But Is It on Netflix? - Streaming Video Service Thread: Hulu, Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, Disney+, Peacock, YouTube TV, AT+T Watch, Philo, Playstation Vue, HBO Max, HBO Now, Facebook Live and many more

Thirding the recommendation for Patriot. Fantastic idiosyncratic show with a search proof name. It's almost like they didn't want anyone to find it.

I can't figure out what show you guys are talking about or what service it's on

OANN+

you are mean

ok i found it (using the clue of perpetual grace!)

Patriot is on Amazon Prime. One unexpected quality -- fair bit of dark humor.

Does Patriot have a conclusion, is does it end on a never-to-be-resolved cliffhanger?

kind of in between ... it set up a possible third season that didn't happen but it's not really cliffhanger either

i think netflix are profitable but cashflow negative due to the upfront capital costs of chasing subscriptions in new markets,

will be interesting to see if coronavirus changes this approach at all - apparently subscriptions are way up with everyone stuck at home, but obv they haven't been able to keep making new series in most markets

(to the point of cancelling Glow entirely just so they didn't have to pay to keep the sets in storage)

okay, i'll add Patriot to my backlog. Boy it really does not look good! I wouldn't watch this if you guys weren't so avid about it!

top of the backlog!

(to the point of cancelling Glow entirely just so they didn't have to pay to keep the sets in storage)

This decision really frustrated me, Glow was really starting to grow into something really special and got better with each successive season. I really don't want this to become the norm for streaming services to cut the legs off under every single show before it can grow organically or find solid footing.

What's crazy is that until relatively recently, and for sure still with lots of network shows, a single season of a single show might have as many episodes as two (or even three) seasons of a Netflix show. NCIS, for example, had 20 episodes in 2019, and usually 24 the seasons before that. To date something like 350 episodes of a show I've never seen and never will see. Or, like, even a cult show like Buffy all those years ago, 22 episodes a season. I suppose the difference is that a lot of these streamed shows are closer to movies in terms of production/look/promotion etc., but I have no idea what the actual budget of something like Glow, or Stranger Things or whatever is. I assume a lot more than that of NCIS.

Glow was really starting to grow into something really special and got better with each successive season. I really don't want this to become the norm for streaming services to cut the legs off under every single show before it can grow organically

Dunno if it'll make things worse or better for you, but S4 was already written as a final season due to Netflix calling time on it (and had started shooting).

Yeah, I was aware of that, which made it seem like an even weirder decision to can it when they did.

Hulu is jacking up their "live TV with no ads" package to $71 a month, which is not appreciably less than cable any more but notably less reliable. If I didn't have to deal with Time Warner, I would consider switching back for the duration of the NBA season. I might anyway!

Jeez, what is that up from?

$61. Not a small leap!

Time Warner is $45 a month for the same package! Shit's gotten weird.

What? Damn Optimum is way higher than that

is there a way in the US to receive digital stations over the air i.e. with an antenna?

Time Warner=Spectrum and their internet/cable package is around $110 with fees
https://www.spectrum.com/packages

you can get network signals via antenna but not channels like TNT or ESPN of course... they get you with sports!

"This decision really frustrated me, Glow was really starting to grow into something really special and got better with each successive season. I really don't want this to become the norm for streaming services to cut the legs off under every single show before it can grow organically or find solid footing."

they did this with Teenage Bounty Hunters too and it was bewildering to me. The show had just debuted and got basically unanimous accolades. And they just canned it. With a fucking cliffhanger ending.

I never started watching that, but I heard the same complaints. Baffling to cancel it after a single season.

is there a way in the US to receive digital stations over the air i.e. with an antenna?

I have a digital antenna. Networks, some small channels that show all crime procedurals all day, or all Westerns (movies and TV shows), some home shopping channels, etc., etc. No sports channels, which is frankly a giant plus.

it was bewildering to me

the answer will be that not enough people watched it.

unperson yeah that's what i'm talking about. are there any rolling news channels i.e. CNN? does it compare to basic cable at all? i do like sports but frankly that setup plus i.e. MLB.tv + NBA.com would cover pretty much anything i would want from live tv

Nba season pass sadly does not include games that are nationally televised

No, none of the news channels are on antenna. The antenna channels (besides the major networks) mostly show reruns of shows from the 70s

are the audiences for free-to-air channels really so small that nobody wants to jump in on it? seems weird.

I've never lived anywhere that I could reliably get a signal for more than one or two OTA channels - if I owned a house and wanted to install a rooftop antenna it might be feasible.

There's https://www.locast.org/ for free local TV streaming but I haven't really looked into it.

are the audiences for free-to-air channels really so small

CNN more than doubled their usual average ratings during November's election coverage, passing a million viewers. Network hit shows still get 5-8 million, and for news commentary, eg Dateline NBC gets over 3 million.

24 hour news costs a lot more to produce than repeats of cowboy shows do to air, and if CNN were to duplicate their coverage on a free channel, it would eradicate their value as a pay channel.

doubled

(this might be misleading: CNN's doubling took them to nearly 1.8 million, not eg 1.01 million - compared to MSNBC's election-boosted ratings of 1.5, and Fox, less boosted, of 1.9)

alright, so they'd lose cable audience but presumably gain the same amount OTA? which they can sell advertising against? i guess it's not that simple. but in the UK there are tons of OTA channels. who haven't pulled their Freeview signals in favour of being bundled in e.g. Sky or Virgin.

