I like this insight quite a bit.Quoting ledfloyd (view post)
Could not agree more. I liked some of the little moments -- like when Spacey has Corey Stoll ('Russo') in his office and, knowing the guy's an alcoholic, subtlety plays games using a glass of scotch.
But the bigger choices, as you noted, are rote as rote can be. (I didn't care for Mara's character. She plays like a refugee from the set of HBO's "The Newsroom").
Yeah, it's remarkable how watchable it is (and it's a good show) given that it's surviving almost solely on craft. The direction, acting, writing (on the level of dialogue), editing, set design et al. is all top notch.
I think you're right that it's surviving on production values, which are all great, but I disagree that it's a good show. I've lost count of how many episodes I've seen ("Next episode starting in 10.. 9.. 8 .. 7 .. 6") but wow the stories are boring as hell.
If it weren't for Spacey or Wright I'd have stopped watching by now. If this was on cable or broadcast, I probably wouldn't've watch as many episode as I have.
Spacey and Wright are like the evil Chandler and Britton.
I think Fincher' s style and tone might be working at a disadvantage to the material. He's shaping it like a thriller rather than a satire.
The fourth wall breaking is so cheeky and playful in the original. Here it seems Funny Gamesian. It's po-faced and uncomfortable. Needs more winking.
Movie Theater Diary
I don't find the story remotely boring at all. Though I do enjoy stories about the minutiae of politics.
Also, always nice to see a bunch of actors from The Wire.
Just saw the pilot. The camera winking is a bit much...but other than that, nothing's really stuck out to me yet. Kate Mara is gorgeous though, and actually dresses and acts like a 20-something which is cool. I do agree that the Fincher tone makes some of the 4th wall breaking feel funny.
This is better than I thought it would be. Netflix is branding a quality name for itself, though I still don't quite understand how they're going to profit with these high profile shows. Do they really expect a greater influx of new subscribers? Considering DVD sales are out of the picture, the only thing I can guess is that they hook us all on a handful of series and make us pay a separate monthly fee for the original material.
Liked the first episode a lot, but my complete ignorance to politics made a few points hard for me to follow. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it at some point, though.
I also now finally see the resemblance between Kate and Rooney Mara.
Fruitvale Station (Ryan Coogler) - ***
The World's End (Edgar Wright) - ***
The shows are funded by only a fraction of their licensing budget. So it's not changing their finances, but it's raising interest and visibility to non-subscribers.
We have a discussion here.
Movie Theater Diary
*sigh* Yet another series with an intro that's too damn long. Fine, at least I can skip through it.
I liked the first episode. Moving on to the second.
Why would you think DVD sales are out of the picture?
They're going to be banking on new subscribers. Netflix is trying to build its own little online network. I think the challenge with their binge-viewing strategy is that it doesn't allow for any kind of social momentum. People won't be watching and talking about this show every week, over the course of months, over an entire television season. (In a way, regular network and cable shows are advertisements for themselves. Netflix's model doesn't allow for that.)
I don't think they can monkey with prices. Not with Amazon getting into the game. From what I've heard, they spent $100MM on this show, about $4MM an episode. To put that in perspective, back when the WB was around, they were burning half that -- $50MM -- for every show on the entire network.
My beef is that the show isn't insidery-baseball enough. The political angles are all completely generic. They use no jargon and have no special insights into the process. "The West Wing" was better at this stuff.
My other beef is that the A-stories are of no consequence, and the audience isn't let in on the stakes until the last moment. The combination of these things makes for dull viewing. (That they built so much around Corey Stoll's 'Russo' was a mistake. He's a stock character, completely rote, and boring as hell. Stoll also isn't all that interesting a performer here).
Around episode 9, it gets better. The show starts becoming more interesting, but it does this by having characters almost completely contradict their behavior from the previous eight episodes.
I love Wright's character, though. She's ten times more interesting thank Frank. I wish they had made the series about her instead.
What section of the market is going to buy this show on DVD for $50 when they can start a Netflix subscription for $7.99 and cancel it a month later?
And yeah, I think it's crazy to think that $100 million price tag is going to be repaid primarily by new subscribers. That's exactly what I'm saying. I'd be willing to wager a good section of ppl interested in this type of series already had Netflix to begin with. What's to stop them from ordering it for a month, watching the series, and backing out? If enough of these original shows catch on and find success, I don't think it would be far-fetched to create a triad charge for DVDs/streaming/original content. That wouldn't endanger their competition with Amazon at all. Unless Amazon has plans for original content that I'm unaware of.
Now that I'm thinking about this, you can consider the angle that they produced a $100 million film and are charging $8 a ticket. I just don't think this series has mass appeal like a blockbuster would. Especially when your preexisting customers are essentially seeing your film for "free."
My guess is they're aiming for prestige first. They are obviously hoping that this show gets them Emmy nods, and then they'll be able to say that Netflix is a "channel" people should take seriously.
For bigger appeal, they've got Arrested Development coming next month and an Eli Roth supernatural soap opera in April.
Movie Theater Diary
It's a channel with high margins. On that basis, I can't imagine Netflix will ignore it. (DVDs can also be gifted and viewed offline, while a Netflix sub can't.)
I agree. I talked a little about that in the other thread.
Amazon has already signed deals to producer their own content.
It's an insane amount of money to spend, but they've got to do something. Over the next five years, Netflix is going to be squeezed out of the first run market.
Their success depends on them moving quickly and all of their competitors -- primarily Amazon, Time Warner, and Comcast -- moving slowly.
Third episode: This series is great. I kinda like the winking at the camera. I also like the HUD overly of the texting between Zoe and Spacey. Cute touch. I didnt think these characters would be interesting enough to hold my interest but they do. Robin Wright's character is cold and sexy. I've always liked Spacey. This is a great role for him.
Finished it.
Kind of an unceremonious finale. I didn't think they would use the original's finale even though they followed everything else pretty closely, but I didn't expect such a []
I felt like the quality of the aesthetic noticeably declined with episode three, but I'm still engaged. I'm moving into Schumacher territory now and fearing the appearance of nipples on Spacey's suits.
Episode 8 may sway you again.
Wrapped this up today. The last third of the season (from Episode 8 on) is pretty solid. Despite its flaws, I'm definitely involved to the point that I'll come back next year.
Just finished it and thought it was pretty good. It felt like one long movie as opposed to a show, and I liked that. The biggest positive about having all episodes released at once is that the pacing feels very fluid from episode to episode, and it didn't feel like there were big twists shoehorned in at the end of episodes. The acting was great all around, although the direction of the show was fairly bland. Looking forward to more of this, which I wasn't sure would be the case after seeing the pilot.
I also just finished. Solid series. Love the tension and backstabbing. Great acting. I'll continue to watch.
There hasn't been a more sexually manipulative, power hungry pair like Francis and Zoey since Valmont and Merteuil. Those are my favorite scenes. Just finished Ep10.
Just finished the pilot. I'll definitely continue. Glad that Kate Mara actually has a role with substance, or so it appears. Although Rooney still beats her.
The initial scene is complete Fincher, and he obviously has to take it back a little afterwards. The use of texting, fourth-wall breaking is something that I think will separate it from being just another boring political show. I shall see.
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