OT: Spoiler Alert [Spoiler Alert ((Spoiler Alert))] (The Newly Annual Non-Pens Media Thread)

[HandshakeLine]

Honest to god, the app I spend the most time using is not Amazon or Netflix, but the Critereon app, just because the movies are way better-- and not just in terms of arthouse cinema. They have lots of great samurai chanbara, kung fu, cult action movies, and horror films that aren't anywhere else.

The problem with Disney+, Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix all together is that the vast majority of their catalogs are shit, and (at least the main three, I haven't used Disney+ yet), they make them intentionally hard to search and browse for the good content they actually do have so that they can promote their dumb original content.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

Just completed the first episode of The Mandalorian. Unfortunately, someone on a website I go to either predicted or spoiled who/what the bounty was going to be. Still, I liked it.

 

[Ogrezilla]

Whataboutery is weak.

Fair enough.

Here's my real counter opinion to your opinion: I like all of the new Star wars movies. I think the mandalorian looks great.

 

[Ogrezilla]

Ewww. I am so spoiled with full releases now. First Netflix ruined me for live tv and having to deal with commercials. I can't do it anymore. Commercials are so intrusive today and having to wait several weeks / a few months from first episode to finale can be frustrating because some things I may forget, like little details say, being months between start to finish say.

You'll have to let me know what you think when your bored one day after you flesh out the service. I'm mostly curious on the amount of content and if it really is possible for them to compete with Netflix.

They say Netflix is in trouble with all these so called streaming wars, but I think they underestimate Netflix. I think Netflix will handily win out over these other services just by shear content volume alone.

I actually love weekly releases. The group I work with have very similar tastes so it's great being able to talk about these things every week and look forward to the next one.

 

[Malkinstheman]

Anyone watched Dark on Netflix? People online seem to be saying its amazing.

 

[DanielPlainview]

2 quarters ago they were bleeding, correct.
This last quarter they evened off (w/help from overseas markets)

They also have a head start base of 151 million subscribers.
Now the big hairy but, they won't be cash positive for another 5 years roughly. They lose 5 billion a year I believe.

Life was a lot easier for netflix years ago when they didn't pay in 15 billion or so dollars a year for original content and they just paid for rights to stream other networks content.

My money would still be on netflix to win.

I tell ya what, now is the time for people looking to break into the industry: producers, directors, actors, etc etc. There are sooooo many shows and movies between broadcast and streaming shows and movies! I may drive over to NYC sometime just to have my ugly ass audition for a show or movie or something... who the hell knows what could happen. Imagine landing a speaking part on a show that pays 10k an episode for 10 episodes that eventually gets picked up for 5 seasons and contract renegotiations lands you 50k or something an episode. Never know.

They’re pumping out junk no one wants to watch. Simply having a mountain of original content isn’t going to save them. Whoever is OKing their projects needs escorted out of the building.

 

[DanielPlainview]

Fair enough.

Here's my real counter opinion to your opinion: I like all of the new Star wars movies. I think the mandalorian looks great.

You’re not countering my opinion because it’s not an opinion, it’s the fact of reality. The reason Disney had to shelve most of their Star Wars productions is the damage done to the brand (made most apparent in the flop of Solo). The Last Jedi was the straw that broke the camel’s back for many moviegoers. It ruined Disney’s plan of printing money just by stamping the logo on pieces of crap.

 

[DeadPuckEra]

I did not see an original Star Wars movie until like 5 years ago. I don’t have any sentimental attachment to the series. I don’t particularly care much about Star Wars, but I can see how the originals gained such a following.

With that said, the new movies have completely shit all over the franchise. They are generic, soulless, predictable movies that have sold out that franchise so hard - there won’t be any coming back from it. Not for another 20 years until a reboot of the originals.

On a much smaller scale, those of us born in the 80’s are about to have our childhood shit all over with a Ghostbusters sequel that is 20 years too late and featuring geriatric original characters, but will undoubtedly rake in a billion dollars.

 

[DanielPlainview]

Wait they’re making a Ghostbusters without Harold Ramis? I don’t approve.

 

[Ogrezilla]

You’re not countering my opinion because it’s not an opinion, it’s the fact of reality. The reason Disney had to shelve most of their Star Wars productions is the damage done to the brand (made most apparent in the flop of Solo). The Last Jedi was the straw that broke the camel’s back for many moviegoers. It ruined Disney’s plan of printing money just by stamping the logo on pieces of crap.

Let's see how much money it makes next month and come back to see how dead it is.

Also I don't see anything about the RJ trilogy being cancelled. Just the d&d project. Latest I see is talks are ongoing. I guess probably depending on how ros does.

 

[HandshakeLine]

How on earth does a film now ruin my childhood? My childhood isn't media properties.

Jesus.

 

[StaalForOne]

Anyone watched Dark on Netflix? People online seem to be saying its amazing.

I enjoyed it. I wasn't thrilled with how the last season ended, but I'll keep watching and see how it plays out. It can be a bit hard to follow between the plot and subtitles, but I'd recommend it.

 

[billybudd]

They’re pumping out junk no one wants to watch. Simply having a mountain of original content isn’t going to save them. Whoever is OKing their projects needs escorted out of the building.

The streaming services are "pumping out" new content like there's no tomorrow because all of the rightsholders have delusions of grandeur about their own subscription services. Like, Masterpiece Theatre's Endeavor (and Morse and Lewis) series should just be on Netflix or Prime, but PBS thinks you'll pay $20 a month to PBS for 4 new episodes a year.

