Octopus Overlords

Brian wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 7:53 am

stessier wrote: ↑Mon May 10, 2021 3:33 pmCritics don't mean a lot to Netflix. If people watch, it will get a second season.

People watching doesn't mean a lot to Netflix either.
What determines if a show gets renewed on Netflix is, "Does it bring in new subscribers?"

That explains why Netflix will cancel otherwise acclaimed shows with good audience numbers.
If they're not pulling in new subscribers, the show gets axed.

And from what I've heard, Netflix will consider something watched if someone has watched 30 seconds to a minute, so that statistic is fairly meaningless. There are many good shows on Netflix that are popular that still ended up getting cancelled early. Lost in Space, which IMHO is one of their best shows, is only getting 3 seasons, and while the producers would like to go beyond that, Netflix has pretty much put their foot down. I think the sweet spot for them is a show that can get subscribers but still doesn't go beyond season 3. But then, there are several shows that get cancelled after only one season before anyone really has any chance to watch.

And then there are the foreign shows that they get exclusive streaming rights to but where they don't have a say in their production, that may or may not still be in production.

Why Netflix keeps canceling shows after 2 seasons

<...>shows on Netflix are more expensive after season two, and even more expensive after season three, with the premiums going up each season. “They have to give [a show] more money per series, and if they decide to recommission it, it becomes more expensive for them to make,” he says. “Because of that, so many more shows are canceled after two series because it costs them more.”

Financially, it makes more sense for Netflix to commission a new show than to renew an underperforming show that is only going to get more expensive the longer the series goes on.

I hate it but it makes perfect sense. Netflix isn't a charity organization, nor is it PBS. It lives and dies by the almighty dollar. At the end of the day, I should just be thankful that they give life to some great stuff, no matter how long it lasts.

Yeah, it does make sense, especially if it buys into a whole season at once. On the other hand, if they as a service are claiming to have the widest array of streaming content, they're not actually doing themselves much of a favor if much of that content is made up of cancelled shows. It's like claiming one has the largest forest but where most of the trees have been cut down to mere stumps.

Rumpy wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 3:55 pm Yeah, it does make sense, especially if it buys into a whole season at once. On the other hand, if they as a service are claiming to have the widest array of streaming content, they're not actually doing themselves much of a favor if much of that content is made up of cancelled shows. It's like claiming one has the largest forest but where most of the trees have been cut down to mere stumps.

The number of cancelled shows in a streaming catalog will always dwarf the number of shows in production.

stessier wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 4:00 pm

Rumpy wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 3:55 pm Yeah, it does make sense, especially if it buys into a whole season at once. On the other hand, if they as a service are claiming to have the widest array of streaming content, they're not actually doing themselves much of a favor if much of that content is made up of cancelled shows. It's like claiming one has the largest forest but where most of the trees have been cut down to mere stumps.

The number of cancelled shows in a streaming catalog will always dwarf the number of shows in production.

But the point remains. Stated another way, Netflix can't very well have all their greatest exclusive hits be 1-2 season shows. They need cornerstones of enduring content that are current at all times.

Not everything, of course. But they're going to pay the piper on some shows regardless of payback for that show specifically.

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 4:11 pm

stessier wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 4:00 pm

Rumpy wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 3:55 pm Yeah, it does make sense, especially if it buys into a whole season at once. On the other hand, if they as a service are claiming to have the widest array of streaming content, they're not actually doing themselves much of a favor if much of that content is made up of cancelled shows. It's like claiming one has the largest forest but where most of the trees have been cut down to mere stumps.

The number of cancelled shows in a streaming catalog will always dwarf the number of shows in production.

But the point remains. Stated another way, Netflix can't very well have all their greatest exclusive hits be 1-2 season shows. They need cornerstones of enduring content that are current at all times.

I disagree. As, apparently, do they.

With all the shows being created for all the streaming services, is TV/film production a big growth industry now?

