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Rant: my disappointment with TV & streaming


Sifferino

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Honestly I'm just tired of Marvel in general. I'm not associating Marvel's Spider-Man with this because I'm actually enjoying the game a little despite the so so storyline and the melodrama acting of the cast.

 

I have always been a DC Universe guy over Marvel. The Dark Knight trilogy is to me the best superhero trilogy of all time. In my mind, nothing today comes close.

 

I've argued with a number of people who think that I'm stuck in the past because I refuse to watch the Venom movie and I refuse to watch the film that just eclipsed Avatar (2009) as the most grossing movie of all time. I'm at the point where I really don't care. Whether it's Marvel or DC, it all just blends in one another.

 

I watched the Batman vs Superman movie and it was complete utter garbage.

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I'm sure this will get dangerously close to 'old man complains that they don't make things like they used to', but I'll indulge myself.

 

I feel like modern writing, in general, tends to be overly long, painfully self-aware, and slightly self-indulgent.  In that way, it is probably an apt reflection of the society that created it.  Further, I find this tend applies across all media, and certainly is true of video games.    

 

When I hit a big scene rather than getting sweep up in the story, I can almost feel the author sitting in from of his computer thinking how clever he is for writing this. It doesn't feel nature at all.  It feels like someone trying incredibly hard to produce something 'smart' and 'challenging'.  And the result just feels...immature.

 

Somehow related to this and getting back to OP, people these days cannot write endings to save their lives.  They can write great first acts.  This is followed by a long, meandering second act where half the sub-plots from the first act get forgotten, which leads to a sort of non-conclusion that seems like the product of writers who are simply bored with the entire story. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/21/2019 at 11:10 AM, Sky_RykerXD said:

The only show I look forward to every couple of years is The Venture Brothers...

 

I'm already fed up with Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Marvel, Prime, etc. Now companies want to make their own streaming service because they had ONE good show they own. I watch mostly tutorials now...

 

Gotta follow directors/writers/studios that care about quality. Indie/foreign stuff is great. Find a local theater that plays these.

 

That's funny, because I watched the living shit out of that cartoon show back in 2004 - 2005 when the Adult Swim block was still good on Cartoon Network. Nowadays all the stuff they have on that cable/satellite station is bullshit. Makes no fucking sense whatsoever. Cartoon Network is no different now than Disney and Nickelodeon. All over production, saturated, dumbed down garbage catered to kids with severe ADD.

 

I gave up on Marvel after Iron Man 3 and Venom. Gave up on DC Universe after that horrible Batman vs Superman movie. Netflix? Removed a huge portion of their library compared to what it was 10 years ago. Prime? Hulu? Both want a stranglehold on the live streaming market. Pay more for less choices.

 

HBO was awesome with Big Love, Sopranos, Six Feet Under. Now they want to crank out one hour melodramas that follow the same tired old formula over and over.

 

Honestly I think mainstream television and movies were better 15 years ago. The stuff today makes no goddamn sense and feels too forced.

 

There's some stuff from Great Britain that's pretty good. Some Japanese material I found recently was also pretty decent.

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  • 5 months later...

I have just read the thread and decided to share my thoughts (almost half a year later).

 

To me the most of this discussion is about "art side vs business side" problem. Just like games and movies, 99% of shows are made to make money. The question is the priority. If I'm not mistaken, usually a show starts with a plan for 1 season, then if it's successful, it gets renewed, the 2nd season is being ordered and then creators start developing that one. This is where you start seing what the priority was. If they cared only about selling the first season to a network, you'll see the result of it in a poor quality of season 2. If they had more ideas ready for season 2 and 3 and more, the show will probably have better quality (but there is always a case where they are still worse, because those ideas weren't good compared to the original one). 

 

One of the problems is that eventually the showrunners run out of ideas, while there is still money to be made. They should end the show but they don't. This can happen during any season, and that's why the last seasons of shows often suck. There can be other reasons, of course. The example is Game of Thrones. The last two seasons, especially 8, sucked because the showrunners ran out of original book material. They have been adapting the books well until there was nothing to adapt. 

 

Anyway, this is why I think the way of making shows season by season, while the most common, is not the best. And this is why I love shows like Breaking Bad and Mr Robot. Vince Gilligan had a 5-season plan for BrBa, and it shows. Sam Esmail had a 4 to 5-season plan for Mr Robot from the beginnig, and it shows. These shows are consistent from beginning to end. They are also rare, and you have to look for them, just like you look for new good games - It's important to do some research before picking a show to watch. That said, I don't think that any show that is being done without such planning can't be consistent and have a good final season. I don't think Mad Men was planned for 7 seasons from the beginning, but it never stopped being good. In my eyes at least. Maybe it's because it was told in a "slice of life" kind of way. There are ways to keep the quality good.

 

Now for some shows that were mentioned above. I liked Stranger Things season 1. Liked the 2nd one a little less. When I started watching season 3 I was like "WTF is happening, WTF is this" at first. For context: I'm russian. If you've seen season 3, you'll understand what I'm talking about. Then I turned off my brain and decided to just accept what they were going for with the story. And it actually helped. Didn't like it as much as 1 or 2, but still enjoyed most of it. As for Netflix's Marvel shows, from what I heard, they (Netflix people) have been looking at stats, realised most shows of this genre lose like 80% of viewers after season 2 and came up with a strategy where they release more shows but only give them 2-3 seasons each. I don't know if it's true, but looking at how Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders and The Punisher did, I kinda believe it. And I don't like it. Haven't watched any of them, but I want to see the first two, at least the first seasons. I have to mention the whole Disney involvement, though. They didn't want Netflix to compete with Disney+ with their own property. That explains why the more popular shows were not renewed, but I'm sure Netflix would have closed the other ones either way. Doesn't explain why there were so many of them, though.

 

TL;DR:

- When business side is the priority, the shows lose quality fast.

- The shows that are created with a plan and an ending in mind are better.

- Not always, though. If they find a good way to keep the quality, the show can be as good.

- It's helpful to do some research before picking a show to watch.

 

Edited by Alderriz
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