What’s on Netflix?!?

[mgil]

Love on the Spectrum. This was a really good show in terms of basic humanity. Might make all of you tough men a bit weepy at times but worth it.

The original season/version/whatev is better than the newer one. The guy that the primarily follow in the first season is (this is about to sound bad to somebody) much more likeable than the girl the other season follows. The dinosaur dude was pretty great.

However, no weepiness.

There was a great line on one of the dates about de-shitting a prawn or something, I may have had a tear there but it was because it made me laugh super hard.

There’s a 60yo dude on the US version that pulls at the heartstrings.

[broseph]

Glass Onion (Netflix) was fun if you liked Knives Out. I love Daniel Craig in that role, and I feel like they could make a lot of those movies if they wanted to.

The Menu (HBO) was great. But I'm partial to dark comedy horror.

[hector]

I’m watching The Witcher prequel on Netflix while I do my exercise bike a few nights a week.
It is garbage.
But I want to know what happens so I keep hate watching.

[GlasgowJock]

Pretty good start for Last of Us...

Did a better job in one episode than most zombie shows do in entire seasons...

I finally got around to watching the first episode last night as I've been looking forward to it for months.

Well worth the wait. I've never played the game so had no reference material though I enjoyed the world they built, the effects were excellent and the acting solid enough. Bella Ramsey wouldn't have been my choice to play Ellie though their acting was satisfactory enough.

Probably the best pilot episode I've seen for this genre since Black July.

[mouse]

I enjoyed the world they built

This was my thought as well. I think the comment I made to my wife was how this show did a better job building out a world in one episode than in literal seasons of Walking Dead (even when I liked it).

I also never played the games, but lucky for us the internet is awash with plenty of evidence that the showrunners love the source material. It's pretty much the exact opposite of how they handled Halo lol

[mouse]

I’m watching The Witcher prequel on Netflix while I do my exercise bike a few nights a week.
It is garbage.
But I want to know what happens so I keep hate watching.

I knew that was gonna be DOA... sort of an extension of my last post but... very evident the creators just didn't give a shit what the story or source material was...

Speaking of...

Velma... I haven't bothered to watch it, but I've seen enough clips to know everyone involved with that should never be allowed to work again.

Even the dude from Its Always Sunny lol

[BenM]

Glass Onion (Netflix) was fun if you liked Knives Out. I love Daniel Craig in that role, and I feel like they could make a lot of those movies if they wanted to.

The Menu (HBO) was great. But I'm partial to dark comedy horror.

Watched both of these over the last two Saturday nights. I was expecting Glass Onion to be good having seen Knives Out and liked it - but it probably exceeded expectations. The Menu, well, that one I went in with zero expectations as I'd never heard of it and the wife picked it out. I did enjoy it (although she said she didn't - it's not really her type of movie). There were moments where I was almost recoiling from the TV and a few genuine laugh out loud moments too. Solid performances from the leads (you'd expect nothing less from Ralph Fiennes though), and good to watch something a little different than blockbuster schlock.

[ChasingCurls69]

I enjoyed the world they built

This was my thought as well. I think the comment I made to my wife was how this show did a better job building out a world in one episode than in literal seasons of Walking Dead (even when I liked it).

I also never played the games, but lucky for us the internet is awash with plenty of evidence that the showrunners love the source material. It's pretty much the exact opposite of how they handled Halo lol

I really enjoyed the combo of new material and the shot-for-shot scenes they took right from the game. Also Marlene's actress was the original voice actress for the game, which was cool to see.

[hector]

I’m watching The Witcher prequel on Netflix while I do my exercise bike a few nights a week.
It is garbage.
But I want to know what happens so I keep hate watching.

I knew that was gonna be DOA... sort of an extension of my last post but... very evident the creators just didn't give a shit what the story or source material was...

Speaking of...

Velma... I haven't bothered to watch it, but I've seen enough clips to know everyone involved with that should never be allowed to work again.

Even the dude from Its Always Sunny lol

Beyond not respecting, it’s almost like they hate the source material.

[SnakePlissken]

I enjoyed the world they built

This was my thought as well. I think the comment I made to my wife was how this show did a better job building out a world in one episode than in literal seasons of Walking Dead (even when I liked it).

