Day 172: Series

The number and variety of series which are now available on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and HBO is quite stunning.  There are series for all tastes and genres.  Comedy, Drama, Romance, Fantasy, Western, Crime, Artsy, SciFi, etc... As with  everything the quality is quite varied.  One common thread that I have observed is that series are often longer than they need to be.  Its as if what would have been a 90 minutes film in the pre-streaming days is now made into 10 or 12 50 minute episodes. I think its a combination of 2 factors:

1. Directors always need more time and more scenes.  They probably find it difficult to cut and trim once they have shot something.  (eg. Director's cuts of films are always much longer than the "original" version)
2. The streaming companies have such a need for new and original content that whenever they get a good concept they need to maximise the amount viewing they can get out of it.  Thus we get  long repetitive scenes that don't always bring much to the story.

Although I have seen some good series I'm not sure that ever increasing length is a good trend.  I recently watched the first series of A Handmaid's Tale 10 episodes of over 1 hour each.   As it happens I have read the book (300 pages published in 1985) and seen the Film (1h49 mins in 1990) both of which are quite good.  Although the photography and depiction of the story in the series is very well done I don't feel the extra 9 hours were necessary (actually they have to invent all sorts of extra scenes and flashbacks to try and use up the time).  

More thoughts on this in a future blog,  Fianna is waiting for me so we can watch the next episode of our current series!