The Binge, our column on TV, starts tomorrow
This year we realized we watch at least as much television (though not on television) as film, so we figured we’d write about it. The Binge appears every Friday at BusinessWorld.
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I watch a lot of television, but I haven’t always respected the medium. Even if it taught me English (Sesame Street) and science (reruns of old Star Trek episodes) and gave me a world-view (Woody Allen movies at 10 am on RPN-9), I regarded it as the poor, déclassé cousin of Film. Film aspired to Art and should be taken seriously; TV was the babysitter and the background noise at lunch.
Something changed in the last decade or so: television became great. I am referring to American cable television, although free TV has lately showed signs of ambition. Cable is subscription-based, unlike free TV which depends on advertising to survive. This means cable is comparatively free of the burden of generating high ratings. Its creator-producers—“showrunners”—can worry less about pleasing their target demographics and focus more on executing their vision for their project. They can be Auteurs.
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Read our column at BusinessWorld.
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