— Joel Coen on why they don’t make television series:
As writers… long-form was never something we could get our heads around,” Coen said. “It’s a different paradigm. Not to be shitty about it, but you can look at stories that they have a beginning, middle, and end. But so much of television has a beginning, a middle, a middle, a middle, a middle, until the whole thing dies of exhaustion. It’s beaten to death and then you find a way of ending it. That’s how a lot of long-form television works, so it’s a hard thing to get your head around.
The Handmaid’s Tale is a recent example. It should have ended after three, maybe four seasons. But the writers always find a reason for June to stay or return to Gilead. Few television series get this right, mostly shows limited to one series or those that tell a different story with every season, like Fargo or True Detective. I wouldn’t be able to name more than a handful of multi-season shows that were captivating all the way through. The Sopranos and Breaking Bad, maybe.
(Via The Homebound Symphony)