that will probably be remembered as slightly wasted potential. With the same team that made The Sopranos, a stellar cast and the help of Martin Scorsese as director/executive producer, it should have been much more than fleetingly brilliant, often good, and ultimately frustrating.
But Boardwalk Empire isn’t the only marquee name show ending soon, as the brilliantly underrated Mad Men also draws to a close early next year. Although the likes of Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead continue to be popular with audiences, they lack the quality that has become expected from the likes of HBO. The ending of both Boardwalk Empire and Mad Men casts an enormous shadow over the future of television, and whether it possesses enough quality programming to continue its domination over film.
When The Sopranos drew to its brilliant conclusion in 2007, and The Wire finished just a year later, television seemed untouchable. As a viewer, it only seemed possible for film to re-assert its domination with a movement similar to that in America in the seventies. But with little to no threat from cinema, television seems to have relinquished its grip on the crown, fading away into its former mediocrity, much like Boardwalk Empire, not with a bang but with a whimper. The emergence of original programming from Netflix, namely the superb House of Cards, does offer some glimmer of hope, but in terms of satellite network television, there is little to get genuinely excited about and a lot to mourn.
HBO official site
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