Speaking of most annoying, it seems like a lot of channels here in the states are replaying certain old shows just to annoy me. The ones that I’m most sick of are MASH, Friends and The Big Bang Theory. I see them run for hours and it makes me mad. They are the main reason (along with creative censorship for movies) that I will never go back to basic cable again. I understand that the three I mentioned are sitcom classics, but it’s just tiring to see the same shows and the same episodes over and over. I know that they are far from the only shows that are treated this way. However, they do seem to creep into my life over and over again. Does anyone else have shows that this way? Sorry for the rant, I just can’t get rid of them!
3 Likes
Good luck with streaming. They just push the most popular stuff and drop everything I am interested in.
5 Likes
I know that feeling. Thankfully; it’s hard for me to get into a TV show and I still believe in physical media for books, movies, TV shows and video games.
3 Likes
Twenty Twelve (2011 BBC series starring Hugh Bonneville, Jessica Hynes, Amelia Bullmore, Olivia Colman, Vincent Franklin, Karl Theobald and Morven Christie): A mockumentary on the lead-up to the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, we loved it back when we first saw it, and have been enjoying it every bit as much on rewatch. Ah, but how quaint it all feels now! Simpler times.
I’m pretty sure this was our introduction to Olivia Colman, as the next thing we saw her in was Broadchurch, and then after that came The Night Manager and The Favourite. She’s brilliant as Hugh Bonneville’s long-suffering personal assistant. Bonneville is equally brilliant as the nearly unflappable Head of Deliverance. And then there’s Jessica Hynes as the unforgettable Siobhan Sharpe, Head of Brand through her abysmal PR firm, Perfect Curve. Siobhan blithely utters non-sequiturs with the ease of a carnival barker.
There was a 2014 spinoff called W1A. When we initially tried watching it, we didn’t find it as funny, mainly because it lacked the deadline-driven, barely suppressed hysteria of Twenty Twelve. So we gave up. But, after we rewatched Twenty Twelve, we restarted W1A and are finding it funny, in a different way. The blend of incompetence and blind adherence to ever-shifting “word salad” policies is sadly relevant today.
Oh, and we just started the second season of Crime Story. Wow, that first episode charged right out of the gate!
3 Likes
She had been a staple of UK sitcoms and sketch shows for years, but this could be for many.
4 Likes
William and Mary (2003-2005 ITV series starring Martin Clunes and Julie Graham): The only other series I can recall seeing Martin Clunes in was Doc Martin, and a pre-gap episode of Doctor Who. As for Julie Graham, I think I’ve only ever seen her before in a sadly forgettable Jodie Whittaker-era episode of Doctor Who.
The romance between the main characters is lovely and fairly believable, though (as with Doc Martin) we’re starting to see some all-too-predictable insertions of “conflict” deemed necessary for romantic dramas. However, the opening episode completely enthralled us, and we’re willing to stay with it and see where it goes.
As with so much British television and film, one thing we appreciate is how un-Hollywood everyone looks. These characters look like real people, with all our lumpy-dumpy flaws. That’s a good thing. People can be attractive because of their imperfections, not in spite of them. I get so tired of seeing actors with impossibly idealized features (and wondering what they had to do to achieve that look).
But oh, how dated 2003 looks now. Hard to believe!
3 Likes
3 Likes
Have to admit, two or three episodes in, it didn’t quite capture my interest. A bit of Ray Donovan, various bits of other gangster-themed films and shows, feels like a best-of, only it’s not often the best stuff offered here.
Addendum: If Hardy’s character is so central and the show so successful, why not just giving the role to someone else? It’s not the preferred way of doing this, but probably still better than elaborately writing him out and someone similar in.
3 Likes
It probably will be a question of money: the longer a succesful show is running the more the stars want to earn, and rightly so.
But this one was not that successful (no mega blockbuster like THE PITT) so I guess it will be cancelled sooner rather than later.
Hardy remains a wild card, and EON was wise to stay away from him.
5 Likes
I haven’t seen this show, nor will I ever want to.
But buried within that article is a line that shows how much Amazon is willing to cheat…
„Amazon says that the series reached 36 million viewers in its first 12 days of streaming. It’s important to note that the company does not publicly define what counts as a “viewer,” therefore it’s possible that a person who watched only a few seconds or minutes of a single episode is being counted in that total.“
In saner times with common sense this would be called, um, fraud?
2 Likes
All series were compared based on the first 12 days of viewership for their first seasons.
There’s also the fact this - published - metric is heavily skewed towards the ‘topsellers’ during this short period while ignoring the ‘long sellers’ like Friends or House whatever they currently have in their portfolio.
That said, it’s likely easy enough for Amazon to predict this is going to be a winner since the budget is probably nowhere near Rings of Power and Fallout.
2 Likes
I imagine every streamer cheats that way and will argue that despite their ever advancing technical prowess it is impossible for them to determine the real viewership.
Although the networks somehow can do that extremely well, detecting exactly when viewers tune in and whether they stay to the end, what gender, economics and preferences in toothpaste they have.
Yeah, well… Amazon, however, can claim they have the hits.
And I have contributed to mega streaming numbers when I just checked out shows out of curiosity, and literally checking out after five minutes tops.
2 Likes
Strictly speaking even somebody watching a trailer on YouTube is more engaged with a show than someone switching off - or tuning out and doing something else on a second/third screen. And Amazon would certainly be able to tell…
3 Likes
Either way, actors like Hardy are a pest for any production. I don’t care how good they are when they actually show up - the time and the mental health spared can be easily used better by casting someone with great work ethics.
And don’t get me started on actors having ideas for scenes or writing their own scripts. They might know what suits their character, but in my experience they always, always shortchange the rest of the cast and have no clue how to plot a captivating story.
3 Likes
Next up:
„Blofeld“ about how the criminal mastermind actually helps Mi6 to catch the radical left lunatics
„Luthor“ about how the magalomaniacal billionaire saves the planet from goody twoshoes in capes
See a pattern here?
5 Likes
This can best describe a lot of the creative forces in the media industry now.
4 Likes
Yes! you are right.
3 Likes
The problem is that they mistake memory for fandom. Just because people know the name Moriarty (I’d wager that the majority don’t know anything meaningful about the character) doesn’t mean they’re going to tune in for a series.
3 Likes
Fully agreed.
But it’s not about the audience. It’s about people claiming the audience will know so the decision makers feel confident that they are using known IP instead of the dreaded original content marketing has no clue how to sell (despite selling original content for decades before it became successful IP).
Absurd?
Yep.
6 Likes
And that is why we get a new Robin Hood project every few years, despite no one actually wanting one or them not doing particularly well critically or commercially.
3 Likes