I kinds of gave up on trying to keep up with anything onscreen. The everything-all-at-once world we live in makes it too much effort. I'm sure I'm missing a lot of great stuff, but I'm also not sifting through a lot of dreck to get to it, either. I usually find one show, go all in, and then try to find another.
I think that's very sensible, and it's more or less what we "over a certain age" are doing, right? We're still cleaving to The Old Ways. I think the various media conglomerates are trying to have their cakes and quickly eat it, too. It's weird to me, because some of these shows, these movies? They are fantastic. Awards-worthy. Brilliantly executed.
So why not focus on the thing you clearly think is worth the money you spent? Why toss all of it out at once to sit upon the waters of popular culture like chum?
Maybe they have started to think about all of this stuff as "content" rather than commercial art. Who can say? All I know is, I really miss the thirty second television spots of yore.
It's interesting that you raise this because it chimes with something I've noticed with a few shows in the past couple of years. Take The Imperfects, or Everything Now. Both my jam, both much of my wider social group's jam, and if they'd come out in 2014 - 19 I think they'd have found their audience and got the Netflix three-season treatment, with cross-generational appeal to women (particularly) my age and Gen Z. Instead, I never saw a single friend mention either. That intrigued me, as Netflix used to make shows like these into sleeper hits.
But Ripley? Total silence in friend groups I'd expected to be all over it. I think it'll be just fine, mind you: it has much broader appeal as a throwback to that recent yet lamented "golden age of prestige television" era. It was primed for success with rights to all the books bought up, strong PR, and cinematic antecedents to reassure the casual viewer, "you know this, you like this: but it's polished up!" Which is in no way to belittle the show: it was an absolute feast; I devoured it. Same with AMC's "Anne Rice Immortal Universe" the network wants that to be its new Walking Dead tentpole, and lucky me, because I've been saying someone ought to give the books that treatment for years.
But things that aren't obvious "triple-A" shows not finding their audience? I think the "this generation is ADHD about telly" theory in the linked piece is lazy and wide of the mark. With streaming platforms increasingly making keep-or-cancel decisions more harshly than before, I keep hearing it said that audiences are less wiling to take a chance on new shows: they've had too many experiences of investing in a show only to see it cancelled after one season, plot threads and character arcs dangling.
So fewer shows get the degree of viral chatter on socials that the streamers have increasingly allowed to do their marketing for them. So people either don't hear about a show, or wait to see if it'll stick before jumping on board, and both factors doom it. I don't know how true the "Netflix reluctant to pay residuals" theory is; I've heard arguments pro and contra, but the mere perception that it's true may play a part in lack of audience buy-in...
Thanks for weighing in. I do feel that it's one ingredient in a soup of problems. I just hadn't seen anyone mention that ingredient in that particular way. And yeah, I don't think that particular phenomenon is the reason why the MCU faltered. It wasn't that, and we know this because Avengers: Endgame was like, one of the biggest and most successful movies, ever. Lots of Gen Zers in the audience for that. But the idea that they would RATHER watch a YouTube video than a two hour movie is, I don't know, it's a thing, for sure, but I don't think it's a good thing. I don't think our worldwide diminished attention span is healthy for us.
Dunno, maybe I'm too old. I recall staying up to watch Ghost in the Shell, still my favorite. I agree that there needs a better way to advertise. Everyone except me and Karen seems to have missed The Hell of Delores Roach, a great black humor one off series about tacos and cannibals!
I had to be hepped to that one. It turns out, it was a podcast that was, evidently, very popular. Another avenue to sling stories at us, and there's no real way to take it all in. I always see people asking for podcast recommendations and I'm always stunned and amazed what's out there with an audience of a a few thousand listening to it.
I kinds of gave up on trying to keep up with anything onscreen. The everything-all-at-once world we live in makes it too much effort. I'm sure I'm missing a lot of great stuff, but I'm also not sifting through a lot of dreck to get to it, either. I usually find one show, go all in, and then try to find another.
I think that's very sensible, and it's more or less what we "over a certain age" are doing, right? We're still cleaving to The Old Ways. I think the various media conglomerates are trying to have their cakes and quickly eat it, too. It's weird to me, because some of these shows, these movies? They are fantastic. Awards-worthy. Brilliantly executed.
So why not focus on the thing you clearly think is worth the money you spent? Why toss all of it out at once to sit upon the waters of popular culture like chum?
Maybe they have started to think about all of this stuff as "content" rather than commercial art. Who can say? All I know is, I really miss the thirty second television spots of yore.
It's interesting that you raise this because it chimes with something I've noticed with a few shows in the past couple of years. Take The Imperfects, or Everything Now. Both my jam, both much of my wider social group's jam, and if they'd come out in 2014 - 19 I think they'd have found their audience and got the Netflix three-season treatment, with cross-generational appeal to women (particularly) my age and Gen Z. Instead, I never saw a single friend mention either. That intrigued me, as Netflix used to make shows like these into sleeper hits.
But Ripley? Total silence in friend groups I'd expected to be all over it. I think it'll be just fine, mind you: it has much broader appeal as a throwback to that recent yet lamented "golden age of prestige television" era. It was primed for success with rights to all the books bought up, strong PR, and cinematic antecedents to reassure the casual viewer, "you know this, you like this: but it's polished up!" Which is in no way to belittle the show: it was an absolute feast; I devoured it. Same with AMC's "Anne Rice Immortal Universe" the network wants that to be its new Walking Dead tentpole, and lucky me, because I've been saying someone ought to give the books that treatment for years.
But things that aren't obvious "triple-A" shows not finding their audience? I think the "this generation is ADHD about telly" theory in the linked piece is lazy and wide of the mark. With streaming platforms increasingly making keep-or-cancel decisions more harshly than before, I keep hearing it said that audiences are less wiling to take a chance on new shows: they've had too many experiences of investing in a show only to see it cancelled after one season, plot threads and character arcs dangling.
So fewer shows get the degree of viral chatter on socials that the streamers have increasingly allowed to do their marketing for them. So people either don't hear about a show, or wait to see if it'll stick before jumping on board, and both factors doom it. I don't know how true the "Netflix reluctant to pay residuals" theory is; I've heard arguments pro and contra, but the mere perception that it's true may play a part in lack of audience buy-in...
Thanks for weighing in. I do feel that it's one ingredient in a soup of problems. I just hadn't seen anyone mention that ingredient in that particular way. And yeah, I don't think that particular phenomenon is the reason why the MCU faltered. It wasn't that, and we know this because Avengers: Endgame was like, one of the biggest and most successful movies, ever. Lots of Gen Zers in the audience for that. But the idea that they would RATHER watch a YouTube video than a two hour movie is, I don't know, it's a thing, for sure, but I don't think it's a good thing. I don't think our worldwide diminished attention span is healthy for us.
Dunno, maybe I'm too old. I recall staying up to watch Ghost in the Shell, still my favorite. I agree that there needs a better way to advertise. Everyone except me and Karen seems to have missed The Hell of Delores Roach, a great black humor one off series about tacos and cannibals!
I had to be hepped to that one. It turns out, it was a podcast that was, evidently, very popular. Another avenue to sling stories at us, and there's no real way to take it all in. I always see people asking for podcast recommendations and I'm always stunned and amazed what's out there with an audience of a a few thousand listening to it.