Submitted by antonimbus t3_10pzwl7 in movies
Some ideas need the length and freedom to develop characters and plot through a tv series; however, there are others that perhaps stretch their plot too thin, stray too far from the original idea over time, or introduce far too many characters due to the space they must fill in a season. I would love to hear suggestions on this concept and which series could have worked better with the constraints of a feature length film.
Obi-wan too.
Both were originally conceived as movies when Disney was figuring out what to do with Star Wars. Solo's under-performance and the success of The Mandalorian is why they were reconceived as series.
A guy proved it so hard with his fan edit of Obi Wan that he was interviewed by morning shows.
Funny thing too is they actually had a great book they could have just adapted called Kenobi. Instead they just wrote arguably one of the most mediocre stories, filled with lots of cameos that achieved nothing in the end.
The Reva and Leia stuff was well done, but they had a nothing story for Obi-Wan. He just kind of bumbled around the galaxy just to have another lightsaber duel with Vader/Anakin and then go back to Tatooine.
Well done…You mean that part where the 9 year old evades the grown men? Yeah that show sucks….
That awful sequence aside, Leia herself was a highlight in the show for sure.
Wish I could agree my friend. I want the brand to be so much more. :(
I just don’t think Kenobi was ever a series or movie that ever needed to be made. It was a bad idea to begin with because the way it ends has to be the same way it starts, with him being a hermit in the desert.
Just some baffling decisions. I can’t remember who pointed it out but the whole idea that he’s meant to be there protecting the boy and yet, he’s kinda let it slip?
What is with this generation of filmmakers making our heroes completely different from whom they use to be. Rambo, Luke, Obi Won. I don’t get it. I love that Tom Cruise basically said, “Fuck that. I’m the hero. I act like a hero the whole time.”
I mean Luke’s story was amazing. To me seeing our heroes 30 years later being some unchanged uber flawless badass is lame. And not an interesting story. What they did with Luke in the sequels is a highlight for me. I LOVE HelloGreedo’s video on this: https://youtu.be/KVtol2CDkn8
However - Obi-Wan didn’t change, and THAT was the issue. That’s why telling a story for him in that era is silly. He was a depressed hermit when we saw him at the end of Episode III and he was the same depressed hermit when we meet him in IV so any story told between those two is nothing but fluff because the character never gets the opportunity to change.
A reasonable argument. Unusual for r/movies pal.
Reva’s story was absolute nonsense. She survives things that she shouldn’t survive and her motivations make absolutely no sense. She becomes an inquisitor to kill the remaining Jedi to get close to Vader so she can kill him to avenge the Jedi 😂
And now she's yet another Force-user running around in the background doing nothing during the movies.
Eh she survived being stabbed. Something that’s happened all the time. It’s a fantasy after all. She was one of the only entertaining aspects of the show.
Qui Gon must’ve been furious watching that😂
No anger. Anger is what makes you survive in Star Wars (Vader, Maul, Grevious).
>The Reva and Leia stuff was well done, but they had a nothing story for Obi-Wan.
It's the exact opposite lol.
What is?
They could've just put Din's plot in season 3 or a transional special episode between seasons 2 and 3
That series should have been The Ballad of Cobb Vanth.
Those Luke/Din episodes are some of the best Star Wars stuff ever made. Can’t imagine cutting those out. I could care less what the title of the show is, it’s a spin-off so there will always be connective tissue to other stuff.
Those were good episodes but they belong in the Mandalorian not Book of Boba Fett. The show was supposed to be about Boba Fett
Eh again I couldn’t care less what the title of the show is. It’s a spin-off. Mando will probably have an episode in Ahsoka too.
❗ It's couldn't care less, not could care less.
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If it's a spin off, then shouldn't it be its own story? Its one thing to have cameos and cross overs, but the most significant story from the end of Mabdalorian season 2 was resolved in a different show. That's ridiculous.
Kenobi for sure, moon knight, falcon and winter soldier, etc.
A lot of Disney plus ideas that just didn't have enough story for a show
Of those mentioned, Falcon and Winter Soldier was the biggest offender of stretching the concept thin. I feel the recent Marvel series have the problem of trying to lead into the next thing, so they try not to do too much plot progression so something is saved for later without a satisfying resolution.
The most baffling part of that show is that they set up a very emotional scene with Bucky and his neighbor for his atonement arc, then don't show us. So... we needed to see Anthony Mackie apply for bank loans and fix a boat, but not see a man find out >!his friend murdered his son!<? What?!
