Pros as protagonists (cops, doctors, lawyers, etc) appear both in movies and series.
But cons as protagonists (bank robbers, con artists, rapists, killers, etc) appear only in movies.
For example, Oceans Eleven works well as a movie , but do you imagine those guys in a series, robbing somebody every night? But people love to see the good guys on a daily basis, nobody gets tired of watching CSI, right?
So my theory is : we (the audience) like to go to the dark side for a short time, so we like to see bad people doing bad things for 90 minutes, it's like taking a moral break, but if we watched a series every day, that's a different story.
I think it's the same with pirates and vikings. They basically kidnapped people, women and children, destroyed cities...but who doesnt enjoy watching Johnny Deep dressed up as drag queen going around playing pirates?
Johnny Deep basically does the same stuff that real nowadays pirates do in Somalian waters, but I seriously doubt any Black Somalian pirate will ever feature in a protagonist role in Hollywood.
So I guess that's the reason why we see goodies both in movies and series but baddies only in movies.
Any thoughts about it?
What about when the bad guys win? I sometimes root for the bad guys.
As for series, television is still imo what it was nicknamed when it became popular. The idiot box. Reality tv, which really isn't, has to be proof that Americans are losing IQ points every time they turn it on. Therefore, they expect things to be solved or accomplished in a very short amount of time. As it is on CSI. Which I have never watched btw. When the police can't solve the missing persons case or murder or whatever crime in a short amount of time people get pissy about it.
I agree with you: it's reasons like those that movies like The Godfather and Taxi Driver were so sensational. They romanticized crime, and got us to look into our darker halves, if just for a few hours.
Leverage with Timothy Hutton is a TV series and it is all about cons. Same with White Collar,
Nikki as a cat burglar who comes into my room late one night and....
Kisses!
Steph
Burn Notice features a former CIA spy and a former IRA terrorist. To Catch a Thief was a show back in the 60's that featured a former cat burglar. And then there was the Sopranos on HBO. Weeds is about drug dealers and users.
I don't think it is the audience so much as it is network TV execs who are just afraid to put on anything that might be a little different. A s was pointed out above Dexter is about a serial killer who basically only kills bad guy only because his father taught him too, not for any moral reason. People will watch a well written show regardless of the morality of the characters as long as it is a quality show to start with.
