Do Other Authors Analyze Movies and TV?

When I'm watching a movie or a TV series, I find myself analyzing its story aspects; its character development, scene development (for sure), flow, structure. It's not that I'm sitting back and critiquing it; I enjoy a good series or movie as much as anyone, but since becoming a writer ("professionally"), I'm subconsciously viewing a work through two separate lenses.

There are a few brilliant television dramas; to me, Mad Men and Breaking Bad fit that criteria, and watching them makes me realize how pitiful a storyteller I am. Or is it just that some creators' brilliance is untouchable, while most of us are so-so?

I have a bad habit of viewing my work-in-progress as a movie unfolding inside my head, and though that's not completely bad, who was it who said, "books aren't movies"? (virtually everyone, actually.) That could explain my dearth of deep description. Directors don't normally turn the camera on a field of grass or a piece of delicate porcelain unless something's happening for which those things are integral to the story, such as the master thief stealing that priceless porcelain piece. Even then, the focus is on the thief, not the pottery. Ethan Hunt isn't stopping to admire the artistry of a priceless object when he's grabbing it to save the earth from destruction. (Probably a bad example from a bad movie.)

More important to me as a writer is a movie's or series' pacing and characterization. My husband and I are currently watching the miniseries, The Outsider. I've never once read any of Stephen King's works, mainly because it's not my preferred genre, but I've seen a couple of miniseries adapted from them, and what jumps out at me is that he includes way too many characters. It's almost pathological. No wonder the adaptations are mini-series; it takes several episodes just to introduce everybody. I'm not judging that as bad, but to me it's not ideal. I prefer to get to know, really know, the main players. It's odd, because I know he can do it. He did it with Shawshank Redemption. Every story needs supporting characters, but they're called "supporting" for a reason. They exist to serve the main character's arc. With King, often I don't even know who the main character is supposed to be, or if there is one.

I suppose TV series have the luxury of developing characters more fully, yet the great ones don't tell the tale from two hundred people's perspectives. Breaking Bad shows Walter's and Jesse's, and to some extent, Hank's (depending on the episode/story arc). Mad Men is different, gloriously so, because every character is interesting. If I was to write again, my dream would be to create a cast of characters whose lives intersect, but whose stories also stand on their own.  

One of the ways TV series/movies differ from books, of course, is in the "cuts". One scene doesn't need to flow into the next, and in fact it rarely does. This is where visual creators have an advantage over writers like me who don't dwell on detail. In a novel, a bunch of quick cuts would immediately become annoying to the reader. 

By the same token, it's also annoying to have to slog through every little move a character makes. I've silently bitched about movie scenes that go on far too long (bad directorial decision, in my opinion). Inside my head, I'm screaming, "Get to the point!" This especially seems to occur in the very first scene, which is a reminder to novelists: don't bore your reader right off the bat. An author has to give the reader something to latch onto. 

I admit, I've almost given up on a streaming movie when the first scene bored me to tears. I don't even know the characters yet! Come on! Give me a reason to keep watching! Writers can easily fall into that trap, too, especially if they're going back and reworking their opening scene, like I did with Running From Herself. By that point, I really knew the story, and it would've been easy to forget that no one else did. Even if they're writing their first pass at an opening, it's natural to want the story to spill out (discovery writers unite!), which is why I advise going back once the manuscript is finished and making the opening sparkle.

Admittedly, I'm much better suited to script writing than to writing novels, but alas, Hollywood isn't beating down my door, just like readers aren't. While writers of prose can certainly learn a lot from movies and TV, some of that learning entails what not to do. 

Now, if I could just turn off my analytical brain and enjoy the show.