Posts by Karen Smith9

A total prank played on the music industry. Legend has it this was just a massive joke aimed at that one Black Sabbath tour where they had Ian Gillan on vocals. That album is absolutely terrible. Whatever, it’s a brilliant comedy 😁

bluemaker24 said:I haven't really spent much time diving into movies that stretch past the three-hour mark, but the only two that immediately come to mind—and honestly, they were both absolutely incredible—are 😍Titanic and Dances with Wolves.🙏 Back in the day, I felt like I could watch them on loop forever without ever getting bored, but these days, my attention span just isn't what it used to be; I find myself wanting to give up after maybe thirty minutes or an hour or so.😢

Oh, and I actually tried sitting down to watch The Wolf of Wall Street just to see why everyone makes such a huge deal out of it, but the first time I tried, I gave up after only half an hour because I just couldn't find it interesting at all. I decided to give it another shot about a month or two later, and even then, it took me two separate sittings to get through it. It just didn't resonate with me, and I honestly don't quite grasp what people find so hilarious about the whole thing.😕🤷

Jao... but hey, 😁fair enough.

Brandon Fox2 said:Please, I can't take any more of these sarcastic teen apocalyptic survival nonsense stories!

Amen to that. 😁Seriously, how many of these things even exist?

Jose Brooks62 said:The longest movie I’ve ever watched that actually stayed with me was Novecento. I really dig how Bertolucci blends those heavy socio-political themes with personal stories and eroticism.

Watched Sátántangó, but I didn't have the stamina or the nerves to actually finish it.

Ugh, I ended up splitting that one into two separate viewings... but man, what an insane story and atmosphere.

Sandra Brown10 said:Look, the author has to have a clear intent because you simply can't afford to treat a movie like it's a TV series. And honestly, aren't you just comparing a great film to a mediocre show again? A talented director can accomplish an incredible amount in ninety minutes, but it's the same logic for a good series—it shouldn't be stretched out over fifteen seasons just to say what could have been perfectly handled in ten episodes.

Exactly... and which one is that? Berlin Alexanderplatz is a 13-episode series—Fassbinder's vision of Döblin's novel. It's a masterpiece with no real TV equivalent. And Dekalog was this massive screenwriting undertaking by two writers, Kieslowski and Piesieiwicz. Honestly, American TV is just laughable when you look at it through that lens. Even our local wild boar productions are better than The Wire.

wiredraven82 said:Just saying (I can't help myself 😁) that Twilight Zone—the original series, obviously—is a MASTERPIECE that I honestly don't think any other show could ever touch. At least, not in my book.

That is to say, personally, alongside The X-Files, it’s easily my all-time favorite. Though, I can't really compare the two directly since I approach them in completely different ways, but they are my top two. Still, I have to reiterate... people, Twilight Zone is just unparalleled.

I used to measure a person's intellect based on whether they liked Twilight Zone or not. 🤣 Okay, I'm joking—I didn't actually judge people's intelligence that way, but hey, just a little bit of fun. 🙂

The X-Files is basically a product of pure paranoia—it's a trip—but The Twilight Zone is the gold standard for that kind of stuff.😁

Sandra Brown10 said:Character development, snappy dialogue, actual storytelling... honestly, a series just gives you so much more breathing room to actually get all that in than a movie ever could. Don't get me wrong, I usually lean toward movies over series, but when something truly top-tier comes along—I'm talking stuff like True Detective or Fargo—well, why on earth wouldn't I sit down and watch it?

You know, there are certain movies out there—just ninety minutes long—that manage to say more than nine entire seasons of television ever could. Honestly, looking back, the absolute best series I’ve ever encountered have to be Dekalog and Berlin Alexanderplatz. It’s pretty clear why, too.

Jessica Morris6 said:Then you have those conceptual series that only run for a few episodes. And if you're really a cinephile at heart, you could always dive into anthologies instead.
Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, The Ray Bradbury Theater, Tales from the Darkside...

Oh, absolutely. Twilight Zone is an all-time classic, and none of those others I mentioned are half bad either. But they aren't those shows that drag one single, tedious story out forever. Honestly, whenever I flip on the TV and see "to be continued" at the end of some crime drama, I break out in hives. Sequels, spin-offs, endless continuations of the same plot... ugh... it’s exhausting. Everyone has their own particular brand of trash—mine used to be that mess, The Mentalist... but once I realized after a few episodes that Red John was the whole point... damn, even that was garbage... there, I admitted it! 😁 Anyway, I still have all those old Twilight Zone episodes... pure classics. 😁

David Price5 said:What do you mean by "dismissing" it? I just don't think it's essential to follow them. Besides, they're created using the same principles as movies. In fact, many modern series have larger budgets and longer production cycles than feature films. All those qualities you look for in a book or a movie, you can find in a great series too. These are such broad concepts and genres now, especially over the last twenty years.

Who actually cares about the budget? Let’s be real: TV series can just be tedious—it's often just the same old crap stretched out for as long as possible, which makes it boring as hell the more you watch. If you love that kind of thing, fine, be my guest. As for me, I'll be over here waiting for Ende's spider 😁 Ende.

