10 TV Shows Better than Their Movie Counterparts

Once you start thinking about movies that previously were shows, or shows that were previously movies, you realize how many are actually linked. Part of this has to do with the various ways a show can become a movie, or a movie can become a show. Sometimes, a movie is continued on TV, rebooted on TV, or simply adapted differently to TV. The movie’s cast/characters might return in some capacity, or they might not.

Then, when a TV show becomes a movie, it’s sometimes in the form of a feature-length finale, or a movie prequel, or else some kind of reboot/reimagining. The following examples are all varied, and alternate between properties that were movies before they were shows, and properties that saw shows come before the release of a movie (or movies). But, in all cases, these recognizable titles all shone brighter on the small screen than the big screen, though not all had their related movies be of questionable/outright flawed quality.

10 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' (2005-2008)

Movie: 'The Last Airbender' (2010)

To start with something nice and uncontroversial, here’s Avatar: The Last Airbender, an animated show that aired throughout the second half of the 2000s and continues to be loved years later. It’s become a franchise since its three initial seasons originally aired, with a sequel series called The Legend of Korra, a live-action Netflix adaptation, and an infamous feature film from 2010 called The Last Airbender.

It was a film with its work cut out for it, having to adapt a whole season of Avatar: The Last Airbender into one movie, all the while not coming out long after the series had ended and having a dedicated fanbase who expected the best out of something big budget that carried the franchise’s name. It isn’t well-liked, to say the least, but hey… at least it might make people appreciate the original series even more.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

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9 'M*A*S*H' (1972-1983)

Movie: 'M*A*S*H' (1970)

To get technical, M*A*S*H was a novel before it was a film, and a film before it was a TV series. All the various iterations of M*A*S*H have the same sort of set-up, following U.S. medical staff serving in the Korean War, being stationed at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital and dealing with the hardships that come with such a job through (oftentimes dark) humor.

For those more familiar with the long-running series, the movie comes across as surprisingly cynical and with some humor that doesn’t really hold up. The series had traces of this in its earlier seasons, but adopted more of a heart as it went along, making the characters more well-rounded and complex while getting pretty heavy at times; more of a dramedy as it went along, really. The TV series of M*A*S*H is more approachable, but the complexity ends up serving it well, and allowing it to have more of an impact than the (flawed, but good for its time) film.

M*A*S*H

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8 'Miami Vice' (1984-1990)

Movie: 'Miami Vice' (2006)

Miami Vice is an unusual case of a show becoming a movie, because the original series is distinctly of the 1980s, while the movie of the same name, released in 2006, now feels aggressively 2000s when it comes to its visuals and style. Despite these differences, Michael Mann was ultimately attached to both, as he served as an executive producer on the show while being the writer/director/producer of the film.

When it comes to that film, it is ultimately better than people gave it credit for at the time (perhaps enough years have passed now to recognize how well it captured a time and place). But the show is the one that’s more well-known and celebrated overall, summing up the 1980s through its distinctive style and use of music while bringing something genuinely new to the police procedural genre.

Miami Vice (1984)

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7 'Westworld' (2016-2022)

Movie: 'Westworld' (1973)

Even though it was canceled somewhat abruptly, the Westworld television series can still be recognized as being pretty strong overall… well, admittedly, a little inconsistent. It was a show that began with a bang, and an overall compelling first season, losing the plot a little as it went along, at least remaining striking on a technical front and continuing to have interesting ideas/themes it was willing to explore.

Westworld as a show evens out to be, at worst, still pretty good, while the film of the same name from 1973 is more of a cult classic at best; something flawed, but interesting, and explored more effectively in a series decades later. Perhaps the perfect iteration of Westworld is still yet to come, because the possibility of the show getting revived following its 2022 cancelation seems increasingly unlikely.

Westworld

Buy on Amazon

6 'Sex and the City' (1998-2004)

Movies: 'Sex and the City' (2008), 'Sex and the City 2' (2010)

Though Sex and the City, as a series, has its flaws and shortcomings when watched today, it was massively influential and well-regarded when it first aired. And it did air a considerable amount of time ago, now, being an early hit for HBO and an especially early one as far as its comedic shows went.

