Current TV Boxset Addiction

[Professor Bear]

Possibly of interest to JJA watchers, "Solving The Mystery Of JJ Abrams" tries to figure out where the last Star Wars movie is going by reverse-engineering the only project JJA has ever seen through from start to finish, and it's amusing to note that some of its conclusions were independently reached by the likes of Red Letter Media as jokes, particularly the use of time travel/alternate timelines/dreams to sidestep the problem of not being to do exactly what he wants in the confines of known lore.

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

Not a box set but The Horror Channel has just started showing Space 1999 from the beginning. I stumbles across is half way through the first episode and loved it. Damn is there a Sci-fi telly show that's as well designed as this, with as good a music? Doubt it. Second episode had some really nice camera direction type things which I loved.

Not seen this for years and now regret that, its on series record.

I watch the Horror Channels "Sci-Fi zone" every night to unwind after work. I love the mix of classic Trek and obscure dated shows. My First exposure to Space:1999 was through MST3k.

Tonight's episode had Julian Glover(Grand Maester Pycelle/Walter Donovan) in silver hot pants.

[The Legendary Shark]

Black Summer. Yet another I-know-let's-throw-a-disparate-group-of-people-together-and-chuck-a-load-of-zombies-at-them pap. Black Summer? Slack Bummer, more like.

At least I've got The OA Season 2 cued up and ready to go. If it's as good as S1 was, I'll be happy.

[radiator]

Just watched the final episode of The Deuce.

What a fantastic (and sorely underrated) show that was. This last season has been a real gut punch, and unexpectedly moving in surprising ways. I'll miss it a lot, and recommend everyone to check it out.

The bittersweet final scene, of [spoiler]an aged-up Vincent solemnly walking around 2019 Times Square was kind of staggering, and seeing all the long dead cast of characters for the last time (some of whom we haven't seen since back in season 1)[/spoiler] was an very audacious and unexpected way to end it.

[Frank]

Just watched the final episode of The Deuce.

What a fantastic (and sorely underrated) show that was. This last season has been a real gut punch, and unexpectedly moving in surprising ways. I'll miss it a lot, and recommend everyone to check it out.

The bittersweet final scene, of [spoiler]an aged-up Vincent solemnly walking around 2019 Times Square was kind of staggering, and seeing all the long dead cast of characters for the last time (some of whom we haven't seen since back in season 1)[/spoiler] was an very audacious and unexpected way to end it.

I'm only up to the end of season two, but I agree it's fantastic. There's just too much stuff out there for anything that isn't big, splashy and easy to cut through anymore.

There was a really narrow window where anything unusually good would cut through and gain a wide audience, which we now call the Golden Age of TV, but that's been over for a while.

That's only going to get worse now most people are going to have to choose between dozens of subscription services, which inevitably leads to the weird tribalism you saw between X-box and Playstation fans, as consumers feel the need to invest personal capital in their decisions.

[Apestrife]

Had no idea The deuce had ended! Saw the first season and quite liked it. Will start watching two and three soon then

[radiator]

Just watched the final episode of The Deuce.

What a fantastic (and sorely underrated) show that was. This last season has been a real gut punch, and unexpectedly moving in surprising ways. I'll miss it a lot, and recommend everyone to check it out.

The bittersweet final scene, of [spoiler]an aged-up Vincent solemnly walking around 2019 Times Square was kind of staggering, and seeing all the long dead cast of characters for the last time (some of whom we haven't seen since back in season 1)[/spoiler] was an very audacious and unexpected way to end it.

I'm only up to the end of season two, but I agree it's fantastic. There's just too much stuff out there for anything that isn't big, splashy and easy to cut through anymore.

There was a really narrow window where anything unusually good would cut through and gain a wide audience, which we now call the Golden Age of TV, but that's been over for a while.

Yeah, it's a bit sad. The Americans is another one that kind of passed a lot of people by, despite - imo - being every bit as good (and more importantly as consistently good) as other high end drama series that routinely get a lot more attention lavished on them.

Thankfully in the case of The Deuce, the creators claim that three seasons was always the plan, so it's not like it was cut short, and judging by the jaw-dropping production values HBO didn't slash their budget either. It's definitely a show I look forward to doing a complete rewatch of in the future.

