TV/Movies Megathread

[crazy canuck]

Also replacing Mr Avasarala =

Agreed

[Threviel]

Leaving Vikings in the bin I got hold *cough cough* of The Expanse.

Now, this is a good series. The best one, by far, for me going on right now.

[crazy canuck]

Glad you are enjoying it 

[Zoupa]

I've watched all 4 seasons 4 times 

The books are also quite good.

[The Brain]

The weird ending to the first book has kept me from starting on the second. [spoiler]If it changes direction once it can do it again and still has to be destroyed. Also, stealing a bunch of nukes is suddenly considered OK just because some weird crap happens?[/spoiler] This from memory, bite me if it's wrong.

[Habbaku]

The first book is definitely the weakest, Brain, but your concerns are handled, IIRC, by the second-third books.

[The Brain]

The first book is definitely the weakest, Brain, but your concerns are handled, IIRC, by the second-third books.

Interesting. Thanks!

[MadImmortalMan]

We were discussing the streaming wars, and my wife seemed to think Netflix will be the last man standing. I think it will be Amazon, because people subscribe to Prime for other reasons and get their shows as a benefit.

If I had a subscription to Disney+ I would watch DuckTales and Talespin. Baloo the bear was Indiana Jones before he was Bill Murray. I believe The Mandalorian is the most pirated work in history, of any type.

[Barrister]

We were discussing the streaming wars, and my wife seemed to think Netflix will be the last man standing. I think it will be Amazon, because people subscribe to Prime for other reasons and get their shows as a benefit.

If I had a subscription to Disney+ I would watch DuckTales and Talespin. Baloo the bear was Indiana Jones before he was Bill Murray. I believe The Mandalorian is the most pirated work in history, of any type.

I think Netflix is really starting to hurt by losing so much of the older material.  There's so much that used to be on Netflix that is now gone.

Amazon is a real wildcard because of just how wealthy the company is, plus integrating it with a Prime membership.  But their original programming is nothing remarkable.

Disney+ is actually pretty thin when you get down to it.  How many times are you going to watch Marvel movies or the animated classics?  It's probably better if you have kids because they have all the Disney channel shows, but the content for adults is pretty light.

There might be room for those three.  I think it's the others that might be in trouble.  What's the point of Hulu now that Disney owns it?  Who watches CBS All Access or Apple TV +?  Is there really room for Peacock - NBC's streaming service?

[crazy canuck]

I agree that Amazon will survive as a tag on to Prime.  But if the other reasons to subscribe to Prime disappear, that service is also toast.  Netflix invests a lot of money in producing content and nobody else really does it to the same extent.

[celedhring]

We were discussing the streaming wars, and my wife seemed to think Netflix will be the last man standing. I think it will be Amazon, because people subscribe to Prime for other reasons and get their shows as a benefit.

If I had a subscription to Disney+ I would watch DuckTales and Talespin. Baloo the bear was Indiana Jones before he was Bill Murray. I believe The Mandalorian is the most pirated work in history, of any type.

I think Netflix is really starting to hurt by losing so much of the older material.  There's so much that used to be on Netflix that is now gone.

Amazon is a real wildcard because of just how wealthy the company is, plus integrating it with a Prime membership.  But their original programming is nothing remarkable.

Disney+ is actually pretty thin when you get down to it.  How many times are you going to watch Marvel movies or the animated classics?  It's probably better if you have kids because they have all the Disney channel shows, but the content for adults is pretty light.

There might be room for those three.  I think it's the others that might be in trouble.  What's the point of Hulu now that Disney owns it?  Who watches CBS All Access or Apple TV +?  Is there really room for Peacock - NBC's streaming service?

Your forgot HBO Max, too. Warner has a really impressive library, with more diversity than Disney.

But even if the minnows like Apple (why?) and Hulu/NBC/CBS get shut down and they license out their libraries, that's still way too many platforms. I don't think the financials will make sense for all those fancy high-budget shows in such a fragmented market, and I don't think people will spend nearly 100 bucks to subscribe to several platforms, like in the good ole times of cable packages.

You forgot HBO in there.

[MadImmortalMan]

Content can and will be bought up. It's basically Bob Iger's lifestyle choice.

The minnows are trying to strike gold by having their own Game of Thrones-type must see content, but that can't last forever. And some of them are failing at it anyway. CBS actually thought STD was going to be their draw for a while. Heh.

I think in the end content creation won't be an in-house thing anymore. At least not exclusively. It'll be more like an auction where you make your show and then sell it to the highest bidder. That will make financing shows and movies much more interesting and chaotic. I think it will be good for us though. Look how many games and comics have come into existence due to crowdfunding. Really good ones, too.

[Admiral Yi]

The Economist had an article about how Netflix is following sort of an anti-Game of Thrones strategy.  Instead of staking everything on a must-see, they make a million shows that a handful of viewers, somewhere out there, will want to watch.  A niche product for every niche.

I personally think the HBO strategy is vulnerable.  What happens if your once a year monster is a dud?

[celedhring]

The Economist had an article about how Netflix is following sort of an anti-Game of Thrones strategy.  Instead of staking everything on a must-see, they make a million shows that a handful of viewers, somewhere out there, will want to watch.  A niche product for every niche.

I personally think the HBO strategy is vulnerable.  What happens if your once a year monster is a dud?

That is indeed quite true and I got it straight from the horse's mouth (the Catalan writer guild had an event with the Netflix content director for Spain and LatAm). Their soaps and young adult stuff, for example, is stupidly successful and they never advertise those.

[celedhring]

I think in the end content creation won't be an in-house thing anymore. At least not exclusively. It'll be more like an auction where you make your show and then sell it to the highest bidder. That will make financing shows and movies much more interesting and chaotic. I think it will be good for us though. Look how many games and comics have come into existence due to crowdfunding. Really good ones, too.

Disney is already the only studio that produces in house, everybody else outsources. GoT wasn't originated internally at HBO, nor did they produce it directly. Nobody is that vertically integrated anymore.

And outside the US there's a very large bidding market for content (and even in the US for independent stuff) both for before and after the film/show is in the can. That's how funding has been raised for Euro shows for a long time, since Euro companies don't have the financial muscle of US media companies.