I have a suspicion that the scene was filmed, but that it just didn't play well. I found Ken Takemoto pretty weak in his role, tbh. I was also expecting that scene and disappointed with the final cut, but I felt like based on his other scenes and reaction at the door I also would have been disappointed with the full conversation.
The series was definitely at its best when they slowed down for the in-depth character conversations, though. Sam and Bucky training at home was one of the very best bits.
I would love to have seen a 75-90 minute movie about Carl Lumbly's character squaring off against the Winter soldier in Korea.
They had an extra challenge (part of the original plot involved a contagion which was understandably cut due to COVID), but agreed that a movie would have helped with pacing & filler issues.
The concept was shit, so it wouldn't have worked as a movie either.
Buddy Cop dynamic with a Falcon and abucky forced to to team up against a terrorist groop. Essentially, Lethal weapon with super powers.
There's no reason that premise can't work.
Which is odd because they have a TON of content to pull from, that being the comics.
It's so funny because it seems someone pitchs a movie for disney plus, and the executives greenlit by demanding to turn into a series.
But them the pacing breaks. It starts to slows and ends too quickly. All disney plus finales (except for Loki because it got a season 2) felt rushed.
I think Kenobi wouldn't work as a film. There's too much going on for just 90 to 120 minutes.
It was meant to be a film when they wrote it, then stretched it out to make a tv show.
Like Leia is kidnapped twice, they were definitely retreading ground because they didn't have enough material.
Most streaming documentaries nowadays. They like to pad out true crime stories into nonfiction miniseries, when a feature-length film is enough time to tell the story.
Lets call it the podcastification of documentary films into tv series.
Yes, that's a good way of putting it!
I've gotten to the point where if the trailer grabs my interest I just read the wikipedia synopsis on what happened and I'm good lol. Some of those documentaries could have been an e-mail.
This is partially why I love Unsolved Mysteries more than most of these other series
Don’t you love it when the entire first episode of a true crime series is devoted to moody establishing shots and interviews with people saying how bad that thing was? Who needs to know what the show is even about?
Handmaid’s tale, season 1 rips, no wonder because it covers the entire book. All subsequent seasons were original story and it shows. Much slower pace and generally feels unnecessary.
Jesus, yes. The first season is almost verbatim Atwood, and it works great...as a miniseries. The minute they ran out of book, the entire thing collapsed like a poorly-made souffle. (I gather Offred is now a Katniss-style rebel leader and Serena Joy her archnemesis, which, fucking hell.)
I think the latest season ended with the two of them now teamed up and traveling in the woods. I watched the whole thing and can barely remember much of what happened. It's gotten terrible.
There was a movie made in 1990 although it's rated pretty meh
Half the run time is just close ups of the protagonist’s face looking pissed, and her screaming “Hannah! We have to get her back!”
Westworld probably could have been 2-3 movies.
Westworld previously WAS two movies.
Yea but I mean the HBO version, outside of the basic premise they’re very different.
Yeah I figured, I just thought it was amusing.
Obi Wan Kenobi — could have made a great 2.5 hour movie.
The Queen's Gambit felt like a very elongated movie.
The show did a really good job of mirroring it's book.
I was happy it wasn’t one very long movie. Having it pre-cut in episodes made it easier to swallow.
This! Was about to google netflix chess show.
The "hit Netflix dramas" that come out about once a year all could be. Squid Game had a good amount of fluff to cut as well.
I absolutely loved The Bear but I did think that it could fit into a movie.
It basically is a movie. 8 20 minute episodes comes to 160 minutes, or 2 hours 40. A long movie, but not an impossibly long movie. Maybe because I watched it all in one sitting it felt that way.
Pretty much every docuseries from the last few years, true crime or otherwise, feels like they're stretched well beyond need to fit a serialized format and could have functioned better as a movie.
I would have much preferred a big budget Iron Fist movie over the Netflix series that we ended up with. They could have done something from The Immortal Iron Fist, like the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven, and it could have been amazing with good special effects and great fight choreography.
At least we have Shang Chi, I guess.
Dahmer. Did not need to be ten episodes.
I think that Dahmer would function well as a mini series, lets say 3 90 minute episodes. I would have liked to see more disturbing scenes of him and his victims.