David Price5 said:And now you think movies are overflowing with endless originality? It's fine to have a preference for a certain genre or era; taste is subjective. But dismissing an entire medium altogether is where you lose me.

It’s not that I’m dismissing the whole medium—it's just that I don't see any real reason to sit through a series, regardless of what it is. I much prefer documentaries. 😁
And yeah, they are an inexhaustible source of originality. There is just so much out there to discover...

redsailor15 said:Honestly, just stop with the trolling and the nonsense... I’d much rather sit through one truly great series than waste my time on 40 mediocre movies. If you're looking for actual entertainment and something to really sink into, series win every time. If I have a month maybe to kill, I'll pick a solid show instead of digging through 40 different films where half are alright and the rest I end up turning off halfway through.

🤣 You totally missed the point, but hey—damn, the difference is pretty obvious. I'm curious; you aren't. You're fine with mindlessly grinding through seven seasons of the exact same thing, but I'm not. Okay, we'll leave it at that.

David Price5 said:And series have been around for about 70 years—even longer if you count radio dramas, which were basically the predecessors to TV shows—so now they're suddenly irrelevant?

The very first film series based on sequels were actually shot over a century ago—think something like Fantomas (1913) or that kind of classic stuff from America (where Louis Feuillade directed several of them). Honestly, I’d much rather watch that. Damn, I just don't care for TV as a medium all that much. Dragging one single topic out through endless episodes and seasons—ugh, what even is a "season" anymore? Anyway, Fantomas is just five longer episodes, which is just right 🙂

David Price5 said:By the time you finish those ten movies, you could probably get through a whole season too. It’s not like every great series has been discovered yet. What makes you think a movie is some undiscovered treasure?

🤣 Based on what, exactly? Look, the film industry has been celebrating for 119 years now—that is a massive amount of treasure, damn... I mean, seriously, there are just so many incredible films out there waiting to be seen. I’m constantly digging, exploring, staying curious... and honestly, thank goodness for those amazing websites that make finding them so easy. For instance, there are still plenty of works by brilliant directors that I haven't even touched yet... why would I waste my precious time on an endless TV binge?

David Price5 said:And then you just download series like any other normal person on this forum ( 😁 ) and watch them whenever you feel like it..

Yep, but in that same amount of time, I could knock out ten movies. 😁 The world of cinema is overflowing with undiscovered gems throughout history—so spending all that precious time on TV series feels like pure heresy to me.

David Price5 said:Some shows only last a single season anyway. Why should series be considered the exception? It’s the same with movies being on late at night—you could always just head out to meet friends instead of staying in to watch them.

I usually download movies myself anyway—TV is just endless reruns—so I can just binge them whenever it suits me. There's plenty of time for a beer too, no stress 😁 Just one season, maybe 10-20 episodes, right? Total waste of time.

David Price5 said:You didn't answer me again. Do you actually put down a book or stop a movie when you're only a third of the way through and still loving it?

I’ll sit through a movie or finish a book... but a series? Not really. Watching five episodes isn't even a third of the way if there are seven seasons—that's just a tiny snippet... like watching a trailer, really.

David Price5 said:Yeah, you realize too that series aren't exactly a new concept, right? People managed just fine for half a century without any issues, waiting a whole week to catch an episode before it was gone. Your habit of watching just five episodes and then quitting is honestly pretty strange. It's like stopping a book only a third of the way through and claiming you've had enough. You already figured out what the story is about...

That's the thing—I'd much rather sit down with a good book than deal with TV series.😁

David Price5 said:That’s why you rarely see anyone waiting week after week for new episodes; most people just binge the whole thing once it finally hits streaming...

You mean, like, sitting down for five, six, or seven seasons all at once? Uh, I think I'd rather drink that many beers instead—and even then, probably not all at once! 😁

James Garcia50 said:We're mostly on the same page, but you're going way too hard on The Sopranos; for me, that's a cult classic, right along with The Wire. 🙂

Njah, The Wire is better in my book, but I usually lose interest after about five episodes. Honestly, how am I supposed to schedule my entire life around TV shows? I’d much rather head out with my friends than be tethered to a screen day after day, or even week by week. Damn.

Richard Wilson4 said:Maybe.

But since movies turned into this 3D gimmick for teenagers, all the actual quality migrated over to cable.
It’s simple: making heavy dramas isn't profitable anymore because studios need to drag people into theaters.
To get them there, they rely on special effects and that 3D experience.
At that point, the story becomes an afterthought.

Nowadays, you just don't see films with the caliber of The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, or Breaking Bad.

Sure, GoT or The Walking Dead get hyped up more and might sit outside that group, but they're still masterpieces compared to most movies.

There's some truth there, but also a fair amount of nonsense. One solid 90-minute movie is better than any series spanning four seasons or more. I don't watch TV shows less because of the stomach aches they give me after a few episodes, though—it's just that I'll never understand the appeal of following one long story through endless installments. It reminds me of those old ladies back home reading serialized novels. Breaking Bad? Please, it's just a violent soap opera, nothing else. Total boredom, honestly—I'd rather watch German silent films than any so-called "hit" series. And oh, you mentioned The Sopranos? 🤣boring shit