RE Night MovesThe look and feel of it is too much of its time and cheap, I understand why DJ made the Rockford Files/TV comment.
Not only that, but look at the cast: Edward Binns, Jimmy Woods, Anthony Costello, John Crawford--these guys all made appearances in Rockford episodes (John Crawford twice). And then, in the middle of the bar scene, Binns starts mixing it up with Dennis Dugan--Richie Brockelman himself! Many of the other actors did TV crime shows of the era--Cannon, Harry O, Beretta, and the like. Hackman was the only film actor in the cast. A cheap-o production all around.
I think you've not watched the best TV shows, because yes, some do take mental effort. Breaking Bad has more depth than 90% of the films you've seen this year, including a lot of 8 to 9/10. It's filled with telling visual metaphors, mirroring elements (half burned faces, people making faces that are similar to greek masks, lost items appearing in the foreground 5 seasons later...), references to itself, foreign cultures or whatever that take really serious mental effort to discover and analyse. People wrote books about it.I'm often quoting BB because it's the bet TV show ever, but TV each year, new good shows are being released and push forward the boundaries of the medium. But it has been the same for years with shows like The Soprano or The Wire. You may love or hate them but you cannot assert that they require less mental effort than a good movie. Because they don't.
It depends. 40 hours of content takes character development and evolution in a world even 4 hours movies cannot even dream of. TV shows' format lie smewhere between movies and novels. It's just something else.I guarantee you that the evolution of Walter White over 5 seasons is something that could never have happened in a movie (not with so much power). Now, are why 40h? Why not 20? I have to admit that most of the case, 3 seasons are enough and they're just doing more seasons for more money (just like nowadays serious films have to last 2 to 3 hours while most of them would be much better in 90 minutes).I prefer the cinema feel to the infamous "made for TV" feel. The thing is that many TV shows nowadays have the cinema feel I love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJX6p2JxFP0&t=0m36sThis is not a good score, it has aged terribly and feels like the standard thing you hear when watching 70s TV.
As far as lighting, film stock (probable), set design, etc how does this not look cheap?
I've watched enough TV to back up my previous statement. If I'm overtired/sick/hungover/have a headache I can still binge watch a TV season/series (time permitting), where I could not watch a non-comedy feature narrative (ex a Will Ferrell movie) in the same state. Television constantly feeds the viewer information, it is a very user-friendly experience. Nobody ever asks "what's going on" while watching any TV series, and for a lack of a better phrase, the "what's going on" element of films is what makes them vastly superior. TV has its place in the culture, and a lot of good can come out of the format, but it will never come close to delivering the type of experience that the best films can provide. I mean, we're on a freaking Sergio Leone themed message board..There are also people I know (who aren't exactly the most sophisticated viewers) that love shows like Breaking Bad but couldn't make it ten minutes into watching stuff like Chinatown, The Godfather, etc.
TV has to extend their stories creating a lot of filler, and while that filler is still good in the best shows, it's still filler. It's also a very formulaic medium, flawed by design.
RE: I WANT TO LIVE!Frayling has said that FAFDM is the first mainstream movie - you know, besides films like REEFER MADNESS - where marijuana is smoked. There's definitely a brief shot of a couple of guys smoking a joint in I WANT TO LIVE!, which was released in 1958 - although it's not a main character; it's just a wild club with a lot of wild stuff going on so they also show a shot of a couple of extras sharing a joint; I forgot Frayling's exact words, maybe he said that FAFDM is the first mainstream film in which the villain smokes marijuana
Supposedly, after seeing the script, Benito Stefanelli started smoking weed on the set of FAFDM.
I know we've had the debate about what Indio is smoking. I don't know if that will ever be settled. I have no knowledge of that stuff and therefore no opinion.