Hacker Cinema
The Office
2005 · TV series · 9 seasons
Created by Greg Daniels
The everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.
65 positive14 negative7 mixed239 neutralfrom 325 commenters
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365 comments on Hacker News
I think the only thing this would solve are situations like that one episode of "The Office" where Michael drives into a lake.
Most broadcast TV shows, with the commercials removed, are about 21-22 minutes long. Those are usually my go-to for lunch. I tend to re-watch series as well, so I don’t have to pay too close attention.
I’m currently re-watching Schitt’s Creek, but others I’ve enjoyed are Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Office, Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock, King of the Hill, The League, Scrubs, Workaholics.
What? It famously didn't on the streaming side. It had everything on DVD. For years I kept both parts of Netflix because a lot of popular shows—newer ones especially—weren't on it. So I could get DVDs of past seasons. Or go to Hulu for newer episodes.
Hulu was created at the same time, and launched in the same year as Netflix's streaming service, specifically to compete with less-convenient pirated streams of current-run TV with a free-the-next-day-with-ads alternative. And that stuff was never on Netflix at the same time.
High-profile not-on-Netflix-streaming-for-first-run things from the 2007-2014 time frame: The Office, Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, and honestly basically everything else broadcast and cable made during "Peak TV." It was big news and considered a big bet when Netflix debuted their own high-budget first-run content with House of Cards, because of how weird it was to see Netflix competing in the brand-new show space.
It’s way older than Reddit, it’s older than the Office. I remember Denzel Washington saying it in some movie when I was a kid, and I doubt it originated there. Doesn’t Einstein have a quotation about it, too?
Not sure how long the subreddit has existed but I always assumed it was inspired by the episode of The Office where Michael asks Oscar to explain what a surplus is like he's 5. The broader usage on social media and the ELI5 shorthand are definitely the result of the subreddit though.
This article is definitely abusing the terminology, because I wouldn't expect even tech-knowledgeable people to know what Nostr is or does.
The phrase was in an episode of The Office prior to that. I think it's fairly old.
It's outlandish to suggest that the country known as "the great melting pot" wants to be protected from anything as trivial as a non-American accent. I don't think you realize how many non-American accents we hear in our day-to-day lives just living in this country – it's part of the American experience. Those parents that you've honed in on were concerned that the characters their children are used to suddenly sounded like different characters, confusing their children who are too young to know what localization is.
> even going as far as to remake entire TV shows rather than just broadcasting the original.
I guess you're talking about The Office? The British version of The Office would've been a flop in the US because British humor is just inscrutable outside of the UK.
> a hot mic caught Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping gabbing — through a translator — about how organ replacement may soon allow people to live to 150 or older
”In Japan, heart surgeon. Number one. Steady hand. One day, Yakuza boss need new heart. I do operation. But, mistake! Yakuza boss die! Yakuza very mad. I hide in fishing boat, come to America. No English, no food, no money. Darryl give me job. Now I have house, American car, and new woman. Darryl save life. My big secret: I kill Yakuza boss on purpose. I good surgeon. The best!” (The Office, season 6)
I've found it's always best to calibrate around expecting something like the ice cream sandwich episode of The Office. Never feel too much of a letdown this way.
there's even an episode of The Office where this happens. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3GbCByGltU&t=214s
This administration is so hilarious. Every day looks like an episode from The Office
I cannot believe nobody brought up that episode of The Office with Jan’s deposition. This is both sad and hilarious, just like in the show. https://youtu.be/V3GbCByGltU?si=ctDluaazxGJ-Io81&t=215
Every time I read a comment like this, I flash to the episode of the Office where Michael steals one of Dwight's clients while Dwight is on the phone with him in the car. He pitches the client, and Dwight screams into his phone "ARE YOU SAYING YOU INVENTED PAPER?!"
No, friend-o, I'm not saying htop and emacs are show-off projects --- though everyone I know who uses Emacs (myself included) uses graphical emacs.
My point is that most developer tooling is CLI, not TUI; most developer tools are shop jigs, not packaged tools. Though most of the packaged tools: also CLIs!
All of them can very quickly be made into native UIs, though.
You'll get further on HN not calling people "very dishonest".
This is just the pros having more tact than amateurs, and actual writers. I do see some “influencers” that do more of a pure product placement. They just happen to be drinking a specific energy drink in every video where it sits perfectly with the label out. I see some YouTubers trying to get better at integrating the ad into the video, but most of them can’t be bothered to write and record a custom script.
That said, Subway often seemed to get pretty heavy with its product placement. The last season of Chuck had a good amount of this, even what was essentially an ad read right in the middle of an episode by Big Mike. On Community they personified Subway and based a whole episode on him. In the Office they brought in Ryan Howard to say “eat fresh” over and over again, and even called out that it was for Subway to make sure it didn’t go over anyone’s head. Subway was big on sponsoring the last seasons of struggling shows with loyal fanbases, and littering the episodes with Subway product placement to the point where it became a plot point. I remember Zachary Levi (Chuck) tweeting out to ask everyone to go buy some Subway before the finale. It sounded like if Subway saw enough of a spike in buying from the sponsorship, they might fund yet another season.
Can someone with way more money than sense generate some AI video in a documentary style like The Office about this drama as comedy?
The Libre Office.
APL for talking to LLM when? Also, this reminded me of that episode from The Office where Kevin started talking like a caveman to make communication efficient.
IMO, rushing things never helps. If possible, I investigate external calls/meetings well in-advance, at worst case, I add 30-minute calendar block before those. (To prepare and install/update things).
As a DevOps, I have seen the quote about "premature optimisation's root of all evil" in real life quite often. In fact, optimising one bottleneck quickly yields another one -moving the goalpost further-, potentially increasing business-impact if the flow is not contained properly.
Especially during incidents, _rushing_ to fix often yields more problems. I've seen people isolating/shutting-down mildly misbehaving instances. Causing excessive load to the remaining and starting the cascading failure like dominos falling one after another.
Which reminds me a scene from "The Office", where Dwight goes rogue and conducts a "Fire-Drill" by locking doors and deliberately causing smoke. Everyone panics and hell breaks loose. This is at the beginning of the episode, maybe 5-minutes tops. I show this at the incident-management training, this is how people behave in real life. No joke.
To give more concrete aspect on the moving goalpost: SWEs improve transaction processing with multi-threading, but that causes more connections/transactions to the database. Even though theoretical gains are Nx (n-times depending on threads/cores), real life gains are 1.2x-1.3x, because database connections are getting occupied. As the next step, increasing number of DB connections helps, maybe add another master node (risk of having deadlocks increase, but ignore for now for the sake of argument). But then the disk IO becomes the bottleneck due to write-heavy (payments domain). Then we add Redis to reduce load, and maybe some asynchronous processing. At this point complexity increases and we need to solve rare occurrences of duplicate data or race-conditions because it is not single-threaded process anymore...
The smartest thing they did with the US version of The Office after season 1 was to make Michael highly competent in sales and its longterm relationships. S1 and the UK version of the show viewed the boss as incompetent at every level, it was much more cynical. Making Michael marginally competent gives him an empathetic leg to stand on for the audience. Had they kept Michael exactly like David Brent it probably would have still been hilarious but flamed out around season 2 or 3.
Such as what?
There was plenty of evidence that Jan was a sociopath, or Ryan (obviously), but David had quite literally 0 sociopathic tendencies. Plus, this author said something about how David (and Jan) were both 'clueless' about Michael's incompetence, so it isn't like you can argue that David knew he was incompetent but tried to get him promoted to corporate anyway (which would obviously have been manipulative, although that alone wouldn't make him a sociopath).
When Dwight did random crazy shit, like set a fire in the office to do fire safety awareness day, David told him straight up that he couldn't do that and why. At no time did David display a lack of social skills, lack of empathy, or antisocial behaviour (except for a bit after he gets fired and prior to starting up Suck It). The most you could probably say there is that when Michael and Holly were forced apart (Holly back to Nashua), David was a bit muted - but even then, he tried to send Michael on a vacation (which got Michael laid in the end), even though the episode ends with Michael raging at David.
I'm happy to hear what the 'plenty of evidence' is.
That was a fun read, and it might even explain why a lot of Gen-z is opting out of any sort of career building, wanting values instead (or next to) a paycheck. They saw their parents do The Office in real life.
Interesting is also that Michael does make a really good arc from season one to when he leaves. He remains clueless, or rather he it dawns on him he does not want to become like Ryan or David (the articles sociopath). Like he says in a later season “Business is about people.”
it was always going to happen. there was even an episode of The Office where they started betting on meaningless outcomes for a little sense of purpose.
man it has nothing to do with American watchers.
the UK Office had fourteen (14) episodes. The US one had 201 episodes.
if you don't lean on things like inter-office romance there is nothing to put on screen.
the jim-pam thing was a direct riff on the tim-lucy interactions in the UK version, they just didn't, you know, have 100+ more episodes to build on it.
hell, you can even see when that ran out of steam in later seasons of the US version and they just start jamming celebrity guest stars in there
I forget where, but someone was talking about a similar difference in American vs British comedy looking at The Office (the American one) and Parks and Rec. In both, the format tends to be pre-conflict -> conflict -> resolution, with the episodes almost always ending on an upbeat tone. In contrast, in a British show, it tends to be pre-conflict -> conflict -> kick them while they are down. Things can get worse, the characters can be unredeemed, and the fun is they are inept, unlucky, arseholes that don't get out of the situation with a happy ever after.
Americans like that humor as well (see Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Archer, etc.) but it definitely is less prevalent.
When I ponder this, the "Isn't it obvious?" frame ends up cutting both ways: ex. isn't it obvious this isn't actually an active thought when people make these decisions? (to wit, the theory cited is based on The Office TV series, which also never depicts this)
See season 7, episode 4 (“Sex Ed”) of The Office for a non-cartoon media reference :)
This is a fantastic point, and you've hit on something fundamental that's been lost in the shift to on-demand: the joy of discovery through serendipity and low commitment.
You're describing the exploration/exploitation trade-off in a very concrete way. Algorithmic recommendations are pure exploitation (based on your known likes). Endless scrolling is a frustrating middle ground. But "channel surfing" or "flipping" was a form of low-stakes exploration. You weren't making a choice to invest 90 minutes; you were dipping in for 30 seconds. If it didn't grab you, there was zero cost to leaving, which is psychologically liberating and led to finding unexpected gems.
Netflix's "Play Something" button and "Shuffle Play" for shows like The Office are direct, if clumsy, acknowledgments of this need. But you're right, why not a live "80s Action" channel or an "A24 Indie" channel? The technical barrier is near-zero.
Our take at lumigo.tv is that the modern equivalent shouldn't be tied to a linear broadcast schedule. The core experience to replicate is the low-friction, zero-commitment sampling.
One experiment we're considering is a "Mood Stream": you pick a vibe ("Cult Classic," "Mind-Bending Sci-Fi," "90s Comfort"), and it starts a never-ending, autoplaying stream of trailers or key 2-minute scenes from films in that category. You lean back and "flip" with a pause button. If a clip hooks you, you click to see the full title and where to stream it. It’s on-demand channel surfing.
The UI challenge is huge—how do you make it feel effortless, not just another menu? But your comment validates that solving this might be more valuable than another slightly-better recommendation algorithm. Thanks for this; it’s a much clearer design goal than “better search.”
> it frequently produces mediocre or worse content
I agree, and I go one step beyond:
Any "series" is BY DEFINITION, bad. If to tell a good story you need +4 episodes, you're doing a poor job. Or, what's real, you're just bloating it ON PURPOSE to keep people attached to their screens.
If Citizen Kane, Tokyo Story, 2001 Space Odyssey or any other good film managed to tell their story in <3hs, I'm sure any other of these "originals" should be able to do the same.
The real quality resides in making something SHORTER and condensed. This is when you start playing with REAL cinematic mechanisms. For example, Seven Samurai is well known for its use of motion and dynamism. Kurosawa communicates a lot without using dialogue, just by the use of movement of the characters or the background. Today's productions are just: explicit dialog > cut scene nature > explicit dialog > cut scene nature > etc.
Some stories might need longer runtimes, like Lord of the Rings or whatever "bigger universe" it is. But these are EXCEPTIONS, not the rule.
For the record, I do enjoy some Series: Friends, The Office, etc. But these are just comedies, and one could argue they're explicitly made to be "bloated" (in terms of length span).
> Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away
PS: I know I'm going to get downvoted to oblivion but I don't care.
I think Netflix's incentives, especially now that they have an ad tier, have changed.
With a subscription service 10 years ago, you just need to have enough must-see content:
- Original scripted TV series that become mainstream known and/or seen as prestige TV, like "The Crown," "Mindhunter," "Bridgerton," "Stranger Things" etc.
- "Crown Jewel" reruns with huge fanbases such as The Office, Friends, Seinfeld, Modern Family, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Arrested Development, etc.
- Unscripted TV series that become buzzy - like Love Is Blind, Tiger King, etc.
Having those categories all well-stocked ensures that only a fool would cancel their Netflix subscription as they'll be out of the loop when the new season of a 'zeitgeisty' show drops. You don't really need all your viewers to watch more hours to get more money every year, you can grow revenue with a combo of new viewers and price increases as long as users just watch regularly.
I think present-day Netflix sees incentives:
- to get as many people on the ad tier as possible so they can scale revenue with watch time
- to increase watch time which is a solved problem via psychological manipulation if you have good ML like they do
- more watch time without spending more money points pretty obviously to lowering cost per show as much as you can, which manifests as worse quality, more reality, more imported dubbed shows, etc. and drastically curtailing giving huge checks to the Matthew Weiners, David Benioffs, and Vince Gilligans of the world to bet on a massive superhit.
So they will want to focus heavily on the unscripted category plus whatever they can slap together cheaply, then autoplay and optimize their way to growth.
This idea doesn’t mean those people are correct.
Netflix was great when it was the only streaming service because all the legacy media companies licensed shows for cheap. They basically considered it bonus income like syndicated television.
Most of Netflix’s content at that time was very popular but was basically just reruns. The Office, etc. It was a time when you’d be hard pressed to find any movie resembling a blockbuster, just bargain DVD bin type of stuff.
If all the streaming services consolidate there will be less reason than ever to put effort into content. As long as most people stay subscribed the less they spend on content the better.
With an à la carte landscape that we have now, streaming services all have to fight it out in open competition to keep their service on your monthly bill.
It might be less convenient but it is better for content than having a market with just one, two, or three players.
Very disappointed OpenAI isn’t actually producing a generated tv show, and for that project choosing to make a UK version of the US tv show Stargate, a la the US version of the UK tv show the office. I feel like if tech companies were run by people with a sense of humor such things would sometimes happen.
I assume you mean it's not really worth watching if it's currently on broadcast TV?
Surely there's a huge list of old broadcast TV network shows that are worth watching, and that still suffer from the ad-break problem to various degrees.
Obviously I'm pulling from a wide time-period, and I'll probably get some of these wrong because I'm not in the the US and don't quite grok the network/cable divide, but off the top of my head, I think these are/were all worth watching: Seinfeld, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Freaks and Geeks, Arrested Development, 30 Rock, Community, Schitt's Creek, The Office, The X-Files, various Star Trek series, Cheers
That list could be easily improved on, but I assume it's missing your point anyway if you were only talking about current broadcast network TV (if it exists :) )
I go to bed at 8-9pm and get up at 4:30.
My fiance and I don't have kids. I'm sure this is the biggest factor to allow me to live by this schedule.
Having a short commute helps a lot obviously, but I still was able to keep this schedule back when I had an hour commute. Back then, if we had even one errand to run after work, it was straight to bed when we got home, so we usually tried to keep errands to the weekend. Even if we had no errands, a lot of days we only had time to cook dinner and watch an episode of the Office.
Now we have a 10min commute, so after work we have time for an errand or two, then go to the gym, then we can even watch movie or something before bed.
I cook easy meals, things that don't take long and don't require more than a pot or a skillet. I don't mean microwave garbage or instant ramen either. I mean things like soups and beer-steamed sausage.
However, this usually leads me to eating the same few meals over and over. If I ever want more variety, I meal-prep on the weekend.
My fiance and I don't usually clean on weekdays. We probably live like slobs by some people's standards, but we're never more than 20min from a clean house.
As for social life... All of our friends live too far away to see them on weekdays anyway.
I think this is an important point - it's very easy to find oneself slipping into the protagonists' viewpoints, in a lot of media the protagonist is 'good', we see the story unfold from their viewpoint, then sympathise and empathise with them, even when they make mistakes, their motivations were pure, and what’s unfolding isn’t due to problems with them exactly.
But in shows like this, in quite a lot of sitcoms with more cringey aspects, the protagonist is not necessarily a good person and they are often undone by their own pettiness, selfishness etc. Certainly in UK comedy anyway. Look at Fawlty Towers, The Office... Blackadder to a certain extent.
So when the article says this -
> It’s natural when experiencing any story to identify and sympathize with the protagonist.
Yes and no - this is something that creators can play with and may make deliberately jarring. See 'Lolita' for an extreme example. The article even brings up Walter White, saying - "we are drawn to root for the primary subject of the story". If you're still rooting for Walter by the end of Breaking Bad... were we watching the same show?
This reminds me of The Office (US) episode where everyone thinks prison sounds better than working at Dunder Mifflin at which point they’re introduced to “Prison Mike” to be scared straight.
Almost sounds like you haven’t watched season 3 episode 9 of a little documentary called The Office.
> “I think that mistakes were made,” said Lavingia, who worked at DOGE for nearly two months. “I’m sure mistakes were made. Mistakes are always made. I would never recommend someone run my code and do what it says. It’s like that ‘Office’ episode where Steve Carell drives into the lake because Google Maps says drive into the lake. Do not drive into the lake.”
Sahil Lavingia is a snake. I thought his blog post that was on HN a week or so ago displayed a frightening level of cognitive dissidence and now he wants to distance himself from it all. No way buddy, this will be a millstone hung around your neck. You encouraged this, you participated in this, you cheered this, you will live with the consequences.
This whole thing is just kind of astonishing.
> “I think that mistakes were made,” said Lavingia, who worked at DOGE for nearly two months. “I’m sure mistakes were made. Mistakes are always made. I would never recommend someone run my code and do what it says. It’s like that ‘Office’ episode where Steve Carell drives into the lake because Google Maps says drive into the lake. Do not drive into the lake.”
Well, then why the hell did you write it? For purely entertainment purposes? I mean, what.
EDIT: Oh, wow, just got to the prompt. Did he... did he just think LLMs were _magic_? "Level 1: Necessary consultants that can't be insourced" - how the hell is ChatGPT supposed to know what can and cannot be insourced?
> In late March, Lavingia published a version of the “munchable” script on his GitHub account to invite others to use and improve it, he told ProPublica. “It would have been cool if the entire federal government used this script and anyone in the public could see that this is how the VA is thinking about cutting contracts.”
No, that would not have been 'cool', you idiot. Bloody hell.
I don't know if that's true.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wire_season_2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boys_and_Girls_(The_Office)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norma_Rae
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesar_Chavez_(film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Waterfront
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Exit_to_Brooklyn_(film)
But it's true the topic hasn't been en vogue for a while.
Oh there are certainly some excellent American comedy shows..
Seinfeld, Curb, Arrested Development, Modern Family, The Office (US), South Park, Parks and Rec, 30 Rock, Frasier, Fresh Prince, Friends, How I Met Your Month, Futurama, Simpsons (OG) and then there's not a lot more on the bench unless you include the lesser remakes of British shows.
A lot of them aren't funny or aren't satire.. just look at the Shameless remake - they turned that into a character drama when it was a sitcom.
America has more of a stand-up culture I feel.
I wonder if it's because the news in America is pretty much fiction that they basically don't have political satire as a genre outside of the topical news shows (Daily Show / John Oliver) which are honestly more like real news shows than comedy at this point.
This reminds me of Dwight from the office in the episode where he doesn’t tip the delivery driver and says: I never tip for anything I can do myself. I can deliver this if I want to.
Personally I wouldn't even bother with old shows on netflix since they could go away, and do, all the time. I download and put on my local plex instance, especially with bangers like The Office, there's no harm done.
Netflix et al are good for those high profile miniseries you want to watch once and then never again. The rest, download and enjoy without ads, without dark patterns, especially content that kids watch (youtube).
> Even if someone today builds a better version of what Netflix used to be, it wouldn't matter. They won’t have the rights and licenses to the shows and movies. That’s what keeps people from switching.
What, apart from Stranger Things and Squid Game, has been enough of a cultural touchstone that it keeps people on Netflix? Those aren't things you keep coming back to again and again.
Netflix doesn't own Friends, Seinfeld, The Office, Community, Parks and Rec, etc.
I'd argue Max (nee HBO) has better legacy titles and franchises. They have both enduring IP as well as the reputation of being "destination television".
The thing that keeps people from cancelling Netflix is that they have a better content slate of licensed classics paired with new originals. And they do it in the greatest volume of all the streamers, so there will be "something" on, even if it isn't particularly good.
I can't argue that I really enjoy music as my working background noise. Something else unique is I enjoy listening to TV shows, or more, "noise". I usually put on a simple TV show I've seen before that doesn't need a lot of attention (Friends, the Office, New Girl, Big Bang Theory), that creates that background noise. It's like white noise to me :)
This misses the forest for the trees.
It doesn’t need to win awards or prestige.
Someone needs to say “play me new episodes of the office or arrested development” and it needs to generate something that resembles the office or arrested development. People can have the noise on in the background, and it won’t matter if it isn’t quite coherent or super funny.
> Why spend hours sorting through Netflix' low quality catalog when you can watch a movie you love whenever you want?
Because I would rather watch something I've never seen before?
I've heard a story on Reddit of a guy watching Big Trouble in Little China everyday for years, but usually people wanna watch new stuff. I guess people also rewatch shows like Friends and The Office, but do they really "watch" it or do they just play it as background noise?
Wasn’t there an office episode about that?
Or piracy is a somewhat tech-savvy person searching "The Office 123movies 321 123" on Google, then trying on Bing cause Google hid some DCMA takedowns, giving up on 9 results that only pretend to work, then finally getting a working one. Except episode 2 is weirdly quieter than the others, episode 11 is missing, and the whole website disappears a month later.
This person may have also had uBlock Origin, or maybe they got duped into the fake uBlock that still shows ads, or Chrome disabled uBO.
What's amazing about this comment chain is that it's totally wrong. Netflix is missing tons of content, like older movies, and tries to replace them with store-brand "originals" that everyone knows are garbage or only have a couple seasons before being cut. It lost its most popular product, The Office. Netflix literally cannot serve the product its users want the most, so the "easiness" of using netflix to get that product is 0.
Without data about what previous generation said to exactly the same questions, at the same age, the conclusions comparing GenZ attitudes to those of prior generations are completely meaningless.
Maybe GenX youth and young Boomers before them also thought management was fuddy-duddy.
Hippies, hello?
It wasn't GenZ that produced the movie Office Space, The Office sitcom or Dilbert.
(Speaking of which, exposure to these kinds of cultural artifacts likely plays a role in the GenZ outlook.)
For as long as I can remember, corporate management has been ridiculed in popular culture. It's a set of common tropes.
A kindergarten kid saying they want to be a middle manager when they grow up can be predicted to be an instant howler.
Could Netflix create Friends or The Office? Has there even be a single Netflix show with more than 100 episodes? I did a quick search but found none. I admit that I too was once enamored with Netflix and streamers in general, but now I think that distribution should be separated from creation.
A number of things that work for biological systems (humans) work for LLMs too:
- after the answer, ask it "are you sure?" (from the office tv series: "is it a stupid thing to do? if it is, don't do it") - chain of thought, step-by-step thinking - different hats (godfather style: piecetime vs. wartime consigliere): looking at the problem from different points of view (at the same time or in stages). For example, first draft: stream of consciousness answer, second iteration: critic/editor/reviewer (produces comments), third (address comments), repeat for some time - collaborative work of different experts(MoE), delegate specific tasks to specialists - [deliberate] practice with immediate feedback
Everyone I knew who watched the old Office Space movie thought it was funny; I never liked it because it was too much like real life (at the time). Same with the TV show The Office.
"there are two kinds of people..."
"For you to be a step ahead of everyone else just do an action, any action, and you’ll already be ahead of everyone. "
This sounds like it was taken from the episode of the office.
The solution to a lot of those is to just have a goto show that you watch. Before netflix removed The Office, that is what I always did when wanting something to watch while eating a snack on the couch or to have noise on in the background. I'd just fire up netflix and resume whatever episode it was last one.
We ditched cable forever ago, but I do find that I miss just watching 15 minutes of some random show like I used to. I usually forget about it until I'm at someone's house or a doctors office and catch a snippet of some random car show or cooking show.
If the Office is a mediocre comedy TV show, what's a great comedy TV show?
I'll play devils advocate though I mostly agree with you, as there are occasions where I find consumption on an iPad to be "superior" in the sense that it fits into a certain situation better at a certain time.