And this is exactly why we need to stop making films of actual serial killers. If you want the details you can read the autopsy reports. Don’t look to real tragedies sensationalized as entertainment because you want to see “more disturbing scenes”
I don't see what is the problem. Why is Marvel normalised? Is it okay to live in a dream world of superheroes or live in a realistic world where there are serial killers roaming around? I have a question for you. Did you see the movie I saw the devil? Korean movie, very disturbing, but not based on true events. If you cohld would yoh forbid those kinds of movies? Cheers.
The difference is that the victims in Dahmer are real people. So putting those scenes into a movie or TV show could have negative impact on the victim's families and friends who happen to see it. Yes, we could say, well they can just avoid the show or movie, but why even put it out there?
So what do you think about for example movie Hotel Ruanda? It covers tragic historic event. Genuinely curious. Cheers.
I've never seen it and don't know what it's about. But if it's about a war, that can be more broad strokes and not focus on specific events that happened to specific people. It's nearly impossible to make a movie/show about a serial killer and everyone watching not be able to know exactly who the victim was in real life, even if they change names.
That’s a great movie but like ultimately there’s only maybe 2-3 scenes even related to the killer hurting his victims. The show already goes a lot more in depth to Dahmer and his victims. I saw the devil is much moreso about the cat and mouse chase rather than the serial killer
Wait what
Your Honor
For sure, the first couple episodes are great. Have you seen any of season 2?
Didn't even know there was a second series, thanks for the heads up
Prison Break
Loki
That new show the Patient
The Undoing. It basically already is an upmarket '90s erotic thriller, but the key to those films' success was that they told their story in about 90-100 minutes and got out before you started to really think about the plot and how little sense it made; The Undoing took six hours to reach more or less the same conclusion as Jagged Edge or Primal Fear, and I think people would've been a lot more forgiving of that non-twist ending had it not taken them so damn long to get there.
The Rig.
I'm not sure that turning it into a movie is what would have improved it. Better direction and green screen would have been a start, no matter what format it was put out in.
Riverdale
Prison Break could/should have been a franchise
The Book of Boba Fett (2021)
Both seasons of Picard. Especially season 2. There was so much wasted filler in that show that it was ultimately pointless. John De Lancie being in a few scenes did not make the overall experience better.
Season 1 was so utterly forgettable that I'm struggling to remember what actually occurred in it much.
Miracle Workers.
The Haunting of Hill House
The first five episodes of that could have worked really good as a film and still maintained a better connection to the book. There’s just not enough there to extend it to ten episodes. It also just drops quality considerable after the fifth/sixth episode and becomes weirdly saccharine and soft.
Totally agree. Half of that show felt like overly drawn out monologues. Scene. Scene. Monologue. Scene. Scene. Monologue. I couldn't stand it after a while.
I kind of like the way he sets up his monologues, but most of them end up contributing nothing to the story and are just there as either his self insert or to make sure the audience understands what he had just shown them.
One of the worst posts I’ve seen on this site
I could be upset about this or I could double down.
Most of Mike Flanagan’s work is just an unimaginative riff on other peoples work.
I’d say that’s true for Ti West
Flanagan is actually talented though
I mean, sure there’s some talent there, but that doesn’t mean that he’s not jump pumping out unimaginative riffs of other peoples work. His last 5 out of 6 shows/films have been adaptations, not great ones at that, and his next 3 projects are adaptations. Most of those adaptations just turn into a Stephen King flick. His one original work amongst those is a relatively weak look at religious fanaticism that provides little new to the conversation. Most of his monologues either don’t contribute anything further to the story or are just a regurgitation of what’s already happened. And let’s not forget that in every one of his series, except for the fake out in Midnight Club, a major character dies in episode five.
Not really what you're asking, but I've been thinking about films which were adapted for TV which didn't have enough material for a series, and which actually added something worthwhile.
Picnic at Hanging Rock didn't expand the story enough to justify a series.
The Purge season one wasn't justified, but season 2 was (exploring the days after Purge Night.
Scream worked as a series (at least season 1, haven't watched 2), letting the paranoia and suspicion build, getting attached to characters know they could be murdered).
Westworld works - there's so much to explore with the subject of Artificial Life, several seasons is warranted.
Anyways, these are just a few that cane to mind.
Servant on Apple TV. First season was phenomenal, super suspenseful, great premise with a dark sense of humor. On the 4th and final season now and they’ve dragged it out to the point where I’m only watching to see how it ends but the story could’ve been wrapped up in one season or better yet, a 2 hour movie
Willow (Series)
Reservation Dogs (Great series, but a movie would've been cool with the California arc)
Severance
The Stand. Two miniseries, and neither could get it quite right, with too much padding and talk and meandering. Granted, the book is itself padded and long, but surely they could reduce it down to an exciting and terrifying 2 hours.