Surely there are more people now involved in writing/producing/editing multi-episode series than in the old three-network days, but it's not something I hear much about. You'd think universities would be building new programs in media production.

Sorry, not going to read through a 47 page thread to see if this one's been mentioned, but I highly recommend Love, Death + Robots to almost everyone here*. New "season" drops in a few days I think.

https://www.netflix.com/title/80174608


It's an anthology of either original shorts, or things converted from short stories, and is quite...adult in content, so lock up the kids and grandma before watching!

95% of it is animated, but in very different styles - from intentionally cartoonish, to about as realistic CGI as I might have seen. Different genres as well, from fantasy, to sci-fi to horror. Even a couple of comedy-esque ones.

Pros: I think all of these are worth the watch (unless the * below concerns you) just for the gorgeous art and animation alone. Some are real gems of writing, design and voice acting - true art. Amazing. Love the fact that you have NO idea what you are getting next. Will it be steampunk horror? Claymation sci-fi/revenge porn? Brightly colored Saturday morning cartoonish but with a truly nasty twist at the end? It's almost like watching Twilight Zone in some ways...you don't know what you will get, but it will very likely be weird and cool, and maybe creepy.

Cons: Some of the "adult" parts are maybe a little overdone. Waving penises (penii?) that have no real reason to be waving, or visible (IMO). Same for teh boobies. Excessive gore in some cases (but I guess that's the horror genre for ya). Some of the endings are quite lame. Some of the episodes are quite lame (but all are watchable, and worth watching (at least the ones I've seen so far).


* Lots of boobies. Quite a few f-bombs. Lots of gore and violence. While it's all animated, it is VERY graphic and intentional. Barring those things, some of the themes and/or actions are quite dark, so if you are ok with the blood/sex/language, but are triggered by disturbing scenes, you may want to avoid.

stessier wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 4:12 pm

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 4:11 pm But the point remains. Stated another way, Netflix can't very well have all their greatest exclusive hits be 1-2 season shows. They need cornerstones of enduring content that are current at all times.

I disagree. As, apparently, do they.

No, they definitely don't. That's why we got 6 seasons of House of Cards, 6 of The Crown, 7 of Dragon Prince, 4 of Ozark, at least 4 of Bridgerton, etc. I didn't say all shows need to be long, just that Netflix will pay the big bucks to have some cornerstones across various genres/interests that aren't flash-in-the-pan and then gone.

stessier wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 4:00 pm

Rumpy wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 3:55 pm Yeah, it does make sense, especially if it buys into a whole season at once. On the other hand, if they as a service are claiming to have the widest array of streaming content, they're not actually doing themselves much of a favor if much of that content is made up of cancelled shows. It's like claiming one has the largest forest but where most of the trees have been cut down to mere stumps.

The number of cancelled shows in a streaming catalog will always dwarf the number of shows in production.

Well, yes and no. Other streaming services seem to take a quality over quantity approach with fewer shows being produced at any given time. Netflix meanwhile seems to feel it has to throw everything at a wall and see what sticks before they decide to cancel. It results in a very cluttered service.

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 4:28 pm Sorry, not going to read through a 47 page thread to see if this one's been mentioned, but I highly recommend Love, Death + Robots to almost everyone here*. New "season" drops in a few days I think.

Yea, great to know. I loved about 75% of the episodes during season 1.

I sort of love the idea of Netflix as a repository of 1-3 season long shows. Assuming they don't end on some sort of huge cliffhanger I tend to drift away from shows after 2 seasons anyway.

Madmarcus wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 10:27 pm I sort of love the idea of Netflix as a repository of 1-3 season long shows. Assuming they don't end on some sort of huge cliffhanger I tend to drift away from shows after 2 seasons anyway.

I kind of do too, in the sense that they're easy to binge on. But if I were someone new, and using a trial before deciding to subscribe, seeing all those 3-season shows would make me seriously wonder if I'd be getting my money's worth.