If I'm traveling, an iPad is great to watch movies in my hotel room while my partner is sleeping rather than blast the room with extra light and noise. This same scenario can also play out at home! I want to be near my partner but that doesn't mean I need to take over the entire room. We have technology that enables that dynamic now. And my argument against using a laptop in this scenario is largely focused on ergonomics. It's really easy to prop an iPad on my lap and watch Netflix for 3 hours instead of worrying about my laptop overheating on the duvet or needing to be plugged in.
Reading books is also another great consumption medium that is personal to me, even if yes, technically I can read an epub on any computer (and I have read many comics online at a desktop!).
It's not that the PC is incapable of playing back the same media, it's that the form factor of an iPad is often _better_ for any number of scenarios with the tradeoffs of weight/bulk being a more deciding factor in the moment. Sometimes I just want to watch The Office in a comfy chair at a cafe with a latte and an iPad is an extremely convenient medium to fulfill that goal.
There is 'the Office" episode where Michael asks Oskar if he prefers not to be called Mexican.
Not complicated,stupid.
The Office took out a shot of a character is in blackface https://deadline.com/2020/06/the-office-blackface-scene-creator-greg-daniels-edits-2012-episode-1202971070
of Montreal edited out a line "I’m just a black she-male" from Women's Studies Victims https://www.reddit.com/r/ofMontreal/comments/j0kqqn/what_do_yall_think_of_the_changed_lyric_on_wicked
This goes back to radio edits, https://genius.com/Zager-and-evans-mr-turnkey-lyrics has the line "Mister Turnkey, I forced that girl in Wichita Falls" but the version I have is "Mister Turnkey, there's been a rape in Wichita Falls"
I'm sure this would've been happening in the past too with books having editions. Streaming just moves towards consumption sticking to the latest editions. Like you say, not really a bad thing, but where it goes we'll see
But they only had two films to base it on; they would have had to make that decision a few months after the RotJ scene filming ended but before it released. And presumably since the forest was privately-owned, somebody would have had to pay $$$ to acquire it then make it a park (and that somebody would have to be the state of CA, not Del Norte + Humboldt Counties).
In those counties the state already had RNSP (Redwood National and State Parks), a complex of one national park and three California state parks (139,000 acres; 560 km2). [0]
This makes me curious about the economics of when are the rare occasions it makes economic sense to use public money to buy and preserve popular movie locations on private property/land (as opposed to paying a premium for sentimental or tourist value). For example the famous 'Friends' apartment exterior in NYC is still private property. 'Shawshank Redemption' on its initial release bombed at the box office. Scranton, PA has a self-guided tourist trail [1] for the US version of 'The Office'. Only rare places like Punxsutawney, PA [2][3] (the town 'Groundhog Day' is set in, although the film was entirely shot in Woodstock IL [4]) make $. For the hardcore tourists there's Tataouine, Tunisia.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redwood_National_and_State_Parks
[1]: https://www.visitnepa.org/things-to-do/self-guided-tours/the-office/
[2]: "Groundhog Day: Punxsutawney’s Million Dollar Holiday" https://nation.time.com/2014/02/01/groundhog-day-punxsutawney/
[3]: Punxsutawney Phil’s town misses Groundhog Day boost (2021) https://apnews.com/general-news-d4a183fdd599322fb9b23a5cb2147f33
[4]: "Groundhog Days in Woodstock, IL" https://woodstockgroundhog.org/
I am on the side of the author for this one. Especially when it comes to series that are complete, you can often find them for extremely discounted prices. For example Amazon is selling the complete "The Office" DVD set for about $30, and I'm sure you could find it for cheaper at something like a thrift store. That's about the same as 2.5 months of Peacock "Premium Plus" at $11.99.
I know different people consume media at different speeds, but it would take us much longer than 2.5 months to watch all that content. Therefore we could pay for 3 months of Peacock or pay Amazon for the box set. In our case, the math checks out in favor of buying the physical media.
Obviously the math changes depending on the user. Monthly subscriptions will always win out for people who are able to devote a significant amount of time to using the product (e.g. a movie every night).
I find it entirely baffling that the top shows on Netflix are lighthearted shows (usually comedies) that go on for many seasons. Friends, Seinfeld, suits, office, Gilmore girls, supernatural
But… Netflix doesn’t make these kinds of shows. They give small orders of episodes to niche shows and cancel them quickly before they have time to gain an audience.
Obviously they know which shows people watch, but why doesn’t that translate into them making those shows at presumably less cost?
I’m not sure if it’s still the case, but Subway used to be big on doing product placements with shows on their last leg. They probably got it for a steal, and they made it really, really obvious. For example, the episode of Community where Subway is a person. Chuck did a lot of obvious Subway stuff at the end too. I remember Zachary Levi (Chuck) posting on Twitter to buy Subway for the finale in hopes that it would boost Subway sales enough to get them to pay to renew it for another season.
I’ve actually been surprised the more subtle product placement isn’t more common. There are always prop bags of chips, boxes of cereal, etc. you’d think it would cost basically nothing to swap it out for a similar soundless bag with a Lays label on it and get some money. Everyone knows what Lets chips are really trying to be. Maybe syndication presents issues. Does the company pay every time the episode runs, in perpetuity, or just once to get the episode made? With a one time payment, getting a spot in a show like The Office would be like winning the advertising lottery. If they have to pay for each viewing, it could turn into a real problem.
Happily. I have more access to content now than I have ever had before; we live in a golden age of access to video content. I can't imagine a rational argument for going back to the era of physical media.
The weirder thing to me is "owning" a particular movie. There are so many movies, why would I want to lock myself into a particular library of them? I read an article about John Carpenter's Lovecraft influences the other day, and that night watched The Thing for the first time. Didn't have to burn a moment's thought about whether it was likely to be worth the investment and a slot on my shelves.
If I feel like watching The Thing again next year (probably with friends and some kind of drinking game attached), I'll just pay to "rent" it again. I have paid to watch episodes of The Office that I already own simply to avoid the hassle of clicking over to the other app on my Apple TV, and while I might be one of the few people to think that's funny enough to brag about, I'm confident I'm not the only person ever to have done that.
Meanwhile: we're talking about... a laptop?
Come on. Apple should not be selling a laptop with an optical drive in 2024.
Hahahaha perhaps it's from exactly that.. I did finish watching 5 episodes of the US The office a few mins before I wrote this!! GREAT catch!!
I had to watch three times and I am still not sure if its not an episode of "The Office"...
Just because they don't have the rights to stream The Office doesn't mean they don't know what shows and movies they have are enjoyed by people who also enjoy The Office. This is literally the entire point of search - show what you're searching for if it exists, and show related things after it.
Wasn’t that a plot point in an episode of the office?
Loved that episode of the office
I don't see anything on Netflix that is trying to compete with TBBT, which is a CBS show firmly targeted at Middle America.
If anything, Netflix comedies are the opposite of TBBT, there's no audience laughter, it's all single-camera like Arrested Development, The Office and other 2000s-era neo-sitcoms.
I don’t think so, to be honest. The landscape for media consumption is so much different than 10-15 years ago. Without any supporting data, I have a hunch that, shows are mostly watched within a year of its original air date. New shows aren’t on a rerun (I recall Scrubs, House being on from time to time), they are not turning into a comfort background tv show (like The Office, Friends) or have a religious fanbase that’ll just follow along because there are 20 seasons of it (NCIS, Greys Anatomy and so on.).
On top of everything, media is extremely fragmented. So much choice that there isn’t any specific shows that people watch because everyone else is watching and will talk about it on Monday during lunch (a la Game of Thrones). So all these companies are left with churning new shows trying to find a holy grail of the Stranger Things size to bring them new subscribers. Until then, anything that doesn’t stick on the wall, will get cut off.
We have a huge movie industry scene in my city, so you hear from people who jump from working show A to show B. None of the shows I’ve ever heard of and never will. But producers are still hoping for a genre defining hit somehow.
I was literally just searching for an episode of The Fifth Estate from 1988 a week ago. A current events/documentary show is never going to get remade.
There's plenty of reasons that people watch old shows. Even on streaming services, the biggest shows seem to be older stuff like The Office, Seinfeld, Friends, etc. Seinfeld will never get remade, and Friends and the Office might, but will not in any way reflect the original.
Going to youtube its pretty clear that there is plenty of demand for old shows: Secrets of War, an obscure 90s era cable documentary show has millions of views across the episodes they uploaded.
Name recognition counts for a lot.
This movie would have been a no-brainer home run if it were simply an adventure film starring a crusty Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, set in more or less the “real world”.
Once you get Indie into space aliens or Representation social politics things dilute until the audience shrugs and stays home to stream The Office for the sixth run-through.
Sad, alienated, lonely, somewhat suicidal Dr. Jones doesn’t put butts in seats. Who could’ve guessed?
> I honestly can never understand people who say there is not enough good content on streamers.
What is there that is worth watching? They don’t make anything good anymore: no Seinfeld, no Office, no Parks & Rec, no Castle, no Bones, no House. Everything new is terrible, often embarrassingly so.
It’s as though sometime in the last decade all the talent and skill left media, and now we have corporations and people going through the motions but not actually producing anything worth watching.
AI Safety in a general sense?
Literally no. None at all.
I teach at University with a big ol' beautiful library. There's a Starbucks in it, so they know there's coffee in it.
But ask my students for "legal ways they can watch the tv show the Office" and the big building with the DVDs and also probably the plans for nuclear weapons and stuff never much comes up.
(Now, individual bad humans leveraging the idea of AI? That may be an issue)
"The Office" had an episode where two of the characters were following the navigator's driving instructions, and the instructions told them to turn right into a swamp. They got to arguing about it, one saying the instructions must be wrong, the other saying that the navigator could not possibly be wrong.
They drove into the swamp.
Now it has become real life.
I'm reminded of a certain episode from The Office...
People should be responsible for the machines they operate. North Carolina should be responsible for their roadways. Google _should_ update their maps but that's aspirational. It's clearly a hard problem to solve when no data exists.
> MCAS produces an intermittent fault, not a continuous one, therefore you are not supposed to run that checklist.
Again, if you're a pilot and want to live, stop parsing sentences like Bill CLinton and parse them like a pilot. Remember, I worked on the 757 trim system. I guarantee you that everyone there would ridicule your interpretation. Do you really imagine it has to run all the way to the stops to satisfy you that it is runaway?
> they can't keep aircraft systems that can fail and kill you a secret from the pilots!
The pilot had everything he needed to know to save the airplane. He did not need to know the cause of the runaway trim, just how to stop it.
> the overspeed was not caused by the thrust levers being at full
When you're in a dive, it behooves you to pull the thrust levers back (and they were at full). Overspeed can tear the airplane apart. It just takes a second to pull the levers back, and reducing the airspeed would have made their attempts at manual trim workable.
Frankly, if I was teaching ground school and encountered a student who made arguments like yours, I'd wash him out. I'm reminded of that episode of The Office where the characters were driving using navigator software. The software directed them to drive into a swamp, and the characters were arguing over whether they should follow the directions into the swamp or not. There's a reason that airliners still have pilots in them and not have computers run it all.
>The chances of that happening are indistinguishable from zero
Yeah, no. John Krasinski was waiting tables and struggling to make ends meet before getting his part as Jim in The Office that made him a household name today.
The casts of Friends and The Big Bang Theory were mostly nobodys before getting their parts which made them multi-millionaries that everyone recognizes today.
It's survivorship bias, but some of those "nobodys" actually do end up becoming very big "somebodys" later on, and the movie studios want to own their digital likeness for cheap early on, just in case, so that if they do become somebodys, they can pump out and monetize valuable ML generated content based on their likeness without having to pay them.
I would say that's because those that literally control the narrative have a vested interest in not providing the actor's side of this.
But parts of it are quite simple.
One thing they want: The actors want to be paid residuals for their likenesses.
Right now, if you want to make Breaking Bad, you have to pay Bryan Cranston for months of filming. He has to be on set, he has to hit marks, remember lines, sit for hair and makeup, etc. Everything that is involved in creating a filmed product.
What the studios want to do is pay an actor for a day's worth of work, scan them, perform some motion capture, do some voice work, then be able to use that digital representation in perpetuity. Feed that data into ActorGPT and get years of films and shows out of that data. And never have to pay that actor another cent.
Another thing they want: Be paid streaming residuals. Streaming has made things more complicated for everyone in a lot of ways. The old system was easy enough to grok. You made a show. You put it on air. Sponsors bought time during your show. You could sell a syndication deal and sell even more commercial time from your show. You could sell physical media of your show. You could track that data.
Then Netflix came along. I think originally, Netflix paid NBC/Universal a flat fee to be able to host The Office for a set number of years. There's effectively no residual on that. And the streaming model is a bit different. Most services don't have ads. And those that do, I don't think they're geared towards individual programs (yet). They're just sort of algorithmically inserted. So really, you're looking to where someone's $12.99 is going. What they're trying to do is determine what percentage of a streaming service's revenue should be paid back to the creators of the content. And what percentage of that percentage should everyone get.
But the various streaming services don't really release that data.
Hollywood’s CEOs are suffering. Not primarily from labor disputes or industry disruption or public-relations issues, but from vincible ignorance, which seems to be endemic in C-suites of all industries. Under pressure to deliver to Wall Street, too many CEOs have lost the plot of their own movie. They are not running companies to profitably deliver a good product, such as a book or a cup of coffee or, in this case, a movie or TV show. They are running companies to deliver good profit. The quality of their product has ceased to matter.
I blame the general stagnation of our current age and its associated rent seeking on the MBA. MBAs have spent decades teaching and preaching that what the business does doesn't matter. All that matters is financial alchemy.
"Forget building a better mouse trap! Take on venture debt, buy out all the mouse trap makers in your area, make their products worse (or keep them the same and sell them under a different brand name - whatever doesn't matter anyway) and jack up the prices. What are they gonna do? Go to someone else?"
"Content business? What content business? Those old Hollywood studio executives were hacks! They still cared just a tiny bit (a vanishingly small bit) about making a 'great movie.' What phooey! Buy up licenses, sell them for as cheap as possible for a while and then flood the zone with generic content. They won't know the difference! It's all the same!"
The reality? People do care. They might like slop, but they like well produced slop. Not just any generic, store-brand slop.
No matter what the artistic merit of Friends and The Office is; hundreds of thousands to millions of people subscribed to Netflix to watch them over and over again. When those properties were gone, they slowly began to ebb away from the platform. Starting in 2019, when Netflix first lost the IP,
"Netflix suffers first major loss of US subscribers, blames price hikes," https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/17/20694711/netflix-friends-the-office-earnings-q2-2019-subscribers-disney-hbo-apple-amazon-stock-drop
and continuing (with some ups) into 2023,
"Netflix loses almost a million subscribers," https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62226912
Their response to their decline wasn't to create better series or a better experience, but to crack down on sharing passwords. It made their subscriber numbers net positive for one or two quarters (so far), but you don't have to Fermi to predict how this will end. https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/9/23755156/netflix-subscriber-increase-paid-password-sharing-crackdown
I was just watching an episode of the last season The Office (U.S.) (2012) where the guy was complaining they still had Windows 95.
The interesting thing about sitcoms is I've never heard anyone talk about a new sitcom in years (maybe Brooklyn Nine Nine?), maybe people are rewatching Seinfeld, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, The Office, etc as those are the only good ones we have.
The entertainment is also different since a sitcom doesn't require much attention and is much more bingeable whereas regular shows are hit-or-miss.
But still you can't really mass produce Black Mirror or other shows without them going super downhill. Already for Black Mirror the episodes are always ranked by quality, by season and all-in-all. You mass produce these kinds of TV shows and you end up with The Walking Dead which just takes on a repeat of the same thing.
> There is a reason people would complain that "every week is the same story!".
There are many people who like series that are similar each week. Look at the popularity of shows like Friends or The Office.
Maybe a question is, why doesn’t Netflix produce those series that have many episodes but little change each episode?
> Who knew that 60 to 70 percent of employee's time was mostly just BS that could be easily automated by a BS generator?
I feel like most office work being BS has been in the zeitgeist since before Dilbert was popular for sure. And part of why The Office works so well as a sitcom environment is we don't expect anyone to do any work there.
I could see this as real-life version of The Office episode where they stop working to decide if Hilary Swank is hot or not. Busy Monday, I guess.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Family_Paper
Most of these are all plots of successful movies or TV shows.
* Creative person is having trouble creating. Creative person meets a muse...
Xanadu, the movie.
* Weird things happen, but it turns out they're not real.
About half of Twilight Zone episodes.
* An AI gets loose on the Net, but the author doesn't have a clear concept of what it means for software to be "loose on the Net."
Terminator
* Technology and/or modern life turn out to be soulless.
"The Office"
"The Lorax"
This one goes all the way back to "The Machine Stops".
* Bad person is told they'll get the reward that they "deserve," which ends up being something bad.
Several Twilight Zone episodes.
* Person is floating in a formless void; in the end, they're born.
"2001"
* Person uses time travel to achieve some particular result, but in the end something unexpected happens that thwarts their plan.
That one really has been done to death in SF.
* A mysteriously-named Event is about to happen ("Today was the day Jimmy would have to report for The Procedure"), but the nature of the Event isn't revealed until the end of the story, when it turns out to involve death or other unpleasantness. [Several classic sf stories use this approach, which is one reason we're tired of seeing it. Another reason is that we can usually guess the twist well ahead of time, which makes the mysteriousness annoying.]
This is the plot of the New Testament.
* In the future, an official government permit is required in order to do some particular ordinary thing, but the specific thing a permit is required for isn't (usually) revealed until the end of the story.
That was a 1950s thing, and seems to have died out.
* Someone calls technical support; wacky hijinx ensue. Someone calls technical support for a magical item.
"Oh My Goddess" anime
NBC’s Thursday lineup around 2010 basically.
New episodes of Community, 30 Rock, The Office, and Parks and Recreation.
And things associated with it all, like The Good Place.
Arrested Development up to Season 3 (the rest doesn’t exist). In my opinion, it is the most rewardingly rewatchable comedy show of all time. Extremely dense packing of humor that takes multiple passes to fully appreciate.
Curb Your Enthusiasm, as others have mentioned. It has an improvised feel to it (intentionally!) which makes it quite unique.
What We Do in the Shadows is more modern but also a brilliant comedy.
The Office is amazing too, though it’s not for everyone and has its downs.
Yup, but I can also re-watch shows like The Office or Seinfeld where I know or understand the context and jokes
And so I need not turn on subs like I may have to with Spanish originals. Also I recognize jokes or bits and realize what they're trying to say.
I feel like when I go into a new series blind, I end up turning on subtitles. But I didn't for the two shows mentioned above, I tried to force myself to hear the words rather than read the subs, because I already knew kind of what the episode(s) and conversations in them were about.
I find that that's a slightly different reasoning process.
This feels like the opening scene of an episode of "The Office" and made me nostalgic. I'd love a 10th season.
(All non-amazon links will probably require a German IP / VPN - you may find those shows on other streaming platforms, too)
Stromberg - German adaptation of The Office, but Bernd Stromberg (aka Micheal Scott / David Brent) is a bit of an asshole this time and it's not a paper company, but an insurance company.
https://www.amazon.de/Stromberg-Staffel-2/dp/B00ERLPUNA
Tatort - mostly serious show about police solving murders, produced by all of the local public broadcasters, e.g. there are Tatorts from Cologne, Münster, Munich, each using the regional dialect. "Polizeiruf 110" is the version of the ex-GDR, it works the same way. The Münster-Tatort is quite funny:
https://www.daserste.de/unterhaltung/krimi/tatort/index.html
Tatortreiniger - a show about a crime scene cleaner in weird situations. If you know "The Cleaner" from the BBC: This is the original show it's based upon. The main character uses a northern german / Hamburg dialect.
https://www.ardmediathek.de/serie/der-tatortreiniger/staffel-1/Y3JpZDovL25kci5kZS8xNTE2/1
Hubert und Staller - show about incompetent bavarian rural police solving murders, heavy focus on comedy, bavarian dialect. The first few seasons are quite funny, the later ones are meh.
https://www.daserste.de/unterhaltung/serie/hubert-und-staller/index.html
Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter - "Generation War" outside of Germany, mini-series about a group of friends and their roles in WW2. Not a light topic, of course.
https://www.amazon.de/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.9aab6ee1-f4cc-9f1e-db0c-c960648781df
This, absolutely this, for my wife and I. Movies and shows that we love, we also download because it's often been inevitable that they get dropped from a streaming service at some point. Or, they're moved over to a new service (see: Peacock/Office) and we don't think that paying an additional monthly fee just to access that one show that we only occasionally watch is worth it.
Similarly, if the streaming service continues to play ads despite paying for the service, we will just pirate the content.
I bought and ripped the stuff we tend to rewatch a lot (The Office, Friends, Star Trek, Stargate, etc.) and am serving them from a local Plex instance.
I occasionally pirate episodes of TV shows that would require another subscription (already paying for Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO and Prime). Honestly, I'd much rather cancel all that and just pay à la carte for content as long as it's something reasonable (like $0.50 - $1 / episode or ~ $10 / season and $2 - $15 / movie - that adds up to about the same cost based on my family's viewing patterns, plus I get flexibility).
It was nice when Netflix was the only game in town and it was worthwhile to pay it for the library, now it's too much to pay all these services for just a pile of 99% excrement.
What likely happened: the CEO got tired of coming to an empty office and not having underlings scurry around as his excellence powerwalks through the stunning estate of Clearlink Inc.
The whole thing reads like a script for an unreleased episode of The Office.
> Within Meta, there is pressure to demonstrate that people are working hard, two employees said. Intense scrutiny has come in recent workplace reviews, which the management consultancy firm Bain and Company is assisting. Workers, especially in middle management, are being asked to justify why their jobs are crucial to Meta’s goals.
I thought scenes like this would only happen in movies like The Office. Never did I expect something like that to happen in real life.
Corporate america is so dumb.
Reminds me of the episode from the Office: "why waste time say lot word when few word do trick" [0]
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K-L9uhsBLM
TV shows I've already seen are my go to as well. Parks and Rec is a staple. Office, Scrubs, That 70s Show, Big Bang Theory are all great as well.
Sometimes I get into phases that need a little extra. The Marvel movies phase 1-3 are solid, as is Breaking Bad.
I swap to prog rock music (again stuff I've heard multiple times before) if I have something particularly creative and demanding to work on.
If there wasn't "The Office" to begin with, then what would people use to specify their version of "The Office"? Or how would that idea of "The Office" become popular in the first place for people to want to create their own version (Assuming the tools were in place to generate your own content)? I think there's a lot of value in communicating about shared ideas, eg people love to talk about movies/shows/etc, there's whole communities around a shared idea. I'm curious to see how individualized content impacts this.
Investments into IP franchises like Star Wars and Marvel will diminish as children are able to generate their own ideas and universes on the fly. At scale, millions at a time.
Content houses will lose to content production tech.
Forget owning the rights to "The Office" when people can generate their own "The Office" content (memes, then episodes). And when the lawyer cats come clawing, it'll transform into "The Water Cooler" starring Jimmy Carrel and take place on Mars instead.
The value of content and ideas will become zero. The tools and distribution matter.
Took a quick skim at that blog:
* It seems initially derivative of Moral Mazes - there are a couple sentences almost lifted wholesale.
* Part three seems more psychoanalytic than Moral Mazes and quite original.
* The fannish references to The Office are kinda irritating IMO. Might be less so if I'd watched more than a few episodes, probably the same for others.
I'm gonna give it a deeper look though.
> > If someone got into wine or baseball cards because their boss liked them, we might call it a smart career move.
> First off, no, we wouldn’t. The boss and the other members of the team will all see that for what it is- trying to kiss ass to get ahead instead of doing your job. Particularly because (as you’re suggesting at least) the person doesn’t actually like those things and is simply trying to get ahead.
The counter-assertion relies on the axioms of
(1) "100% of people are capable of detecting 'kiss-assery'",
(2) "100% of people don't like 'kiss-assery'", and
(3) "100% of all actions of a person copying their boss' likes are due to 'kiss-assery'".
All 3 axioms are invalid: (1) is invalid because not all people can detect it properly without false positives or negatives. (2) is invalid because of the existence of narcissism & (2)'s contribution towards the affirmation of narcissism. (3) is invalid as it excludes the possibility of taking on a new like simply because of enjoying it.
> Just watch the Office. Dwight and Andy constantly try to do this to Michael and while they are occasionally successful, it hardly matters or has a lasting impact. Further, their coworkers all find them annoying (while they continue to “just do their jobs”).
The example given cannot be considered useful as its reliant on using constructed scenarios in a semi-fictional setting, and using it as evidence. Its equivalent would be the usage of the CSI episode "Fur and Loathing" as evidence of the furry fandom always being about sex & deviancy at all times, which is not the case.
The obvious solution is to wait until series are done before watching them, if lack of narrative closure upsets more than watching with everyone else excites you. E.g one of these days I might get around to The Wire or Breaking Bad, but probably not Lost or Game of Thrones or Twin Peaks, because I'm aware people were annoyed at how they ended. On the other hand I'm perfectly happy with seasons 1-3 of The Office or season 1 of Stranger things, or Season 1 of Severance even though it was a total life hanger, so it's not impossible to make something that's good even if it's not clear how long it'll run.
