About a century ago, gathering with friends and family and going to the movies to be entertained and educated was an ideal way to spend an evening. However, individuals today tend to be busier with work, schoolwork and constant communication, so it is much more difficult to find the time to watch movies. With the addition of TV shows to one’s life, it became easier for people to watch a story and unify over it.

Television shows have pros and cons. Like films, television shows tell a visual story. However, films are limited in their capacity; television shows are limitless. Television shows can begin as a sproutlings and grow into healthy plant adulthood, or they can begin as a branch from an already matured tree, also known as a spin-off.

Because of this, television shows have much more freedom when it comes to the story. A film tends to only cover a story and its basics, and often events and relationships seem rushed. Though viewers are aware that the show is fiction, the blatant fictitious quality aired by forced situations causes the viewer to lose the sense of escape that they watch the film for.

Television shows can go deeper into a story, exploring characters and their relationships, going off into tangents that further develop the story and its plot. The progression of relationships and events is much more convincing in TV. While it is difficult for a film to constantly engage the audience, a television show faces the harder task of engaging the audience enough that the audience feels the necessity of watching the next episode or season, especially when the show airs in primetime.

Because people today are busier, it is harder to find time to sit down and watch a film all the way through, especially since films are becoming significantly longer to fit more into the story and plot. Time is a great benefit of TV shows because they tend to only be 30 minutes to an hour long, making it easier to watch an episode quickly between commitments.

The main distinction between film and TV shows, however, is that TV shows can make you believe something fantastical could happen to you. Television plotlines happen in real time, regularly, giving viewers something to hold on to. Films leave these fantasies just out of grasp. Is it not better to have hope than to be stuck knowing what you desire will never be attainable?