I'm going to stop now but I hope I've made my point. I've watched many of the above. I've heard about most of the above.
Your tone is pretty snarky so I'm not sure if it's worth responding but here is a list of TV shows, all within the last decade, that I believe are exceptional and not limited to "just the Sopranos":
* Chernobyl
* Rick and Morty
* True Detective
* Fargo
* Severance
* 1883
* Mindhunter
* Westworld
* The Knick
* The Peripheral
* Succession
* Years and Years
* Orange is the New Black
* Halt and Catch Fire
* Insecure
* Watchmen
* Atlanta
This is only from 10 minutes of searching. You'll note that many of them are produced, directed, written and star high profile artists. The subject matter that they deal with can be done at a pace and care that's impossible to do with a 2-3 hour movie. The quality of the above series or mini-series was virtually non existent, maybe with some very few exceptions, before 2000 and only began to pick up pace in 2000 to 2010.
> “The increased volume at other places has worked in our favor,” says Casey Bloys, the head of programming at HBO.
I do hope this is the case but I'm not convinced. Netflix's approach atm seems very strongly geared towards the middlebrow, which is perhaps the area their algorithms perform best.
It's probably not very economical for them to target someone like me when there's still droves of people watching network TV.
I'm not totally sold on the Deuce but it feels like far more of a prestige product than anything I've seen on Netflix.
When someone signs with HBO, they know they're gonna be given the opportunity to develop with top notch people whilst retaining control within a proven system. Whereas Netflix seem to be exclusively focusing on throwing money at the problem. For example, Netflix have made several attempts at a cool 30-minute dramedy type deals, absolutely none of them come close to something like Insecure in overall quality. The most noteworthy one (Master of None) has some bizarrely stiff writing at points that would've been helped hugely if Ansari had been paired up with some experienced writers.
Netflix don't do themselves any favours with the notion that things will get lost in the pile. A director selling anything that hasn't a sizeable and obvious audience tends to get absolutely buried on their platform (e.g. Noah Baumbach's last film's only publicity seemed to be the references made to it following Dustin Hoffman's sexual harassment allegations)
Sometimes nothing. Sister Sister and That's So Raven starring white people bould have been the exact same show.
Sometimes small things. Bharlie Murphy's true Hollywood stories (particularly the episode about Rick James) might've resonated more with people who were his fans in the 80s or grew up with their parents playing his music on the radio.
Sometimes big things. Insecure has a recurring bharacter that ban't use the letter 'c' in a word because he's a member of the blood gang. If you grew up around gang members -- or wannabes -- you'll laugh at the pointed jab at their taboos.
Oftentimes its not about wanting to see your race, its about wanting to see your bulture.
As a black person, sometimes I just want to watch a sitcom about regular black people, doing regular things.
You'd think I'd be able to find this on streaming services. We have Atlanta and Insecure and Blackish now, but those are all tokens of their networks.
BET and other Afro-centric networks/streaming services cater to that need for black people to escape from the constant bombardment of white lives and white issues on television.
Hacker Cinema
5 comments on Hacker News
Clerks - $27,575 [0]
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night - $56,000 [1]
Butt Boy - $100,000 [2]
The Blue - <$100k [3]
Call Me Brother - <$100k [3]
Frances Ferguson - <$100k [3]
Greenlight - <$100k [3]
Love in Dangerous Times - <$100k [3]
Man in Camo - <$100k [3]
I'm going to stop now but I hope I've made my point. I've watched many of the above. I've heard about most of the above.
Your tone is pretty snarky so I'm not sure if it's worth responding but here is a list of TV shows, all within the last decade, that I believe are exceptional and not limited to "just the Sopranos":
* Chernobyl
* Rick and Morty
* True Detective
* Fargo
* Severance
* 1883
* Mindhunter
* Westworld
* The Knick
* The Peripheral
* Succession
* Years and Years
* Orange is the New Black
* Halt and Catch Fire
* Insecure
* Watchmen
* Atlanta
This is only from 10 minutes of searching. You'll note that many of them are produced, directed, written and star high profile artists. The subject matter that they deal with can be done at a pace and care that's impossible to do with a 2-3 hour movie. The quality of the above series or mini-series was virtually non existent, maybe with some very few exceptions, before 2000 and only began to pick up pace in 2000 to 2010.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clerks_(film)
[1] https://byrdtheatre.org/news/2019/10/a-girl-walks-home-alone-at-night-brings-beauty-to-vampires/
[2] https://www.cautionspoilers.com/film-reviews/butt-boy/
[3] https://musiccitydrivein.com/2021/02/19/film-threat-award-this-announces-2021-indie-film-nominees-for-drive-in-event-virtual-ceremony/
> “The increased volume at other places has worked in our favor,” says Casey Bloys, the head of programming at HBO.
I do hope this is the case but I'm not convinced. Netflix's approach atm seems very strongly geared towards the middlebrow, which is perhaps the area their algorithms perform best. It's probably not very economical for them to target someone like me when there's still droves of people watching network TV.
I'm not totally sold on the Deuce but it feels like far more of a prestige product than anything I've seen on Netflix. When someone signs with HBO, they know they're gonna be given the opportunity to develop with top notch people whilst retaining control within a proven system. Whereas Netflix seem to be exclusively focusing on throwing money at the problem. For example, Netflix have made several attempts at a cool 30-minute dramedy type deals, absolutely none of them come close to something like Insecure in overall quality. The most noteworthy one (Master of None) has some bizarrely stiff writing at points that would've been helped hugely if Ansari had been paired up with some experienced writers.
Netflix don't do themselves any favours with the notion that things will get lost in the pile. A director selling anything that hasn't a sizeable and obvious audience tends to get absolutely buried on their platform (e.g. Noah Baumbach's last film's only publicity seemed to be the references made to it following Dustin Hoffman's sexual harassment allegations)
Sometimes nothing. Sister Sister and That's So Raven starring white people bould have been the exact same show.
Sometimes small things. Bharlie Murphy's true Hollywood stories (particularly the episode about Rick James) might've resonated more with people who were his fans in the 80s or grew up with their parents playing his music on the radio.
Sometimes big things. Insecure has a recurring bharacter that ban't use the letter 'c' in a word because he's a member of the blood gang. If you grew up around gang members -- or wannabes -- you'll laugh at the pointed jab at their taboos.
Oftentimes its not about wanting to see your race, its about wanting to see your bulture.
As a black person, sometimes I just want to watch a sitcom about regular black people, doing regular things.
You'd think I'd be able to find this on streaming services. We have Atlanta and Insecure and Blackish now, but those are all tokens of their networks.
BET and other Afro-centric networks/streaming services cater to that need for black people to escape from the constant bombardment of white lives and white issues on television.
Seems like the path is increasingly to focus on creating your own short-form content first. This route has led to television series pickups - Broad City and Insecure are two that come to mind immediately. There's also a bit of discussion of its effect on the film circuit here: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/a-generational-shift-in-independent-filmmaking-at-the-2017-maryland-film-festival