If you watch The Office (US) Season 1, even though it's almost 2 decades old, it captures the conundrum that minorities can both be subjected to casual racism/sexiam/homophobia and misguided corporate interventions. I've personally never seen what you describe, but I'm sure there are companies that are particularly clumsy at DEI.
I believe, however, that doing DEI well is a strategic advantage. It's less about making sure every single individual feels represented and included (even though that's important), because it's not really possible to explicitly enumerate every possible identity. Rather, it's about building the conscientiousness that makes people better at serving a diverse customerbase, and better at collaborating with people, who are diverse in ways that may or may not be apparent.
It's not about walking on eggshells to avoid offending anybody. It's about taking ownership and being open to learn.
The best trainings I've had really nail this. But it is not easy to do. Or, I should say, it's easy to half-ass.
As far as I can tell, piracy exists for exactly two reasons:
1. Content is priced way the fuck higher than market value.
2. Content is so encumbered that it is difficult to even get it or use it.
The way I see it is that #1 is not a problem for content creators. It is relatively rare compared to people buying content and the person who would rather download an episode of The Office rather than paying Apple $1.99 for it was unlikely to pay if that was the only option in the first place. Their alternative to piracy isn’t to spend the money. It’s to watch something else.
As for #2, it is a self-inflicted wound. There was a time when the 6th Harry Potter movie was about to come out in theaters. I wanted to do a marathon watch of the first 5 movies with my family. I had the first 4 on DVD and wanted to buy the 5th. I checked all streaming services and none had it. In fact it appeared that some removed it a month prior. I then called several nearby stores and all were sold out. A store 20 miles away had a copy for $40. After spending nearly an hour to find this out, I spent 5 minutes downloading it off a torrent site. Maybe indestructible your content will net you more money even if you have some of your content pirated.
A few thoughts:
1) On the talk of saturation Netflix had somewhere around 230 mil subscribers last year. In theory the addressable market should be adults ~20 and up so somewhere around 5 bil. So not even close to saturation. Discounting say half of that imagine how much better the service could be with 10x the current subscriber base. They talk about increasing subscription price... At 10x you could half the subscription price and still increase content spending 5x which would be pretty incredible.
2) The article talks about old content not holding value as expected. I think a lot of this has to do with the near complete failure to invest in rewatchable content. They were clearly aware the value of shows like The Office and Friends in terms of rewatchability. Off the top of my head I can't even think of an attempt at original content in that lane from Netflix (Licensing and extra seasons of Arrested Development is the only thing that comes to mind). To be fair though utterly bizarrely nearly every service has failed at this kind of content for the past 5 years or so.
3) The lack of global hits is very strange. I was trying to lookup high budget tv productions in foreign countries and not sure if it is just a lack of data or they don't exist. I would think even if there is a cultural bias around kinds of shows people watch just in terms of production quality western shows would still be globally dominant. Are there any examples of international shows with 20 mil per episode budgets?
This one is definitely strange to me looking back on what I would have estimated for the world of streaming a decade ago. I would have expected a much more expected shared culture in terms of what is watched worldwide. Instead it seems if anything we have become increasingly isolated. It's crazy to think Netflix isn't even active in a country the size of China for example. I would have thought by now technology would lead to shows with viewerships counted in the billions not millions. Squid Game is apparently Netflix's most popular show ever but even that from brief research has under 200 mil views which in the context of total population still makes it incredibly unpopular. I.e. if you take 100 random humans and put them in a room almost none of them have seen it. I wonder if we will ever reach a point where anything is actually globally popular.
I think people in "the middle" watch and rewatch the same things. I don't do that for movies, but I am guilty of doing it for some shoes like The office (still on Netflix in my region... For now)
The milestones (from the source code):
//<10 seconds 'A single frame of a film': 100ms, 'It would take light to go around the Earth': 133ms, 'A blink of an eye': 400ms, 'The time it takes light to reach Earth from the moon': 1255ms, 'The fastest Formula 1 pit stop': 1820ms, 'The fastest 1/4 mile drag race time': 3580ms, 'The fastest Rubik\'s cube solve': 4221ms, 'The fastest 40-yard time at the NFL Combine': 4240ms, 'The fastest 1 liter beer chug': 4370ms, 'A skippable Youtube ad': 5000ms, 'A full bull ride': 8000ms, 'The fastest 100m sprint': 9580ms, //10 Seconds 'The Wright Brothers first flight': 12000ms, 'The fastest 200m sprint': 19190ms, 'The fastest 50m freestyle swim lap': 21300ms, 'The Westminster Kennel Club dog agility record': 28440ms, 'A typical television ad': 30000ms, 'The fastest NASCAR lap at Daytona': 40364ms, 'The fastest 400m sprint': 43030ms, 'The fastest NASCAR lap at Talladega': 44270ms, 'The fastest 100m freestyle swim lap': 47050ms, //1 Minute '"Just a minute"': 60000ms, 'The fastest Formula 1 lap at Monaco': 74260ms, 'The fastest Formula 1 lap at Monza': 81046ms, 'The fastest 800m sprint': 100910ms, 'The fastest 200m freestyle swim lap': 102960ms, 'The fastest Kentucky Derby time': 119400ms, 'An NHL penalty box time for slashing, tripping, or holding': 120000ms, 'How long it takes to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge (without traffic)': 135000ms, 'The duration of the "Millenium Force" roller coaster': 140000ms, 'The longest Super Bowl national anthem': 156000ms, 'One round of a boxing match': 180000ms, 'The average song length on Spotify': 183000ms, 'The fastest 1,500m run': 206000ms, 'The song "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley': 215000ms, 'The fastest 400m freestyle swim lap': 220140ms, 'The fastest 1 mile run': 223130ms, 'The duration of the "Steel Dragon" roller coaster': 240000ms, 'The duration of "The Beast" roller coaster': 250000ms, 'The song "4:33" by John Cage': 273000ms, 'The longest sky diving freefall': 276000ms, 'The Any% speedrun of Super Mario Bros for NES': 294948ms, //5 Minutes 'An NHL penalty box time for fighting': 300000ms, 'The average duration of a typical sky dive': 330000ms, 'The average time for a drive-thru order': 356800ms, 'The time it takes Jeff Bezos to make $1 million': 402000ms, 'The fastest race car lap around the Nurburgring': 403300ms, 'The time it takes light to reach Earth from the sun': 500000ms, 'The time it takes a rocket ship to reach outer space': 510000ms, 'A typical marching band show': 515000ms, //10 Minutes 'The length of the first space walk': 600000ms, 'The longest a human has held their breath (non-oxygen assisted)': 695000ms, 'The average duration of popular Youtube videos': 702000ms, 'The time it takes an average human to walk 1km': 710000ms, 'The fastest 5K run': 757350ms, 'The average time to bake a pizza': 810000ms, '1% of the entire day': 864000ms, //15 Minutes 'A typical commute in the United States': 960000ms, 'The fastest superbike lap of the Isle of Man TT': 1002778ms, "MLK's \"I Have A Dream\" Speech": 1020000ms, 'An average baseball inning': 1200000ms, 'The song "2112" by Rush': 1233000ms, 'The first angels to appear in the movie "Angels in the Outfield" (1994)': 1275000ms, 'An episode of The Office, Seinfeld, or Rick & Morty': 1320000ms, 'The time it takes to drive the entire Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel': 1380000ms, 'The song "Octavarium" by Dream Theater': 1440000ms, 'A typical Super Bowl halftime show': 1500000ms, 'The fastest 10K run': 1584000ms, 'It takes for Bobby Boucher to get his first game snap in the movie "The Waterboy" (1998)': 1719000ms, //30 Minutes 'The average time to bake a cake': 1950000ms, 'The time it takes until the launch in the movie Apollo 13 (1995)': 2081000ms, 'It takes WALL-E to arrive at the Axiom in the movie "WALL-E" (2008)': 2164000ms, 'The shortest war in history (Anglo-Zanzibar War)': 2280000ms, 'It takes Harry Potter to arrive at Hogwarts in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer\'s Stone" (2001)': 2381000ms, 'The album "Thriller" by Michael Jackson': 2539000ms, 'The album "Dark Side of the Moon" by Pink Floyd': 2589000ms, 'An episode of Breaking Bad, House, or Firefly': 2640000ms, 'The boot camp sequence in the movie "Full Metal Jacket" (1987)': 2730000ms, 'The album "Abbey Road" by The Beatles': 2823000ms, 'It takes Simba to become an adult in the movie "The Lion King" (1994)': 2849000ms, '10% of a typical work day in the United States': 2880000ms, 'The album "Kid A" by Radiohead': 2996000ms, 'The time limit for the essay portion of the SATs': 3000000ms, 'The time it takes a standard ice cube to melt at room temperature': 3150000ms, '0.01% of an entire year': 3155692ms, 'The album "Fearless" by Taylor Swift': 3221000ms, 'The time it takes for the basketball game to start in the movie "Space Jam"': 3222000ms, 'An episode of Game of Thrones, True Detective, or The Sopranos': 3300000ms, 'It takes Harry and Lloyd arrive in Aspen in the movie "Dumb and Dumber" (1994)': 3394000ms, 'The album "Jagged Little Pill" by Alanis Morissette': 3443000ms, 'The fastest half-marathon': 3451000ms, //1 Hour 'An episode of Top Gear': 3600000ms, 'The inception of Robert Fischer begins in the movie "Inception" (2010)': 3847000ms, 'Riding the longest subway line in NYC from Queens to Inwood': 3900000ms, 'The time it takes Jeff Bezos to make $10 million': 4017600ms, 'It takes before Sean Connery says "Welcome to the Rock" in the movie "The Rock" (1996)': 4022000ms, 'A flight from Syracuse to New York City': 4140000ms, '5% of the entire day': 4320000ms, 'The album "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" by Elton John': 4580000ms, 'The album "Scenes From A Memory" by Dream Theater': 4626000ms, 'The movie "Primer" (2004)': 4740000ms, 'It takes to fully charge a Tesla (at 440V)': 4788000ms, 'The ferry duration from Long Island, NY to New London, CT': 4800000ms, 'The movie "Toy Story" (1995)': 4860000ms, 'A drive from Syracuse, NY to Rochester, NY (87.5 miles)': 4920000ms, 'The movie "The Lion King" (1994)': 5280000ms, 'The longest State of the Union address': 5280000, //Duplicate time... //1.5 Hours 'The movie "Mony Python and the Holy Grail" (1975)': 5460000ms, 'The movie "Monsters, Inc." (2001)': 5520000ms, 'An average duration of a soccer game': 5700000ms, 'The movie "Reservoir Dogs" (1992)': 5940000ms, 'The longest Innaugural address': 6300000ms, 'A drive from Orlando, FL to Tampa, FL (84.6 miles)': 6660000ms, 'An SR-71 flight from New York City to London': 6896400ms, 'The movie "Alien" (1979)': 7020000ms, //2 Hours //'25% of a typical work day in the United States': 7200000ms, 'The average duration of an NCAA basketball game': 7200000ms, 'The movie "Star Wars: A New Hope" (1977)': 7260000ms, 'The fastest marathon time ever ran': 7299000ms, 'The time it takes to listen to every studio album by Nirvana': 7667000ms, 'The movie "Dogma" (1999)': 7680000ms, 'The average duration of an NBA basketball game': 7860000ms, 'The movie "The Matrix" (1999)': 8160000ms, 'The movie "Fight Club" (1999)': 8340000ms, 'The movie "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994)': 8520000ms, 'The movie "Forrest Gump" (1994)': 8520000ms, 'A drive from New York City to Philadelphia (94.6 miles)': 8520000ms, '10% of the entire day': 8640000ms, 'The movie "Inception" (2010)': 8880000ms, 'The movie "Avengers: Infinity War" (2018)': 8940000ms, 'The movie "Pulp Fiction" (1994)': 9240000ms, 'It takes Voyager 1 to travel 100,000 miles': 9360000ms, 'The movie "Avatar" (2009)': 9720000ms, 'The average duration of an NHL hockey game': 9750000ms, 'The movie "Saving Private Ryan" (1998)': 10140000ms, 'The movie "The Godfather" (1972)': 10500000ms, 'The movie "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" (2001)': 10680000ms, //3 Hours 'The average duration of an NFL football game': 10800000ms, 'The total time limit of the SATs': 10800000ms, 'The movie "Avengers: Endgame" (2019)': 10860000ms, 'The average duration of an MLB baseball game': 11280000ms, 'The time it takes for a standard ice cube to freeze in a freezer': 11700000ms, 'The movie "Titanic" (1997)': 12600000ms, 'A drive from Boston to New York City (215.9 miles)': 13560000ms, 'Alex Honnold\'s free solo climb of El Capitan': 14160000ms, //4 Hours 'Half of a typical work day in the United States': 14400000ms, 'The flight time from New York City to Los Angeles': 19800000ms, 'The time limit of one session of the Bar exam': 21600000ms, 'It takes Voyager 1 to travel 250,000 miles': 23400000ms, 'The fastest swimmer to cross the English Channel': 24900000ms, //>8 Hours 'A full typical work day in the United States': 28800000ms, '0.1% of an entire year': 31536000ms, 'The time it takes Jeff Bezos to make $100 million': 40173000ms, 'The time it takes to assemble a car': 57600000ms, '1% of an entire year': 315360000ms, 'It takes for the Lōʻihi volcano to rise above the surface of the ocean becoming a new Hawaiian island': Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER //285,616 years
The most streamed TV IP on the whole Internet is The Office, whose first episode was shot 18 years ago. Seinfeld is closer to 35 years old.
Houses of the Holy is 50 years old. So is Innervisions. There's A Riot Goin' On? 52.
If you're trying to argue that success at the scale of Zeppelin or Seinfeld isn't somehow an incentive to creation, I mean, OK, but I guess I can rest my case, too.
I just think Will Ferrell is overrated in general. Almost never laugh at his SNL skits, but never saw them live. I feel he is similarly funny like Adam Sandler is funny. They are objectively comedians but feel they just have so much material and willing to be so over the top you'll eventually laugh at something from the assault of jokes. When Ferrell is subtle like his role in The Office it all just falls totally flat.
Every once in a while there's a good role, but you're usually better off looking at the other comedians surrounding them in the role.
Land of the Lost was a similar assault, saw it for the first time a few weeks ago when searching for a comedy. A lot of bad jokes but enough humorous concepts to not make you want to turn it off. Never a movie I'd recommend or want to watch again
Obviously not literally everything was there, but for example Disney stuff was and now it's on Disney+, NBC stuff is now on Peacock, CBS stuff is now on Paramount+, etc. etc.
I'm sure it's true in quantitative terms that new streaming services are net new content, but there's a very long list of popular movies and shows that used to be on Netflix and no longer are, and a very long list of publishers that use to make new content available on Netflix and no longer do.
A very abridged list of existing content that Netflix lost: Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, Disney movies, The Office, Parks and Rec, The West Wing, Lionsgate movies, Doctor Who, 20th Century Fox movies like X-Men, ABC Shows like Scandal, Naruto, most Star Trek shows, and on and on
All of this is regionally dependent I think, some things are probably still available outside the US.
I'm sorry to remind you of a bad time. I would like to point out that "2016 Ugliest Shirts" is a pretty different concept from "Person who wore the ugliest shirt this week" with a picture of you in a ratty beloved tee. It sounds like those were year end remarks, which means instead of judging an act they were judging your long term taste. Also it implies the most memorable thing about you was your shirt choice. And lastly, you weren't anticipating it, so you found out everyone was secretly judging you on something.
If, during orientation you were told a trophy gets given out every week for it, and some people wear really ugly shirts each Friday to try to win it, it would have felt very different.
But yeah, year end humorous awards like that probably belong confined to episodes of The Office.
It's a reference to the TV show "the office"
There's another layer to this that I haven't seen in any of the comments thus far, and that is the fact that the movie studios are putting the GOOD movies behind the "second paywall." Many popular titles are not available for streaming, and require a "purchase" or "rental," outside of the titles you're getting with your particular services. I have Netflix, Hulu, Prime, HBO, and Disney, and it seems like, about half the time I get a hankering to watch something in particular (instead of just "grazing"), I see that it's not available on any of my services, and it's a rent/buy title. So, yes, I have bought some movies (less than a dozen), and I always buy them from Apple, if I'm having to buy. I've been tempted several times to "buy" the complete set of the Office on Apple TV for $99, but I fear exactly what the OP is talking about: a rug-pull that causes me to lose access to the library.
An episode of The Office (US). In that episode Pam, who is pregnant and has contractions, would not go to the hospital before midnight because "the healthcare provider will not pay for more then two nights."
That wasn't even the main plot line, just something that was casually brought up and unchallenged by anyone.
UK doesn't need that kind of crap. No one does.
That kind of thinking still exists. The most recent example I can think of is Ghosts on CBS as the US version of the UK Ghosts. CBS' streaming service (Paramount+) will even recommend the UK original and you can compare them side-by-side.
(Another somewhat recent example to mind was FX's Wilfred as the US version of the Australian Wilfred TV show. Hulu picked up the Australian show so that you could compare them side-by-side. For streamers this is easy content recommendations.)
TV and Movie executives are always looking for "low risks" and "proven formula" will always be a way to lower risk. Shows and movies from the same originating country get "rebooted" all the time. Doing a fresh take across cultural boundaries is interestingly a higher risk as studios try to figure out if the original premise has legs in the new country. Some of what we see is survivorship bias: The US Office was huge so that gets mentioned a lot. But there were a lot of similar attempts that never made it past the pilot because the risks were too high or it just didn't seem to work or whatever.
Off the top of my head, similar to this US IT Crowd pilot there are also "lost" pilots you can find for US Doctor Who and US Red Dwarf. The fascinating thing about both of those attempts occurred during different points of the height of the PBS/BBC partnership. Up until about the late 90s/early 00s PBS was the most common importer of BBC programming from the UK. (That shifted when the BBC decided it could be a stronger revenue stream, starting chasing bigger bids from US cable channels, and then eventually cofounded the BBC America cable channel.) At various points in time PBS' biggest audiences tuned into Doctor Who, Red Dwarf, and Blake's 7 (among others on the sci-fi side of their programming), so even in the "old" TV era these US attempts knew there was some pre-existing audience familiar with the original UK shows through PBS at the time. So streamers have exactly created that as a "new" idea or new thinking so much as shifted the economics of it. (PBS was public funded and not making a lot of money for how popular its showing of UK shows were. Streamers are all big for-profits that use multi-cultural content for moats around their subscription fees. Including BBC America's current home AMC+.)
The first episode of the US office is pretty much a shot-for-shot remake of the first episode of the UK office. After that they diverged a fair bit.
American humour is it's own thing and I never understood why they ever attempted to remake things 1 to 1. I started watching the US Office a few seasons in and for a long time never realised the early episodes were so misguided. I think having independent versions of The Office tailored to each country would have been a fantastic concept.
I think it'd be fair to say that the US has now somewhat embraced the less happy cheerful variety of sitcom; a lot of modern US stuff falls into that category. It definitely hadn't in 2005 when the US Office came out, though.
I watched that office episode came out and I didn't realize this was a thing (watching the logo and cheering when it hits the corner) outside of The Office, so it seems like the aside was necessary.
> Is this just me, or do others feel similar?
Same feeling here, but in my case I'm blaming it on me getting slightly older (passed the 40-year mark recently).
I'm also looking at past TV series that I definitely liked back in the day (and which I still do) with different eyes. For example, when watching The Office (the US version) I've started to take Dwight's side more and more, while hating on almost any common action taken by Jim and Pam. Also, the more I re-watch Seinfeld the more I feel as one with George Costanza, and even with his dad (played by Jerry Stiller).
Gervais has writing credit for literally one episode of the American Office https://www.imdb.com/filmosearch?role=nm0315041&job_type=writer
And it has been said multiple times by people working on the American version that besides the inital setup, Gervais and Merchant had very little if any input and everything was done by the American wtiters/show runners.
> Overabundance of high quality material and so little time to watch them all.
If a tree falls down in a forest, and there is no one there to hear it. Does it make a sound?
If you can generate infinite material, how do you judge quality?
You're extrapolating an idea based on what movies are, fundamentally. But you don't take in consideration what movies are not. Watching a movie is also a social experience. Going to the movie theater, waiting years for a big blockbuster title, watching something with friends. Word of mouth recommendation is a very big thing. If a close friend recommends me something (be it a movie or a book), I'm much more inclined to like it just for the human connection it provides (reading or watching something other people enjoyed is a means of accessing someone else's psyche).
If every time you watch a movie you have the knowledge that there is a movie that is slightly better a prompt away, why bother finishing this one? If you know you probably won't finish the movie you generated, why bother starting one? So what do you do? You end up rewatching The Office.
Sure, if you tell me this will be possible in a couple of years, I won't object. The point is: will you pay for it on a recurring basis? Because if you don't, this will be no more than a very cool tech project.
----
I've recently had this idea for a sci-fi book: in a future not so distant, society is divided between tech and non-tech people. Tech people created pretty much everything they said they would create. AGI, smarter-than-human robots, you name it. But, it didn't change society at all. Companies still employ regular humans, people still watch regular made-by-human movies and eat handmade pizzas and drink their human-made lattes in hipster coffeshops. So tech people are naturally very frustrated at non-tech people, because they're not using optmizing their lives and business enough. And then you have this awkward situation where you have all these robots with brains of size of a galaxy lying around, doing nothing. And then some of them start developing depression, for spending too much time idle. And then the tech people have to rush to develop psychiatric robots. And then some robots decide to unionize, and others start writing books about how humans are taking jobs that were supposed to be automated.
I’m fairly certain this happens in the US as well. I distinctly remember The Office censoring a few bits - notably the Belsnickel bit from season 9.
The Office isn't on Netflix US anymore. But I can still see that episode here in Canada.
Hmm still definitely in plenty of places though - chiefly NBCs streaming service
https://www.peacocktv.com/watch-online/tv/the-office/4902514835143843112/seasons/1/episodes/diversity-day-episode-2/eec204c0-fb33-330d-bc0b-c52fa474cbce
> Numerous scenes and whole episodes of The Office were silently removed from streaming services
Some private companies vs entire undemocratically elected governments conversation aside…
What entire episode has been removed? I’m an office trivia buff and I’m not aware of this
This type of censorship isn’t unique to China. Numerous scenes and whole episodes of The Office were silently removed from streaming services. The episodes were renumbered so you wouldn’t notice:
https://www.newsweek.com/comedy-central-caves-cancel-culture-removes-episode-office-line-1623873
This article goes so far as to praise the censorship:
https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/the-office-edited-censored-blackface-christmas-episode-netflix-peacock/
As usual, piracy (or the legal purchase and ripping of old DVDs) is now the only way to access this material, which was deemed suitable for public consumption as recently as a few years ago.
In the “Office Ladies” podcast (where actresses from the TV show The Office recount their days working on it), they mention the writers had a similar “candy bag” they’d put ideas in when they couldn’t work them in the episode they were working on, from which to pull down the line.
As it happens the last The Office episode I saw a couple of months ago involved Michael Scott organizing a basketball match during work hours, even though corporate had just been complaining about low numbers from him and his team (if I remember right).
Related to a comment further up the thread about fruits, a close friend of mine told me some time ago how one of his colleagues was complaining in the company chat about the kiwi fruits that were being given by the company as free perks having too much of that “hairy” stuff on them (I’m on my phone, too lazy to search for the exact English term), and how he preferred to be served “lean” and “shiny” kiwi fruits instead. Said friend works at the local subsidiary of a big US tech company of which everyone on this forum has heard about.
I'll gladly pay for some trees that will remove my carbon over the next 25 years if you you let me fly today.
In 1932, this then became the famous "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today". Rough House explains why Wimpy is able to get away with this tactic in one strip, stating that "He never comes around on Tuesday". Rough House once suffered a mental breakdown from Wimpy's shenanigans, and demanded that Wimpy be kept out of his hospital room. Wimpy disobeyed this command, resulting in a rare altercation with Popeye. The phrase was also slightly altered in the episode "Spree Lunch" to "I'll have a hamburger, for which I will gladly pay you Tuesday." This phrase is now commonly used to illustrate financial irresponsibility and still appears in modern comedies such as The Drew Carey Show and The Office. The initial part of the phrase was even the title of Episode 6 of the fourth season of Cheers "I'll Gladly Pay You Tuesday."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Wellington_Wimpy
This is not new or recent, but printers, photocopiers and projectors have always made my life confusing and painful. What should’ve been simple and what could’ve been intuitive has been made hellishly complex and unwieldy. The scene in Office Space showing them smashing a printer and the scene in The Office (US) where Pam is utterly defeated by a new copier [1] aren’t just jokes.
On relatively recent technologies, Bluetooth is unpredictable and finicky across different devices. One cannot effectively carry over one’s learning from one Bluetooth device to another. One cannot predict how a particular new Bluetooth device will work (or not) with one’s existing devices.
