Television is a heavily consumed medium and even though it is going through adaptations in regards to how people watch its content the net result is still pretty much the same: it’s everywhere. So what exactly can we say about it?

My feelings towards television from an artistic perspective are mixed. On one hand, it commands a large audience and, therefore, a large budget within the creative industry. The need for new programming has to be fulfilled so the number of commissions is far higher than cinema. Hocking advertising space or fulfilling the requirements of a public broadcast service is a less risky venture than targeting box office receipts. There is plenty of opportunity for respectable art.

In less populated countries such as Sweden, the potential audience for a film or drama series produced in a non-English language is actually greater for television than it is for cinema. Many of Ingmar Bergman’s late films were produced for television. It is only with the extremes of Hollywood/Bollywood that we perceive cinema to be the pinnacle of film.

Cinema is also quite restrictive in its format. A cinematic film is a standalone event. For it be worthwhile it needs to be of certain length and it needs to have some form of conclusion. The audience needs to feel there was a purpose for them to go to the effort of attending. Television, however, needs only to fill a schedule and it doesn’t even need to do that so imperatively any more. It doesn’t need to be conclusive. It doesn’t need to be worthwhile. Its primary concern is to continue to exist as a part of people’s lives.

There is so much television that quality can become lost. It can become corrupted by other markers of success other than integrity and artistic value. Greater quantity provides greater opportunity but the lack of risk results in far less scrutiny. Even if all quality was lost, success would still exist in its polluted and relative forms.

Television is responsible for some works of great distinction. Television provides us with unique experiences. Television can produce art but the road to such attainment is a rare, perilous and often unthankful one.

This month's favourites:
   Bat For Lashes, The Bride
   Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
   Bandslam (2009)