In a time where everything happens instantly, it is important that people are able to manage their time and get through tasks as quickly as possible. That is why many people, including myself, prefer to watch a TV series instead of reading a book or watching a movie.
The format of TV is more fitting for people that do not have time to just sit for hours and do one thing. It provides a shorter format, usually only either 30 minutes or an hour depending on the show.
In my experience, it will often take the average reader a couple days to a week to complete a book and movies will usually last at least an hour and a half. TV is usually aired in a weekly format that, in the long run, will let the viewer have a more enriched experience.
TV makes the story more interesting as it gets drawn out into weekly episodes, increasing the suspense that viewer will have as the weeks go on. In movies, the viewer is exposed to the whole story in a matter of hours, but TV is able to add new parts to the story each week and then even more if the show gets multiple seasons.
Books will often have sequels, but not in the quantity that many TV series’ have seasons. Shows like “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Supernatural” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” have upwards of 14 seasons under their belts and are still going strong.
Some TV series like “Game of Thrones,” “Outlander” and many more are based off of stories from books. This gives the reader-now-viewer a visual component to go along with the characters they have read about in the books, and if they read the book after they will have some context.
TV provides a story that keeps adding more to itself with each episode as opposed to one movie or book with a set ending. The characters can be further developed. New characters can be added, and some can be taken away if there is not a good reaction to them, allowing TV to adapt to its audience. Movies and books are pretty set in stone by the time they are available to viewer reaction.
It has also become easier than ever to watch TV with the help of streaming websites like Netflix and Hulu. One no longer has to wait through commercials or off seasons to get one's fix of TV. With the click of a button and internet access, there is a whole world of media at your fingertips. And while there are also movies on Netflix, and books can be read anywhere with the creation of reading apps, their formats are much longer and less desirable because of their length and lack of growing storyline.