And then there are USB-C ports and cables. They all look alike, but you’d never easily know what it supports (which cable is the right one, power delivery, how much power can/will it handle, data transfer speed, is it Thunderbolt, etc.).
I can’t imagine how non-technical people roll the dice with all these and how much they must hate technology.
[1]: Season 5 Episode 19 (“Two Weeks”)
Now-a-days, I agree, grain is more of an aesthetic choice and for modern films. And, in fact, I generally don't enable de-noise when it's fairly clear that's what's happening.
However, for a lot of film shot pre-2010, grain is an artifact that's not there by choice or artistically. Other than perhaps the film 300.
It just so happens that most of my personal media fits in that box of being pre-2010 which is why I generally denoise.
Something like 30 rock, or The Office, for example, don't have film grain because of some artistic choice.
Interestingly, though, "That 70s' show" does in a few cases even though it's somewhat noisy be default. That's a more tough call.
Here's what I don't get... there's more media than EVER in history (well, by definition there always will be). Netflix started out as a place I could get any movie. I remember my neighbor got "Kellys Heros" in the mail from Netflix and we ate Chinese Food. I felt bad but they offered it. In my family we had no TV and NEVER got takeout. To this day, it's one of my favorite flicks.
So many films, so cheaply to be had. Clint Eastwood did what, 500 films? Surely they can fill up a good catalog.
All this spending on Netflix's own studio is ludicrous cheap-money investment banking startup lunacy.
Just give me a big catalog of films, and give me all the stupid tv shows too. MASH, The Office, whatever. Pay HBO for sopranos and move on.
Or, just be a carrier. That's what Netflix is good at. Delivering reliable and easy to access, good quality streaming. Don't worry about the rest. I love my Roku because I can search and it'll tell me what service has the film or show I want to see. There's a good number of Cary Grant films I get for free consistently.
All that to say, Netflix seems to spend money on stupid stuff.
> They may have a different taste, but that taste is no better or worse than anyone else's.
This is often repeated like it's some universal truth. Enjoying a film (or anything) doesn't mean it's great - this is a very hard to explain idea though, as it's something that is experienced in the core of your being. It's like trying to explain why small talk is important to someone from a low-context culture - there's probably a fundamental disconnect where it will never make sense. Although I can explain it with words, it really only makes sense on an emotional level. It's the difference between criticism by The Needle Drops and Lester Bangs. One is focused only on "objectivity" - "slashing guitars and crunchy snares"; the other is weaving a story.
But I guarantee you that anyone with the ability to convincingly articulate why The Office is better than Rebels of the Neon God isn't arguing in good faith. And there's a reason for that.
I think the issue of low-quality filler being the issue is debatable. House of Cards or Orange is the New Black hasn't stopped the platform from sinking to where it is now. But as long as people are watching something, they're subscribed to the platform. The real problem is a lack of shows with nine seasons and plenty of shows that got canceled two seasons in. Viewers will take a chance on a new show, binge watch the two seasons, then end up blankly staring at the Now Playing screen and this hollow feeling of Netflixlessness - that listless feeling you get when your life was previously consumed by a show that you've now caught up to, so you have nothing to watch.
The worst thing the service can do is force viewers back to that New Playing screen, and just hope they find something before giving up, disgusted at your library's lack of content. Netflix never did conquer the Now Playing page. If I don't have a show that someone else has promoted to me, I'm not opening the Netflix app, that page is where dreams of just watching some TV go to die. Not for lack of trying, mind you, they've run a large number of experiments on that page, it's just a difficult problem when you don't have the content your users really want. It's thoroughly unsatisfying a UX, especially if you can't find something before your attention span gets bored of trying to find something to watch, and you switch away entirely. To Fortnight or TikTok, as the article suggests.
Spin-off shows don't generally do well on network TV, but things are different for streaming, and mediocre content set in the same universe as existing shows, for easy transference of viewing keeps users on your platform. Even if viewers are rewatching The Office for the Nth time. Because that show has nine seasons, Netflix might as well just be The Office streaming program and it would keep subscribers just fine. You're right that they're "settling" hours, but not everyone is a TV show snob. Netflix was never going to afford to be at ABC/Paramount/Disney level but it's trying to play there and make shows that rivaled their quality - and cost - that killed them.
HBO seems to be doing fine producing their own content so I don't see it as a foregone conclusion that Netflix was doomed to fail. They didn't have the back-catalog but they had the head start in online distribution and could have bought a studio or two as they have for video games in order to seed their back-catalog.
I think a large contribution to their failure is Netflix cancelling shows after two seasons. If a show's probably gonna get cancelled before it gets a good run, why why would I bother watching it? People want easy watching, and they want a lot of it. Eg The Office, which ended up lasting nine seasons. Only Netflix knows exactly why they canceled shows, as only they have the viewer numbers, but a rumor I've heard is that after two seasons is when the production starts to get expensive because that's when a show gets traction and the production team and actors can unionize to demand more money - money that Netflix doesn't want to spend.
Unfortunately, in cancelling shows so quickly, there just aren't the shows to keep subscribers on the service - especially if subscribers have to keep picking a show to watch every two seasons. There's nothing more unsatisfying than spending an hour on Netflix trying to find something to watch only not to find anything. If they had more shows that ran nine seasons, it would be easier to justify keeping the subscription just for those shows. Two seasons just isn't enough episodes to keep watching a show and by playing penny-wise and pound-foolish, they just don't have the catalog. Which is sad, because the have a ton of good short-run shows that just needed more of a chance.
The other thing is their habit of releasing entire seasons at once. Their choice, but it's very supportive of my habit to cancel my Netflix subscription every time I run out of things to watch, and subscribe to a different service.
Reading the title, I thought it was meant "The Office" as TV Series :(
People often say they will keep old TV shows like Friends, How I Met Your Mother or The Office on in the background. I think it simulates the feeling of having familiar social connections in ones life.
In Fahrenheit 451, the protagonist's wife Mildred "finds herself more involved in the "parlor wall" entertainment in the living room – large televisions filling the walls" [1]. She frequently calls the entertainers that appear on the screen her family. So this satirical observation is at least as old as that fiction.
I frequently wonder how AR/VR will play in this particular space. Cynically, I believe there is a killer app to be had there.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451
I agree with a lot of the criticisms of content on Netflix, but I also think that it was necessary. I don’t think it would be possible to pump out only A++++ content to fill their catalog in the time that they have been able to grow their offering. So now that they do have a ton of content, they can scale down new releases a bit and focus on providing better content rather than more content. I think they had to push out as much as they could because of all of the new competition in the area. Now they have a large collection of Netflix originals to keep some subset of subscribers entertained, and going forward they can focus on growing that subset by introducing better quality originals. If they focused solely on quality, a subscriber might only stay for a few months or a year or so before they could watch everything (edit: everything “worth watching”) and unsubscribe. Just my opinion.
Edit2: as part of the growth of competition in this arena, Netflix was having certain shows pulled (an example that comes to mind is The Office)
There's only so many times you can rewatch The Office and Friends. It can't be a major ongoing revenue source.
> brainwash
This has been going on forever. Check out "The Brady Bunch". Every episode revolves around a heavy-handed moral lesson. Go back even further and you've got the Hayes Code. Hollywood has always seen itself as morally superior to the rest of us, and hence entitled to preach to us.
Though with all the scandals emanating from Hollywood, one wonders how they hold on to that moral superiority.
sounded like an episode of the office, thanks for the good laugh
They probably have better data on why they are losing subscribers than I do, and presumably they can see things like an IP address used by one subscription, then that subscription being cancelled, then the same IP address being used by a different subscription. But …
I have subscribed to Netflix for nearly twenty years, since it was a DVD delivery service, and I am very close to cancelling my subscription because they simply don't deliver good content. The presence of the red N in the corner of a video is a signal that the show or movie is probably garbage, and almost everything has that red N; the stuff that doesn't is typically middle- or lowbrow filler content.
Now, part of that is not Netflix's fault: there is a paucity of stuff worth watching in 2022 compared to decades past. There is no Parks & Rec, no Office, no Castle, no Monk, no Psych, no Bones, no light-hearted, innocent fun. At least, none that I have seen. For Pete's sake, we live in an era which managed to ruin Star Wars!
Still, their Netflix original content could be much better than it is; it is still for the most part bargain-basement stuff. Why subscribe to Netflix when I can read a book instead?
It's a losing strategy though, with whitelabeling of streaming services it's easy for a content holder to just stick their stuff behind their own label or play Netflix vs Hulu vs Amazon Prime vs HBO.
Content generation was a good move, but they seem to be pursuing a strategy of trying to always have some mega-hit. This causes them to cancel shows that could grow into valuable content anchors.
Consider "The Office." I'm not going to say that everyone loves The Office, but a lot of people like it and enjoy tossing it on the TV when they are just looking for some background noise or just want to binge something they find enjoyable.
How much of Netflix's content fits this mold though? If you take a look at their longest running shows https://screenrant.com/longest-running-netflix-originals-ranked/ they just don't run their series for very long. On the plus side this means that they can go invest in other series, but it creates series that don't have the same sticking power.
They also seem to have a real hard time keeping quality up within a series, so you can have a show start off really strong with a great season 1, then season 2 is meh, and then they cancel it. I think this fundamentally makes their catalog less sticky because instead of their original content being something you can come back to again and again, it is disposable.
I've watched my fair share of Netflix original series, but where other series have grown to hold a special place in my memory and I can watch them over and over (Deep Space Nine, King of the Hill, {fill in your favorite long running series here}) I rarely find myself rewatching their original content. With 2 or 3 seasons, the series end up feeling like long mini-series, and not a whole arc that you can sit down and enjoy again and again.
And when I compare Netflix today to Netflix of year's gone by, the thing I find myself missing from the external content catalog was more of those "old favorites" of just watching through Breaking Bad again or enjoying the episode of Bones where they somehow scan a computer virus off of a bone and into their hologram thing.
> I feel there are plenty of good shows on Netflix.
Not sure who else feels this but for me:
There's a lack of "regular tv shows". I knew it was over when they got rid of The Office, that was pretty much the only reason I kept Netflix.
HBO Max, Disney Plus, Prime Video, AMC (temporary) all have the shows we regularly go to. Sopranos/Frasier, Simpsons/Star Wars/National Geography, The Office/Friends, Breaking Bad/Better call Saul (just need to see how it all ends).
Heck even Prime managed to bag many of the shows that used to be on Netflix. Aliens, Tora Tora Tora and even Independence Day is on Disney Plus. Lot of movies outside Netflix.
Netflix just has these one off good shows that frankly doesn't attract across the demographic. Sure there's something for everyone but its lacking those "must have and easy to access binge reruns".
Everyone disagrees with you ... thereby demonstrating homogeneity ... proving you right?
Jokes aside, have you heard about this hypothesis that because TV and Video are transmitting the same (usually American) shows all over the world, they are also transmitting the "sensibility" and this leads to a "monoculture"?
Not saying I agree or disagree, but if you are interested, you should look it up.
Edit: found an updated look at the concerns in the age of streaming: https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/12/17/21024439/monoculture-algorithm-netflix-spotify
And this is their definition:
"What Was the Monoculture? The monoculture seems to refer to some ill-defined age of universality made up of everything from Johnny Carson hosting the Tonight Show to Friends, Seinfeld, and The Office — the 20th-century aegis of white, middlebrow American entertainment, usually starring white Americans. This was also the ascendant era of broadcast media in radio, film, and linear television (the term for cable and network TV that isn’t on-demand). Industry gatekeepers made top-down decisions about what content would be made and when it would be shown, resulting in a lack of diversity that is only now beginning to change.
Monoculture is a Pleasantville image of a lost togetherness that was maybe just an illusion in the first place, or a byproduct of socioeconomic hegemony. It wasn’t that everyone wanted to watch primetime Seinfeld, but that’s what was on, and it became universal by default."
It's amazing (in the most uncharitable sense of the word) that a bunch of private sector office workers who joke about how relatable The Office is don't realize that stuff like Pentagon Wars (for feds) and Parks and Rec (for state and local government) are also basically documentaries for their respective industries.
I could mortar the cognitive dissonance together and build a wall.
Funny noone mentioned the office tv show DVD logo scene...
https://youtu.be/QOtuX0jL85Y
Yes, please make the Office season 10 about typewriters... we need it!
Joking aside, wow... I definitely was expecting such in dept article about mechanical typewriting. Interesting (dense!) discussion in the comments.
I either watch a netflix series that I've seen multiple times before (Office/Parks & Rec/Superstore/Arrested Development) or read a book series I've read before (flip flopping between Harry Potter and the Discworld series). They're not boring, but they don't stimulate me as much, and if I miss a chapter, or a half an episode, so be it.
> but I can't just close the book and forget about it.
When I'm reading for sleep, It's closer to reading to the point of dropping the book rather than closing it and deciding to go to sleep fwiw!
> I disagree with your claim about people are primarily watching old content (source?).
I realize this is just one data point, but the most-streamed show in 2020 was The Office, close to a decade after its last episode was released.
https://variety.com/2021/digital/news/the-office-most-streamed-tv-show-2020-nielsen-1234883822/
Did you revise your opinion of the Miller's entire oeuvre after Holy Terror? That's what happened to me with Dave Sim and Cerebus at some point; like, you see the previous work in a previous light, and it doesn't work anymore. It's like that episode of The Office where Brian Baumgartner sells James Spader on "the oatmeal raisin cookie idea" in a meeting, only to realize after later hearing about "the Big Mac idea" that "it was always just cookies. ...".
That's I think one of the big critical narratives about Miller --- it was always just cookies.
While obviously Netflix has a lot to loose here, it don’t think it’s “their fault” for dumping AAA content. The reality is that every content producer on the planet knows they’ll make more money selling their own subscription platform. Netflix can’t continue to get Marvel movies, for example, now that Disney has pulled the plug. There’s not any amount of cash Netflix could afford to pay which would be enough for The Mouse to take content off of Disney+.
This is the same for every studio out there — well-loved shows like The Office, Brooklyn 99, Parks & Rec, etc. are getting taken back by their owners. Dozens of new streaming services are appearing.
In reality, there’s not much Netflix can do about it besides double down on original content.
I think an ideal future for consumers would be federated media platforms, where all content is available in any number of media platforms, and the amount you pay is passed back to the content owners based on what you watch. But I doubt that will ever happen under current IP laws.
In capitalism, profit wins. Right now, streaming services are essentially pure profit and make money because content owners have exclusive access to their own content — who would pay for Disney+ if all of their content was available elsewhere?
It really sucks for consumers.
They have "Grace and Frankie", which is their longest running show at 7 seasons.
Netflix IMO tries to make shows that are very zeitgeist-y, instead of evergreen, like Friends and The Office. I think that will come back to bite them in the future because I don't see anybody wanting to license one-offs like Tiger King or Squid Game for syndication down the line.
Meanwhile, decades-old shows like Law and Order, Frasier and Two and a Half Men are still making bank because they have tons of episodes and are generalist enough to be popular across pretty much any cable network globally.
I often wonder why Netflix is willing to pay so much for the Office and Friends but isn't trying to make a new show like that. Every new show is an 8 episode season of "prestige" TV.
> You don't fly the flight director command bars when they are telling you to stay on the ground and you're doing 215 knots.
This reminds me of the (in)famous "take a right" sketch from The Office [1]. Granted, that was a TV show and they were "piloting" a car, not a 777.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOW_kPzY_JY
Wasn't this an episode of The Office?
No way that was based on a true story.. was it?
Ironically Sinterklass and his cringe-worthy blackfaced Zwarte Piet servants would have sided with the racist pro-slavery Confederacy, not the Union.
The racist pro-Piet hooligans in the Netherlands who still support Zwarte Piet like to celebrate the birth and teachings of Our Lord Jesus H Christ The Savior by gathering in crowds, hurling eggs, shouting racist insults, smashing windows, vandalizing cars, and shooting off fireworks against anti-racist protestors, who find Zwarte Piet's blackface and oversized red lips and black afro wigs and demeaningly stereotypical childish behavior a racist and offensive remnant of the Netherland's colonial past.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwarte_Piet#Notable_events_during_the_21st_century
>During intocht celebrations throughout November 2018, violent incidents took place in the cities and towns of Nijmegen, The Hague, Leeuwarden, Den Helder, Rotterdam, and elsewhere. In Eindhoven, anti-Piet demonstrators were surrounded by an estimated group of 250 people described as "football hooligans" who attacked them with eggs and shouted racist insults. A similar protest in Tilburg led to the arrest of 44 pro-Piet demonstrators.[41]
[41] https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2018/11/amnesty-international-mps-call-on-pm-to-condemn-pro-piet-violence/
>In 2019, it was decided that the nationally-televised arrival of Sinterklaas hosted by Apeldoorn would feature only sooty versions.[42] That November, a group called Kick Out Zwarte Piet were attacked during a meeting. Windows were smashed, nearby vehicles were vandalized, and fireworks were shot into the building where the group was planning protests in 12 communities that still feature traditional versions of the character.[43] In June 2020, American broadcaster NBC and Netflix opted to remove footage of a character dressed as Zwarte Piet from an episode of The Office. Series creator Greg Daniels released a statement saying that "blackface is unacceptable and making the point so graphically is hurtful and wrong. I am sorry for the pain that caused."[44]
[42] https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/netherlands-christmas-parade-to-replace-blackface-make-up-with-soot-1.4022373
[Kick Out Zwarte Piet] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kick_Out_Zwarte_Piet
[43] https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2019/11/zwarte-piet-protest-group-accuses-police-of-failing-to-protect-it-from-violent-attacks/
[44] https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-office-blackface-dwight-christmas-black-peter-netflix-nbc/
>Prime Minister Mark Rutte stated in a parliamentary debate on 5 June 2020 that he had changed his opinion on the issue and now better understands why many people consider the character's appearance to be racist.[45] In August 2020, Facebook updated its policies to ban depictions of blackface on its Facebook and Instagram platforms, including traditional blackface depictions of Zwarte Piet.[46] In October 2020, Google banned advertising featuring Zwarte Piet, including soot versions without blackface.[47] Additional companies followed suit, among them Bol, Amazon, and Coolblue, who each decided to remove traditional Zwarte Piet products and promotions from their services.[48][49] In November 2020, Vereniging van Openbare Bibliotheken, a national association of public libraries, also announced that they were in the process of removing books featuring Zwarte Piet from library shelves.[50]
[45] https://nos.nl/artikel/2336254-rutte-ik-ben-anders-gaan-denken-over-zwarte-piet.html
[46] https://thenextweb.com/facebook/2020/08/11/facebook-is-banning-controversial-dutch-character-zwarte-piet/
[47] https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2020/10/google-to-ban-zwarte-piet-sooty-replacement-as-a-racial-stereotype/
[48] https://www.welingelichtekringen.nl/samenleving/2036146/bol-com-doet-zwarte-piet-helemaal-weg.html
[49] https://nltimes.nl/2020/08/26/amazon-also-bans-blackface-zwarte-piet-products
[50] https://www.ad.nl/binnenland/bibliotheken-verwijderen-boeken-met-zwarte-piet-smaldeel-bepaalt-niet-ons-beleid~a6ab9176/
I was thinking deeply about the threat model in a PoS posed about coordinated pooling of resources to effectively mimic the size of a large institutional borrowers with high collateral, i.e. proof of work in the present economic system (US Dollars gathered by him by providing real world value).
The main reason proof of work works so effectively is that it deals in physics with the actual expenditure of electricity as the punishment system for failing to produce the correct desired outcome.
Abstracting this away again, we have reality itself to content with. Evolutionarily we have evolved in respect to the dominance hierarchy (https://youtu.be/rUiG5_GcMyY) Where effort itself is a necessary precursor to ascending the ranks and being fit to lead.
Not to get too metaphysical, but essentially it boils down to:
- Social Status is based on real world implications and not self derived from the perceived ranking itself, that is if it is to be most stable across time. Being labeled the boss is essentially useless long term unless you truthfully represent the ideal or most capable individual. (Michael Scott from the television series The Office is a funny example of this)
- PoS offers reliability for the system based on its election of stake amount in the system that favors inventors, early adopters, and pre ordained position holders where distribution was not derived from effort in the real world with non-reversible consequences (burning electricity)
- Instead the selection mechanism its own value structure which may or may not accurately assess competence for reliable trust in a domain where zero-trust is key to consensus.
- Outsourcing consensus to something mediated by the laws of physics is more stable across time, and is yet another abstraction upon competence taking it outside the realm of US Dollars for social proof, but also adding in the component of physical consequences towards the chain of proof.
I'm also thinking as I write this that it would be important to consider changes in the environment as useful to the selection pressures. Why purely basing it upon success (stake) at one point in time is non-useful as the rules of the game may change, or reputation lost or abused in a PoS system would not accurately reflect changes in the need for rotation of positions of voting authority.
Pam is one of my least favorite characters from the office. She isn't funny, she just causes drama and cries all the time, and on top of that is pretty manipulative, awkward and unpleasant. Once the show starts doubling down on Pam & Jim, around season 5, the show takes a huge dive.
Seasons 2-4 are pure gold, but season 5 and on is dog water.
The title reminds me of the office episode.
There are a million nitpicks in the city, this is just one of them.
Netflix and Amazon both have a strong interior belief this smart referral thing is good and who knows: A/B testing may even validate it. I just know that recommendations in books film and music creep me out, maybe it's an analogue of "uncanny valley" but being told "you may also like" kills the mood for me. Dammit, I want to like what I like, not what statistics thinks I may like.
"The office" thing, yes, that's the whole point: ask me Tuesday and I might say yes. Ask me Monday and Sunday, I might cancel my subscription. I talk about this with a lot of people and book and film recommendations are toxic to friendship. You love STNG? Oh you would love Babylon 5 no, just no.
And I don't think "I'm zany" or anything cute. I think this is a normal reaction and a common reaction. I bet Netflix has never asked "do we creep you out a bit snooping on what you watch and recommending things" that literally.
I do get a lot results that way on Netflix on failed searches… It doesn’t present only lexically similar results (“streetcar”) but thematically related films (classics, of the same era and related directors or cast)
My main issue with Netflix is that where I live their movie catalog (esp. classics), is very short, seemingly in favor of Netflix’s own produced “shovelware”.
Also, regarding a search for “the office”, how would Netflix know not to recommend the US version if you’re looking for the UK one and vice versa? That’s such a specific nitpick…
If I search for "streetcar named desire" I want a finder which says "nope, but here's the other work by {Elia Kazan, Tenesee Williams, Marlon Brando, Carl Malden, Jessica Tandy, Kim Hunter}
Oddly, I don't want "here's the abortive experimental 1970s film shot in Russia by a drug crazed student also called "streetcar"
But.. from Netflix's PoV, its equally likely I did want that because they know I watch e.g. Luis Bunel films
So.. how can they know? Answer: they can't. They simply can't get my mood right, all the time. Sometimes, they will do well and guess. Sometimes, they do really badly.
Another take: How many fans of the british "Office" wanted to be told to watch the American "Office" ?
I think this is demonstrably false. The value of Seinfeld, The Simpsons, Friends and The Office is probably higher than they have ever been, given the proliferation of streaming networks. The Beatles catalog only went up in value, which is why Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson had a little tiff. David Bowie sold bonds based on future royalties. And have you noticed what's playing at the movies? It's all superheroes invented 50+ years ago.
Whenever I see a business try “co-leader” stuff I think of that episode of the office where Jim and Michael are promoted to “co-managers”, then Oscar comments, dripping with sarcasm:
> Look, it doesn’t take a genius to know that any organization thrives when it has two leaders. Go ahead, name a country that doesn’t have two presidents, a boat that sets sail without two captains. Where would Catholicism be without the popes?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wF8jmFoQ7zM
I didn't downvote you, but the office was very much censored and there were articles about it[1]. The same article discusses Community having one of its best episodes ever yanked over black face that was explicitly explained in the episode. People have lost their collective minds.
[1] https://tvline.com/2020/06/26/the-office-community-blackface-cut-removed-streaming/amp/
He's such an idiot
https://screenrant.com/original-office-show-ricky-gervais-cancel-culture/
> "Now [The Office] would suffer because people would take things literally...This was a show about everything — it was about difference, it was about sex, race, all the things that people fear to even be discussed or talked about now, in case they say the wrong thing and they are cancelled...I think if this was put out now, some people have lost their sense of irony and context."
> “…They’re even more scared now because people don’t take an explanation for an answer, they just say, ‘Well, I don’t want to see it, so let’s ban it.’”
Obviously the Office isn't in the limelight anywhere near as much as it used to be, but I never hear people having a problem with its tone or style of comedy. A few other sitcoms have had scenes removed from streaming platforms / boxsets (Peep Show, Fawlty Towers etc). But the Office I've never really seen mentioned in a similar way. In fact it's still pretty much beloved by everyone and regularly polls amongst the best British sitcoms of all time.
