What TV SHOWS are you watching?

I’m excited for Justified: Detroit Boogaloo. I’ve got a Raylan novel in my ever expanding to-read pile.

I did not realize Peter Weller was in Longmire.

Almost done with SANCTUARY, a Japanese drama about sumo wrestling. It’s pretty fun, although definitely exaggerated. A lot of it (the hazing, e.g.) is pretty accurate though.

The main plot is about a juvenile delinquent who goes into sumo only to make money. He doesn’t care about the sport or its traditions, and enjoys thumbing his nose at the sumo establishment. Will he succeed? Will he be forced to knuckle under to the weight of tradition? Or will he remake sumo in his image?

Cranberries wrote: I’m excited for Justified: Detroit Boogaloo. I’ve got a Raylan novel in my ever expanding to-read pile.

I did not realize Peter Weller was in Longmire.

Branch's uncle/Barlow's brother/ex-sheriff of Absaroka Co.

I've watched 3 episodes of FUBAR, the new Netflix series starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. I'm a fan of him, and if he was not in this, I would not be watching it. It's not terrible, but it's not great, either.

It is absolutely a spiritual True Lies 2, which sounds like a good setup. But I am finding a lot of the jokes falling flat. It is not without merit, but unless you are a big Arnold fan, pass on this one.

The reviews have been overall pretty unfavorable.

hotseatgames wrote: I've watched 3 episodes of FUBAR, the new Netflix series starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. I'm a fan of him, and if he was not in this, I would not be watching it. It's not terrible, but it's not great, either.

It is absolutely a spiritual True Lies 2, which sounds like a good setup. But I am finding a lot of the jokes falling flat. It is not without merit, but unless you are a big Arnold fan, pass on this one.

I'm gonna have to dive in. So it's an action comedy? Other than that "I'm the new Chief Action Officer" spot I don't think I've seen anything about what FUBAR actually is (and that spot didn't show it much).

Would be kinda cool if they tried to tie in some of the Arnie films into a loose continuity. Make jokes about how he "wiped out the entire population of San Nicolas Island" (commando), once infiltrated the Chicago mob (Raw Deal), or won't talk about what happened in Guatemala (Predator).

Now that the whole series is done, I decided to finally try Succession. I'm 3 episodes in, and I like it. I don't think it's must-see tv yet, but I will keep watching. This is on "Max"... what a stupid name. Surely HBO has more cache than Cinemax ever did.

On the anime front, Hajime No Ippo is a boxing anime that is really great. Good characters, and the boxing matches are edge of your seat, which is surprising. it's on Crunchy Roll, not sure where else it might be.

I totally agree on being confused why the powers that be chose MAX over HBO. The latter to me has FAR more brand recognition , esp in terms of notable TV series, many of which have been lauded as some of the best TV series ever made.

As for SUCCESSION, I am glad I watched it but I don't see rewatching it like some other classics like DEADWOOD or THE WIRE.

Rewatching Arrested Development as my wife sees it for the first time. Still brilliant. Still hilarious. So much I’m only seeing on the second watch. There are jokes about Buster’s accident five episodes before they get to it. Everyone is going hard. The writers, the actors, the set designers, everyone. If someone sits on a bench, there’s a joke.

Too bad about the fourth season.

I was always amazed at all the offhand lines that were hilarious but easily missed because they weren’t the focus of the scene.

Msample wrote: I totally agree on being confused why the powers that be chose MAX over HBO. The latter to me has FAR more brand recognition , esp in terms of notable TV series, many of which have been lauded as some of the best TV series ever made.

As for SUCCESSION, I am glad I watched it but I don't see rewatching it like some other classics like DEADWOOD or THE WIRE.

Warner/HBO merged with Discovery last year or so, and Discovery CEO David Zaslav became CEO of the merged company. While HBO was widely respected for premium tv shows, Discovery was more profitable by doing a lot of low-budget reality tv shows on such exciting topics as buying, remodeling, and selling houses. So Zaslav took over with an agenda to focus on profitability instead of quality. That's why he axed so many shows and movies that were close to completion or even ready to air, just for the tax write-off. It's also why he wants to re-brand away from HBO, to appeal to a wider audience. IMO, he doesn't know wtf he is doing and he will drive away a lot of subscribers.

Narrow target demographic but EXTREMELY high quality production is how you build a brand. HBO was a great example of this, they put out a lot of stuff that, on the surface, had a limited broad appeal, but the quality was so good they caught fire.

Watering stuff down to try to hit every market quadrant is a losing strategy as it tends to make stuff that has no legs, no cultural impact, and no resonance. It has no fans, just casual consumers. We are in a dark age of media (from the POV of someone 30 years from now).

Any analysis of Zaslav's competence without taking into account the unit economics of streaming is incomplete. He may be making unpopular moves that are tantamount to creative robbery but that doesn't necessarily make them incorrect business decisions. HBO hits may generate talk in taste maker circles online but retaining users in streaming requires a lot of frequently refreshed filler content. I liked Succession well enough but the finale had ~3 million users while the average episode of NCIS has a viewership 5-6x that.

I personally prefer HBO's prestige content but I recognise that I'm only worth £15 a month to the company and only monetising users like me won't sustain a business in the modern entertainment era. That's without getting into the production pace and costs of prestige television vs Discovery's schlock. Framed another way, what's the value of a brand, to a CEO and its shareholders, if it can't be sustainably monetised?

Finished season 2 of Yellowjackets. Overall this season was a far step down from the fantastic season 1. The bright point was the addition of Elijah Wood, who is great in it.

I will stick with the show because I want to see where it all goes, but you really have to accept some large plot holes.

sornars wrote: HBO hits may generate talk in taste maker circles online but retaining users in streaming requires a lot of frequently refreshed filler content. I liked Succession well enough but the finale had ~3 million users while the average episode of NCIS has a viewership 5-6x that.

But an HBO viewer is worth $15/mo to the company, I seriously doubt an NCIS viewer is worth 1/5 or 1/6th that in passive ad revenue. Those folks are just letting the TV run or are outside that "18-45 yo" key demographic, they are primarily old folks, I think the AVERAGE age of the viewer is 60!

My point is that you develop a brand by creating fanatic and loyal customers. You can't do that (well) by making shallow stuff trying to appeal to everyone just a little bit, you do it by making a show that strikes to the heart of a specific group but has enough crossover appeal to bring in the filthy casuals. Stuff like Sci-fi channel with Battlestar Galactica or Stargate. Then they rebrand to "Syfy", drop the hard core appeal to nerds, and where are they now?