I also never played the games, but lucky for us the internet is awash with plenty of evidence that the showrunners love the source material. It's pretty much the exact opposite of how they handled Halo lol

I usually commit to watching a season of a show if I get past the first 2 episodes (OCD maybe), but the Halo show was such pure trash I got to the scene where John fucked the Covenant spy chick and realized the show writers are like 3rd graders and just totally lost interest in it and have not watched it since. You have to try messing something up to achieve that.

[aurelius]

Last of Us. Amaze balls. The ending of the game caused a huge uproar on the 2013 gamer boards. Can't wait to see what you chums think of it.

[stuffedsuperdud]

Resurfacing (I'm still training. Really. -ish...) to mention that The Last of Us is my favorite video game of all time, and I was understandably a bit nervous when I heard the adaptation was coming, esp. after the shitshow that was the Uncharted movie. All my doubts were laid to rest as soon as I saw the first trailer, and the first two episodes have most definitely not disappointed. So far that Lyanna Mormont kid has been great at playing a cynical and hard-nosed survivor, and I'm excited to see how effectively she'll be able to channel the more vulnerable and innocent side of Ellie where she's just a kid born into a nightmarish world.

If Pedro Pascal becomes typecast as a ruff and tuff strong silent lone ranger guy escorting kids in and out of danger, I'm here for it.

[hector]

Like everyone else, I agree Last of Us is outstanding. (1 episode in.)

[augeleven]

*inserts fingers in ears, he yells to himself "I'm NOT getting HBO max!"*

Started watching the Legend of Vox Machina. Adequate for cardio.

[mouse]

*inserts fingers in ears, he yells to himself "I'm NOT getting HBO max!"*

Remember theft is always on the table

[aurelius]

Remember theft is always on the table

Annoying PSA guy: People complain about streaming services canceling shows and this ^ is why. I understand ALL of the streaming services gets expensive, but we have to support the art we want with $$$ or it won't get made.

A slightly better option is to wait for the full season to come out then pick up HBOMax for a month.

[hector]

Watched the first half of “Mad Max: Fury Road” on an airplane today. Forgot what a phenomenal movie it is. It starts immediately, then only accelerates, in terms of both action and weirdness. F’d that there’s no sequel.

[convergentsum]

Remember theft is always on the table

Annoying PSA guy: People complain about streaming services canceling shows and this ^ is why. I understand ALL of the streaming services gets expensive, but we have to support the art we want with $$$ or it won't get made.

Netflix' income the last few years has been legendary, yet it is over this period that it has earned its reputation for killing off promising series after one season. How many subscribers would they need to have in order for them to better support these series?

[dw]

Remember theft is always on the table

Annoying PSA guy: People complain about streaming services canceling shows and this ^ is why. I understand ALL of the streaming services gets expensive, but we have to support the art we want with $$$ or it won't get made.

Netflix' income the last few years has been legendary, yet it is over this period that it has earned its reputation for killing off promising series after one season. How many subscribers would they need to have in order for them to better support these series?

Do you really doubt there's a correlation between tracked viewership and renewal rates?

[5hout]

Do you really doubt there's a correlation between tracked viewership and renewal rates?

Correlation? No. Causation? I'm not sure. My guess (based on reading random speculative articles) is that any shoe that doesn't get buzz that would (potentially) convince a non-subscriber to sub OR be the sole reason a waffling sub stays sub'd is at high risk of cancellation. Essentially it's not "let's build a strong portfolio of shows that people want to watch with lots of viewership overlap between shows", it seems to be "let's put together a portfolio a portfolio of shows that are must-watch in a key demographic, without overlap".

The functional difference is that shows that are popular, but among the "subscribe till die" people and don't draw new people in/save a waffling subscriber are at high risk of cancellation, despite being popular. That said, I'm hella negative on medium term Netflix expectations. Current market cap is ~150B, I think they'd be overvalued at 75B. Their current business model seems to be "Re-broadcasting BBC shows + third tier re-watching + random silos of original content." They never belonged in FAANG (4 companies providing key life services and then a re-broadcaster, only valuable if they have steam levels of dominance (which they don't anymore)).

On the other hand, normal networks seem to have a scattershot approach to cancellation anyway and there are a lot of variables (cost to retain key talent, profitably of show vs profitability of moving key talent/showrunners to new show and rolling the dice, blah blah blah).