Until the CBSs, PBSs and ABCs are disabused by consumers of the notion that their in-house offerings are sufficient, by themselves, of sustaining Netflix-like services at Netflix-like prices, Netflix, Hulu and the like have to lean on original programming so-as to avoid having the rug pulled out from under them unexpectedly. If they don't, they'll could wake up one day with nothing to offer the consumer.

The drawback is that they're in such a scramble to produce original programming at volume that they're not paying close enough attention to what they're spending on. Netflix's Another Life, for example, which is utterly abominable, is an expensive-looking show that never, ever should have gotten greenlit. Somebody/somebodys should have read the scripts and checked on production before all the money to finish it was dished out, but it's obvious whoever that was didn't follow through. Quality control at a full sprint really suffers.

 

[DanielPlainview]

I get the value of wanting original content, especially as Hulu and Disney+ pull it away. But having 3 or 4 high quality shows is worth more than 10 terrible, low-budget, low-effort shows no one wants to watch.

 

[billybudd]

Netflix is in such a rush that it's trying a scattershot approach. They figure if they make 10 movies, 9 will be ignored, but one might catch on, like the one with Sandra Bullock and the blindfold. Accumulate enough of these and third party contracts become a garnish to the main course of a large catalogue of Stranger Things (et al). More sustainable business model if the catalogue gets large enough.

They don't have the lead time to do the HBO thing of reading scripts/treatments for years before adding something to the Sunday lineup. All the other major TV rights holders and big tech firms are coming for them right now.

 

[DanielPlainview]

Complete rubbish. Quality is what brings and keep customers, not volume. If that's their strategy, they deserve to crumble.

 

[billybudd]

They hope to get quality through quantity. They're not expecting people to watch Frontier or whatever--they just think if they make enough shows of any kind, some will connect with an audience.

To use the HBO example, HBO's never had a miss on the order of "Another Life" (I don't know that any content creator other than Netflix has--the show is that bad) but they also only create 1 new show worth watching every two years (at best). Netflix and Hulu don't have 35 years to accumulate a catalogue at that pace, so they'll accept 14 misses every 3 months to find the one show that people will actually watch.

It's like Tyler Kennedy getting 15-20 goals a year, but taking a millions shots to get there. It's not the most-optimal strategy, but if you absolutely need a goal, it's a better strategy than not shooting until you have a perfect look.

 

[DanielPlainview]

Why waste resources on products you don't think the customer wants? The entire point of selling Netflix subscriptions is to have on offer shows and movies people feel are worth paying for. If they turn the Netflix brand into the service with a lot of crap, they're going to kill it completely. In short time, all they'll have left is to sell off what valuable commodities they have to pay off whatever debt remains, or go bankrupt.

 

[billybudd]

Because the flood of other streaming services (and the delusion of the cable networks in thinking they can challenge Netflix or Prime or Disney in a market they don't understand) is an existential threat to Netflix and Hulu. That threat isn't on the horizon--it's here today. Netflix and Hulu need as much content as possible as soon as possible.

Trial and error on a massive scale, even at massive cost, is the only possible way to generate what they need to survive on the timeline they need it to survive.

 

[Ogrezilla]

I think The Haunting of Hill House is the first new thing I've watched on Netflix in a while. Not sure if that's a Netflix original even. Stranger things is the only thing I am really looking forward to that I know is a Netflix Original. Beasts of No Nation is the only Netflix movie that I have even watched I think. I've watched a lot more on Hulu, HBO, and Amazon in the last year or two.

 

[Andy99]

some great series on Netflix...in addition to Stranger Things, recently watched Money Heist, Glitch, Living with Yourself (Paul Rudd, who was excellent) and Ozark (Jason Bateman)...all were terrific...

 

[Peat]

The streaming services are "pumping out" new content like there's no tomorrow because all of the rightsholders have delusions of grandeur about their own subscription services. Like, Masterpiece Theatre's Endeavor (and Morse and Lewis) series should just be on Netflix or Prime, but PBS thinks you'll pay $20 a month to PBS for 4 new episodes a year.

Until the CBSs, PBSs and ABCs are disabused by consumers of the notion that their in-house offerings are sufficient, by themselves, of sustaining Netflix-like services at Netflix-like prices, Netflix, Hulu and the like have to lean on original programming so-as to avoid having the rug pulled out from under them unexpectedly. If they don't, they'll could wake up one day with nothing to offer the consumer.

The drawback is that they're in such a scramble to produce original programming at volume that they're not paying close enough attention to what they're spending on. Netflix's Another Life, for example, which is utterly abominable, is an expensive-looking show that never, ever should have gotten greenlit. Somebody/somebodys should have read the scripts and checked on production before all the money to finish it was dished out, but it's obvious whoever that was didn't follow through. Quality control at a full sprint really suffers.

Endeavour/Morse/Lewis not being on Netflix might be out of PBS' hands a little as the major British networks are looking at taking as much of their content away as possible from Netflix and getting it onto their own combined streaming service. I don't know to what extent BBC and ITV can dictate how the shows they air are shown in the States but to what extent they can, they won't be on Netflix at a guess as that's one of the main markets for their streaming service.

Which if anything probably proves your point.

 

[Ogrezilla]

some great series on Netflix...in addition to Stranger Things, recently watched Money Heist, Glitch, Living with Yourself (Paul Rudd, who was excellent) and Ozark (Jason Bateman)...all were terrific...

I loved Ozark season 1, I haven't gotten to season 2 yet.

 

[Ogrezilla]

I really liked episode 1 of The Mandalorian btw

 

[Andy99]

I loved Ozark season 1, I haven't gotten to season 2 yet.

season 2 is really good also...