Should Film Directors Transition To Television?

The recent news that Peter Jackson is almost certainly going to direct a Doctor Who episode (unless he’s just being a dick) is exciting. However, Jackson is far from the only noted filmmaker to get involved with the current golden age of scripted television. Although Jackson’s motives revolve largely around being a huge fan of Doctor Who, well-known film directors have been turning to television in increasingly larger numbers. Some simply help to bring a show to life, serving in an executive producer capacity. However, some of the most successful and celebrated filmmakers in the world have directed television episodes over the last few years. It’s good for television, to be sure, but is it part of a growing trend?

Steven Soderbergh, Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann, Guillermo del Toro (does that guy ever go home?), Jane Campion, and David Fincher have all directed scripted television shows in the 2010s. That’s a sizable list of accomplished filmmakers dabbling in the medium. The rise of Netflix and Amazon, as well as cable television continuously stepping up its game, has given rise to an exhaustive list of TV shows. Keeping up with everything is fairly close to impossible. There is something wonderful about that. The playing field is now vast. In theory, anything should be possible.

So it is not impossible to imagine why so many film directors are getting into television. The commitment to directing an episode of a TV show is nowhere near as demanding as the commitment to direct a film. There is also something immensely appealing about crafting, or at least contributing to, the concept of episodic storytelling. Michael Mann and Martin Scorsese both directed the pilot episodes for HBO shows, Luck and Boardwalk Empire respectively. Soderbergh directed the entire first season of The Knick, even after he indicated that he would be retiring from directing. The stakes for success for a TV series are certainly high, but the demands are nowhere near what is expected of multi-million dollar film project. TV shows are able to take their time.

Shows that originate from sources like Netflix or Amazon Prime do not have to answer to the same masters as a show on CBS or NBC. With a series, the emphasis is generally placed on character and plot. Plenty of room is left over for stylistic touches. A single episode of a series does not have to make 20 million dollars in its open weekend, or people are going to consider it a failure. Even with the demands a TV show has to keep in mind, the stakes are nowhere near as high as film. Directing television allows filmmakers to focus more intently on the creative process. It also generally takes a lot less time to direct a single episode of a series, than it does to direct an entire feature film.

It’s not surprising that so many A-list directors are jumping into television shows. We can only hope that more will continue to make the transition. One of the reasons why we are in a golden age of television, beyond the staggering variety of possibilities, is the fact that it presents an intriguing opportunity for directors. Filmmakers taking their film directing insights into the world of scripted television can only add to the variety of possibilities. It generates an even greater playlist of styles, and it benefits the shows in question by having someone of considerable experience and talent bring those elements to a smaller screen.

The only downside is that this didn’t happen sooner. 90s television could have certainly benefitted from film directors picking up an episode or two. Quentin Tarantino famously directed an episode of E.R. in the mid-90s. It would have been interesting, to say the least, if more TV shows had tapped the various auteurs and visionaries who were reshaping the film landscape in that decade.

That was then. This is now, and we can only hope that more film directors will make the move to HBO, Netflix, Showtime, AMC, and elsewhere.