3 TV Shows Based on Movies You Should Be Watching

I can understand being a little exhausted by all of the reboots and remakes in modern cinema but I try to be optimistic about it.  I don't really see more Spider-Man films as a bad thing, even with the exceptionally high bar I have for the franchise.  Besides, there's still a place for original cinematic storytelling and that place is on TV (or TV-like websites).  After all, it is the Golden Age of television.  A single episode of Breaking Bad alone is better than 90% of movies.  Even the superhero genre, the other increasingly derided trend in movies, is doing well on the small screen.  Flash, Arrow, and Daredevil are all among the best of TV.  Maybe the best indicator that TV has overtaken film is the excellence of the shows based on movies that are, while not necessarily better than the original, worthy successors and hold their own in this Golden Age.  Shows like these,

'From Dusk till Dawn'

That's a gun.  You got that that's a gun, right?  Cuz it's kind of blurry.

Robert Rodriguez is the reigning king of dumb action movies for people too smart for Michael Bay.  In 1996 he made the movie From Dusk till Dawn, written by his friend Quentin Tarantino, which is famous for starting out as a tense crime film before suddenly and violently twisting into a magnificent vampire film.  In late 2013 Rodriguez launched El Rey, a new TV network with From Dusk till Dawn: The Series premiering in 2014 at the forefront, surrounded by the kinds of unglamorous movies that inspired Rodriguez's work.  The first season of FDtD:TS retells the original story with a more gradual genre change and much more emphasis on the mythology surrounding the supernatural aspects.  Rodriguez has always proudly displayed his Mexican heritage and in the new show he uses ancient Mexican lore to build a dense mythology and I love a dense mythology.  The '96 film is also known as one of George Clooney's first major leading parts as one half of the Gecko Brothers, the other played by Tarantino.  Actors D.J. Contra and Zane Holtz ably step into the roles originally played by a director suitably creepy enough to play a sociopath and Quentin Tarantino.  The second season premiered this week, starting a brand new chapter for the Gecko brothers.

'Fargo'

The same year From Dusk till Dawn was released another violent film came out.  Instead of the Mexico/U.S. border, The Coen Brothers' Fargo takes place in the snow covered plains of Minnesota.  It does feature two hardened criminals, but they're hardly the protagonists.  That position belongs to the wholesome and dedicated Police Chief Marge Gunderson, played by Frances McDormand.  However, the TV series has little to do with that.  The first season follows another upstanding lawwoman named Molly Solverson as she investigates the chaos surrounding a local insurance salesman with a dark streak, and the evil drifter who brings that kind of thing out of everyone he meets.  Sherlock's Martin Freeman plays the salesman Lester as he becomes more aggressive while losing all regard for others and Billy Bob Thornton plays the sadistic drifter.  In the end both are conquered by Molly, played by the terrific Allison Tolman.  The second season will begin in October and once again will only be loosely tied to the first season and the movie.

Hopefully 'American Horror Story'

 Speaking of "barely connected," American Horror Story isn't directly based on any movie, but by its very concept it is influenced by all kinds of horror.  The first season was about a haunted house not unlike The Amityville Horror for instance.  The fifth season, beginning in October, will center on a hotel.  It seems very likely that it will be influenced by The Shining, which is easily one of the greatest horror films ever made and happens to take place in a hotel.  Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece (redundant?) was cited as an influence on the show five years ago, but hopefully the new season will kick the Kubrick into high gear.  They say "good artists copy, great artists steal" and "if you're going to steal, steal from the best."  If there is ever a time to steal from Stanley Kubrick it's when you're making a horror TV show set in a hotel.