Fun Club Famibody Votes Channel | July 16th, 2023 | Do you prefer films or TV shows?

[big lantern ghost]

Once again, it’s time to voice your opinion and kick it with a tasty groove:

Before we get to this week’s vote, let’s see the results from last week:

07/10/23 — Do you like cilantro / coriander?

It’s clear from the results that Famiboards members have better taste than the people I know in real life.

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This week’s question is about what you like to watch. Specifically:

I was really into TV the past few years, barely watching any films. This year has been a big turnaround, and now I’m all about them films as just about all of the new and returning shows I had earmarked have been a bust for me the last season or two. It’s been great! I think in a lot of ways having less runtime in a film is more, in comparison to the ~10 hours you get for a season of TV; you have to cut to the core of things instead of everyone getting an hourlong interlude about their past or their dad or whatever.

What do you think?

 

[Phosphorescent Skeleton]

Film and its like not even a little bit close

 

[MSnap]

That’s a tough one. We are living in a sort of “golden age” for TV shows (before the strike lol) but every now and then I find an amazing movie.

 

[PixelKnight]

I like films for the same reason I like standalone games over multi-game epics drenched in cliffhangers. They actually end, aren’t likely to just be cancelled or take a decade to resolve, have some idea of pacing, and even if it’s terrible it’s usually only a couple of hours wasted rather than people saying ‘it gets good after the first 20 hours/first season.’

Even my favourite TV series have awful seasons that take a full week of evenings to watch, but there’s usually all manner of storylines being carried forward within it that make it hard to skip. Whereas a terrible film is something I can usually just sit back and marvel at how bad it is in isolation and look forward to discussing afterwards, it’s usually just a single evening.

Naturally the whole ‘cinematic universe’ stuff doesn’t really work for this, I definitely haven’t watched all the superhero films in order or anything. I just pick and choose and they should still be able to stand alone. In the same way, most of my favourite graphic novels or even trade paperbacks required very little knowledge of what came before to really enjoy them, with anything important handled in the odd recap or bit of exposition.

 

[chocolate_supra]

This one is a bit weird at the moment. I love, love, love films, but my brain gets hung up where watching one has to be an "event." Either I wanna go to the theater for one or I want to watch one with friends or I wanna whip up something special for supper and sit down to a movie and eat. And a lot of those things don't happen much anymore, as when I do have free time I'm in more of a position to throw on a series at home and just chill for a bit.

So I love and prefer film, I'm just mostly engaging with series these days as easy, low-stakes comfort food I guess. And I'm actually a little irritated with myself about it but hopefully I'll come out of this rut soon.

 

[PixelKnight]

This one is a bit weird at the moment. I love, love, love films, but my brain gets hung up where watching one has to be an "event." Either I wanna go to the theater for one or I want to watch one with friends or I wanna whip up something special for supper and sit down to a movie and eat. And a lot of those things don't happen much anymore, as when I do have free time I'm in more of a position to throw on a series at home and just chill for a bit.

So I love and prefer film, I'm just mostly engaging with series these days as easy, low-stakes comfort food I guess. And I'm actually a little irritated with myself about it but hopefully I'll come out of this rut soon.

I had a rare win the other week when I was staying at a hotel for work and had a spare evening, so I went to the cinema for the first time in years and just wanted something action-packed. The choice was Indiana Jones or Across the Spider-verse, and I really enjoyed the latter.

Although I have my own criticisms over whether it really needs a sequel when it was a long film and it seemed like they could have easily wrapped it all up to me. Which ties into what I said above, I guess.

 

[EvilChameleon]

I went with TV shows, because even though I find movies quite enjoyable, I love the idea of sitting down, watching something for 20-40 minutes, and then I'm done. I have to be in an extremely attentive mood to want to watch a movie.

 

[freedomseekr]

TV shows, for pretty much the same reason as @EvilChameleon, though I'd like to add that there's a bit more control I have over the amount of time spent when watching a TV show - do I want to watch one, two, three or more episodes? Sure, I can do that. With films... not so much.

 

[Catsylvania]

Films because they’re easier to digest. I often have at least two hours available on any given day.

Still, I really like long form storytelling when done correctly and given the opportunity to tell the story that the writers/showrunners want to tell. For example, I didn’t watch Better Call Saul until Season 3 ended both to allow for the narrative to escalate and to make sure it wasn’t getting cancelled. I don’t want to get invested then the network/streaming service abruptly ditches the whole thing.

 

[xghost777]

TV shows for me (though I cut normal cable out over a decade ago so more like streaming shows and stuff). When I watch / play something I really want to be fully committed to it (no pausing, no checking my phone) and I find longer stretches of that to be draining. I much prefer TV shows since they are shorter and I can enjoy them over a period of time.

I do like going to the movies however. I didn’t go during the height of the pandemic, but I’ve been getting back into going with deserted showings and still wearing a mask. Though obviously that costs money (especially if you get lunch / dinner with it) and time so it’s still not my preferred choice.