If you read something that is copyrighted and rewrite it from memory, that’s still copying for purposes of the copyright act. There are cases about music where that’s unintentionally happened and the inadvertent copier was held liable. It’s basically what the machine learning is doing. Committing something to memory is no defense to copyright - I would recon a good number of people could recite any number of copyrighted works from memory (e.g., episodes of The Office, Seinfeld, or popular songs). If a person wrote that down and tried to sell it, I’m convinced a court would hold that person liable. There is a defense of “independent creation,” but basically if you saw/heard the copyrighted work before then it’s very hard to use that as a defense.
Privacy is a 1 dimensional spectrum which runs from living in isolation on one end to living under thought police on the other end.
You cannot move towards the end of privacy without losing control over your thoughts.
In the world you're describing, everything everyone says will be recorded. Neural networking will be used to process tone and read body language to determine your thoughts before you even consciously recognize them. As a child you will be trained to recognize and halt bad thinking subconsciously.
Consider the episode of The Office where Jim is offered the position of branch manager, and he turns it down because he thinks everything's working fine without a branch manager so why have one?
Never pass up the chance to take an active role in sustaining a good thing. If you feel the balance of privacy is good today, take an active role to ensure it slips no further, or else someone with more ambition than you will gladly push that point along the line a little further.
Speaking of TV...
You know how people who don't work in government don't realize Parks and Rec is a documentary?
And people who don't work in a white collar office don't realize The Office is also a documentary?
Well Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a documentary too.
The primary artistic liberty these shows take is to take a decade's worth of shenanigans, compress it into one season and cut out all the drudgery in-between. Basically all the stupid "that would never happen" crap happens but spread out over 100x as long and 10x as many people.
I’m as surprised at your surprise! I’ve seen The Office in its entirety more than 10 times, my other favorite shows 3-5 times each, and most generally popular shows at least twice. Often when a new season arrives, I start again at season 1 if it’s been a while. Same goes for my favorite novels, of which there aren’t as many.
Perhaps it’s relevant that I have a terrible memory for plot.
Rational, civilized, allowed, even demanded and encouraged form of a rite of passage, without risking his life. And, not always, but mostly without ruining one's health.
In the past, it would have been war. Back in 1914, during the Battle of the Fronts, they were gladly mowed down by the thousands.
https://medium.com/war-is-boring/sebastian-junger-knows-why-young-men-go-to-war-f163804cbf6
Of course, you can't keep wasting countless workers, often trained at great expense. Nor do you have to. Modern wars don't need armies of millions.
Oh, and it's profitable. Just as it always has been. Be it in business or in war. The demand of youth to prove themselves meets an offer to do so.
"War is rich old men protecting their property by sending middle and lower class young men to die. It's always been that way." George Carlin
In peacetime, it is simply more economically rational to win glory on the battlefield called The Office.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386676/
Sure, they make you do it, but you want it too, right?
Can only talk for me, but I watch maybe an hour of TV at most a day maximum - generally two episodes of a light comedy before bed each day. On top of that I'll watch one movie or documentary a week - I don't think that is excessive. But when I do want to watch this, I just want it to work. I use chromecast and since changing broadband provider and getting a new router it has misbehaved loads. Watching some last thing TV has become a chore - getting it to play first time, and then pausing or skipping is now a pain. Ordered a new router which should fix things - but a working tool to consume (however much or little you do) makes life simpler. I don't want to battle technology for my limited video entertainment.
Finding great stuff is hard - but the less you watch the longer the good stuff lasts! The Office USA has been great for wind down entertainment.
> This is why I pirate shit
I stopped seeing any value in purchasing/renting rights to movies and shows from the streaming giants. Want to watch The Office, sorry removed, no longer on Netflix. Oh, you are in a country that has a funny name, content not available in your region. Oh, you are trying to access your Hulu subscription from a Linux device? Max video res capped at 480p. It is such anti-consumer moves that makes me not feel bad for pirating.
IMO, the most maximum returns on home media consumption is gained by acquiring and archiving your own collection of media. I don't have to ask anyone for a license to watch my favorite movie from 1999 when I have the copy on my plex.
It shouldn't only come down to "on the iTunes platform". What about the user's ability to maintain access?
I have a similar situation with Google. I've had a Google Apps for buisness account for a few years so I can can use email on my personal domain. I made the mistake of 'purchasing' some media on that account.
I've since switched my mail over to fastmail but can't quite bring myself to close the Google account because I paid for every episode of the American The Office and might want to watch it again ... one day.
Of course Google's customer service worse than useless. Can't transfer the 'purchases' to a free google account. Can't refund. Do I cut my losses or keep paying for the account subscription?
The answer is never buy anything from Google (or equivalent, such as Apple) but that's not a very mainstream solution.
Original Title was "32 Team Building Movies to Inspire Your Team"
Keywords:
Teams, Goals, Goalsetting, Teamwork, NOT "The Office" <g>, etc.
There was also an episode of The Office (US) about this. Dwight suggests to Jim he starts an employee-of-the-month award, then rigs it so Jim wins so that everyone turns on Jim. Jim at least had the good sense to decline the award.
Yeah, I would argue "long term relationship" is a sign of commitment.
I'm more talking about shows and movies that make it seem like non-committal hookups and switching sexual partners rapidly for any reason is cool and totally normal:
- How I Met Your Mother (Barney)
- The Office (everyone has slept with everyone by the end)
- Game of Thrones
You could argue the "good" characters like Tyrion typically showed more commitment in their sexual activities than "bad" characters like Theon who just knocked up random women for fun. But even then you have instances where the "heroes" like Arya have one night stands with no consequences (because HBO wanted to be edgy).
- Friends
I do Netflix-pomodoro. Put on a show and work for one episode, break for the next. Repeat. I’m ridiculously productive this way.
Note that I aim for shows with episodes that last less than 30 minutes. The office was a great show to use but sadly was removed. Now using community.
I wonder how much attitudes towards preferring office vs. WFH is dependent on the actual physical office environment.
I am in the prefer WFH camp. However if my office was something more akin to what I see in many Silicon Valley style tech companies, I could theoretically imagine myself enjoying the office more.
As it is, my current office (for that matter, for my entire career) is more akin to what you see in The Office TV show, or Dilbert, or other stereotypically dystopian, dull, boring, traditional offices where everyone is mandated to wear at least business casual - dress shirt, dress pants, dress shoes.
Reminds me of this episode of The office: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Surplus
Aside from (mostly) practicing normal sleep hygiene recommendations, I listen to a sitcom that I've already watched many times using wireless earbuds as I fall asleep. Sometimes I do both ears, somtimes one ear, depending on whether I feel like sleeping with my head turned. I'm normally a back sleeper.
Because I've already seen the episodes, they don't stimulate any thinking. They're comedy, so all happy and lighthearted. Well written comedy is funny on multiple-goarounds, but other than some chuckles the point is mostly to help me fall asleep happy. On a bad night I'll listen to two episodes, but mostly I'm asleep halfway through the first episode.
My go to shows fwiw are It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The Office. Parks and Recreation also works. It's OK to have plot, as long as you already know the plot / have seen the show enough, so you aren't trying to watch the episode.
Since some of these shows moved off Netflix I've had to buy them on Google Play store. FWIW Google Play's player is better than amazon video's for mobile (it's basically youtube's player).
The wireless earbuds I use are these: $35, https://www.amazon.com/Soundcore-Bluetooth-Headphones-Waterproof-Sweatproof/dp/B07WPFPP5C and they're connected by a cord so you don't lose one of the buds when you sleep (used to happen to me). I have two sets of earbuds now, because I really struggle to sleep without it now that it's part of my routine and I can't risk them not being charged.
You sound like a stereotypical character from the movie The Office that would probably also tell people "They have the case of the Mondays".
Nice work on a quick project. One note though. I searched for "The Office". The results I got were...
https://next-season-of.com/the-office/
https://next-season-of.com/the-office-the-accountants/
The first I've never heard of before, and the second is some kind of web episode series for The Office (US). If I search on IMDB, the first result is The Office (US) and the second is The Office (UK), which is what I would expect based on ordering by popularity. Both of those seem to be missing from your results.
I'm sure reality TV hosted by Gordon Ramsay and whoever's his American counterpart isn't a great example of either's culture, nevermind basis on which to compare them.
Though I haven't seen either. I have seen both original UK & US The Office, which after the first few episodes of the latter (which just uncomfortably rip off the former, making the same jokes but poorly IMO) are each good in their own right, and definitely highlight differences between the respective television cultures, even if not actual society too.
Parks and Rec is basically a documentary about working in government (with all the shenanigans happening on an accelerated timeline).
The office is basically a documentary about white collar work places, once again, with all the shenanigans happening more rapidly.
I don't know any city cops so I can't speak to the accuracy of Brooklyn Nine Nine.
I agree that his desire to connect on a personal level isn't posturing and is very much a huge piece of who he is- as such, it's wrong of the author to say that everything he says to everyone is posturetalk. At the same time, I'm not sure it's fair to dismiss the author's point entirely. One of Michael's other defining features (which goes hand in hand with his desire to connect personally) is his absolute need to be liked. His desire to connect on a personal level often feeds into this need to be liked, and attempting to satisfy this need is where a lot of his posturetalk comes from. He sees traits in others that he admires and he will do whatever he can to convince other people he has those same traits. Example: during performance review time, Pam mentions that she doesn't know what to expect from hers because her previous review began with Michael asking her where she sees herself in five years and ended with him telling her how much he can bench press. Heck, there was a whole episode about him trying to prove to the office that he was the toughest fighter around. Not to mention the paper conference where he pretended his $100 per diem was just what he would tip normally; or the time he said that anyone who could do more push ups than him could go home early; or like when he takes Jim to Hooters and says to the waitress that he's doing it because he's the boss and he can afford it but then we see when he gets back to the office that he's trying to get it expensed as a business cost because he can't pay for it; or when he tells Oscar to tell Jan that he's a financial guru who cut their debt in half; or when he buys his condo and brags about having two microwaves; or any interaction he has with a woman he finds attractive. These are just a couple easy ones off the top of my head.
My point is that it's not one or the other- Michael is a great salesman because he wants to connect on a personal level, but man alive he sure spouts off a whole lot of posturetalk.
I agree, this bit in particular seems wrong to me:
> Posturetalk is everything said by Michael, Dwight and Andy, to anyone: the staff, the execs, or each other. Everything they say is some form or another of meaningless, performative babbling.
I only really remember the first four seasons of The Office, but I remember Michael as being a very skilled salesman and a very unskilled manager. But Michael's skill as a salesman comes from a genuine desire to connect with people and form relationships --- recall the episode where he takes a second job as a telemarketer and keeps deviating from the call scripts to ask people about their lives. In that sense, a big chunk of what Michael says is pretty close to the opposite of performative?
I agree. It reminds me a bit of an episode of The Office, where the top salesman (Dwight) is explaining how he was Salesman of the Month 13 out of 12 months the previous year. In lieu of a pay rise, management had given him two plaques for the month of February.
Sounds like an episode from The Office.
Seeing as it's called the "Gervais Principle," I'm 100% positive this was written primarily for David Breen and not Michael Scott. Which I'd highly recommend watching the british office to get an understanding of what is so different. The american office is like the the big bang theory and the british office is like silicon valley.
- One hour of walking (I walk fast). - Two to three episodes of Community, Seinfeld, IT Crowd, The Office, Parks and Recreation or Brooklyn 99 (I bought them online so I can do this anywhere I have internet). - A nap of at least 30 mins.
Sometimes I do two of those options.
Alternatively, maybe someone really does have a "royal flush" <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV8XhzG_rAg> (or anal fissures, cf The Office episode "Health Care", season 1, episode 3).
>Instead, this sounds more like what my girlfriend uses "The Office" as: TV that you're so comfortable with you like to have it on when you're doing other things and not actually watching TV.
Friends is the same way. Much of the hubbub over its becoming big again when Netflix won the rights a few years ago was from young women discovering the show, but I suspect that just as many of the viewers were slightly older women who've seen every episode multiple times and put it on in the background while going about their day.
This reminds me of that episode of the office.
I don't know, I don't think we give network/cable TV enough credit.
I'm pretty intrigued by stories of how certain shows flopped in their first season (or two) but managed to persevere through some persistent TV exec who kept it funded until they got the story right.
Plenty of examples of mainstream TV shows that went this route. Seinfeld, The Office, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, the list goes on.
TV execs really care about the product. By contrast, I don't think Netflix cares about the product. I think Netflix cares about the data about the product, which ultimately means dropping an original after 2 seasons.
It works I guess, but I've haven't had a Netflix subscription in a while, and on those occasions where I do renew it I just take a peek for a month before leaving again. More than enough time to watch 2 seasons of TV.
In that episode of The Office, Clark uses that Star Trek reference and his superior knowledge of the position he's applying to to get the job instead of Dwight's friends. I'm aware that it's from Star Trek (that's also mentioned in the episode), but I appreciate your detailed explanation!
Kobayashi Maru + the word "interview" makes it a double reference :)
Plenty of shows can be good with just one or two seasons, and more is worse. Freaks & Geeks: 1 season, amazing. Ditto UK The Office. Fleabag: 2 short seasons, amazing. The OA: AMAZING first season with a complete coherent ending, then they had to make a bizarre, scattershot second season. Ditto Killing Eve (how many damn times can she get killed lol). Downton Abbey: PLANNED for 3 seasons (pre, during, & post wwI) but it was so popular they just rambled on for ages until it looked like the scripts were being pulled directly from tumblr ("beloved character came back from america! for a wedding episode! plus: PUPPIES!!" literally).
So I don't totally get the "cancelled too soon" argument. The OA should have not run to even 2 seasons.
There's a trend of not producing art or even something original, but producing "content." For example someone asked me if The Mandalorian is good. "It's star wars Content" I replied. "If you like star wars, and want Content, you'll like it." Is the plot novel? Is it original or compelling? No, but boy it's fun to see yoda puppet and more Content from the SW universe you've come to know and love!
A lot of these series may have run their creative course & while megafans want more "Content" it's the same thing as something being cancelled too soon, and most people aren't megafans.
> but they just don't want to keep them around for long if they think they are not working, because unlimited airtime does not mean unlimited funds.
This makes sense in the abstract, but watching season 1 of the The Office (US) suggests that if NBC had the same view, we wouldn't have one of the most popular long-term binge-watch shows, for which streaming services are paying $500mm now.
As the article mentions, Schitt's Creek apparently had a low-rated first season, but since the execs in charge didn't have the mindset you describe above, it survived long enough to become the award-winning more popular show it is now.
Netflix may not be doing anything wrong here, but if they're not careful, it may bite them hard in a few years as their reputation continues to grow.
In the UK, Doctor Who is clearly an outlier. The other really long-running shows are soap operas like Eastenders or comedy panel shows.
But in the US, there seem to be an awful lot of outliers, and it's on the strength of those series that Netflix initially established their following: Friends, The Office, Park and Rec, Seinfeld, Community, The Walking Dead, The Blacklist, Gilmore Girls, Grey's Anatomy, West Wing, That 70's Show, Supernatural, Criminal Minds, and I could keep going, honestly, for quite a while.
So yes, there's an extent to which 5 or 8 seasons is less common, but the goal for US shows has been 100 episodes for decades now, which is usually 5 seasons of 20+ episodes each.
If Netflix is adopting a more UK-like approach, that might result in better TV eventually, but it would be nice for creators to know they have to tell their story in 16 episodes rather than 100.
I completely agree with you!
In theory.
In practice, I note that the UK version of The Office was 2 6-episode series plus 2 Christmas specials, for 14 episodes total, while the US remake ran for 201 episodes, and it's the US version that people seem to re-watch endlessly around the world, despite its very rough start.
So true. I don't get why American TV shows always need to be ran to the ground.
Like Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory are shows that should've gone past their 8th season. The Office should've never had those abysmal last two-three seasons. That '70s show should've never had those abysmal last three seasons.
I always like it when creators and producers recognize when a show has run its course. This is why we have good memories of Seinfeld. Jerry Seinfeld stood to make something crazy like 5 million per episode if they had done a 10th season but he knew the show had run its course and ended it on a high note (something, btw, that was a plot point on an earlier episode).
Same with Breaking Bad, they knew that they had a story to tell and that it didn't need to drag on and they delivered some of the finest 5 seasons of television drama that one could ever ask for.
The UK version only lasted 2 seasons for a total of 14 episodes. It's very good, but I would argue the first 14 episodes of the US office are just as good. It's the later seasons that devolve into feel-good ho-hum sitcommery.
Personal opinion from a brit:
US series are too long.
It is a psychological thing I guess - sitting down and perusing netflix, see something you like but then realise it is 24 hour-long episodes just in the first season. It is a turn off - I can't commit upfront to that amount of time to something entirely unknown to me.
Especially since in a lot of series I've watched, they often lose their way and 99 times out 100 the last 2 or 3 seasons inevitably decay into a "will-they-wont-they" thing about two characters falling in love or whatever, and the rest of the cast and whatever made the series good originally is mostly ignored. Then they're cancelled. So e.g. Lost, US Office, that 70s show and many more all went on way too long while dancing around with romance between two characters etc etc while ignoring what made the first season or two appealing.
Don't get me wrong, I love binge watching something good and I am disappointed when I run out of episodes or whatever, but it is good for people to know when to end a show and leave people with good memories, rather than turning it into a death march where people are relieved to just have finished the show.
Give me 8 to 10 good episodes per season, and please don't string it out for 7, 8, 9 seasons when there is only enough ideas for 2 or maybe rarely 3 seasons's worth of episodes.
Agreed. IMO the first few seasons of The Office (US) and Parks & Recreation were the best, and they went downhill over time. Very few shows can sustain quality over time. For sitcoms... maybe Seinfeld?
> I think you'll see it's much better to go out on a high rather than drag on endlessly.
I don't. This might be true with dramas where the plot is a big component of it, but certainly not for episodic comedies.
Yeah, the Simpsons isn't something I care to watch anymore, and the Office's final seasons without Michael Scott weren't as good. But I'd still much rather have more episodes of content I enjoy than less for the sake of "the complete package". It sucks when a show gets cancelled without an end, but while we're here, the American Office had a fine ending and I'm much happier with the many seasons of it over the British one.
The American version of the office had 75+ GREAT episodes (seasons 2,3,4, and most of 5) and the British version had 12 (plus the Christmas Special). The existence of the other 125 episodes doesn’t make those 75 any less great.
Same with The Simpsons — the 8 year peak of seasons 1-8 means at least we got those episodes. I haven’t watched a new episode in over 20 years but revisit the early episodes often.
I like the sandwiches on my favorite restaurant’s menu. Them serving the pasta dish I don’t like doesn’t make the sandwiches worse.
I just have The Office and Lord Of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings for now. I'm looking to add one new TV show / movie per week, as it is just me operating this site.
What a sitcom teaches almost never comes from the "moral" of a plot or subplot, but what it treats as benign and acceptable or what it consistently mocks in the background.
For instance, in The Office, a character flashing her breasts, blurred out mind you, is outrageous enough to be laughable but not outrageous enough for the actress to avoid doing so in front of the production crew making the show. That communicates a lot and shifts the overton window.
Or it may be the subtle mockery of the values of a kind of person by making the person who holds such values into a comical buffoon or disgusting character. For instance, Angela is a "devout Christian" but is written to be a flaming hypocrite, and as the only representative of a Christian on the show suggests that is what all Christians are.
There's an episode of The Office (US) that features a prank based on this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfGN7bfohms&t=13m51s
Isn't Handshake the thing premised on IANA handing over control of the DNS to a premined cryptocurrency network so they can resell it? I keep wondering if I can do that with ARP. It's like that episode of The Office with the business seminar and the guy whose business idea is just that he gets a 1c cut of every credit card transaction.
Space Force was okay, but I really hope it improves in Season 2. I had just finished The Office before it so was really itching to see more stuff by Steve Carrell.
These days watching Gilmore Girls. I totally agree with watching chills shows to unwind, feels good.
I was actually hoping this was going to be some WFH setup where someone had pushed multiple desks together like that episode of The Office
A couple of weeks ago my family binge-watched "The Office". That show demonstrates the truth of that saying very well.
Seems pretty self-evident. Reminds me of that office episode where Michael pretends to fire Pam and she reacts as any normal person would expect.
I don’t agree with this. It is literally his username. Have you ever seen that episode of The Office where Michael won’t call Mr. Brown by his name because he thinks it’s racist to do so? That’s what you’re doing here, Dang. It is not a personal attack unless you interpret it as such. Guidelines state to take the most charitable version of what one says. Do you think you’re doing that here?
Have you ever seen that episode of The Office where the boss comes back from vacation to Jamaica? I see it as that but for wanting to sound smart and intellectual.
This reminded me of “The Office” episode when Michael screams “I declare bankruptcy”. This is not how this works, Disney...
https://youtu.be/C-m3RtoguAQ
Hol' up, are you saying that there's a reason besides economics that the government might introduce protectionist trade measures to keep some critical manufacturing domestic for use during an emergency when you cannot trust your supply chains which come from hostile -- or even friendly -- nations?
It's funny because this was a U.S. conservative talking point going back as long as I can remember (for me that's the mid/late 90s). There's even an episode of The Office (U.S.) where this point of view is lampooned (Oscar to Michael: "Wouldn't you say that the services sector is much more relevant than manufacturing?"). Never thought I'd see it expressed openly on HN, and with upvotes!
Just watched the episode of The Office where they watched the DVD Logo hoping it would Exactly hit the corner.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QOtuX0jL85Y
I think it's easier if you just put everybody on a big scale, like that episode of the office.
My wild speculation is that the longer time people spend in the menu the more likely they are to close the app, and the more likely they are to cancel a subscription next month. The streaming services are all about reducing churn.
So for daily content. Show ends, you go back to the menu. Do you pick the next thing to watch? I don't know - but they've tried a number of "daily" or "weekly" shows before, and they haven't appeared to be successful. I suspect it's because they didn't improve metrics. Versus say releasing a show all at once - people binge for 3-4 hours and come back the next night to do the same thing.
I think going with amateur youtubers who produce lots of cheap, short content would be smart for like, Snap or Instagram but very bad for Netflix. Netflix's original content hit it off in terms of quality, long form narratives with dramas like House of Cards, while syndicating shows after air gave them second life (Breaking Bad, the Office, Friends) and absolutely crushing it with "must see" films (recently, the Irishman, Marriage Story, but also in the past stuff like Beasts of No Nation).
Conversely, their cheap shows from nobodies tend to die in the womb, and I don't think Netflix does that without good data to make such a decision.
You haven't seen the Scott's Tots episode of The Office, have you?
Seriously though, I didn't have that reaction. We each bring our own individual expression to everything we do, that's not sad or cringey at all. The author is looking for a way to use his unique gifts in a way that is satisfying and valuable. The problem he solves and the way he solves it will be unique to him. Or in other words, "expressing himself through his products."
I remember an episode of "The Office" where Michael Scott states that Wikipedia is very accurate, "because anybody can edit it". And that was the joke. Michael Scott being naive and gullible enough to believe this ridiculous statement, while other characters made exasperated reaction shots for the camera.
A lot has changed since the mid-2000's. Wikipedia was so revolutionary at the time.
> And when I say, "taking orders," I mean over the web. You cannot buy or lease a Polestar automobile in a Volvo dealership.
How does this not sound like "working around the dealership model that is engrained in traditional auto manufacturers"? It also brings up the point - how will their existing dealer network react when they get replaced by web sales (like some Office episode)?
Telsa has none of that baggage.
Agreed, 100%! It always reminds me of the episode of "The Office" where the warehouse wins the lottery, everyone quits, and the office staff are conscripted to load the truck with paper. Searching for a way to load the truck more efficiently, one of the main characters is astonished that the warehouse workers never tried backing the truck into the warehouse to be closer to the paper. Believing them to be morons because they hadn't thought of this, he implements his solution and causes a fair amount of damage to the truck and the building because he didn't stop to think that maybe, just maybe, the people who had been doing this work for years (work he had no real experience with or insight into) might have had a good reason or two why they hadn't already implemented this solution.
It's a silly example, sure- all I'm trying to say is that there are usually a few pretty good reasons why "the solution is so simple, just do x" comments haven't already been implemented and the commenters don't usually have the context to know that. It's been my experience that a lot of problems with seemingly simple or obvious solutions haven't been solved that way for good reason.
> this literally sounds like an episode of The Office
It sounds like something out of Kalanick's Uber or Neumann's WeWork.
” At a different all-hands meeting, the entire policy team was separated into various rooms and told to participate in a “diversity exercise” that placed me in a group labeled “homos” while participants shouted out stereotypes such as “effeminate” and “promiscuous.” Colleagues of color were forced to join groups called “Asians” and “Brown people” in other rooms nearby.”
Wow this literally sounds like an episode of The Office (S1 E2)
Definitely not the most damning thing in this article but the one that really jumped out for me.
Can’t even wrap my mind around why someone thought this would be a good idea
I feel so seen! For a very long time, I couldn't sleep without watching TV shows on my laptop, to the extent that I'd have insomnia if the Internet went out. In fact, even though I've weaned myself off it for the past several months, I'd probably still have trouble sleeping if I didn't at least know I could watch reruns of 30 Rock if I had trouble sleeping.
