Hacker Cinema
Most Dangerous Game
2020 · TV series · 2 seasons
Created by Nick Santora, Scott Elder, Josh Harmon
Desperate to take care of his pregnant wife before a terminal illness can take his life, Dodge Maynard accepts an offer to participate in a deadly game where he soon discovers that he’s not the hunter but the prey.
2 positive1 mixedfrom 3 commenters
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3 comments on Hacker News
I would mention that archive.org also has Escape! as a series, which includes a good adaptation of the short story, 'The Most Dangerous Game' amongst its episodes.
It's not the right format for sitting at home. It's short 8 minute episodes that come out once a day. It would be perfect for commuting on public transit but nobody is doing that at the moment so they have a problem.
It's a shame because I think they have some surprisingly good content (When the Streetlights go on was surprisingly dark and complex, The Most Dangerous Game was gripping if not predictable). However, it feels strictly less efficient than TikTok because they're never going to have UGC. Most of the content is your standard schlock that directly competes with quick, inane UGC you'd see on TikTok. Who do you think will be able to more sustainably and profitably operate: a company that relies on expensive and complex physical production for their content, or one that gets it for free in essentially limitless quantities with a vast dataset to exquisitely target each user's preferences.
It's not a perfect comparison because TikTok is ad supported and Quibi is a subscription service, but maybe that's the problem: they're not competing with Netflix, they're actually competing with TikTok and Instagram and maybe their product and business model should align with them instead.
The interface is intuitive enough and I must admit that the series "Most Dangerous Game" is so far engaging (only 2 episodes in, but I am invested). Without spoilers, Christopher Waltz gave an engaging enough performance for his role in the first episode. But the short timeline is what is really going to hinder a lot of the series on Quibi, and it will be almost entirely depending on the show-runner.
If they are going to stick with this approach they are going to have to rely heavily on "showing" not "telling", which can really make details explode throughout the story or alternatively, reveal how shallow the content really is. I think it's too early to write it off completely, the niche will still be there when the world resumes turning, but they will need more engaging content to be successful. I think there is a chance to explore low cost/high talent sources, maybe find some diamonds in the rough. Or even just the right person who maybe doesn't excel with a 45-90 minute run-time but can blow 15-20 minute sessions out of the water.