Is it just me? Or is TV not the new cinema?

In our regular polarising-opinion series, one Total Film writer questions whether TV is actually usurping cinema.

Read on, and let us know if you agree with the argument put forward by having your say in the comments section below.

Is it just me? … Or is TV not ‘the new cinema’? asks Matt Glasby

There have been lots of mumblings recently about how TV is ‘the new cinema’, as if there was something terminally wrong with the old one. You can see where the confusion lies: lots of films, from Minority Report to Bachelor Party, are being adapted for the box, and we’ve all got huge screens to view them on. But, unless you live in a multiplex, it’s still TV you’re watching. Here’s how to tell: TV has ad breaks and/or prescribed episode lengths; you watch it while eating/texting/talking. It’s by design repetitive, and the longer a series runs, the more outlandish it gets – as the Fonz so smugly demonstrated, it is TV, not film, that jumps the shark. Yes, there is a new strain of ambitious, large-arc telly trying to take the medium somewhere different (Breaking Bad, True Detective, Game Of Thrones). But these fine shows don’t represent ‘the new cinema’, just TV that isn’t shit. Congratulations, have an Emmy.