I’ve been watching a lot of a show called Fire Fly. The shows has made me relearn something I already knew.

It’s the characters of the show, and how they are so deliciously built episode to episode. No character no matter how small is left behind. These are interesting people with interesting stories.  You can see this in other television shows, but in Fire Fly they make you love every single character, and there are few shows out there that do this so flawlessly. At least of the ones I have seen.

I’m not one for T.V. I don’t really watch much of it, I hate commercials and I really hate the “I’ve gotta watch my…” mentality. T.V. is in a weird phase though. Most major networks don’t want to admit it, but the internet is changing T.V. dramatically. It’s not just something you HAVE to watch anymore. Take Fire Fly for example, it’s on Netflix, along with a whole smattering of other shows. Add Hulu, and bit torrent (OH NO’S!), and T.V. becomes something you don’t have to be chained to anymore.  Why watch anything on T.V.?

So what’s your point?

Well back to Fire Fly and it’s characters. There are some stories I have outlined and worked out where I have fallen in love with some of the characters. Their stories flow out of me, and it’s not so much about the over arching plot anymore as much as it is about the characters. That in a sense is what makes a good T.V. show. When you have good character it doesn’t matter what they are doing, or why sometimes. You just want to see them do it! A character could be sitting in his closet talking about the organization of his clothes and you would be glued.

My eye is slowly moving towards this medium.

I say this mainly because I feel like film is dying. Not in revenue, in that respect film is doing just fine. I feel though a lot of the creativity in film has been robbed or buried for the time being. I don’t think it is due to lack of content, there are original scripts being written and purchased out there, just not getting made. Hollywood is to busy looking for the “sure bet.” Millions are invested into a movie, if it flops it stings. T.V. shows though they usually cost less over all, film a season if it sticks they make more, if not they pull it, either way though they have gotten their revenue from the advertising companies. When a T.V. show flops it’s not as huge an impact. This brings me to my final point, the only real creativity right now is in T.V. That may be me just being naive but that is what I see from the outside looking in, and with all the different cable channels picking up great shows left and right, not to mentioned the added revenue of T.V. DVD sales, and you have a pretty wide playing field.

I’m gonna have to really think about this….