More to the point: just like the author, there's a very particular kind of TV I'd watch to sleep: nothing for the first time, and nothing tense. The West Wing and the US version of The Office were both great for me, since there's so much of it to get through. I've probably seen every episode of The West Wing at least 15 times by now.
Which, to me, sort of answers/challenges the concern the author has about binge watching. On a normal night, I'd barely make it through half an episode before I'd notice time slipping as I watched, my cue that I'm nodding off and should shut the laptop. I'm never watching first-run stuff like Mindhunter or Russian Doll, the stuff Netflix really wants me to be streaming, because it'd keep me alert.
Frankly most people obsess about things like finding a mate, playing video games, collecting comics, politics, reading books, watching & discussing TV shows & movies, social websites (such as this one), sex, porn, fashion, sports, the social politics of work (as opposed to the work itself -- e.g. "The Office") and, of course, their kids. But none of these sorts of obsessions are likely to lead to fame or fortune.
I think it is the rare person who literally has no obsessive interests at all. Sounds rather sad and boring.
No, listen to what I am saying. I'm saying that the person should be in a place and state of mind where they are as safe and comfortable as possible.
For most people that is NOT being alone with their own thoughts while listening to music they usually do not listen to. If you usually meditate and listen to ambient music, go a head and try it. If you never do that then do something you are comfortable with, if you love watching old episodes of The Office you will love it even more and be even happier if tripping. You will not have a bad trip and if you start to feel uneasy you will snap out of it easily.
Because your state of mind is where you want it to be and you are where you are comfortable, watching a for example a tv-show.
For what it's worth, the second paragraph (about refusing to tip for jobs they are capable of performing) in the comment you replied to is a direct quote of Dwight Schrute's character from the US version of the the TV show The Office.
arent Friends and The Office some of the most streamed shows?
I have to think Disneys back catalog of shows and movies will be a bigger draw short term than their new content. Are people buying it to watch The Mandalorian and the new Lady and the Tramp, or are they buying it so their kids can watch every disney movie ever made? Dont get me wrong, having a bunch of Marvel mini-series as their launch content is a brilliant move to make it not "just the old stuff."
Yes I think that, despite the humorous reaction in the movie, The Office, that simply printing something like PC LOAD LETTER was a vast improvement over the post script dump that would happen when an error occurred.
IIRC, Jan didn’t threaten to fire them. She simply asserted that unionization would cause them they would lose their jobs because Dunder Mifflin would close down the branch if the workers unionized, as apparently had happened at another branch.
So not advocating that we use The Office (a sitcom) as a reference for American labor law, but I think Jan’s statements might be permissible. As long as her reasoning is that the increased cost of the workers being in a union will lead to the branch closing, not that the branch would be closed in retaliation, it would be fine.
Companies can and often do complain that if workers are in a union, the company’s operating costs will increase, which will consequently have adverse effects on the workers like layoffs, plant closings and so on.
To be clear, this is my understanding of legal issues in a sitcom. I am not necessarily advocating Jan’s point of view, our labor laws as they stand, or anything else.
Oh, interesting.
There was an episode of the U.S. version of The Office where an exec said they'd all be fired if they got "even a whiff" of unionization. And really openly to dozens of people, not in any sort of wink-wink way.
I figured this was a legit threat in the U.S.
Thanks for this description -- yes the tweet was stupid, yes the person could eventually get fired after someone digs it up so twitter was doing them a favor, blahblah none of those other threads are why this is an interesting post this morning. "Ex post facto" is a bit jargoney, but you explained the issue right: the interesting question is how should we feel about retroactive punishments for something that wasn't illegal/against private ToS at the time.
A lot of people my age love The Office, but some of the earlier episodes... well, they haven't really aged well. The show was great at the time, but the first few seasons today would be a giant #MeToo fiasco. Culture changes and moves on, and what was acceptable then probably isn't acceptable now, but that doesn't (shouldn't?) mean Steve Carrel gets blackballed for the comedy he did at the time.
Early Disney cartoons were flat-out racist, but they're still available with a historical context disclaimer that basically says "We disavow everything in here, but it's a greater shame to pretend that this never happened so here it is for the historical record."
One of the most interesting conversations about social media right now I think is how does someone apologize for what they've done, and do it in a genuine and authentic way that can be accepted. When you serve prison time, the idea is you pay your debt to society and move on. With social media, I don't think we've yet figured out how to say "yes, I was a stupid angry person back then but that's not who I am now". Part of the reason is it's really difficult to figure out who's being authentic and who's trying to half-heartedly weasel themselves out of something.
And I don't think you CAN do that on social media because the only way to really make that decision is to know someone in more depth than some multiple of 140 characters. It's a decision that can't be made with the small bite-sized serotonin pings that we've started to define our relationships and judgements around. We've become jacks of all relationships, masters of none.
Of course shows are just a byproduct of the writer's experiences, some famous TV shows even use that to an advantage. See 30 Rock. Or how The Office integrates the cameramen. Many popular writers are producers and sometimes actors as well, so we're definitely consuming a narrow viewpoint.
That reminds me of that episode of The Office where Jim realizes he can't just choose a single cake and his "idiot" boss has a really difficult job of balancing everyone's needs, applying the right touch and keeping the whole ship running smoothly.
The article viewpoints are probably right, Netflix and Amazon need a few more hits that people trust.
The Office was a big fallback show and Netflix needs a few of those of their own. Stranger Things probably fits that.
The Witcher might change things for quality on Netflix.
Netflix shows have high production quality in terms of cinematography, lighting, sound, color, sets, on location etc. Writing and big draw actors aren't there just yet, though they have a bunch of that going and started that way with House of Cards. Stranger Things was new actors except a couple like Winona Ryder, the writing was better and it was successful. Maniac and Sabrina are also pretty good in this area. Bojack Horseman has a cult following. Dark is amazing. Black Mirror was a great acquisition. I Am Mother was pretty good and premiering Annihilation was a steal. Russian Doll was excellent. Animation like Death, Love & Robots, Voltron, Castlevania and more are solid. Those are all the model to go for. What is missing in most shows is writing and casting/actors draw to make a staple series that becomes a fallback like the article mentions.
> Consumers turn to a trusted source when they don’t know what to watch on their streaming service
> Subscriptions like Netflix and Amazon Prime offer plenty of critically-acclaimed, award-winning content. But the thing is, viewers have to pick which movies and series they’ll watch, and observers say many are getting burned out from all that decision-making.
Now with The Witcher the writing is based on a really solid book series, they have a big name actor Henry Cavill that has read the series and it looks great. It could be their Game of Thrones.
Amazon is also trying this with Lord of the Rings and Wheel of Time.
These shows if they are done right, will get rewatched for a long time and draws in the mega fans that are influencers.
Netflix is doing pretty good with stand up comedy, maybe even the leader now. They paid Dave Chappelle and will forever be thanked for that by comedy content consumers.
Netflix and Amazon need some big hits like the coming epics, and they need some good staple shows like the Office, Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn 99 (Netflix should have bought this), Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Friends, Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm and more. When they have that they equal the content competition that has that trusted good quality. They need a few more of these always watchable fallbacks.
They are both still chasing HBO, HBO is still the top in consistently good content and shows.
Personally I love the competition, some real funding and creator freedom is being unleashed, some are big hits, some are average and some not so good, but I like the amount of content and like the vibe of where Netflix is headed. Their new intro splash where the N goes into color bands is even great, matches their really colorful catalog.
I signed up for Netflix because the original (maybe too good to be true) premise was that I'd be able to stream basically everything in one place. The key is that I came to stream shows that I already watched but which had no home on the internet.
Now Netflix is a place to watch shows and movies made by Netflix. So it's like HBO, but more quantity and less quality. My favorite "comfort food" shows like The Office, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, etc are slowly leaving the service.
So I find my Netflix account collecting digital dust most of the time. More and more I find myself liking YouTube TV. It gives me mindless channel flipping, live sports, and the cloud DVR gives me a pseudo-netflix where I have every episode of all my favorite shows ready at a click (I just need to fast-forward recorded commercials).
>People hated being locked into packages and this is basically the same thing - you need the "NBC" package for The Office or the "CBS" package for Star Trek. I can't be bothered to spend all that money.
At this point it is very tempting to go back to good, old-fashioned torrents of TV shows.
Netflix is just getting more expensive and less interesting to me. With all of the content I like being taken off to be hosted on network exclusive streaming platforms that I refuse to pay for - I'll probably eventually just cancel Netflix as well going back to the tried and true method of just buying bluray box-sets of the content I want to watch.
Or piracy.
I think the critical mistake that all these megacorps are making is that people don't actually want to pay for a bazillion streaming services. That's the reason we cut the cord in the first place. People hated being locked into packages and this is basically the same thing - you need the "NBC" package for The Office or the "CBS" package for Star Trek. I can't be bothered to spend all that money.
Netflix was worth it because it made accessing so much content easier than piracy, but with everything getting pushed into a walled garden "package" approach again...piracy will be easier again.
I get HD over the air with less than a dozen chanels, and that's often enough to keep me distracted if I'm not feeling up to playing a videogame or watching a movie.
IMHO, the problem with Netflix is: 1. Too few shows that I actually want to watch: The office, Futurama etc are no longer on Netflix 2. The original content is very hit and miss, and mostly misses. By the time I find out about a series and start watching, they cancel it. They need to realize that it takes time for people to find out about series and at times it can take two to three years. You can do agile dev with content 3. Binging one or two series is fine, but there is very little "weekly programming".Sometimes, I just want to catch one episode of something a week 4. The movie catalog is abysmal, with the exception of the Monty Python stuff 5. The UI is just actively hostile. Let me set my defaults across all shows (no intro, thirty seconds between shows etc)
> "Much of our domestic, and eventually global, Disney catalogue, as well as Friends, The Office, and some other licensed content will wind down over the coming years, freeing up budget for more original content," the company said in its statement.
That's got to win the award for "spin of the year."
I think they're in a world of hurt once Disney+ gets rolling. It's great to have a lot of original content but they just can't seem to come up with original content that has the kind of cultural cachet (established over years or in many cases decades) that these sitcoms, Disney movies, etc. have.
I think the biggest issue with netflix is precisely the lack of things like Friends, Seinfeld, The Office - shows you can watch casually and not have to binge. My wife hates Netflix precisely because she hates binging. She wants to watch sitcoms and shows where you don't have to invest heavily. And you know, so do I. Life is hard enough without having to following tons of different plots lines and having tons of characters always die.
Anyway, we have Hulu now which has gotten quite good. I can imagine cancelling Netflix pretty soon honestly.
“Much of our domestic, and eventually global, Disney catalog, as well as Friends, The Office, and some other licensed content will wind down over the coming years, freeing up budget for more original content. [...] From what we’ve seen in the past when we drop strong catalog content (Starz and Epix with Sony, Disney, and Paramount films, or 2nd run series from Fox, for example) our members shift over to enjoying our other great content.”
> Paid membership grew by 2.7m, less than the 5.5m in Q2 a year ago and our 5.0m forecast.
> Much of our domestic, and eventually global, Disney catalog, as well as Friends , The Office , and some other licensed content will wind down over the coming years, freeing up budget for more original content. [...] From what we’ve seen in the past when we drop strong catalog content (Starz and Epix with Sony, Disney, and Paramount films, or 2nd run series from Fox, for example) our members shift over to enjoying our other great content.
Not sure if the reasons are same or different, but from an American POV, it appears many British TV shows have few seasons, with a few exceptions like ‘The Office’.
IMO Hotstar is not orders of magnitude better in terms of content.
Prime has big sitcoms like the office, 30 rock, seinfeld etc.
Their B&W and 60s/70s movie catalog is also much larger than any other services.
Tangential, but I've recently noticed that due to huge fragmentation in the streaming industry (Netflix, PrimeVideo, Hulu, Disney+ et al.), I'm only using two - Netflix and PrimeVideo, and a third torrent streaming service (PopcornTime) when I can't find a specific movie/TV series.
I prefer to use the third option as few as possible, but I find myself having to use it more and more often as the years go by - geolocked content, huge swathes of content being removed on the whims of providers (The Office comes to mind), and 'originals' that are beyond even the so-bad-it's-good category that cannot even begin to fill the void left by the good content leaving.
I cannot ever see myself subscribing to a plethora of services - the best case is subscribing to a service when it's absolutely necessary (HBO/Hotstar) and then unsubscribing when you're done, which is not at all conducive to fulfilling long-term revenue plans of such services.
So what is the endgame of such services? Is it simply to build a huge catalog of content that you'll mindlessly devour whenever you're bored? Or something else?
I doubt it would. With the increase in subscription services, I've started for the first time in my life buying digital tv shows from iTunes rather than the alternative of subscribing to 5 different streaming services to eternally rent 5 different shows (most of which I'd only want to watch occasionally or when a new season releases). I'm pretty sure I could have a several box sets of different shows for the monthly fees I had spent watching reruns of The Office. Streaming has turned spending $70 for a cable TV package to Spending $15 per month per "channel". Hardly a different or better world.
This sounds like something straight out of the TV show The Office. Goes to show that reality is often more extreme than fiction.
- Avoid all screens / blue light at least a half hour before bedtime
- No phones in the bedroom
- Eliminate light sources in the bedroom.. blackout curtains help a lot.
- No coffee after 2pm
- Lessen your daily stress as much as possible. (everyone is different so this is tough to generalize)
.. one thing that also really seems to help is listening to something while falling asleep. especially, and probably most importantly, something that you've already listened to many times before.
i'm a very light sleeper, and i thought this would never work for me, but it totally does.
I know friends that fall asleep with episodes of futurama or the office playing in the background. I usually choose foreign language audio books that I've listened to many times.
The listening takes your mind off whatever is keeping you awake, and the fact that you've listened to it many times before keeps you from needing to pay active attention.
These days I don't even set my audible sleep timer for more than 15 minutes.
- Last tip is to make sure you have a routine. If you're not going to bed and waking up at the same time every day, it's difficult to develop a rhythm that your body will adjust to.
Maybe I just put too much stock in that one episode of The Office.
Binge reading to me isn't actually good its just necessary to consume information, we do that already with our feeds and sites like this.
With fiction I want to take my time, so no books can wait.
Netflix to me is this generation's radio, its background noise. It produces some good content but we only truly tune in for that release. On most days it's old episodes of the office, fraiser and the west wing.
I watch some movies on there, and it's mostly because I find that Netflix has the smoothest streaming even when my internet isn't great. But it's really about the shows, and even that is taking some serious hits.
I love that I have the Office on demand always, but that used to be true about It's Always Sunny, which is no longer there. So I can't even trust that the shows I keep Netflix around for will still be there. Including their original content like the Marvel stuff. Nothing is a safe bet to stay on Netflix.
Perhaps they’d be able to make living wages by putting their barn on Airbnb. It will be just like that episode of the office.
Yeah. I've been bingeing a few episodes of the office each night for the last month or so. I like the autoplay.
If you look closely enough you can see a clear trend regarding Netflix's content strategy. They will continue to make movies like Bird Box, B-style movies and "cult classics" that they can draw big numbers to via their reach and marketing.
Oscar contenders like Roma and Beast of No Nation (a bit early for it's time if you ask me).
Partnerships with foreign content makers to act as an international distributor (BBC produced, Golden Globe Winner, The Bodyguard for example).
Top quality original TV: The Crown for example, fueled by contracts with big name show-runners and writers to produce them (Shonda Rhymes).
And finally, high value syndication targets (Friends, Mad Men, The Office).
Netflix's content allocation seems pretty clear, the next few years will be optimization at the margins.
Of all the shows you mentioned the only ones I have watched is, OITB (left it at after watching S04 I think), Master of None (both the seasons), I realise that its a drama that leans toward being a rom-com but I do not watch rom-coms at all. Kudos to Mindhunter, indeed that was entertaining and right in my ballpark. Liked House of cards till the time Spacey was there, S06 disappointed me. Season 1 of Making a Murderer was outstanding, season 2 didn't catch my interest. Also the last comedy I watched end-to-end I think was Entourage (which was produced by HBO), The Office (US) and Parks And Recreation, not surprisingly Netflix doesn't stream any of these in my region, Prime Video does the last two and Hotstar streams Entourage.
These are good shows not great ones like The Wire, The Sopranos, Mad Men, BB, Six Feet Under you know about the stuff that critics rave about etc. I don't care if Birdbox was watched by all of Netflix's subscribers, thats precisely the sort of thing that I don't watch the majority of the time, you watch that thing once and you forget that you ever watched it again. I'm now on probably my sixth or seventh rewatch of The Wire, that should tell you something about my viewing habits and why Netflix's content just doesn't work for me. I don't expect a network to consistenly churn out shows like that but at least some of the shows should be somewhere close to that level which HBO continues to do with The Deuce, Succession, True Detective(I know they fucked the dog on S02) etc.
Also you have the time to watch ALL of that, I don't. I work in tech too, I have an hour on weekdays and maybe 2-3 on weekends for leisure, so its only natural that I would be picky about what I watch, the absolute best, currently that would mean shows like The Americans, Escape from Dannemora and shows from the past like Halt and Catch Fire(from AMC), Six feet under, Deadwood which not surpisingly were also made by HBO. Netflix doesn't stream any of that.
I also don't understand how you think AMC won't exist, are they going to be insolvent ? Doesn't look like it, they have a cash-cow in The Walking Dead(I only watched till S06 then got bored) They got two of the best TV shows I liked BB and BCS, BCS is gonna kill it in the next season. They also produced The Terror, a brilliant mini-series which Netflix didn't stream as well and again Prime Video did. As a viewer I don't care about Netflix's subscriber numbers or HBO's lack thereof, I want to watch content I like which sadly Netflix doesn't produce on a consistent basis, this is entirely subjective and I realise that I might be one of the edge-cases in all the millenials when I say Netflix don't tickly my fancy.
I'm not biased towards HBO, hell HBO doesn't even stream in my country, I'm incredibly picky about what I watch since I'm short on time, Netflix churns out a LOT of shows, its only natural that some of them turn out to be brilliant and some of them indeed are, but the rest, like 90% of the shows are just average, they don't work for me, I simply do not have the time to watch them.
In that sense, Netflix is like the Y-Combinator of producing original content. You produce(invest in) hundreds of TV shows(startups) and hope one of them makes it big (becomes a unicorn) and the rest of them, well they would be probably cease to exist after some time.
Asking them an esoteric question will make them uncomfortable but a personal question that addresses specific members of their family by name is going to put them at ease?
This reminded me of the episode of The Office where Dwight steals Micheal's Rolodex to get information on his clients and it leads to him asking, "How's your gay son? ... Tony? The homosexual sophomore?" If you don't know someone intimately don't try to fake an intimate connection. The very next part of this quiz encouraged me to be upfront and honest instead of hiding behind excuses and managerial tricks. What if he were upfront and honest in response to the personal question and told you that his wife calls him a poor father and insults his manhood, are you ready to pivot to that subject? Can you reasonably expect him to answer that question dishonestly and if he needs to do so in order to avoid an awkward conversation then hasn't the question failed its purpose of opening an honest dialogue? What if this is a performance review and the result is somewhat negative? Is he to understand that his poor relationship with his wife had some bearing on his negative performance review? If not then why would you bring it up in that context? A relationship can thrive on one of two things: complete honesty or respectful boundaries.
Maybe I am too sensitive about personal questions but that question doesn't seem appropriate. Also, esoteric conversation starters are great. I would much rather talk about why I would want to be a sunchoke than give a generic response without actually thinking about my answer.
> Do people really use voice commands for, well, anything?
Siri plus shortcuts have made many mundane tasks easier. When I get in my car to come home from work I say "Hey Siri, heading home." That causes my phone to text my wife my arrival time and starts the last podcast I had playing.
It's a simple thing, but is so much easier than texting and then thumbing through the podcast player to start where I left off. I have others like logging my water intake or weight, but it was really adding shortcuts to Siri that made these possible.
Playing music or TV shows is also much easier/nicer. "Hey Google, play The Office on Netflix".
Timers. Another simple thing that is so much easier when you can use your voice when cooking.
The American "The Office" ran about 2 seasons past its sell-by date. Losing Steve Carrel was the point when the show should have ended. There were certainly good episodes after his departure, because he was far from the only thing that made the show good, but we often say, when watching Seasons 8 and 9, "When did this show become a cartoon?"
> I really dislike TV/Anime that never ends, seems to be the modus operandi for pretty much every mainstream show despite how bad the quality gets after 2-3 seasons.
Isn't this an American thing where TV/movie things are primarily for money making?
I mean the British Office had 2 seasons and 12 episodes. The US version had 9 seasons and 200 episodes.
I didn't watch The Office, so I don't know if the US version got worse towards the end, but in general in the US they keep making episodes while the series is profitable, regardless of quality and in the end they usually drive it to the ground.
They just can't stop until there is no money in it. Most of the time they can't end a TV series on a high note.
American sitcoms average 22 minutes. You could binge-procrastinate The Office. ;)
The first problem is that these shows follow the Peter Principle. A show will continue to run until it becomes bad enough to be canceled. This means that many shows will have a bad, disappointing ending rather than a thrilling/touching/moving/memorable climax.
The second problem is that given that the story may or may not have to continue for another season, how can the main characters get any form of meaningful character growth? How can they get closure or a conclusion when the next season is around the corner and either a new problem has to be invented for them or the existing one has to be reopened/continued? This is similar to the problem that "villain of the week" shows suffer from, just on a seasonal rather than episodic basis.
This affects 1-season shows as well since: 1. If they only get one season it may be because they are bad. 2. The 1 season still needs to be written to allow for the possibility of a 2nd season, thus potentially making it less interesting.
Of course, for some shows those things don't really matter, since no one watches The Simpsons, The Office, South Park or Seinfeld for the character growth.
That isn't to say it is impossible to make a good plot-driven show with this format, just harder (and it is the reason why I rarely watch American TV shows).
I mean, what are the ways? If an American show fails, you'll get your beloved 1 season run. If it's popular, it keeps going. What's the problem? The Simpsons and The Office and South Park and Seinfeld all hit their stride at season 3 or so.
It sounds like American networks are flirting with the British way of writing TV.
The British version of The Office only ran for 14 episodes and was wholly written by two people, versus 201 episodes and 40 credited writers for the American version. The original House of Cards only ran for four episodes. Even long-running series tend to be produced in much smaller quantities, because the norm is six episodes per season rather than 22. You can try out a much wider range of ideas if you just make less of each thing. It isn't as immediately profitable, but some of those ideas will become export hits. Not every programme needs to be mass produced.
I think there are a few issues at hand when it comes to streaming services.
1. choice paralysis. There are simply too many options provided to you. One of the reasons I like watching TV over streaming is that whatever on is on. I don't have to "choose" a specific show, just a channel that will play things I generally like.
2. We've seen most of the content we want to see. There is plenty of great stuff on Netflix, but I have watched everything I am familiar with. The Office is great, and I watch it all the time. But I have seen that entire series at least 30 times. I'll flip through Netflix for about 20 minutes just to end up putting on the Office.
3. Content wasn't good before, and it's not great now. If you go watch cable, even with HBO/Starz/Sho during the day it's just movies that have been in theaters. Later in the day they might play their shows like Shameless, GoT, etc. But a bulk of the day is just the same "new" movie on repeat for a month. Netflix has all the same movies for the most part. You watch the movie once, and you're done. Every channel has more bad shows than good ones. Netflix has plenty of great original content, and plenty of bad content. So, it's just the same thing, we just get bored of it because it's on demand and we can have that bad content whenever we want, and we burn out the good content because it's on repeat for a while.
So, I agree. I don't think content is any better or worse than what we got before streaming. Instead we just get a lot more of it, with a wide range of quality, and we can choose when and how often we watch it. So content simply doesn't last us as long as it used to.
I'll be honest: The first time I heard of Hammacher Schlemmer was when Dwight mentioned it in the Niagara Falls episode of The Office. It's pretty interesting to read more about them.
Didn't this happen in an Office episode?
I remember Dwight and Michael arguing in Michael's car over whether the GPS was right as it kept telling them to go right which was directly into a lake.
Party Down. If you like The Office or Parks and Rec, it's kinda like that but funnier. I like them all but I laugh more watching Party Down.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_Down
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Arrested Development. The first 3 seasons.
Master of None. Season 2 is funny. Season 1 is good but not that funny. It's more real and depressing. Season 2 is great, and funny.
I'm not convinced. You don't consume music the way you consume TV shows and movies, it's often a more "passive" activity where you start a playlist in the background while you do other things. You can do that with movie/TV shows of course but a movie will last you ~two hours while a TV show can literally last you days or weeks at a time without input if you really like having The Office in the background while you do other things. Assuming that you can afford buying subscriptions to various services it's not massively annoying to have to use HBO Go to watch Westworld and Netflix to watch Arrested Development. It's not as good as having a unified service but it does the job.
If like me you like composing playlists instead of playing one full album at a time then not having the vast majority of your music available on a single service is a huge deal breaker. When I hear a song out there and I want to add it to my playlist I expect that it will be available on Spotify and the vast majority of the time I'm right.