It followed a group of women living in New York City, all bonding over their shared experiences while experiencing ups and downs when it came to things like relationships – both long-term and casual – and, of course, sex, with the whole being on HBO thing allowing things to be more explicit than network TV shows. The movies came a while later, and generally weren’t as well-received; the first got somewhat mixed reviews, and then Sex and the City 2 ended up being surprisingly panned.

Sex and the City

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5 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' (1997-2003)

Movie: 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' (1992)

Perhaps the biggest glow-up from movie to television came in the form of Buffy of the Vampire Slayer, which was originally an extremely flawed movie in 1992 and an eventually amazing series that began in 1997. Both followed the titular character, a young woman with amazing physical abilities and a destiny to battle vampires and demons, but the show ended up being superior for numerous reasons.

The characters got more opportunities to grow and shine in the series, the subversion of tropes felt more natural playing out over a longer duration, and Buffy, as a protagonist, was able to change dramatically over the course of seven seasons. The movie deals with the unusual life of a high schooler, while the show sees her eventually graduate and then grapple with various adult problems, often getting quite dark. It was funnier, more creative, and more emotional; Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as a show, really was better in every way.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer

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4 'The Simpsons' (1989-)

Movie: 'The Simpsons Movie' (2007)

The Simpsons is something of an unusual example of something that’s been both a movie and a show, because The Simpsons Movie came out in 2007, while the show was still on the air. The show has remained on the air ever since. As of 2024, it’s been 17 years since the movie came out. In 2007, it had been just over 17 years since the show started airing (its debut episode being at the very end of 1989). Spooky.

Anyway, The Simpsons Movie is still pretty great, and could’ve served as a good overall finale for the show, while being of a higher quality than most of The Simpsons episodes aired around that time. But the movie doesn’t compare to the show at its best – those first eight or so seasons that are legendary and remain beloved; the ones that have ensured the series’ legacy as one of the funniest things to ever air on television.

The Simpsons

Watch on Disney+

3 'Friday Night Lights' (2006-2011)

Movie: 'Friday Night Lights' (2004)

While 2004’s Friday Night Lights was a more than solid sports drama, it’s the show of the same name – which began airing in 2006 – that’s ultimately more well-liked. Broadly, the set-up is the same across both movie and show, but the latter obviously had a great deal more time to tell stories and develop compelling characters, all the while growing and becoming a top-notch TV drama series.

Both movie and show took inspiration from a non-fiction book called Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream (1990), exploring the trials and tribulations of a high school football team; both its players and their coach, alongside various other characters. Both the movie and the series are well-regarded, but if they were to go head-to-head in some kind of appropriately sporting match, the latter would win comfortably.

Friday Night Lights

Watch on Netflix

2 'The Sopranos' (1999-2007)

Movie: 'The Many Saints of Newark' (2021)

It wasn’t exactly vital to get a movie/prequel made for The Sopranos, but 2021’s The Many Saints of Newark is still a little better than some give it credit for. It follows Christopher Moltisanti’s father, for the most part, who died long before the events depicted in the show, but was mentioned a few times. The film does a good job of conveying who he was, and showing the bond he had with a young Tony Soprano.

The Many Saints of Newark does attempt to do more, though, and gets pretty messy as far as gangster movies go. The Sopranos, on the other hand, just feels effortlessly great on every level, from the acting, to the writing, to the way it looks, and to how it balances so many contrasting emotions perfectly. It’s simply one of the best shows ever made, and no movie – The Many Saints of Newark or otherwise – attached to the series in any way will ever exceed it in quality.

The Sopranos

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1 'What We Do in the Shadows' (2019-)

Movie: 'What We Do in the Shadows' (2014)

Initially an original and undeniably funny horror comedy, What We Do in the Shadows was spun off several years on from the film’s release as a series with the same name. The mockumentary format was maintained, as was an overall similar sense of humor, but What We Do in the Shadows – the show – naturally has a good deal more depth when it comes to characters and their various storylines.

It's an impressive achievement, because the movie – while very funny – did feel rather limited, sort of being a one-joke movie that was, admittedly, a pretty strong joke, exploring what would happen if several vampires of different ages/backgrounds shared a flat in New Zealand. The series does the same, but branches out in various interesting and surprisingly engrossing ways, standing alongside the also somewhat-horror-themed Buffy the Vampire Slayer as an example of how to turn a movie into a series effectively.

What We Do in the Shadows

Watch on Hulu

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