Simplify, then add lightness. - Colin Chapman
Brevity is the soul of wit. - William Shakespeare
We started watching Devs a couple nights ago, got two episodes in, and it really started to piss me off. Took me a moment to figure out why. Although there are some issues more specific to it, the biggest issue is one that has become endemic to streaming shows: They're bloated and too long for their own good.
Creating a shorter story is harder than creating a long one. Making a story as short and tight as possible usually makes it stronger. Rather than hampering an artist's vision, it usually forces them to clarify it. To take a long hard look at what they want to express and find the actual heart of that. It forces them to be careful and purposeful.
This doesn't mean that a story is necessarily as short as it can be, that stories can't take their time and burn slowly. I love most of Denis Villeneuve's films. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is long. The extended versions are not better. The Harry Potter books peaked in quality with books 3 and/or 4 when Rowling was given the space to explore, but her editors still did their jobs and made her trim out what was superfluous.
There are too many streaming shows that could be good, but just run for too long. The last season of Stranger Things had a solid story hidden within it, but failed to actually tell it properly because of bloat. The live action Cowboy Bebop had hour-long episodes where the original cartoon's were an economical 24 minutes each.
There are good shows out there, but they're hidden. If you have not yet watched Arcane, do so. It is economical and purposeful. Everything it shows is intentional. After the first 3 minutes, I knew that I wanted to watch this series. As opposed to Devs, where after two hours, I still have no idea if it's going to get interesting.
Ultimately, I think this is where the show loses me. It might have been a good show. There may be something worth watching hidden in the overly-long runtime. But it's unnecessary length weakens what strong points are there. I don't need 10 minute scenes of characters explaining details to me that were clearly communicated visually and through acting in a few shots already. This just lets me know that the show creators aren't confident in their abilities and/or don't respect my intelligence.
Sadly, I don't expect this to change. The goal of streaming platforms is to make money, not art. They don't want me to watch a tight 30 minutes, then go off and digest. They want me to sit down and keep their service running for hours on end. They have to have characters explain things out loud simply, and slowly instead of using efficient visual language, because they expect the audience is looking down at their phones instead of actually watching their screens.
Well, maybe if you gave me something worth looking at, I would. If my phone or my dishes are more interesting than your show, that's on you.
And Arcane really is one of the best TV shows I've ever watched. It's up there with The Wire, Breaking Bad, and Cowboy Bebop as masterpieces of storytelling. If you haven't watched it yet, do. If you have, watch it again.