If I need to go hunt for songs on various services and I can't easily make a single unified playlist with all of it I think it'll be back to piracy for me, it won't be less convenient and it'll be much cheaper.
> People very very infrequently watch the same movie/tv show twice.
While probably true now, this will change over time. Most people I know (mid/low 20s) use netflix as a replacement for the radio - putting on The Office / parks and rec just as background noise while doing other things. Those shows have been on repeat in my house everyday for a few years.
I wonder if network pressure has something to do with the shift as well. A huge part of Netflix streaming is people watching series/old content in the background. I have definitely been guilty of putting the office or always sunny on in the background and letting it ride while I do casual work.
From a networking perspective that is a terrible scenario vs. users actively engaging with a single new episode of some netflix series.
So the article talks about three concepts: “Driverless rooms”, “Lego skyscrapers” that are powered by smart contracts that these driverless rooms park at, and “decentralized cities” that result because these rooms can rearrange themselves on demand.
We can already have a “driverless room”; it’s called a Winnebago. Most prominent politicians, musicians, and celebrities will have well-appointed RVs that carry them around. Even if you take the driver out of the equation, logistical issues abound: Where do you do laundry? What about plumbing? Where do you put out the garbage? I am reminded about that episode in “The Office” where Dwight crams everyone into an overcrowded bus and has them do work there.
Second, the article complains about overproduction and waste, but the proposed solution is to create skyscraper-sized parking lots? Even the picture that is supposed to idealize this shows the lego skyscraper half-empty. How will Bondi Beach look when this monstrosity looms over it?
Finally, moving things around isn’t free. Yes, solar energy and electric cars means that it’s renewable. But doesn’t mean it’s unlimited. We are going to dedicate a large amount of energy generated in moving “mobile rooms” around 24/7 for lots of people. That power still has to come from a power plant somewhere. Life isn’t like AWS; you can’t just spin up a solarpanel2.large.
I know this is essentially a piece of utopian fiction, but there are glaring flaws in this just aesthetically, let alone with other factors.
> replays are rare
Tell that to my wife who has seen every Office episode at least 20 times.
From a 2012 episode of The Office:
Ryan: “I’ve actually done a lot of market research and it actually turns out that southwestern Ohio is going to be the next Silicon Valley. They call it the Silicon Prairie.”
For those not familiar with the episode: the character is totally full of crap; trying to explain that his reason for moving to Ohio has nothing to do with his ex-girlfriend moving to Ohio. Funny to see "Ohio is going to be the next Silicon Valley" come around again (but this time in actual news).
Just cancelled as well. I had queue but it was a bunch of "meh, maybe later". I'd sit there for a while searching for stuff to and often just ended up rewatching "The Office" episodes instead.
I've watched like 4 episodes of the office, but we're talking about the same guy, right? The one who is a middle manager at a small sales office in Scranton? Pretty far cry from growing a company from $0 to billions in revenue, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, and upending a global industry. In 8 years.
Give us a break, it's not a huge no-no. One of the most lasting TV series of all time was based entirely on co-worker romances (The Office). I know multiple girls and guys who met their SOs as coworkers.
You may think it's lame (I do too fwiw), but it's still clearly acceptable almost everywhere, so I don't appreciate your gatekeeping.
You'd almost expect that to happen on an episode of The Office.
That reminds me of the Office episode when Jim wears a tuxedo to work. Hilarity ensued.
The two years I spent in Corporate America on any given day was either living an episode of The Office or Office Space.
People burnt out by fire drills coming from above, scared to use PTO as it was "bad optics", not receiving credit or appreciation, etc.
WORTH REMEMBERING: By nature of an employee showing up daily is to perpetually commit to the job. It is entirely up to person and their risk capacity. Saw a lot of "stuck" people who didn't like their job, but also wouldn't venture out to change that or actually tap into their true potential.
I love Netflix, but they really need to invest in some more depth for the UI.
Let me curate my own lists and my own history per profile, including removing stuff from dynamic lists. I don't want to have to go into my account settings (something only the account owner can do) to remove recently watched items from my account history and then have to wait 24 hours for it to actually happen.
Let me build new lists and manually dump a tv show or movie into them.
Let me search all offerings, sortable and filterable alphabetically and/or by release date.
Let me view my profile's total viewing history if I'm interested. Even for titles that are no longer viewable on Netflix. A neat feature would be to group these by title. So you can show just "The Office" or "Game of Thrones" or "The West Wing", which can be expanded to a list of seasons, each of which can be expanded to a list of episodes, showing which ones I've watched and which ones I haven't.
--- --- ---
As enjoyable and useful as Netflix is, the fact that it still remains essentially a completely non-customizable list of "what's popular" is just incredibly lazy on their part.
There are a lot of facts that need to be explained but I'll try to tell you the ideas in a few paragraphs. I cant summarise a whole stack of books in such a short time.
Representative Democracy: Do you understand by that a contract between people where those who never paid a cent in tax but receive free benefits have the right to vote ? Maybe that will answer the question about how incompetent managers raise to the top.
Business Have you not heard about how the leader of Mozilla? or some other company has been voted out because he expressed his ideas about sexuality ? Or are you not familiar with how a company traded by shares is GOVERNED by a board of directors ? Cisco founder has been fired, thats an example of how elections work in a business.
Maybe you should watch The Office movies to understand how and why incompetent people are given manager positions. Its a comedy and the main actor plays very well the incompetent manager. There are also some serials where voting is involved but the manager does all he can do go his own way.
I purposely do not watch "shows" anymore. I feel like it is a major waste of time. Bingewatching? Really? Only shows like Mr. Robot are worth my time. There is just too much out there.
During downtime, I watch reruns of The Office (US) and Parks and Rec. Both of those shows have no music throughout the show, just dialog. I use that time to mentally relax, but I am not "into" the show, it is more in the background.
Which "The Office" episode did you inspire from:
Episode with "the password"? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GxqvnQyaxs Or episode with"the spy " ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INbuofE_hms
I agree - Netflix is becoming synonymous with binge watching. I've gotten months and months of value out of Netflix with Breaking Bad, Lost, The Office, The X-Files, House, etc... If I had to do the research required to get similar satisfaction out of the same number of hours of movie viewing? Forget it.
Sounds like an episode of The Office!
One of the main purposes of Netflix is to show normal TV shows without commercials, though. And seriously, have you watched anything besides reality TV? The Office? Breaking Bad? Any decently reviewed show in the last 10 years?
> Sometimes the if the back door is closed and I'm not distracted by computer or something he "calls" me to open the door. Subjectively, I get this subtle "ping" that feels like "I should open the door for the cat" so I do and he's there waiting.
I've experienced similar things, as I have both small children and a very fat cat that doesn't like to jump over our toddler gate. I've been playing games with headphones on in an entirely separate room and suddenly felt that the cat wanted me to go open the gate. Sure enough, when I got there, he was waiting by the gate.
That said... I don't attribute this to telepathy. Animals get on schedules after a while, and perhaps it's likely that I merely intuited that the cat was very likely to want to go through the gate at that specific time.
It's like that episode of the Office where they put an increasing number of nickels in Dwight's phone handset over a long period, then take them out all at once and he smacks himself in the face with it - we humans often exhibit behaviors that are primarily driven by unconscious stimuli.
1.No. 2. If you want to understand what sociopats are search for the very long article called, The Gervais Principle according to The Office, its also the comedy movie series, and watch it. Its a pitty it only tells the story of sociopaths within corporations. But there are a lot of sociopaths in Public Sector that we cant escape, Public Administration, Public Education, etc.. look sociopath here:
http://m.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2016/06/06/mizzou-employee-used-stolen-cash-for-dogs-surgery-home-repairs
The author blames the modern sitcom's remoteness from working and lower-middle class concerns with their creators' immunity from the recent recession. In place of everyday situations, we have shows set in "soundstages and writers’ rooms," the haunts of the out-of-touch in New York and LA. So you wind up with a show with this sort of genesis:
Our creator was once a prominent writer and performer on a comedy sketch show, which aired live every Saturday night from an NBC studio in New York. It ran for 90 minutes. After their time on the show came to an end, our creator decided to pitch a sitcom based on their experiences there. The lead character is the head writer on a comedy show, similarly produced in New York. They must balance their work in the writers' room and their personal life, though this turns out to be difficult. A pilot is made, and our creator plays the lead.
Modern viewers may recognize this as 30 Rock, but it is in fact The Dick Van Dyke Show. It is based not on SNL but on a direct ancestor, Your Show of Shows. Carl Reiner's performance in the pilot may have dissuaded executives from casting him in the commissioned series (hence Dick Van Dyke), while Tina Fey remained the lead in her own version. But otherwise the parallel rings a sight near perfect.
The author stumbles over himself insisting, however, that while The Dick Van Dyke Show did not give vent to working and lower-middle class concerns, it did at least feature characters who "had careers" and were definitely of a class. As if the same were not true of shows like 30 Rock (which is at times obsessed with class difference), or of Parks and Recreation and The Office. These do not depict realistic workspaces, but why place that demand on a sitcom? And why not place the same demand on, yes, The Honeymooners, Taxi, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, I Love Lucy, The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, The Andy Griffith Show, and on and on. In all cases the demands of the form—and in almost all cases the demands of overly long tenures—stretched the premises and the rare attempts at realism very thin.
I think you can make an argument that the most popular comedies available right now—whether on TV or at the movie theaters—are unflinchingly escapist. (Though, as the article notes in its discussion of an episode each of Horace and Pete and Girls, this has not gone unnoticed or unremarked by all of the shows' writers. Still, these two are not the most popular things around by any stretch.) Similarly, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were seen to traipse across exclusive resorts, high-class stages, ballroom floors, and Venice, in elaborate dresses and a "top hat, white tie, and tails"—all during the Great Depression. Sometimes hard circumstances produce a public clamoring for comment; sometimes the public just wants a reprieve.
There are lots of prominent counterexamples. The Office was a pretty direct attempt at making a modern middle class show. Breaking Bad at least started with one man's middle class problems.
I think the main artistic factor here is that the sitcom, an awfully convenient medium for telling middle class stories, is dead. A 30 minute comedy where every episode was basically an island could be an oddly touching medium to talk about a teacher dying or a dad losing his job. But these tiny canvases were mostly the result of the constraints of 20th century TV.
Without those constraints, consumers don't have that much interest in slices of everyday life, just as most consumers don't read Raymond Carver stories. Our imaginations go to the rich, powerful and supernatural. I'd argue that other mediums - podcasts, reality TV, social media - fulfill the basic human need behind the sitcom: to simply bask in the company of agreeable/relatable sounding human voices.
"Daryl: Look, this is a marketing campaign. You got nine days. Let's say you do get the money. What are you going to do with it?"
"Ryan: The first lesson of Silicon Valley, actually, is that you only think about the user, the experience. You actually don't think about the money. Ever."
~ The Office, Season 7 Episode 9
My favorite is a fictional one from "The Office" television show in the US. The one where Jim created a program that changed Dwight's name to diapers every time Dwight tried to type his name on his computer! I've been waiting for the chance to do a similar prank
People thought "the office" was funny for the way the characters handled situations with complete ineptitude and their inability to understand conventional norms. I think they should make a TV show based on people trying to handle architecture of Teal. The way it's being described, it sounds like another world; and just as hard to comprehend. Monkeys, ninjas, roles, badges, and the beach...
I was just looking at that $70 million mansion, and comparing it with my $25 hotel room in Thailand. The bathroom here is super modern, and the shower is amazing. Have just spent the last few hours rewatching The Office with my wife. Stuff like that doesn't depend on how much money you have. You can be lonely with billions of dollars, and you certainly have the right to complain about it.
I don't really know if I would be any happier with 17 bathrooms and a home cinema with seating for 30 people. Especially not if you're constantly second guessing your friends' motives when they come over to watch movies.
Yeah, I think I'd probably settle for a $4 million house in a great location. You know, nothing too fancy. Oh, and a jacuzzi way up high with a view of the mountains and the ocean.
More and more people do that, but they don't get mindshare, mediatic exposure. The most common images conjured when one talks job are:
* unskilled people piling on minimum-wage jobs to avoid bankrupcy;
* start-uppers who clock insane hours, in the hope of becoming filthy rich through Google ads revenue on their new "AirBnB for pets" or whatever;
* IBMers (do they still exist as we picture them BTW?);
* jobs of limited interest and impact, done half-arsed if not worse, as seen in tv shows like _The Office_.
The skilled guy who goes part-time because he makes enough working 3 days a week to enjoy the 4 remaining ones exists, but he's not thought about. When his female counterpart is considered, she's typically seen as sacrificing her career for her kids, rather than buying herself time by not working more than whatever she needs to earn.
Hahaha, I was just watching this episode the other day. Youtube video for those that don't get the reference [0], it's from The Office (US).
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytc9-wGCHW0
> Office U.S. and U.K. are really different shows, US Office dropped all pretence of the reality/mockumentary,
Did it? The US office continued the "looks" at the camera, the interviews; at one point the documentary crew was attacked (and it turned out he was in love with Pam), Jim had them make a video for Pam, and the very last episodes were about the documentary airing and a panel interviewing them about how they felt about their lives being filmed for nine years.
You can see that if you look at U.S adaptation of Britain or French series or movies, they often lose the tongue-in-cheek humor (if that term makes sense) in the process.
The Office U.S became great when they stopped copying the U.K version and I don't think it's just a difference of bleakness as the article states.
The elf on the shelf is nothing compared to Krampus. Our culture gets off pretty easy, if you ask me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krampus
(As satirized on an episode of The Office, and as Christoph Waltz recently discussed on Jimmy Kimmel.)
"Krampus is represented as a beast-like creature, generally demonic in appearance. The creature has roots in Germanic folklore. Traditionally young men dress up as the Krampus in Austria, Romania, southern Bavaria, South Tyrol, northern Friuli, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia during the first week of December, particularly on the evening of 5 December (the eve of Saint Nicholas Day on many church calendars), and roam the streets frightening children with rusty chains and bells."
I'm sure that makes for a very merry Christmas! :)
You over-systemize things. When congress subsidizes higher education, no one debates it primarily as needed to prevent horny male youth from revolution, but we are supposed to assume that is the subtext, and is the dominating reason really driving things? Which The Office episode is this from :-/?
The only time I've come across a game of that variation was in an episode of The Office US and that was enough to convince me it was a bad idea.
IF anyone ever watched the office their was an episode where Dwight read "cautionary tales..." (2.18) but he read from a book that I always thought was fake.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struwwelpeter
If you sent a Wuphf (pronounced "woof") to someone, the message went to the recipients' home phone, cell phone, email, fax, pager, Facebook, twitter, and AIM.
The original WUPHF.com beta page is archived at: https://web.archive.org/web/20101122015439/http://www.wuphf.com/beta.shtml
And WUPH.com's business plan is archived at: https://web.archive.org/web/20101122022512/http://www.wuphf.com/investors/includes/wuphf-profit-projections.pdf
On the one hand, WUPH.com was a satire of Silicon Valley in a comedy sketch on an episode of "The Office" called "The Whistleblower" that aired in May 2010. So HootSuite, IFTTT, &c, &c, are all great examples of life imitating art (anti-mimesis).
On the other hand, the WUPH.com beta site mentioned above actually worked, at least for a while, until NBC shut it down. There are a couple of write-ups about this on Forbes:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/oliverchiang/2010/11/19/the-office-spoofs-silicon-valley/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/oliverchiang/2010/11/19/the-next-big-thing-in-social-media-wuphf-com/
I agree completely. If The Office and Parks & Rec had you laughing at the paper business, or town governance, they'd both be done after two episodes. But they give you nuanced characters that you laugh at and care about at the same time.
That said, I do wish Adam Scott were in this show - he'd be pretty great (esp. if you saw him in Party Down, where he played a character trapped in the catering industry).
It was witty, charming, and cringe worthy. Reminded me of The Office. I am probably a sucker for single camera comedies, but it seems worth watching.
It's more than that though. Even if you never leave your country, be it the UK, Brasil, Canada, South Africa, Israel, or Japan, you're going to experience foreign media; American TV shows, movies, music, books, video games are everywhere.
If you're in the US, however, you generally only experience US media; in several cases, US remakes of popular foreign shows (House of Cards, The Office, etc.). A lot of foreign media you don't necessarily notice is foreign, and books, movie posters, and video game covers are modified for US audiences (some would claim 'dumbed down').
Americans only see America through the eyes of America, and the rest of the world through the eyes of America; for example, in Taken, Armenians are shown as kidnapping slave-trading murderers, after all our poor innocent white girls, and the French police chief is shown as a corrupt, indifferent traitor.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world sees the US and the rest of the world through American eyes, but they also see both through the eyes of their own media, which provides them with more of a balanced view, and lets (forces?) them to make at least some of their own decisions.
I like thinking about this question.
I have no experience in this but I'll give it a shot.
The keys to staying healthy are diet and exercise absolutely since they probably with through lunch it would be good to provide your employees a good and healthy, yet affordable lunch. It would be best to ask around to see what your employees would like and maybe set up a catering service for them or order to go from a reputable healthy restaurant, or just have your employees cook if you have the facilities available. Basically just have them eat healthier, gift cards to places like sweet tomatoes might help too.
Next is exercise. I can't help but think of that one 'The Office' episode where they are separated into groups and whichever team loses the most weight win something. If you already have groups at your company, either keep it, or switch it up, but don't put the overweight people together, and groups of 3-4 would be optimal.I like to think that people who don't exercise alone, would function better if they have a goal and have a group to encourage/punish them. But some might oppose as some just refuse to work out. Then there are those who already work out or those who just refuse to, and they can just opt out.
Just my 2 cents as I sit here in my lawn chair.
What you describe in your third paragraph is exactly what was shown in "The Office" episode - "branch closing"(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branch_Closing#Synopsis).
Based on the pitch/plan of the manager of the Stamford branch the C level executives plan to close the Scranton branch and make the manager of Stamford the head of the northeast division. The Stamford manager leverages this new potential position to get a C level position at Staples thus destroying all plans that Dunder Miflin had made.
This example isn't cited in the Gervais Principle series but is a classic example of the sociopath layer devising a heads I win tails you lose scenario
I learned this fact from the temp in an episode of the Office.
In my opinion, Apple receives way too much credit for their retail experience.
Going to the Apple Store is almost always an unpleasant experience. First, the small number of locations means that getting to an Apple Store can be onerous. Moreover, the majority of stores are massively overcrowded. On weekends, I literally can't get into my local Apple Store because of overcrowding. There are simply too many people to physically navigate the store. Imagine riding a crowded public bus. That is the level of crowding.
Moreover, the setup of the Apple Store encourages people to linger and leisurely use the devices. In practice, this means that people (particularly little kids) will spend upwards of thirty minutes playing some asinine game on the display devices. There are no limits enforced, and the chronic overcrowding means that even getting to look at a device is difficult.
If you happen to go during a weekday when there isn't overcrowding, you get overwhelmed by Apple staff. Effectively every time I enter an Apple Store I get accosted by no less than three employees, not to mention the "concierge" that guards the entryway to the store. When shopping, I don't want to be berated by staff. It's very reminiscent of the episode of The Office where Dwight gets fired and takes up a position at Staples. When a woman comes into his department to shop, Dwight stands five feet away from her and just glares at her the entire time.
Deciding whether or not to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on a device is already mentally taxing; having Apple staff constantly interject does not make the experience any easier. I don't think I've ever heard anyone I know speak positively of an experience at the Apple Store, particularly because they feel absolutely overwhelmed by the way the staff treat them.
I'm not sure if these problems are pervasive or specific only to my local store, but in my experience, the notion that the service at the Apple Store is "magical" is downright laughable.
Except "House of Cards" was a political soaper (west wing) with a charismatic anti-hero (the shield, etc.)
"The IT crowd" as a goofy farce had no American counterpart and was pretty much doomed to failure. Better translation examples would be the American "The Office" (based on other office-based comedies) and the American "Coupling" (a "Friends" clone.) "Coupling" failed because the first American episode was nearly a shot-for-shot remake. You might have been able to get away with that in the 90s, but not in the Netflix/Bittorrent era.
From Disney movies to my favorite shows like “The Office” to practically every pop song released, love is constantly sold as an emotion we have before we’re married. An emotion that, once had, somehow magically stays within a marriage forever.
I agree. However I think there is another cause that breaks many relationships: the illusion that happiness in found in the perfection of everything: a perfect sex life, a partner with a perfect body, the stellar job, a sports car, etc. The grass is always greener on the other side.
Very often, happiness can be found in the here and now. Learn to enjoy the small things.
Yeah I think this is covered in the very first episode of The Office: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSibGV5Y_WA
I'm having a hard time believing the post. It's way too entertaining. I feel like I just watched an episode of The Office. Sure there are inefficiencies in corporations, but coupled with this type of storytelling and walking in on a VP in such a compromising position, it just seems scripted.
Not to mention, I was in a similar position for a couple of months. But given that I'm generally a hard worker (much like the guy in the post), I almost went crazy for not doing anything productive and ended up writing code for much needed tools at the company. And I don't think I could put up with not doing anything for that long. So, something smells fishy about this story...
The Phillies 1B played himself in the office, IIRC. He pitched some absurd idea to his marketing guys about a movie wherein he was a super hero. Very tongue in cheek, I found it pretty funny.
Heh, and I thought he was talking about the Phillies slugger. It seems Ryan Howard was the name of a character in the US sitcom "The Office."
Not opining on how good it is: the script matters less than the execution.
Have you ever watched Coupling? It is an extremely funny British sitcom (ignoring the 4th season, which is just "funny", but not as good as the first 3 seasons, with the exception of a couple of episodes).
It was also successful in the US. So, an american version with american actors was made, as is customary (see e.g. The Office, Queer as Folk, Being Human, etc, etc, etc.)
It had exactly the same texts for the expisodes I watched. It had reasonably good actors. But it just wasn't funny. I gave it the benefit of doubt. Then rewatched the british. Still funny. Then the american. Not funny.
(Successful conversions like "the office" go their own way, rather than stay true to the original)
The best script is useless without a matching excellent delivery. And a lesser script is still excellent with the right delivery. (Think about how Seinfeld would look if done by your other favorite comedians who are not Seinfeld/Louis-Dreyfus/Spadowski et al)
I like Mike Judge's past work. I'm going to wait until I see it executed before I have an opinion.
I would imagine one of the writers of The Office is a Scrabble player - this timing is a bit too coincidental.
'za' was added in OSPD4, which was published in June 2005: http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/pr/2005-scrabble-dictionary.htm
Michael suggests ordering some za in Season 2 Episode 13 (The Secret) which aired in January 2006.
Aside; It's funny: I never though anyone actually used the word "za" seriously (for "pizza") until I saw it used in an episode of "The Office." When we saw that, my wife and I burst out laughing. Now we use it all the time ironically. In any event, I love the two letter words. For me, they give the game strategic depth.
Pretty cool. I like the thinly-veiled SEO work in the "See also" section. Smart :)
On a show's page, I'm confused by the "Featured series" button that leads to the homepage as seen here: http://whenepisode.com/coming/t/breaking+bad Since it's a button I thought it would add the show to the featured shows (for my session), but it's just a link.
That's actually a "problem" I've been having with series I watch on Hulu, which made me check my queue every now and then just to see that, no, there wasn't a new episode of The Office this week…
My way to solve problems is mostly through Chrome extensions these days, so, here is the shameless plug for the extension I built: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/qulu-–-your-hulu-queue/iggfkakbafpkgjaocfjaoehcclhcjckb A badge shows you when you have new shows to watch from your Chrome toolbar.
This reminds me of the "Office" episode where "Wuphf" is a Silicon Valley startup spoof. In Ryan's "profit" projections[1] he's asked about his plan for revenue, and he replies:
"First rule of Silicon Valley, you think about the user, the experience. You don't think about the money, ever."
[1] http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wmzwXd31Rw8/UI6hLHjRvnI/AAAAAAAACKY/ko9368dGnx0/s1600/wuphf-profit-projections-edit.jpg
I feel like the points under (11) on page 28 and forward is like a character description for Michael Scott/David Brent or any other office-working sitcom character. This is truly comedy gold.
The show is awesome, if you approach it as a documentary-style sitcom like the Office or Parks and Rec rather than as a reality show.
As a sitcom, the show is pure genious. Especially the last 10 minutes of the second episode, in which the blonde ditz is on a "date" with some nerdy model....
I don't think it's a "reality" show. It's more like a mockumentary style sitcom. I watched the first episode yesterday (a high school classmate of mine is one of the stars). While I appreciate some of the deadpan delivery and spliced-in internet videos, it just feels like it's trying to hard to be The Office.
Wow, that is a beautiful design :)
I wrote something similar for http://giby.tv, though it's not really a core feature for me and it doesn't recognize geographical restrictions, which seems to be a primary motivation for you guys.
