The difference between TV and movies: Friends versus buddies

Don't get me wrong. I'm a huge fan of New York Times columnist David Brooks, who is every liberal's favorite conservative. But his new column, about how TV shows have become friendship machines, feels slightly shopworn, perhaps because Neil Gabler already said pretty much the same thing in the L.A. Times nearly a week ago, noting that the TV family has mutated into a new unit known as "the flock," an extended circle of friends and family.

At least Brooks gives Gabler credit for saying it first, quoting from his piece, which argues that "television has become a kind of friendship machine dispensing groups of people in constant and intimate contact with one another." This is truer than true — practically every network show that has grabbed me as a loyal viewer in recent years has been an example of this flock stuff, whether it was "Seinfeld," "30 Rock" or the always wonderful "The Big Bang Theory."

Which got me thinking: Why is TV all about friendship when our movies are all about conflict and tension and treachery? And why are our most successful films populated with edgy, loner, existential superheroes like "Batman" and "Spider-Man?" Of course, there are flock friendships in tiny indie movies that play a few weeks at the Landmark, but when it comes to mainstream Hollywood, most of the movies where there are actual friendships are buddy comedies, where the friendships are bromances between guys who frequently talk about women but rarely have the nerve to strike up anything resembling a friendship.

I guess TV and movies just have different fantasy fulfillments. As Brooks describes it, TV's flock comedies appeal to people "who want to watch fictional characters enjoying the long, uninterrupted bonding experiences that they no longer have time or energy for." I guess that means, in turn, that Hollywood movies appeal to people who want to watch fictional characters who live out the kind of fabulous, impossibly heroic fantasies that we couldn't possibly hope to achieve in real life. They are both wishes, but they're very different kinds of fulfillment.    

Photo: The cast of "The Big Bang Theory": From left, Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Simon Helberg, Kaley Cuoco and Kunal Nayyar. Credit: Monty Brinton/CBS.

 

Comments

[David]

I think there's a big difference between a 2 hour time frame and a 20 episode run to establish these kind of "flock" friendships. Sure you can have a "Big Chill", but that was back in the day when adult dramas used to play the mainstream movies houses.

[wcmartell]

More basic than that.

A TV show is on every week, hopefully for 5 years. Because the characters return every week, they can not be the source of the story conflict. The story conflict is something outside of the characters that involves the characters... but does not change them (so that the episodes can be shown out of order in syndication). Though the characters may show some small changes - how did any of the SEINFELD characters change in its run?

A movie is a one shot deal - so the focus isn't on continuing the characters, but finding a conflict that usually comes from the characters and explores the characters... altering them (sometimes even killing them). In SPIDER-MAN, Peter Parker is responsible for thr death of his uncle, and the rest of the film really digs in to issues of responsibility and guilt. The villain is Peter's best friend's *dad* - forcing him to choose between his best friend and saving the world... and live with the repercussions and guilt either way. He must choose between a bus load of kids and the woman he loves. And, in the end, he must tell the woman he loves to go away, because he does not want to be responsible for awful things that will happen to her if they continue to date. This changes the character so that he is entirely different by the end of the film, and really explores the character. Can't do that on TV, because every episode would have a different lead character (even though it is the same person). When a movie becomes a franchise, they always negate the character oriented stuff - the way Peter's Aunt forgave him for killing the man she loved (Uncle Ben) a few minutes into SPIDER-MAN 2. The second film always removes deep character conflict and replaces it with shallow, surface, conflict - like in IRON MAN 2.

The *form*, the *medium* is what makes TV about deep friendships that can last 100 episodes, and movies usually about a single character who undergoes change.

- Bill

[Benjamin Dover]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Richard]

Different mediums for different purposes.
TV wants a relationship with us, its all about comfort and the long term.
Movies are for excitement, think the gold digger that wants to fly to Vegas.