[CubaLibre]

Movies specifically are not the greatest at presenting plots, but rather at presenting action - physical movement. This includes carefully nuanced facial expressions and body poses ("acting," I guess) as well as car chases and what have you. They are not so great at imparting information, but rather mood or emotion.

From the point of view of creating fiction, then, extremely complex plots in movies are pretty useless, not to mention slightly masturbatory, unless they exist only to present a mood and are not expected to be digested. Syriana and Pirates 3 are good examples.
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Let's Play, starring me.

[CubaLibre]

TV to me is a weird beast because of this very distinction I've laid down. The reason movies aren't that great at portraying a logical narrative isn't just because of their short length, but that's part of it. Take away the length restriction and you've got the potential for narrative, but it's still stuck in this visual and distant medium. Take away the big screen and you lose a lot of the intimacy of movies (you want to talk about The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - talk about closeups). Not to mention that the time constraints under which TV shows are made forgoes a lot of the advantages film gains at the expense of theater's vitality: namely, editing and cinematography, the advantages of "perfection," the fact that a movie is exactly the same each time you watch it, and the director gets to control his audience's perspective.

I don't really like TV, in the end. The "strong narrative" shows like The Sopranos and what have you never really do anything for me. They always have too much plot and not enough mood, and no matter how earnest their subject matter and how fantastic their acting they always end up being giant fanfictions.

Incidentally, the best anime alleviates a lot of these concerns. They're typically limited to a single season, which makes them merely very long movies; the fact that they are animated frees up the directors to do interesting things with editing and cinematography even under TV's time constraints; and, for whatever reason, Japanese animators are more apt to let plot slide and focus more on mood.
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Let's Play, starring me.

[CubaLibre]

You've got a point, but either way, it ain't in there. So.
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Let's Play, starring me.

[CubaLibre]

Incidentally, comic books fall prey to many of the same vices, for many of the same reasons (namely, their serialization). They retain a little more artistic merit, for me, because it's easier for an artist to get away with doing something creative because it doesn't necessary cost the producers any more money, except perhaps in lost sales because people don't like "experimental" stuff. But there's a bit more wiggle room.

In general, though, I find one-shot graphic novels or pre-planned miniseries to be far superior, just like movies and one-season animes.
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Let's Play, starring me.