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TV 19 - Simpsons Did It

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ticapnews said:
The Last of Us on HBO looks promising after the first episode, but it's too soon to tell. Getting great reviews from both critics and fans. Having not played the game at all it is a little challenging to keep up with what's happening.
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I loved the in media res scene shifts. They did eventually spoon feed much of the exposition, which was a let down, but I loved those first few precious minutes of not understanding, which tv never dares do for obvious reasons.
 
Kepler said:
I loved the in media res scene shifts. They did eventually spoon feed much of the exposition, which was a let down, but I loved those first few precious minutes of not understanding, which tv never dares do for obvious reasons.
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I'll probably appreciate it more when I don't feel like death warmed over.
 
Saw a good article this weekend on the self fulfilling prophecy of Netflix cancellations.

Netflix has been so eager to cancel shows that the creator didn’t think tbry were ending , so people are now less likely to binge a show when it comes out- rather they wait to see if Netflix will allow the show to run its course before investing any time watching a show that may end on cliffhanger than is never resolved. The lack of people watching convinces Netflix to cancel shows after one or two seasons.

Netflix just seems like a mess
 
Deutsche Gopher Fan said:
Saw a good article this weekend on the self fulfilling prophecy of Netflix cancellations.

Netflix has been so eager to cancel shows that the creator didn’t think tbry were ending , so people are now less likely to binge a show when it comes out- rather they wait to see if Netflix will allow the show to run its course before investing any time watching a show that may end on cliffhanger than is never resolved. The lack of people watching convinces Netflix to cancel shows after one or two seasons.

Netflix just seems like a mess
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Yeah, this is a problem. It's also a problem on Network TV. There was a good show last year called Endgame on NBC that I enjoyed. They cliffed the season 1 ending. It got cancelled. It's getting to the point where I may just skip a lot of season 1 shows because it just ain't worth it.
 
Jimjamesak said:
From The Last of Us? One of the best written stories in any media of the last ten years?
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So far the writing just towers above the standard tv idiocy. The opening scene is one of the best establishing scenes I've seen for a dystopia. Spoiler: and the ant stuff is all absolutely true, I remember hearing about it in a philosophy lecture as an undergrad and thinking how holy balls horrific it is.
 
Deutsche Gopher Fan said:
Saw a good article this weekend on the self fulfilling prophecy of Netflix cancellations.

Netflix has been so eager to cancel shows that the creator didn’t think tbry were ending , so people are now less likely to binge a show when it comes out- rather they wait to see if Netflix will allow the show to run its course before investing any time watching a show that may end on cliffhanger than is never resolved. The lack of people watching convinces Netflix to cancel shows after one or two seasons.

Netflix just seems like a mess
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It blows me away they canceled Inside Job. That was objectively a fantastic show. It was deeply seditious on the order of Bullwinkle or Get Smart, and in the same way (playing with contemporary tropes and lazy labels and then morphing them).

I guess getting inexplicably canceled is the perfect way to end it, though.
 
ScoobyDoo said:
It's from the videogame of the same name. A very well done game actually.
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I’m well aware of that Scooby. TLOU is one of the GOATs for video games, especially story wise. I’m just baffled why Kepler would expect this be a Walking Dead knockoff.
 
Kepler said:
So far the writing just towers above the standard tv idiocy. The opening scene is one of the best establishing scenes I've seen for a dystopia. Spoiler: and the ant stuff is all absolutely true, I remember hearing about it in a philosophy lecture as an undergrad and thinking how holy balls horrific it is.
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Of course it towers above tv idiocy, the source material towers above video game idiocy. They could half azz this and it’d still be quite good, and they didn’t half azz this.
 
Jimjamesak said:
Of course it towers above tv idiocy, the source material towers above video game idiocy. They could half azz this and it’d still be quite good, and they didn’t half azz this.
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So as someone who hasn’t played the game- is this markedly different than the walking dead? Cause that show started off great and then…woof
 
The problem with Walking Dead is it was uninspired and trite and mawkish right from the jump. It was the same tripe dramas peddled by tv for the last 75 years with zombies stuck onto it. Same stock characters, same inane "self-discovery" or "tragic truths" at the adolescent core of every MCU movie. An AI could have generated it.