Dunno where "I Hate Suzie" originated (I assume BBCx?), but it's on HBO Max and the first episode was pretty good.

FPd you for racism

i managed four episodes of I Hate Suzie and tapped out. I wanted to like it!

11.22.63 appears to be leaving out the best parts of the book

24 hour news costs a lot more to produce than repeats of cowboy shows do to air

Earlier in the decade there were attempts made throughout the country for basic cable 24-Hour local news channels, although IIRC alot of them failed (I know the Houston one did).

My Aunt lives in a still-rural area out from Austin. She has Spectrum cable, which offers one of those news channels. Their production values aren't great, and I wouldn't be surprised if they literally loop their programming every thirty minutes or so given both the repetition of stories and weird stiffness of the anchors.

i managed four episodes of I Hate Suzie and tapped out. I wanted to like it!

Well, we have no problem cutting our losses, so we'll see how episode 2 sits.

I watched like 4 episodes of it over thanksgiving and we really liked it but then just forgot to finish it. Probably will.

Also just discovered a middling comedy from 2 years ago, Sick Note, with Rupert Grint and Nick Frost (and lindsey lohan???). It wasn't very good but it was diverting for a few nights.

rong thread

okay, you win: The Patriot is fucking great.

:D

I'm gonna need to watch MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM again in a week or so. I like a lot of it, but there are too many parts that scream "This. Is. Great. THEA-TAH!!!" and I just don't need that in my life, never have.

Kind of occurred to me that this grand 2020 movie-going (or not) experience has sort of already been subverted by the movies themselves. Disney kicked things off by streaming "Onward," but it also happened to be their least interesting Pixar movie since the Dinosaur one. Then Nolan strong-arms "Tenet" into theaters, but by many accounts it's his least successful (creatively) movie. HBO makes a big deal about dropping "Wonder Woman 1984" onto streaming, but early reviews I saw are pretty meh. And then Disney/Pixar will be wrapping up the year that saw their big "Mulan" experiment come and go with as far as I could tell virtually no enthusiasm with another animated one, "Soul," itself getting pretty modest praise. I wonder how things might have played had any of these films been true must-sees rather than missteps, warm-overs or also-rans? That is, in retrospect I'm not sure any of the aforementioned were necessarily guaranteed mega blockbusters (lucrative though they still would have been).

On the other hand, something like "The Mandalorian," which people love, or "Queen's Gambit," had either been a more conventionally self-contained theatrical release rather than a TV series, would they still have been big commercial and critical hits? Or would something like "Palm Springs" have ridden the buzz it generated and been a breakout theatrical hit? Dunno. I suppose "Wonder Woman" is the first real test to see if "event stream" can even be a thing.

Watching ROMPAN TODO, a documentary about Latin American rock from the 1950s to the present. Six episodes, of which I've only seen the first. It was really good, though, talking about how it all started with a couple of Mexican bands covering US rock 'n' roll hits but translating the lyrics into Spanish (sometimes substantially altering them in the process). Those acts took off big time in Argentina, Uruguay, etc., and local groups sprung up in their wake, scenes growing organically like they do. A lot of the music they play is great - if you've never heard Los Saicos from Peru, by all means check them out; they're some of the most snarling garage punk you'll ever hear. Lots of footage from old Latin American TV shows etc. to break up the usual music-doc talking heads.

I suppose "Wonder Woman" is the first real test to see if "event stream" can even be a thing.

Except that Mulan already happened. And that it's been out for a week in cinemas outside HBO Max territories already, to little acclaim or excitement.

Or would something like "Palm Springs" have ridden the buzz it generated and been a breakout theatrical hit?

Seems plausible. The streaming model (evinced by Netflix TV series passim) of 3-8 days solid buzz and then disappearing into a cultural memory hole really transferred to this. It had the great Sundance publicity, the cheeky hook of adding 69c to the record purchase price, it being good & able to play to teen and adult audiences. Opening in select cinemas and then spreading as word of mouth grew - maybe going wide in the second weekend, so the hook didn't get spoiled too much - could have really paid off for it.

See also Happiest Season, set for a cinema release at Thanksgiving. As theatres started shuttering again, they made a rush sale to Hulu, who promptly reported their highest streaming premiere numbers ever, and their biggest rush of signups ever, from people getting accounts and immediately watching the lesbian Christmas romcom. (Hulu then quickly bought the self-produced Xmas special by two Seattle drag queens who make a one-scene cameo in the movie!) But without box office numbers, or any independent verification of viewership, it's culturally non-existent. Strong first-week lesbian ticket sales for a PG-rated family film could, given reportage, totally have transferred to family ticket sales, and made a genuine box office hit by Christmas.

i've watched Palm Springs three times now. so funny. not relevant to this argument, just plugging the movie again for anyone who hasn't seen it.

A lot of the music they play is great - if you've never heard Los Saicos from Peru, by all means check them out; they're some of the most snarling garage punk you'll ever hear.

I second the hell out of this.