Hated! The remake, way too drawn out
Likely in the minority here, but Yellowjackets. Despite some good performances, I really did not care about the 'adults' plotline. I would have enjoyed a 2hr movie strictly about the teens way more.
Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Giving it a shorter runtime would have cut off a lot of the fat like Sam dealing with getting a loan and helping his sister with their family business or them going on a detour to Madripoor to meet up with the Power Broker.
I get a big part of the series was the racial prejudice Sam would experience but it felt like those issues were completely seperate to his activites as a superhero. A tighter run time would force the writers to weave those themes of race/class into the primary storyline.
Also a bigger budget means the scenes we already got could look more impressive. Walker as the new Captain America is a great angle but he and his partner felt weirdly small scale considering the amount of fanfare that was surrounded with Walker becoming Cap, especially given his lack of powers. Give him a support field team on missions to really cement that this Cap has the limitless support of the government behind him while Sam is largely left to handle things himself. Also give some of that budget to the Flag Smashers so they appear more credible as a proper threat and visually impressive.
For the reverse side make Eternals a miniseries. That film was a mess.
Falcon and Winter Soldier
The Witcher was a mess, but Cavill is legendary and it had some good elements.
If they could have condensed it into a cohesive narrative, it could have been easier to get attached to. And it would have been nice to focus more of the budget on fewer monsters so they looked better.
The Beatles: Get Back
It was great to see the process of how they made the songs, I didn't need to see them play Let it Be 19 times
Dexter
I wonder which season? The Trinity season is the most popular, but did you need the previous episodes to build up the tension of "will Dexter get caught this time" or just launch straight from there?
Do 10 min of season 1, trinity story, finish with Deb and the truth. Omit Harrison entirely. Just married with step kids
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Personally, and perhaps I just can't think of any at the moment, but I don't believe I have any examples for this case.
A TV series stretching itself too thin and straying from the original idea, I feel, doesn't have to do with it being a series. It has to do with the fact that they decided their series needed to a full-length one. If they stopped the show after how many episodes they needed just to tell the story they came to tell, then that wouldn't be a problem.
Movies do allow this to be a restraint in of itself, but it being a tv series shouldn't stop the story writers from keeping their tale as short as it was originally planned to be.
I kind of feel at times it is becoming the opposite. With Film you really have to condense the story down to fit the run time and hope it does well enough to justify a sequel. At least with a series the idea of spreading it out seems to work in many cases, especially when adapting from a novel.
thinking of a few that fizzled out after a season -- weeds, billions, ozark. should've been movies.
I just re-watched season one of Prison Break. I don't know how it would play out in 2 hours, but even as good as season one was, I hit fast forward quite a bit.
Undone season 1 consists of eight 20-minute episodes that all came out on the same day. It practically is a movie.
I could probably think of a lot more in the other direction. Novels are usually too much plot for a standard length movie.
Ghost Wars
Heroes
I think this falls solidly into the "too many characters" zone. Focusing on Save the Cheerleader, Save the World plot would have made for a fine movie with a clearly discernable villain and endpoint.
I agree. I think just Season 1 would make a good movie. Too many characters and too many plots is what could have been a good series run.
The Land of the Lost ( tv 1973 ) would have made a great serious Sci-Fi film, and not a comedy like the 2009 film starring Will Ferrell.
it would have made an exciting movie.
Stephen King's Golden Years. It was about a guy aging backwards and being chased by the government. It only ran a half dozen episodes in the early 90s before it was cancelled. Would have made a much better movie.
Lol, I watched Most Dangerous Game as a movie, bc I thought it was one.
Seinfeld
TWIN PEAKS
None.
12 monkeys, all of new trek
12 Monkeys as a film, eh? You might be on to something there.
I know I'll watch it if they can get some big names like Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis to act in it
It might even work better as a French black and white short film.
Sure, but I think in that case it would need a different name. Something quick and punchy.
Thorazine? Haldol? How much? HOW MUCH
Strange New Worlds is very much written episodically. They didn't do one long story over the season.
That's the exception 👍
McMacHack t1_j6n0wag wrote
The Book of Boba Fett. Cut out the Luke/Din/Mando episodes and tighten up the pacing it would have made an exciting movie.