Television has evolved a lot since the prestige TV booms of the late ’90s and mid-2000s, but Inglourious Basterds and Pulp Fiction writer-director Quentin Tarantino still prefers movies to the shows of the small screen. The filmmaker revealed as much during a recent appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience with his Video Archives Podcast co-host Roger Avary.
“Everyone talks about how great television is now, and it’s pretty good, I gotta say. It’s pretty good. But it’s still television to me,” the Oscar-winning director explained. “I’ll use an example of a show: Yellowstone. I didn’t get around to watching it the first three years or so and then I watched the first season and I thought, ‘Wow, this is f—ing great. I’ve always been a Kevin Costner fan and he is wonderful in this,’ and I got caught up in the show and all of a sudden I’m having a good time.”
“I end up watching like three seasons of it, and then I even watch that [spin-off] 1883, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is a good Western show. I like Westerns!’” Tarantino recalled. “While I’m watching it, I am compelled. I’m caught up in it. But at the end of the day, it’s all just a soap opera.” The filmmaker continued, “If you watch [long-cancelled soap opera] The Edge of Night Monday-Friday, you get caught up in the dramas of the family and everything, but you don’t remember it five years from now. You’re caught up in the minutia of it at the moment.”
Ultimately, Tarantino believes that the lasting impressions most TV shows leave pale in comparison to the impact of any great movie. “I’ll see a good Western movie, and I’ll remember it for the rest of my life,” the director argues. “I’ll remember the story, this scene or that scene. It built to an emotional climax of some degree. The story is good. It’s not just about the interpersonal relationships. The story is good itself, but there’s a payoff to it. There is not a payoff on this stuff. It’s just more interconnected drama. While I am watching it, that is good enough. But when it’s over, I couldn’t tell you [anything about it].”
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“I don’t remember any of the bad guys for [Yellowstone] season 2 or season 3. It’s out of my head. It’s just completely gone!” Tarantino said. “But Red River, I remember for the rest of my life.”
Some viewers will likely take issue with Tarantino’s opinion, especially considering how much more sophisticated TV storytelling has become across the board over the past 20 years. However, it is worth noting that Tarantino is not completely opposed to television as a medium. Not only did he work with Netflix in 2019 to re-edit his 2015 Western The Hateful Eight into a four-episode miniseries, but he also famously directed a two-part episode of CSI back in 2005 and an episode of ER in 1995. It just seems that, for now at least, he still has a very clear preference when it comes to TV or movies.