The pilot of LTOU wasn't like that. It had some thought behind it. It didn't have the plaster human-like emotional range of a 20-something Princeton grad writer. It has some actual functioning sex organs of humanity.

Now, I don't know how long that can last with a show obviously reaching for an enormous audience. Shopping Mall Authenticity is all 90% of humanity is capable of handling. But it's off to a good start. Maybe it will get the coveted Prestige label and survive for a while as a smart show dumb people try to watch to pretend they are smart (West World). Even morons listen to Mozart cuz that's classy.

But we saw where that inevitably leads.
 
You realize it’s based off of video game series right? And the lead writer for the TV series is the same person who lead development on the video games. I don’t think you have to worry about the series going full derp.
 
Deutsche Gopher Fan said:
Saw a good article this weekend on the self fulfilling prophecy of Netflix cancellations.

Netflix has been so eager to cancel shows that the creator didn’t think they were ending , so people are now less likely to binge a show when it comes out- rather they wait to see if Netflix will allow the show to run its course before investing any time watching a show that may end on cliffhanger than is never resolved. The lack of people watching convinces Netflix to cancel shows after one or two seasons.

Netflix just seems like a mess
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There's also the binge model that Netflix made popular. There are certain cases where it works, but more often than not, the weekly format is superior. For example, shows like Andor and WandaVision had lackluster numbers to start, but as the weeks went by and word of mouth built, the audience grew. When each episode dropped there would be a dozen thinkpieces in mainstream media and social media would be full of recaps and speculation for future episodes. And if you hadn't been watching, it would be easy enough to catch up. The binge model eliminates that. Dropping an entire season on a Friday works great if your audience is able/willing to devote 10 hours on the weekend to binge your show. But if they can't, there is no reminder for them to go back and watch later. There is no weekly recap or speculation about your show. There is no buildup. In fact, they may feel spoiled by seeing people talk about it on social media that weekend and decide not to bother.

Netflix apparently uses a metric which shows them completion rate. If 100 people start watching a show, how many finish it? They apparently want a >50% completion rate. The binge model sucks for that because I may have a couple hours on a Friday night to start watching something but not be able to finish it right away. I may plan to watch the next couple episodes next Friday. But without that reminder to watch, the show gets lost in the shuffle. Now the metric goes down. And yeah, if I think a show I want to watch is just going to be canceled anyway, why bother starting or continuing? That again hurts the numbers.

I had been a Netflix subscriber since back in the days when they'd send you a DVD in the mail. I dropped my membership, in part because if I want to watch something on Netflix, I just wait until something big drops then I can binge that show and more for one month, then cancel. I can't really do that with Disney or HBO because the shows are weekly. So if I want to stay current on Mandalorian or House of the Dragon, that requires a multi-month commitment. Netflix has had the market to itself for so long these problems never really had to be addressed. Now they're facing stiff competition from rivals who have decades more experience programming networks successfully.
 
Deutsche Gopher Fan said:
Saw a good article this weekend on the self fulfilling prophecy of Netflix cancellations.

Netflix has been so eager to cancel shows that the creator didn’t think tbry were ending , so people are now less likely to binge a show when it comes out- rather they wait to see if Netflix will allow the show to run its course before investing any time watching a show that may end on cliffhanger than is never resolved. The lack of people watching convinces Netflix to cancel shows after one or two seasons.

Netflix just seems like a mess
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It's surprising to me that probably the two of the three largest and most mature content streamers are going through so many problems in the last year or two.

Maybe Disney+, Prime, and Hulu are probably in the same 1A tier (maybe 1B) and I honestly haven't heard many (if any!) issues for any of these so far. HBO is obviously having the worst of the issues (who the hell pulls their own content? I've heard all the explanations, but none of them are compelling IMO.)
 
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