"Show, don' tell" is a manta repeated in multiple forms of storytelling. It makes sense - it is more exciting to see someone punch a wall than it is to read "he was angry." This was one of the biggest arguments against using title cards in silent films - they "told" rather than "showed." That said, there is some appeal to being told what to expect and then seeing how it is enacted. Genre usually dictates the basics of what will happen anyway. The artistry is in how those events transpire. This is why title cards like this one from the 1918 movie The Things We Love were more common in the earlier and middle silent periods. Audiences did not mind knowing the story before it transpired on the screen.
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