With his new AMC miniseries The Little Drummer Girl, director Park Chan-wook joins the ranks of film directors moving into television.
South Korean film director Park Chan-wook is no stranger to success. The international acclaim for his work including Oldboy, Stoker, and The Handmaiden has made him one of the most popular directors in his home country and a favorite of many American cinephiles.
Last year, Park Chan-wook announced he would direct The Little Drummer Girl, a miniseries for American television based on a spy novel by John le Carré. This foray into television surprised and delighted fans for several reasons; not only did it signal Park Chan-wook’s growing popularity, but it also meant the director would deliver nearly six glorious hours of content.
Rather than air individual episodes over the course of six weeks, AMC is airing them all this week — two episodes each night over three nights — making the show prime binge material for the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
Put simply, The Little Drummer Girl is an intricate espionage thriller that challenges the limits of love and loyalty among the many players involved in this high-stakes socio-political environment. It doesn’t take long to see why Park Chan-wook would choose to turn The Little Drummer Girl into a TV miniseries rather than a film.
In his last film, The Handmaiden, Park Chan-wook was already showing signs of favoring a more episodic structure to storytelling; clocking in at whopping 2 hours and 47 minutes, he was already half way to directing a miniseries.
Given the sheer breadth and depth of le Carré’s novel, it’s fitting to see it adapted into a long form work rather than a single movie. This is undoubtedly a significant contributing factor that helps explain why several film directors have found their way onto TV recently.
This is not to say that movie directors are just now crossing over into TV. Film directors have a long history of either starting their careers in television or taking a break from movies to focus on TV. The very model of television production typically favors hiring directors for individual episodes, rather than full seasons.
For example, Alfred Hitchcock directed 17 episodes of his show Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Prolific German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder also worked in TV with projects including World on a Wire and Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day.
Paul Feig, known for directing movies like Bridesmaids and A Simple Favor, built his career directing television on shows like Arrested Development and Nurse Jackie.
The Wachowski’s operated as the visionaries behind Sense8, directing around half of the episodes while allowing others to come in and handle the rest.
Martin Scorsese, Ava DuVernay, and David Fincher have all produced TV shows while directing their shows’ respective pilot episodes. After that, these directors have passed the show on to a fit a more traditional model.
However, the more recent trend we’re seeing is that directors are signing on to direct entire TV series or seasons, rather than just a couple episodes. Park Chan-wook’s The Little Drummer Girl falls squarely into this category.
In the last two years alone, several high profile film directors have taken to directing full television series all on their own.
Jean-Marc Valleé, known for movies like Wild and Dallas Buyers Club, directed two very popular HBO series: Big Little Lies and Sharp Objects. The former went on to win an impressive eight Emmys, including Outstanding Limited Series.
Andrea Arnold, a well-regarded British director whose last three films including American Honey premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, signed on to direct the entire second season of Big Little Lies.
Meanwhile, David Lynch wrote and directed a whopping 18 episode season of Twin Peaks: The Return for Showtime. Over 26 years after the series was originally cancelled by ABC, Lynch returned to helm the entire season and delivered one of the most unique works of television ever.
The list doesn’t end there. Spike Lee directed 10 episodes of She’s Gotta Have It, a comedy about one woman and her three very different lovers. Jane Campion and Garth Davis co-directed two full seasons of crime drama Top of the Lake.
Steven Soderbergh delivered two masterful seasons of The Knick about New York’s Knickerbocker Hospital set in the early 20th century.
Cary Fukanaga brought the first season of True Detective to the screen and most recently directed all 10 episodes of Maniac for Netflix.
Even Paolo Sorrentino brought audiences 10 deliciously melodramatic episodes of The Young Pope with HBO.
To say that these TV series are not changing the face of television would be false. The rise of film directors taking on full television series is having a significant impact on both the quality of TV and the way we consume them.
For a long time, TV was almost completely focused on the episodic structure rather the product created by a collective whole. Sitcoms, for example, still maintain this; you can miss a few weeks of The Big Bang Theory and have no problem following the plot of the newest episode.
However, movie directors inhabit the television space in a much different way. The sentiment that some shows are “10 hour movies” continues to grow and pervade the world of television thanks in large part to the stories movie directors choose to adapt for the small screen.
If you look at the list of film directors that have taken on full TV seasons, Park Chan-wook’s The Little Drummer Girl included, you will find lots of book adaptations. That’s because these directors still favor closed-circuit story, one that offers the creators and viewers a distinct beginning, middle, and end. It’s not hard to see why this would be appealing to creators who are used to working on movies.
The sentiment that some shows are “10 hour movies” continues to pervade the world of TV — thanks in large part to directors making the transition from film to television.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; with a single director leading every episode of a TV show, it allows for continuity throughout each episode with regards to the visual style and directorial voice. Shows like Jean-Marc Valleé’s Big Little Lies and Sharp Objects have distinct editing styles and visual palettes that would not exist without his more singular vision.
The same could be said for The Little Drummer Girl, a spy story that benefits from Chan-wook’s attentiveness to strong shot composition and blocking, detailed costume and set design, and spirited direction. Seeing this style, not just in one episode, but throughout the series is rewarding, especially for fans of the director.
Moreover, there’s a clear difference when these movie directors choose not to direct every episode. House of Cards and Mindhunter are fantastic examples. David Fincher only directed the first two episodes of each show (and later returned for a few more episodes of Mindhunter).
In doing so, he established a distinct style for each show, but without him in the director’s chair, several episodes often felt like they were simply mimicking his style as opposed to living up to its full potential.
With streaming services evolving every year and network television adapting to fit new models, the landscape of television continues to shift beneath our feet and in front of our eyes. The migration of many prominent film directors into television is having a clear impact on the way television is created and consumed, but it’s only one part of the television behemoth.
Regardless of whether you buy into the idea of the golden age of television, one thing is certain: movie directors are helping change the face of the medium one show at a time.
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