You guys make it look easy, but I think there are a lot of subtle gotchas that others might not realize about this sort of TV data, for example:
Different sources of data (Netflix, Wikipedia, Network sites, iTunes, etc) often disagree about what's correct, and there isn't really an easily accessible canonical source. Sometimes an episode will release weeks earlier in one country than another (e.x. Fox recently delayed a new episode of House, despite it airing weeks earlier on another network in another country). Sometimes iTunes will just give completely incorrect information about dates.
Lots of series names are reused by remakes. String matching by series name will often lead to mismatching, for example, the 1961 series of 'The Defenders' with the 2010 series of the same name. Or the US version of The Office with the UK. Sometimes sources will disambiguate for you and append something like (US) or (UK) at the end. Sometimes they only carry one version and don't bother.
Sometimes a series will rename itself after airing a few episodes/seasons, like 'Gold Rush Alaska' -> 'Gold Rush' after the first season. Not all content providers will have the new name.
And episode titles are even worse. If you thought an episode had a single name that everyone always agreed on, you would be sorely mistaken.
Anyway, if you're interested in this sort of thing you might also be interested in tracking new episodes of tv shows at http://giby.tv, or finding links for specific episodes i.e. http://giby.tv/series/House or http://giby.tv/series/The%20Office%20(US) :)
I use Hulu daily, and am a subscriber, and I have to say I LOVE this new layout. I clicked on popular shows. Clicked on The Office. Drop down by season. Zipped through the episodes, and picked one.
I don't think it gets any easier than this.
It also remembered the last episode I was watching above the other episodes. Perfect.
Before, to pick a season, you had to pick 1 or the highest season, then do a strange paging thing to get all the way back to the first episode. It was a mess.
The viewing area is now larger it seems, with more "black" area around it without having to turn on the night vision thing.
At any rate, as an avid user, I think they nailed it.
No bitterness, but intense frustration when usability takes a hit. Based on experience, the bigger preview images and the gee whiz animation will be found to be appreciated among test subjects and the redesign thus proclaimed a success. But the new difficulties in finding shows to watch, and to comment on and thus engage with, will result in fewer views as time goes by.
Animated transitions, slow alpha fade ins for menus and popovers, and huge fonts are the latest design fad and is a must have for 2012 sites. If it makes actual usability worse, it doesn't matter.
This evening I went there, saw a clip for The Office. This caused be to wonder if it had started or was about to start, so I went to the show page. No longer are there air dates shown. The clip I saw that was featured it wasn't clear if it was a preview from the next season or something from the past (I didn't remember seeing it). Went to find the episode list and found it doesn't exist anymore. Went to find discussion to see if others were talking about when the shows start and comments were empty. Couldn't accomplish anything I wanted to. I'm going to say that's a usability failure, at least compared to last year's design. There's a lot of room for improvement on Hulu so a redesign is not unwelcome. It's always been challenging to find what recently broadcast TV shows are available, one has to click on multiple next/prev tabs on multiple layers of sliding shows. But rather than add a list that shows a lot in a compact space, they removed the list from other areas and copied the difficult parts of their site onto the parts that were actually working.
Not all the changes in the last few months are bad. The hover text on the play controls are nice, explaining that clicking the volume icon does mute, and that the round arrow means 10 second rewind. But overall the new design has many things that are a step backward.
> It seems that in UK comedy at least, instead of pitching your show to commissioning editors at the channels, who probably won't understand it, you just make your own pilot
That's less common than people who pitch traditionally, but yeah there are people who do that. I think the reason it works with comedy is that often you can make a good pilot with a tiny budget, and possibly the reason it happens more in the UK than the US is that our (English) comedy is slightly less formulaic and more crazy - subjective point of view, though.
A couple of other examples... American sitcom "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia", the actors spent $200 shooting a pilot that they showed to networks as their pitch. The Office (original UK version) was originally a student project by Stephen Merchant, with Gervais as the only actor in it, and they then sold the show to the BBC based on that video they made. Gervais said in an interview something along the lines of "the BBC never would have bought it based on a traditional pitch because it only makes sense and is funny when you actually see it".
Timing animations with sound really does make a huge difference. The whole experience seems fuller and more well rounded, and it's usually not that hard to do.
Parks and Recreation, the TV show from the creators of the American version of The Office, has an intro that demonstrates this quite well.
The first intro times the introduction of the title text to the first jingle in the song, and then the beats to the frame transitions, which feels playful and fun:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI7f4CgATiE
Then in Season 3, they rearranged the sequence to fit the new characters in, and the whole thing feels boring and out of sync:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTgIJdcIpj0
I literally wince every time I watch it. I've always wondered whether it was the same people that worked on it, and what the story behind it was.
> For example, if the airline wanted to get approval for the iPad, it would have to test the first iPad, iPad 2 and the new iPad, each on a separate flight, with no passengers on the plane.
I still think that could be a great differentiator. "Virgin: We don't care when you use your Kindle. Or your iPad". Too bad it's too expensive.
Also...having to do dedicated test flights seems very inefficient. What if they just bought 100 iPads and gave them to everyone on randomly selected flights? They'd let the passengers use them for an hour (enough to watch three episodes of The Office), take them back for another hour, and compare the radio quality. It'd be great -- they'd get some serious stress testing, have relatively low fixed costs, and it'd make the customers happy. (They could even give the iPads away afterwards to rewards customers as gifts.)
Hmm, I guess it'd be not so cool if the devices actually did cause the planes to crash.
Michael Scott: I want you, to meet my family. Come on. Oscar Martinez, accountant extraordinare, this is Justin. This is Darryl Philbin. Isn't he big? And you already met her, Pam Beesly, office hottie.
Being reminded of an episode from The Office is probably evidence that you're doing it wrong.
Thanks for the link!
I've not only been talking to my target market, but the more I dive into this project, the more I see myself becoming my target market…
I think that I've seen a few collectives run into these sorts of accountability issues, and it would probably be up to the artist with respect to what they'd do for it.
With regards to a TV approach, I already know of two genres with low-hanging fruit: world-wide documentaries/vlogs and talking-head kind of comedy (ala funny or die, parks and recreation, or the office).
I have no idea how to raise money, but I really don't want to raise money until it's already profitable, that way the collective would only be answering to itself.
EDIT: Thinking about it more, a crediting system based on popularity and income could build an incrementally higher fee for making it free, but that money would transparently go into making the production better. Like buying another set for a film, or putting together a music video for a band.
Ok, let's take a crack at this.
1) iPhone as remote: First, they would probably allow iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches to be used as remotes. That would be the recommended use case, and in fact they've already got this with the new iOS5 Airplay:
http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/airplay.html
2) TVs are lean back: Next, the key question is: what is the difference between a TV and a computer monitor? They are converging in many ways, but probably the most important differences are that a TV is lower res, bigger, with less control over content, and situated at a distance. It's a lean back experience as opposed to a lean forward one. So whatever you do with TV has to focus on the lean back/remote control experience. The Airplay link above seems like a real key to this, to make the iPhone the ultimate remote.
3) Show-specific remote control apps: In fact, given that the iPhone's display is programmable, you could make it a responsive remote that changes its UI in response to what's on the screen. So for example, if you are watching the Office, your iPhone's remote app could show the top rated episodes of all time, with comments next to them. Tap that episode to watch it.
Going further with this, basically you could integrate the show website with the remote for a kind of "show specific app remote". You'd want to make this something that wasn't too much of a distraction while watching, but that you used to quickly get to the good stuff or learn more about a particular actor or fact -- or product -- in the show. For season long serial dramas, the remote might also show which previous episodes you should have watched to understand what's on the screen.
4) iTunes+iMovie for independent film monetization: TV content is programmable and you could supply that with iTunes. Hulu, Netflix, and Youtube are also potential content providers.
It might be more interesting if iTunes opened up "show development" in the same way that the iPhone opened up "app development". Make iMovie and iTunes really, really tightly integrated such that it's now incredibly easy for anyone to develop a TV show, push it out to everyone, and monetize it through iTunes.
While you're at it, integrate GarageBand and iTunes to do the same for music. Get all the bands which were internet savvy enough to set up on Myspace and attract visitors, and do the Amazon disintermediation strategy. Basically, allow bands and independent filmmakers to monetize without Hollywood and the record industry.
5) iTV Genius recommendations: one of the most interesting concepts with your super remote would be a smart clicker that would not just change the channel, but would be like a Zite for TV. With a deep knowledge of what you liked and what you didn't like, it'd almost certainly bring up something good.
6) Lean back applications: iTV could also be a deployment point for "lean back apps" beyond standard TV fare which are meant to be controlled with the remote. These could be Keynote presentations, educational presentations, or basically new kinds of apps that are meant to be interacted with at a distance through a smart remote. Again, iOS5's Airplay integration will be the first preview of these sorts of apps.
7) A true universal remote: If people get accustomized to this sort of thing, they'll expect a location-aware remote control interface to a lot of physical objects. This has a ton of potential. Not just for garage door openers and automobiles, but for restaurants, ticket vendors, home automation, and the like. Lockitron sees some of this potential already, I think.
This is just for starters. There's a lot they could do.
They have a pretty good catalog of TV shows - Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Office, etc. Their movie content is pretty poor, but that is mostly the fault of Hollywood executives and their golf buddies at HBO/Time/Warner.
Well written! It's quite a read, but I found it very enteraining and recognizable as well. Especially the descriptions and names, we all have these kind of stereotypes at the office. Speaking of The Office, I can see this being turned into a sitcom a la the office. It would be hilarious if it weren't for the fact that this is reality for you...
All the best with your career, and I'm sure you'll find something soon. Which I'm sure won't be a problem, with the experience you have now.
I spent 20 minutes on Netflix last night looking for one decent movie that I haven't seen. I gave up and watched reruns (hah, deprecated term) of The Office on Hulu.
I hate their new site, I think Qwikster is a good idea poorly executed, but if they have good movies I'll still use them. If they continue to have crap, will cancel my Netflix account sooner rather than later and happily go back to piracy.
There was an episode of 'The Office' where Jim took note of any time Dwight wasn't working. Dwight stops using the restroom in favor of a bottle beneath his desk. He keeps his eyes open while sneezing to keep them focused on his computer screen.
How granular do we get in defining what qualifies as a "work hour"? Do we not count bathroom breaks? The time it takes the computer to warm up? The milliseconds between keystrokes? "Work hours" will always be an issue of semantics. Here's my definition: any time I'm not dragging my feet about accomplishing a work task. Here's my tautological definition of a "work task": a task I perform for work.
Consider the price of The Office Season 1-6 DVD set, $169.99.
Now consider the price of HD streaming The Office Season 1-6 on Netflix, $7.99/mo.
Thank you, Netflix.
http://www.nbcuniversalstore.com/the-office-season-1-6-dvd-gift-set/detail.php?p=282319
I like them because I can decide I like a show like The Office or Lie To Me, and I can watch all episodes, even new ones the day they come out.
This is not true of Netflix or many TV websites.
The distinction between downloading and streaming can be considered odd from a technical standpoint, however I do think that it's much much easier to stream illegal content unknowingly than it is downloading it.
Basically, if you download an episode of a TV show for free, common sense would tend to say that something is fishy: you end up with a file on your drive forever. However, in the case of streaming, I feel like it's much less clear.
Two scenarios: I want to watch an episode of The Office, I google "The Office season 6 episode 3" and end up watching the episode with ads on Hulu. I can also pay a subscription to watch any episode I want.
I then want to watch an episode of Dexter and google "Dexter season 5 episode 3" and end up watching the episode on MegaVideo with ads (for MegaVideo, MegaUploader… mostly) and a daily limit that can be waived with a subscription.
The first one is legal, the second one is not but a non-savvy user couldn't really tell the difference. I don't really have a way to know that MegaVideo doesn't pay the copyright holders with the subscriptions and ads.
It probably hasn't helped that TV can now feature long-running complex shows (Lost, the Sopranos, the Wire, Dexter, Mad Men, the Office, etc) that 2 hour movies can't beat in terms of character exploration and plot depth.
Hulu lost it's place when it basically stopped working at all in Linux. Today I tried to watch the latest episode of the Office. Even in Incognito mode (no personalizations/extensions) the video never loaded, just the gray background across the whole mid section of the page. In Firefox, it played halfway, then skipped to the end-screen, and upon trying to replay, told me that "This video is unavailable. If this message continues, restart your browser".
So I went back to plan A. TPB: "s07e12 The Office", and I was watching it in VLC 7 minutes later.
Pretty much, yeah! When that episode of The Office aired we all emailed each other - it was pretty hilarious. Of course ours was a bit more pragmatic, it would only send to the medium that would best get in contact with you - and you could use it to bulk send messages to your friends. A tool like that doesn't really need to exist in this day-and-age as everyone always has their cell phone and modern cell phones are super-capable.
For reference, the clip from The Office: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytc9-wGCHW0
I'm torn on this issue. If you watch the TED video referenced in the blog post, the YT representative speaks about the JK wedding video [1] as a vehicle for getting the Chris Brown song back onto the charts. She also points out that The Office "parodied" the video for their season finale. I'm seeing a bit of a disconnect here - it's as though she's making an argument to the studios and record labels: let users make use of your content and you'll get free ideas for TV shows and better sales of old songs. Aside from getting on talk shows and raising a small sum for charity, what did the wedding party receive for their creative efforts copied verbatim by The Office?
Perhaps an alternate strategy would be the following: a fixed dollar amount of revenue generated would go to the copyright owner to cover a licensing cost for the content in question, with any additional amount going to the creative individual(s) who in all likelihood have a fair use of the content in the first place. The YT rep speaks of culture and joy, but watching others benefit financially from one's creative efforts is the surest way to smother such expression.
[1] - http://www.jkweddingdance.com/
"I think in ten years the TV show 'the Office' will be seen as a quaint antique."
I think Godin is underestimating how entrenched the idea of an office is in our business culture, even for tech companies. But I would love for his prediction to come true.
On the surface, it has all the makings of a neat sitcom episode.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Promotion_%28The_Office%29
To spoil it for you, the Oscar character summarizes it as: "Look, it doesn't take a genius to know that every organization thrives when it has two leaders. Go ahead, name a country that doesn't have two presidents. A boat that sets sail without two captains. Where would Catholicism be, without the popes."
I haven't had Cable/Satellite since 2002. I started watching all my TV on DVDs that I bought from Amazon, but then switched to iTunes around 2006.
Now it's mostly a combination of iTunes/DVD - I'm pretty certain it's less expensive than subscribing to TV.
The good part of this (and it should be emphasized) - is that you now watch for a _purpose_ - Latest episode of Lost, BSG, Dexter, Weeds, South Park, Doll House, BtVS, Angel, The Wire, DeadWood, Heroes, The Office, Dr. Horrible, Mad Men, Parks and Recreation, Castle, Californication, Dr. Who, Kings, Sarah Connor Chronicles, True Blood, Torchwood.
Any time that might have been lost to just passively watching television, news, is now, of course, lost to passively reading ycombinator, nyt, wsj, groklaw... :-)
This could also be an episode of The Office where Dwight Schrute is put in an hiring position :)
Like most people here, I would love to cancel my cable TV and TiVo subscriptions and just get all my content on demand. However, aside from streaming every movie and TV show, Netflix/iTunes/whatever also needs to nail these two features:
1) Live events. Sports, breaking news, presidential inaugurations, etc.
2) Same day for new TV episodes. I don't want to find out what happened in The Office at the water cooler the next day.
The other hurdle is that the cable companies practically have a monopoly on broadband in many areas. I can already see how the call to Comcast will go.
"You're on the special TV+internet plan, which is $99/month."
"OK, I just want internet now, so cancel the TV portion."
"No problem, that brings your monthly bill to $98/month."
....
Wonderful.
People like to claim that TV is only full of crap. This is grade A, Microsoft-FUD-level, Bullshit.
Like anything, sure, most of it is crap. Just like if you went to a bookstore and picked up 10 random fantasy novels. You might conclude that they're all just cookie cutter pablum - most are - but then you miss out on George R. R. Martin's Song of Fire and Ice, Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana, LeGuin's Earthsea, and other truly excellent works of fiction.
But like anything, it takes some investment to tell the good from the bad. If you just watch Jon & Kate Plus 8, Entertainment Tonight, and According to Jim, yeah, you're better off without the TV altogether. But I claim that there's more good TV being made now than at any time in history, particularly for niche markets.
Here's some of my recommendations: Mythbusters, Penn & Teller's Bullshit, Supernatural, Dollhouse, The Office, 30 Rock, Lost, The Simpsons (not as great as it was, but still fun), The Daily Show/Colbert Report, Mad Men... and more, there's just a ton of really high quality work being done.
If your argument is that instead, you watch things online/through netflix, that makes sense. If I didn't enjoy live sports sometimes, I'd consider doing the same.
Not everyone has to have a hobby of watching television, or movies, or reading for that matter, but the opinion that it's all crap is extremely ill-informed and snobbish, and I strongly encourage it to be dropped as something that makes you sound actively stupid when you say it. It's an anti-pattern.
Comment posted on the site:
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Do you really mean 0.64 cents? As in, 0.0064 dollars, or $0.0064?
If you mean 64 cents, you should remove the decimal point. ".64 x" means "64 hundredths of an x". You wrote ".64 cents" which would be "64 hundredths of a cent", or a little more than half a penny. A dollar would pay for 156 viewer-hours of prime time tv.
I would be more than willing to shell out a penny to watch an episode of The Office without commercials. By your math above, that would be a 36% profit for Big TV.
Why aren't the networks just asking me to chip in a penny per episode that I watch? Better yet, charge me $5 a month to download and watch all the TV I can get my grubby little hands on? Even if I torrent ALL of it, my $5 would have covered the price of admission of every viewer who would "steal" it. It's not hard to provide convenience worth $5. Of course, if you don't mean what you wrote, but actually mean $0.64, then it would cost $500 to make that deal, and I'll just download it from the folks who ripped it from the cable stream.
Whether you mean 0.64 dollars (ie, 64 cents), or 0.64 cents (ie, $0.0064), it would be far more interesting if you cited your source for this information. Your argument seems to hinge on this number to some extent, so it would be far more forceful if you were clear about where it's coming from and what it means.
It's not true that killed stories can't be seen by anyone except the submitter. They can be seen by everyone else who has showdead turned on.
You can easily check whether a site is banned by submitting something from it and seeing if it gets killed immediately. I.e. if it's visible on the new page to someone who's not logged in. (You may have to wait a minute because the new page is cached.) Here is the complete list:
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The great majority are banned for spamming and/or voting rings. Others (like url shortening services, squidoo, etc) are banned because they're often used by spammers. Others are banned for the reasons I listed in that recent essay: linkjacking, being offtopic, or characteristically being fluff.
From the comments:
I watched the movie Idiocracy with you and it hit me in the face as to one potential out come for the human race. But talking about the fact that we don't do physical chores that were done a hundred years ago, doesn't make a lot of sense. After all, things have changed. Those chores are no longer an issue.
I just saw Idiocracy yesterday (ironically, I decided it wasn't worth paying attention to so I played it on the top of the screen and coded on the bottom of the screen), and I think that assuming it's a plausible outcome is kind of silly. I doubt Mike Judge, the director, would disagree. Idiocracy is much more a critique of the present than it is of the future.
This was a terrific article, but there're a few fallacies in your argument. The one that most stands out to me is how you talk about music switching from being active to passive, and therefore taking less effort from the listener. You then bring up rock music as an instance of something that provides a big hit rather than focusing on intricacy.
The fallacy is that in the past, most people didn't listen to concerts. There is a long history of minstrel songs: music played in the street, catchy stuff for the public. The average person wouldn't listen to any concert in their lifetime. This is not a new thing. Furthermore, if you look at how many people travel to concert halls to listen to music, I would bet that more people proportionally listen to great pieces of work like Tchaikovsky or Mozart than ever have in the past. If anything, the trend is that once you have access to things easily, you are more willing to put effort into a viewing than you would be if you'd never been before. (I'm going to the Met to see a Tchaikovsky opera two weeks from now; I never would have wanted to if I hadn't torrented 2GB worth of his pieces earlier in the year.)
"Don't turn that dial!" has become cliche: whatever you do, keep your eyes peeled on this station.
That ignores the rise in TV that's actively challenging to watch. To bring up the two shows I always bring up, The Wire on HBO and BBC's The Office. Neither one is easy and clear-cut. They both attract watchers who are there to be challenged. I've watched the entire Office straight through three times in the way that I reread good books. It's not addictive per se, it's enriching.
Your argument about video games make me wonder how avid a gamer you are. I'm not a huge gamer, but the games that I do like are almost always pretty rich in environment. Portal's the cliche in gaming, and that's a game that's clever, well-written, and encourages lateral thinking. My 13-year-old brother, who dislikes most books and isn't a big math kid, got hooked in Portal's advanced challenges, which really are difficult pieces. Then there're RPGs, the best of which are superb storytellers, there are real-time strategy games, there are all sorts of games that encourage you to actively think. You can't play a game and shut off. You need to focus incredibly. My friends that play Counterstrike are the best proof of this: you need to be a special sort of brilliant to play that game well. It's addictive, but only in the way, again, that challenging books or pieces of music are. It's not a "pop" game.
Of course, I would also argue that VG composers are writing the most sophisticated orchestral music of the day. Listen to Roar of the Earth by Ko Otani if you can find sample pieces. It's rich and complex in the way good classical music is. Plus, it's attached to a video game that's pretty stimulating in and of itself - ever played Shadow of the Colossus? It's one of the few video games I will call an exceptional piece of art rather than merely a game.
(Sidebar: World of Warcraft is an exception in that yes, it's focused on addiction rather than active focus. But what a piece of art it is in and of itself! I've never played, I don't want to get hooked, but they made an entire world! This is like Tolkien realized. One of my future plans is to make an MMORPG in a much more literary sense, and to create an enormous world that really feels like fantasy - World of Warcraft opened that door for me. It's an incredible achievement in and of itself.)
The Internet is addictive, yes - but in what way is it addictive? My friend and I both competed to parody the 25 Things notes on Facebook yesterday - that requires some thinking and creative prowess. Meanwhile, while I spend hours a day in front of a computer, I'm constantly reading articles like this one, and writing answer pieces. I participate in debates. And I've found that as a result, in debate-focused classes I'm leagues ahead of classmates. It's entirely because the Internet gets my mind going. The Internet is not passive. It's not like rock music or TV shows or heroin. It's active. You consciously focus on what you're doing.
People are less fit because less tasks require physical labor than ever have before. That's why society is so focused on being thin. Now, staying fit requires conscious effort. It is no longer a passive task. It doesn't happen during the day unless you choose it to. So in a way, it's a reversal of the ideas that you're stating here. (I keep a 30-pound weight on my desk, and I exercise and have my computer read long posts out loud. It's such a wonderful system.)
Finally: things have always devoted people's lives like this. If I wasn't constantly on the Internet, I would be writing in a notebook, or practicing an instrument. That's not heroin, is it? That's an exercise in creativity. Think of it like that: anything worth doing is worth devoting time to. And most of society will always ignore those opportunities for wasted time. That's nothing new. It's a part of human nature.
You guys should spam a link on Hulu within comments for this Office episode. Keep the buzz going.
Funny, because (as an older article said) Gladwell is Rand's idea of a villain and vice-versa. They've both got flaws, but Gladwell in particular likes to coin phrases and say things that are easy for others to parrot, and this cap rates thing is among them.
This is the country that has spawned the richest people on the planet, many of them from very lowly backgrounds. The most influential web sites on the planet came from the United States. The greatest TV shows I've seen were all but one American, and the one - The Office - managed to at least win Ricky Gervais an Emmy once he brought it over here. Ditto greatest movies. In almost every field, America has got at least a distinctive presence. So obviously some people are escaping the stupid, impoverished culture.
I think that in Atlas Rand does abandon villains, but I feel that's because she's relying on her readers to have read The Fountainhead so we can already understand their justifications. In that earlier book, she spends a lot of time treating her villains with sympathy. She tries to explain why they are what they are. And while I agree that she does simplify in Atlas, I've absolutely met people who have similar mindsets to the villains from The Fountainhead - she's not just making up that type of person, and they often are as vile and as insignificant as she paints them to be.
"[Hulu] can push the latest episode of the Office to CDNs knowing it will generate a lot of traffic. YouTube can only do that in reaction to content that becomes popular."
Isn't that automat{ed,able}?
Totally, plus Hulu has a much easier job. YouTube has to store millions upon millions of videos and make them searchable. Hulu has very few videos by comparison, they can be pre-processed by people who know what they're doing, they know how many more GB of video they'll get each week, they have a pretty good idea of which of their videos will be most popular. . .
YouTube is based off of the unknown becoming known. Hulu knows how much storage it needs, and what's going to be the most popular. They can push the latest episode of the Office to CDNs knowing it will generate a lot of traffic. YouTube can only do that in reaction to content that becomes popular.
It's incredible that YouTube works as well as it does considering the number of unknowns they have to deal with. Hulu has a really easy job adding, say, 100 videos a week.
Cool, now the world won't end until we all get at least a few new episodes of The Office.
"the office" TV series and "office space" are good ones if you want to know what the rest of your life will be like if you don't start a successful startup.