Logging on this morning, I didn’t expect to discover that Heated Rivalry would return for a full-season marathon at the cinemas. Or, in even more unexpected territory, that Amelia Dimoldenberg’s YouTube series Chicken Shop Date would be getting a cinematic release of its own, with the final episodes presented as a film.
Normally, the cinematic experience goes something like this: a new film comes out, you purchase tickets and sit among strangers as you all experience something for the first time. Cinemas regularly bring films back for another run – like The Holiday for its 20th anniversary this December. But a whole television season? That feels like new territory.
So, when did watching television become a cinematic experience?
Television has already earnt its flowers
We need to take a little trip back in time to understand the cultural hierarchy between film and television – one the industry has upheld without ever quite putting it on paper. Critics traditionally treated film as the serious artistic medium and television as everyday entertainment for the living room.
And while that hierarchy was always reductive, television’s prestige era made it increasingly hard to defend. The Sopranos brought a psychological complexity to crime drama, Mad Men turned the advertising industry into something sexy and new, and Breaking Bad intertwined moral collapse with incredible script writing to become widely considered as one of the best TV shows of the century. Fast forward to today and shows like Widow’s Bay, Euphoria, Pluribus and Bridgerton continue to command attention – proving television still deserves a place in conversations about artistic ambition. Anyone who still ranks television below film reveals more about inherited cultural snobbery than the work itself, I think.
The small screen is getting bigger
Both Widow’s Bay and Heated Rivalry have escaped the confines of the small screen, with global theatrical re-releases. The final three episodes of Widow’s Bay season one were screened for a one-night-only screening at selected cinemas in the US, while the entirety of Heated Rivalry will be heading to the big screen this december. For Chicken Shop Date, the move to cinemas across the UK and Europe for a one-night-only screening carries a more personal sentiment. As Dimoldenberg explained, “It’s a celebration of everything the show has meant to me, and one final chance to experience it together on the big screen.”
While viewers may have first seen the show on their television or laptop, what would these shows with millions of cult followers feel like if they sat all together? The cinema holds a dear place not just my heart, but plenty that are craving a collective experience. The sound is better, dark lights command our uninterrupted attention, and the scale of the projection is immersive. In other words, these screenings are proof that TV shows deserve our attention and a room of their own.
We want to feel it together
In the words of Harry Styles “Together, together”.
It’s not hard to see how these serial stories can develop cult followings that rival those of films. And screened in a theatre lets fans share in the moment.Laughter, suspense, romance, tears – it can almost feel as though everything is being experienced for the first time again. There’s an appeal to witnessing other people respond to scenes you already love.
And screenings aren’t necessarily a new thing. Fans have long held watch parties to commemorate season finales and new episodes. With Heated Rivalry, that communal anticipation might carry particular weight. Across multiple episodes, viewers have time to become invested in the relationship, to attach meaning to a glance or recognise what something might cost down the line. On a rewatch, knowing what comes next can become its own pleasure. You’re waiting for the scene, but perhaps also for everyone else to feel it.
Who gets to call a show prestige?
Maybe this is where I contradict myself: does television need a theatrical run to prove its worth? If we celebrate a show for looking ‘cinematic’, do we reinforce the hierarchy we claim to have outgrown?
But these screenings can acknowledge something television already commands, which is our attention, our emotional investment and our desire for connection. The movie theatre gives that enthusiasm somewhere to gather. Leaving home to watch a show you could stream from your sofa might seem like an extravagant way to press play. But we don’t always want the convenience of watching alone – sometimes we want the anticipation, the occasion and the collective gasp.
Television has already earned our attention. But now we’re just giving it the night out it deserves.
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