The Showrunner Of ‘The Boys’ Takes A Profanity-Coated Hammer To The ‘10-Hour Movie’ Style Of Television
After delivering an epic and well-received third season of The Boys that saw Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy and Antony Starr’s Homelander deliver command performances, showrunner Eric Kripke has been opening up about making the wildly satirical series. In a wide-ranging interview that tackled everything from far-right fans only just now realizing Homelander is the bad guy to his days of dealing with an unwieldy fandom on Supernatural, Kripke fired off a profane shot at an annoying trend in the world of streaming shows.
While Kripke has a network TV background, a lot of filmmakers coming into the streaming space do not, which often leads to proclamations that they’re not making a show, they’re making an “8-10 hour movie. Kripke is not here for it. Via Vulture:
They’re more comfortable with the idea that they could give you ten hours where nothing happens until the eighth hour. That drives me fucking nuts, personally. As a network guy who had to get you people interested for 22 fucking hours a year, I didn’t get the benefit of, “Oh, just hang in there and don’t worry. The critics will tell you that by episode eight, shit really hits the fan.” Or anyone who says, “Well, what I’m really making is a ten-hour movie.” Fuck you! No you’re not! Make a TV show.
Of course, Kripke’s remarks could be read as a thinly-veiled barb at Stranger Things, which just delivered a fourth season with some crazy long episodes. However, expanding runtimes aside, that series has been careful to make each episode a distinct chapter in a longer story. The more likely culprit is over at Disney+ where shows like Obi-Wan Kenobi and the Marvel series have been touted by their creative teams as longer versions of their theatrical siblings. It’s made some for some uneven watching experiences that, as Kripke said, feel like someone just kept filling a two-hour movie with unnecessary padding. Show a little respect for your audience’s time, people!
(Via Vulture)