Castlevania season 4 is up. It’s not something I thought I’d like, but I do. Although I miss their version of Dracula. That was the selling point early on.

Madmarcus wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 10:27 pm I sort of love the idea of Netflix as a repository of 1-3 season long shows. Assuming they don't end on some sort of huge cliffhanger I tend to drift away from shows after 2 seasons anyway.

That's true for me too until someone comes along with M*A*S*H or The Office.

hepcat wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 8:45 pm Castlevania season 4 is up. It’s not something I thought I’d like, but I do. Although I miss their version of Dracula. That was the selling point early on.

Agreed. Thanks for the heads-up.

Fatherhood

Wish Dragon

I finally finished Jupiter's Legacy - kind of bummed it ended so soon, just when they introduced a character I really liked.
I did enjoy the origin story quite a bit, it was pretty different from any superhero origins I can think of.

It definitely got better once they introduced the meat of the story. I was about to give up on it after the first few episodes. But it felt like a tonal shift occurred after episode 3 and it started being less goofy and more relevant. I read they had a big change in writers and/or show runners early on, so that might explain it.

rittchard wrote: ↑Tue May 18, 2021 12:29 pm I finally finished Jupiter's Legacy - kind of bummed it ended so soon, just when they introduced a character I really liked.

Spoiler:

... and then KILLED her lmao. WTF? I wasn't at all surprised by him being a bad guy, but killing his own daughter seemed a bit egregious.

Same!!

The premise had promise, but the execution of the first episode was just terrible. Does it just get better (it couldn't get worse) or does it actually get good? Knowing how I felt about the first episode, is it worth me continuing?

I wasn't a fan after episode 1. But since I'll watch almost anything if it features superheroes or monkeys dressed in 1940's suits and telling off color jokes, I went back and finished it. As I alluded to, I struggled through the first few episodes. But then they started concentrating more on the backup story set during the Great Depression (which I preferred), and the ever more urgent question of the changing nature of ethics in the context of power. As the show brought those two things together, it started to gel for me and I ended up liking it.

However, the animated JK Simmons character didn't really work for me.

I guess it's not a Netflix exclusive since it also has a simultaneous theatrical release, but ARMY OF THE DEAD is now streaming.



I've just started it, so I have no opinion other than that the opening credits are stylish and snappy. Reviews seem to be giving it a B+ (e.g. "fun but unoriginal").

The only review I read said it's a fun over-the-top action slugfest interrupted all too often by poor exposition and character development scenes that break the momentum. I added it to my list anyway, but at 2.5 hours IDK if I'll ever get around to it. If guns and gore are the only point, Wife won't like it.

Kraken wrote: ↑Sat May 22, 2021 11:00 pm The only review I read said it's a fun over-the-top action slugfest interrupted all too often by poor exposition and character development scenes that break the momentum. I added it to my list anyway, but at 2.5 hours IDK if I'll ever get around to it. If guns and gore are the only point, Wife won't like it.

It's definitely an action-comedy more than any sort of serious survival story. Very gory, though, and the characters are certainly hit-or-miss. Nevertheless, I'm hooked and watching it in 15 minute increments while I work on other things.

I thought it was very much not great. Would have benefitted from a 30-min trim, IMO. Not regretting having watched, though.

It’s fun, but I agree it’s not a terribly good film. The scenes with the great Tig Nataro are distracting once you know she was CGI’d into the movie at the end of filming to replace another actor. You immediately recognize that she’s not really there with the rest of the cast a lot of times.

However, I’ll watch Tig and Garret Dillahunt in pretty much anything. And I find Bautista to be generally fun to watch. I did find myself chuckling at the German lock pick too.

hepcat wrote: ↑Sun May 23, 2021 8:25 pm It’s fun, but I agree it’s not a terribly good film. The scenes with the great Tig Nataro are distracting once you know she was CGI’d into the movie at the end of filming to replace another actor. You immediately recognize that she’s not really there with the rest of the cast a lot of times.

Wow. I remember hearing about this, but I'd forgotten it.

