TVSquad

I hate it when a network, a star, or a producer refers to a TV show that "looks like a movie." Is this supposed to impress me? I don't really care if a TV show "looks like a movie," because I look for the actual content of the show (writing, stars, direction, etc) before I look at how it looks. Give me a good script that looks terrible and I'll take it over a formula show that looks fantastic any day.

Take Smith. The network (and more than a few TV critics and fans) kept saying it looked like watching a movie only on our TV sets. Um, yeah, only I think what people meant by this is that the cinematography in the pilot was good and it had some good explosions. Not a terrible show, but really, that's what it came down to.

Whether a show looks like the pilot of Lost, the low budget black and white look of Darren Aronofsky's pi, the crude animation of South Park, or just a typical sitcom look like Kate and Allie, it doesn't really matter to me. It's the other stuff that matters.

Oddly, Smith turned out to be exactly like a movie. It was off our screens in less than two months.