I really like the idea of the TV miniseries. It allows for the telling of a story beyond the maximum 2 hour length that most people will sit through — the adaptations of King’s work like his new SHINING and THE STAND are both great examples. They needed longer to fully develop the stories than a commercially released film would allow; the eventual DVD releases of movies like that and ANGELS IN AMERICA allows for the viewer to digest the story in whatever bites they can handle.

Cable outlets like HBO and Showtime — and even FX, to a lesser extent — are probably the best, allowing for more realistic content (language, violence, whatever). ANGELS IN AMERICA is a great example — even some of those themes wouldn’t have been allowed on network TV, but the story demands their inclusion.

Which brings to mind episodic TV like X-FILES and LOST. Both of which almost seem to demand miniseries formatting, with a definite beginning (which both had) and a definite end (which X-FILES lacked and LOST probably will). X-FILES jumped the shark big time — as most long running shows will — and I imagine that LOST could easily suffer the same fate (worse: LOST gets cancelled and en ending will have to be rushed).

Rare is the show that starts and ends satisfactorily. BUFFY and ANGEL both did really nice jobs, even if certain seasons could have been better. Give credit to Joss Whedon and his staff on those… But imagine if creators were allowed to pitch shows as three season runs, no more, no less; then you know full-well that you have time to finish your full stories, and you don’t have to worry about stretching the run past it’s natural life expectancy.

In the comic book realm, Warren Ellis is doing a smart thing like this with PLANETARY. No worries about having to see the characters and storylines suffer. Story begins and ends, and if there is the occasional one-shot story that needs to be told — not necessarily part of the overall arc, but belonging to the cast and atmosphere — it can be put down with no worries.

Rambling thoughts… One day, hopefully to be put to use. The short stories I tell are what come naturally, but I can see a 400 page screenplay in my head, perhaps.