TV Thread - beware, [expletive] can get spoilery

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BottenFieldofDreams
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Re: TV Thread - beware, [expletive] can get spoilery

Post by BottenFieldofDreams »

If The Office was that problematic I wouldn’t be able to buy a Schrute Beat Farm shirt at Hot Topic and Kohls and Walmart and Target and Kroger and most other merchants. Zoomers wouldn’t love that show so much.

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Re: TV Thread - beware, [expletive] can get spoilery

Post by Joe Shlabotnik »

BottenFieldofDreams wrote:
December 6 22, 7:57 pm
If The Office was that problematic I wouldn’t be able to buy a Schrute Beat Farm shirt at Hot Topic and Kohls and Walmart and Target and Kroger and most other merchants. Zoomers wouldn’t love that show so much.
Yeah - from what I've seen since the pandemic hit, kids love that show more than the original audience! I can talk to my kids about it and I often here them quote lines from it.

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Re: TV Thread - beware, [expletive] can get spoilery

Post by Popeye_Card »

MrCrowesGarden wrote:
December 6 22, 2:04 pm
It's not network TV, but Comedy Central is showing a marathon of "The Office" every night this week.
I think it is time we all talk about Comedy Central. What is it even good for at this point? I get that FXX shows non-stop Simpsons, Family Guy, Bob’s Burgers, and then like 2 original shows. But they were conceived as that type of channel. Comedy Central is just The Office 70% of the time, Seinfeld, the same 5 or so movies, and like 2 original shows. One of them being what I assume is an unfunny satire of what was once called The Daily Show. What are they even doing? There are about a billion comedy movies out there that can’t have that expensive of royalties to pay. Ditto for old comedy TV shows. Is it really that hard to come up with new comedic content?

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BottenFieldofDreams
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Re: TV Thread - beware, [expletive] can get spoilery

Post by BottenFieldofDreams »

Big Amoco Sign wrote:
December 6 22, 11:21 am
White Lotus is the best show on TV and it's not even close. That is all. This season is so good.
It's great. Or season 1 was. I'll do 2 whenever I have HBO again. But I have to say, I got next to zero comedy out of it, and then just the kind of amused but not laughing kind.

Severance is another drama they call a comedy. But it actually makes me laugh. Kind eyes. I don't mean to take anything away from White Lotus--it's really good. I've been a Mike White fan forever (Brad's Status heals me, Orange County is an all-time fave). But is it a comedy? Maybe others find it funny. Do you (BAS or anyone) find it actually funny?

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Re: TV Thread - beware, [expletive] can get spoilery

Post by Big Amoco Sign »

BottenFieldofDreams wrote:
December 8 22, 12:54 pm
Big Amoco Sign wrote:
December 6 22, 11:21 am
White Lotus is the best show on TV and it's not even close. That is all. This season is so good.
It's great. Or season 1 was. I'll do 2 whenever I have HBO again. But I have to say, I got next to zero comedy out of it, and then just the kind of amused but not laughing kind.

Severance is another drama they call a comedy. But it actually makes me laugh. Kind eyes. I don't mean to take anything away from White Lotus--it's really good. I've been a Mike White fan forever (Brad's Status heals me, Orange County is an all-time fave). But is it a comedy? Maybe others find it funny. Do you (BAS or anyone) find it actually funny?
Season 2 blows first one out of the water. It's a darker comedy so I wouldn't expect lots of laughs. I find it amusing though. Coolidge is funny and Imperioli character's dad (played by F. Murray Abraham) is funny. It's funny in the dark way Succession and other HBO shows are funny.

There's a big mystery around the ending episode. And the title sequence is kind of a puzzle putting it all together. It's just a fun show.

And yeah Orange County was the first movie I downloaded from Kazaa back in the day. Downloaded it to VCD over course of a week on 56k.

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Re: TV Thread - beware, [expletive] can get spoilery

Post by ghostrunner »

I feel like something should be done about this. HBO is actually pulling Westworld off it's service, with the reason that it's too expensive to pay residuals. Why Westworld in particular I don't understand, because that was pretty popular and one among many shows that people would expect to be in the catalog. They just did this with a bunch of Cartoon Network shows a few years back.

Like if you own the show and you want to publish it one way vs another, then fine. But if you've already released it and then choose to pull it and sit on it for a number of years, I think you should probably lose the copyright, or maybe just publishing rights, or legal control of it. Then maybe it goes up for auction and if not purchased then rights revert to the original production company or maybe even the Library of Congress.

I know there's some kind of copyright law where you have to develop an owned property in some way by a certain time or lose the rights, which is why we had a Fantastic Four reboot a few years back. I don't recall now what might have happened if they hadn't. I assume it'd go to Marvel but maybe someone else.

On one hand, we had shows disappear all the time before VHS and DVD. So I'm curious what happened to rights back then. There just wasn't a way to distribute them back then beyond syndication.

Haven't really thought it through, so I'm sure there's a lot to consider. Like would George Lucas be forced to release the SW Holiday Special? Or the original Ep IV cut? And should he be? At least there he's the original creator, but I don't know how that might work when it's a team of people and no one can reasonably claim authorship.

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Re: TV Thread - beware, [expletive] can get spoilery

Post by BottenFieldofDreams »

Regarding the tweet, I feel empathy for people losing income, even (at least the working class of) actors. But there are 65 billion shows and 435k outlets for their release. This was never remotely sustainable. Could this just be the balloon letting out some air, if not popping?

Regarding your post, I think immediately of the Disney vault. Sucks for us viewers, but pulling and releasing strategically could make streaming more profitable.

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Re: TV Thread - beware, [expletive] can get spoilery

Post by ghostrunner »

BottenFieldofDreams wrote:
December 14 22, 1:44 pm
Regarding the tweet, I feel empathy for people losing income, even (at least the working class of) actors. But there are 65 billion shows and 435k outlets for their release. This was never remotely sustainable. Could this just be the balloon letting out some air, if not popping?

Regarding your post, I think immediately of the Disney vault. Sucks for us viewers, but pulling and releasing strategically could make streaming more profitable.
I think at minimum physical release of shows or movies probably ought to be a standard contractual thing going forward. Something that should be extracted somewhere in the dicussions btw creators, production companies and distributors. Like Netflix gets streaming rights for the shows it buys but also has to release Blu-Rays within a certain timespan.

It'd be interesting to hear some creators and entertainment lawyers dig into this.

I think 15-20 years is a long enough period for something like the Disney vault. Then use it or lose it. Something like that. I'm all for creators having rights but I'd probably err on the side of public ownership after a certain point.

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Re: TV Thread - beware, [expletive] can get spoilery

Post by AdmiralKird »

The White Lotus is decent but it's not the best show on tv. Second season is a solid B-. First was an B+. Very watchable, very well done, but it doesn't take enough risks to be anything more than good.

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Re: TV Thread - beware, [expletive] can get spoilery

Post by ghostrunner »

I've been lax not recommending Reservation Dogs on here. It's on Hulu. Probably one of my top 3 recent shows along with Andor and Severance.

It's a comedy/drama about teenagers living in a reservation town in Oklahoma. Kind of has an indie drama movie feel, but I also get a good belly laugh every couple of episodes. Lots of quickly tossed off and/or deadpan jokes and the occasional visual gag. Native actors you've seen in other stuff getting a chance to flex some muscle beyond the usual stereotypes. Really charming and moving. Highly recommend.

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