Snarf Zagyg
Notorious Liquefactionist
Truth is a three-edged sword. There’s his truth, her truth, and ima bang Kosh.
I'm beginning to dislike Netflix (re: Archive 81, 1899, Warrior Nun etc cancellations)
Truth is a three-edged sword. There’s his truth, her truth, and ima bang Kosh.
Ryujin
Legend
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Mad_Jack
Legend
I guess the CW could always take a shot at doing an Honor Harrington series - all of them are canonically stuck as looking like they're in their late 20's...
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Apparently, the CW is about to make a hard turn, as they've done the sort of market research one would have assumed they were doing all along. It turns out their actual viewers are in their 40s and 50s, rather than teens and early 20s.
They're cutting costs and ordering a lot more documentaries and reality shows.
/nod It's the predicted oversatureation of the streaming market. Too many services an not enough dollars. Now everyone is trying to crank up profits and put out just enough content to keep the viewers. As far as Scifi and fantasy shows netflix is repeating the Scifi debacle. They decided that Horror shows were more profitable so they started killing popular shows like Dark Space. Now they want thier scifi fans back but they keep trying to give us Futuristic Horror instead of actual SciFi. Disney is trying to cut down the amount of content they put out to make thier service more profitable.(don't ask me what idiot came up with that).For this reason, mainly:
Netflix Has Created A Self-Fulfilling Cancelation Loop With Its New Shows
A couple weeks ago, I remarked that Netflix now felt like it was “actively stealing time from me.” I can almost not even remember which cancelation I was talking about at the time, given that there have been so many, but I believe it was 1899www.forbes.com
For me it started with the cancellation of Archive 81, a show I really liked but they cancelled after a single season. Thankfully it was relatively self-contained. But then it happened with 1899 from the creators of Dark, a series I adored. I hadn't watched 1899 yet because, like the most recent season of Entrapped, I was saving it up, enjoying having something I know I'll like in the queue. But evidently 1899 ended on a cliffhanger, so now I'm not even going to bother.
And now it is Warrior Nun, a show I only watched half an episode of and decided wasn't my cuppa, but is causing a Twitter furor. So while I'm not disappointed in its cancellation, I commiserate with fans who are.
So basically we're left with the phenomena of Netflix only renewing series that are not only popular, but popular very quickly. A high concept series like 1899 needs time to build an audience - it will never be an instant hit. I'm a good example of this: I didn't watch Dark until last year (2022), and then consumed all three seasons in the course of a couple months.
I am reminded of what happened to mid-list authors in the publishing world. Basically big publishers will only give offers to bestsellers (or close to bestsellers) and new authors, and then for new authors the clock is ticking, with about a three book window to see if they can establish a sizable audience. Mid-listers either have to find smaller publishers or self-publish.
The end result is a dumbing down and homogenization. There's still some range of diversity, of course, but not nearly as much as there could be, if profit margins were a bit more lenient (meaning, shows like 1899 probably still generate profit, just not as much as Netflix requires to continue).
Anyhow, mostly venting...
Eventually I predict most of the streaming services will die or consolidate with some service like Hulu that has "Quasi" cable and we'll all be back to a place close to cable TV.
No they decided that the superhero shows that had solid viewing audiences werent' bringing in enough dollars for the cost so they are giving up on the comic fans and targeting documentaries and reality shows because they are cheap. They think they'll make more money that way and they might. Modern Scifi budget get stupid because special effects have become more important than the story. I think that's the real story. A lot of reality TV shows give people more to connect with than the tired save the universe trope.
Undrave
Legend
Seems like what they were doing WAS working, even if it wasn't the audience they expected... would be foolish of them to try to court the 40-50 with shows they THINK they would want rather than the type of shows that were already attracting the 40-50 folks to their brand!
People are getting WAY too demanding when it comes to special effects. Giant blockbusters have totally spoiled viewers. Star Trek became a classic with plywood decors and deserts out of LA standing in for alien planets. You don't need giant budgets to make good fantasy and sci-fi TV dangit! Ultraman is always reusing monster suits and miniatures with probably a budget for their half-season shows that's lower than a single episode of Game of Thrones, but still manages to create interesting and engaging stories!
I dont disagree but the directors are the worst offenders. We waited over 20 years for an avatar sequel because the director didnt think what was available was cool enough. Fir midern director's good somehow turmed into an insult
Strangely they dont seem to care how bad the writing is
Strangely they dont seem to care how bad the writing is
One thing I like (potentially) about shows that go from 20-24 episodes per season is that it allows for a larger ensemble cast. With 8-10 episodes, there's only so much character growth that can happen and only to a small number of characters; there just isn't time for anything else. There's nothing necessarily wrong with a show 8-10 episodes long, but I also think it's very self-limiting in the types of stories it can tell and the characters it can show. It's even worse when you're trying to adapt something and have such a limited amount of time to cram everything in.
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