Had no idea The deuce had ended! Saw the first season and quite liked it. Will start watching two and three soon then

Season 1 was very good, but imo seasons 2 and 3 were an order of magnitude better.

I remember Season 1 being very bleak and a tough watch at times, whereas season 2 is a lot more vibrant and entertaining - even uplifting at times - and it's where I really started to love a lot of the characters.

[Tiplodocus]

There's a thing for me with THE AMERICANS where getting familiar with the rythym of the show doesn't get boring, like with many other shows, but actually enhances my enjoyment.

That and getting used to the Russian naming conventions.

[radiator]

It seems like in this new streaming age, you get a lot of shows that get crazy hyped for a couple of seasons then completely fizzle out and are forgotten very quickly after that*. The real mark of quality is a show that stays great from start to finish, and thats a really short list of shows I could name off the top of my head.

*Isn't it literally Netflix's business model to consistently hype new shows for a season or two to drive new subs, then promptly cancel everything?

[Frank]

*Isn't it literally Netflix's business model to consistently hype new shows for a season or two to drive new subs, then promptly cancel everything?

Yeah, their metrics tell them there's no greater value (in terms of subscriber numbers) in having more than two seasons of material behind most thumbnails, so it's only phenomena like Game Of Thrones that get a chance to build their audience over multiple seasons.

[radiator]

*Isn't it literally Netflix's business model to consistently hype new shows for a season or two to drive new subs, then promptly cancel everything?

Yeah, their metrics tell them there's no greater value (in terms of subscriber numbers) in having more than two seasons of material behind most thumbnails, so it's only phenomena like Game Of Thrones that get a chance to build their audience over multiple seasons.

Seems like a very short term kind of strategy, surely the wiser longer term goal should be to build up a huge library of enduring legacy shows that can build a massive audience over time? In terms of evergreen long form premium drama series, they're not even close to competing with HBO as far as I can tell, and the way they just dump these hugely expensive series with little to no fanfare or marketing just seems like insanity to me.

Netflix's almost religious adherence to the almighty algorithm gets on my tits a bit - it's very obnoxious for instance that they don't allow the user to disable those irritating autoplaying trailers because their data apparently tells them it drives people to watch more stuff.

[Frank]

With so many new services trying to take a share of Netflix's monopoly, everyone's just in a race to amass enough new eyeballs to be the last one left when the smoke clears.

From the way Apple and Disney are behaving, it's new titles that drive that growth.

Everyone's announcing new shows that (suspiciously) all seem to cost $15 million per episode*, whether that's Jason Momoa in a CG fantasy show or Jennifer Aniston in a remake of This Time With Alan Partridge.


* The budget Game Of Thrones tapped out on ...

[radiator]

It's weird that people think Disney+ represents a mortal threat to Netflix, when the Disney+ library is (presumably) going to be limited to broadly family friendly material, and that's surely going to affect the type of content they can offer and the kind of customer base they can attract? It doesn't really seem to offer much for, for want of a better word, grown ups.

I'm sure it'll do well, but I'm not so sure Disney+ is the no-brainer proposition that people seem to think it is. I know they can bundle it with Hulu, but Hulu's been around for ages and it also hasn't really been able to compete with Netflix in terms of original content.

it'll be interesting to see how it all shakes out.

[Dandontdare]

Disney+ ... doesn't really seem to offer much for, for want of a better word, grown ups.

Yeah, pffft, who needs the Marvel Universe? Comics are for kids!



The 2-3 season model has big cost implications - actors may be keen to be hired for little money on an unknown property, but if it's a hit and they're on a 3 season contract, then suddenly you've got a large ensemble cast (of agents) demanding a million bucks an episode to renew, so season 4 will cost a helluva lot more to make without making any more revenue.

Ironically this leads to a more British approach whereby shows end while they are still good, rather than jumping the shark or running out of ideas like most US shows, and that's not a bad thing. Is anyone enjoying S:4 of The Good Place as much as the first?

[Hawkmumbler]

Cor, a Bot on a specialist forum in 2019.

How quaint, can we keep it?