After watching the movie version of Parenthood I wanted to reflect on the concept of form. As we talked about in class television programs have a lot of time to develop their characters. They can introduce them and allow their relationships to develop overtime instead of solving their problems immediately. In this way I almost feel like TV shows are more like novels than films ever are. By having a lot of time to progress we can understand things more thoroughly.
This seems like it could be the reason people tend to respect novels more than movies. They have more time to explore relationship and get deeper into things than film can in an hour and a half. It also makes it important to seriously consider the difference between forms and why it should be difficult to compare pieces with different forms.
Even the case of the two different versions of Parenthood brings up these discrepancies. While they share much of the same characters and much of the same themes, they are very much their own pieces. The TV version develops slowly and gives itself time to get to know the characters, while the film starts and finishes things immediately. This begs the question, what really makes adaptation? Is it the same name and the same story? But even if these are the same the forms are different the time period is different and the setting. If all these are different why does story matter so much for adaptation rather than other elements of literature and film?
it's interesting that you point out that maybe novels are more respected than films because, like these longer TV shows, they have more time in which to flesh out ideas. i do think that that's a generally accurate assessment. but then again, i think of examples like Clueless: the movie is beloved for its wit, mockery and capturing not only the essence of its adaptor, Emma, but of the world of the valley girls. but then it became a TV show, which was truly beyond terrible, even though, by logic of its form, it should have been able to give us more of what we loved in the movie.
ReplyDeleteof course, what you say about form could hold better if we distinguish sitcoms like Clueless from the epic series like trueblood, as, in a way, they are very different "forms" even if they come from the same form.