One day, my Mathematics teacher started talking about books, movies, and tv shows, and how such media has a huge impact on our personality, especially during teenage years, because they’re the most formative years in our lives. I agreed with him. In my previous boarding school, we watched a movie every Saturday. It’s not only one of my most cherished moments, but it also led me to watch 52 movies in a year, which is a lot for me. After transferring out of the boarding school, I’ve barely watched 10 movies in these past two years (I turn off the movies even before the Warner Brothers logo comes on screen. That’s just how messed up my attention span is at the moment.)

But still, those 156 movies that I watched in my time there have really shaped my worldview, widened my cultural perspectives, and sharpened my critical thinking skills. But during this time, the teacher started bashing TV shows for being inferior to movies. I was upset initially, but I could see where he was coming from. He said TV shows are too long and convoluted, with many ups and downs. Somewhere in the middle, the show’s lesson or message gets lost. Movies, instead, have clear, succinct character arcs that can make the lessons digestible.

But I think because TV shows feature characters going through many ups and downs and backtracking their progress, that is the exact reason why TV shows can have such a huge impact on us. Shameless is a TV show that immediately comes to mind. (I’ve only watched the U.S version. Sorry, Brit reader.) 

In the show, Lip Gallagher faces drug addiction and issues regarding a lack of ambition. While my own life hasn't faced those specific extremes, I found his journey strangely relatable. Anyone who has faced a personal hurdle knows the solution isn’t usually a "eureka moment" or a quick fix; it’s a gradual, messy process with many setbacks. I think this sort of long-term storytelling is an accurate reflection of humanity because our lives don’t get neatly wrapped up in the course of two-hour movies. It keeps on going for dozens of seasons. 

Also from Shameless, another character who really affected me was Carl Gallagher. He goes down the wrong path, gets affiliated with gangs, and even ends up in Juvie. But then he learns slowly that this path isn’t the one he should travel, and instead he decides to become a policeman.

While I haven’t been to Juvie, I’ve had my own "mischievous" phases where I realized my disruptions were actually impacting my peers. Seeing Carl’s slow, uneven journey toward improving himself helped me realize that my own growth doesn't have to be perfect to be real.

So, TV shows definitely have their place in building our personality, and movies have their place as well. But I’d argue that TV shows make a deeper bond with the viewer and leave a more lasting impact on the viewer, because to me, TV shows reflect the true struggle of humans. And that isn’t coming out on top of your problems, but staying there.