I'm only about 3/4 through, but in retrospect (so far) it's notable that she's alone in so many scenes. I guess the CGI in group scenes hasn't stood out to me because the cinematography is kind of flashy and comic-booky anyway.

There’s an annoying little trick that Snyder does in most of the group scenes where Tig was “injected” later. He adds a blur effect to the other characters and tries to pass it off as a focus/depth shot...but it never really works in my opinion.

I'm not the world's biggest Zack Snyder fan, and ARMY OF THE DEAD was filled with his typical pretentious bullshit. However, I turned my brain off and had a lot of fun with it. Dave Bautista is fantastic just being Dave Bautista, and some of the cooler zombie ideas in here made me forgive the bad CGI. I was expecting a 2 1/2 hour slog, but my wife and I never got bored and gave it a cautious thumbs up.

WOMAN IN THE WINDOW, however, was mind-bogglingly bad. I'm not even sure how you screw up a movie with this cast and this director. I mean this was directed by Joe Wright who directed Best Picture nominees ATONEMENT and THE DARKEST HOUR. You've got Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Julianne Moore, Anthony Mackie, Wyatt Russell. On paper this should, at WORST, be a pretty good film.

Instead, this Rear Window rip-off (which doesn't even try to hide its inspiration), is just embarrassingly bad at every level. I wasn't sure if the filmmakers were trying to put us in the mindset of Amy Adams' unreliable narrator mindset with the editing, or if it's just that bad. And as far as the "mystery," both my wife and I had it figured out in the first 20 minutes. The main character is completely unsympathetic, and I spent a good portion of the movie wondering if the whole film was just offensive to people with mental health problems.

The only good part of the whole movie was watching Gary Oldman overact like he does whenever he's in a movie he knows good and well he shouldn't be in. Otherwise, it's garbage, and not surprising it was the subject of reshoots and rewrites.

After that write-up, I feel like I must watch it.

Zaxxon wrote:After that write-up, I feel like I must watch it.

Oh my wife and I LOVE hate-watching Netflix's recent fascination with hack thrillers. After DEADLY ILLUSIONS, we actively seek them out. Same goes for any crap romantic comedies, particularly Christmas ones.

Wife persuaded me to watch it last night, because she had read the book and pronounced the book good. She says the movie followed the book pretty closely, therefore the movie was good by the transitive property. QED.

I only realized I didn't like it when I cheered for the kid to kill Amy Adams.

It’s not an exclusive, but a movie I’ve been wanting to see for a long time showed up earlier this week. It’s called Sleight and it’s about a young street magician who gets mixed up with the wrong people. However, he’s not quite as powerless as they think. It’s a low budget Superhero film without the capes and Lycra. I missed its original run, so I’m glad I can finally see it now.

hepcat wrote: ↑Sun May 23, 2021 9:40 pm It’s not an exclusive, but a movie I’ve been wanting to see for a long time showed up earlier this week. It’s called Sleight and it’s about a young street magician who gets mixed up with the wrong people. However, he’s not quite as powerless as they think. It’s a low budget Superhero film without the capes and Lycra. I missed its original run, so I’m glad I can finally see it now.

I'm in!

YellowKing wrote: ↑Sun May 23, 2021 9:18 pm I'm not the world's biggest Zack Snyder fan, and ARMY OF THE DEAD was filled with his typical pretentious bullshit. However, I turned my brain off and had a lot of fun with it. Dave Bautista is fantastic just being Dave Bautista, and some of the cooler zombie ideas in here made me forgive the bad CGI. I was expecting a 2 1/2 hour slog, but my wife and I never got bored and gave it a cautious thumbs

The zombies were all parkour experts. Of course, The Office ruined any film featuring parkour for me.

My biggest gripe in Army of the Dead was:

I think the
But I read a little bit ago that this is the first in a planned series of shows and movies set in the inverse of the film. So I’m sure we’ll get a lame explanation sooner than later.