(no subject)

[olivermoss]

* The fic posting streak continues! Chapter 3 of Sharkskin is up. Hopefully, that whole parts reads like I hope it reads. It would have been better if I'd worked on it last night as planned, but I got caught up in some GW2 because some guildmates were on and working on the same achievements I am working on.

* New camera battery is arrived, charged and installed. Now to see if I have any more problems.

* I was thinking that this is my first time really engaging with Stranger Things fandom. I was wondering if the theorizing was usually this wild (and sometimes disconnected from the canon. Half of why I am doing a rewatch is because I am double checking that certain things did and didn't happen.) Then I realized that ST had always dropped in a single swoop before so the fandom was sort of... not really there in the way I am used to interacting with fandom. This is the first time where there is theorizing, memeing, writing and arting mid-season.

I vastly prefer one episode a week, but also SThings makes for a good binge, especially the first season. S1 dropping out of nowhere and watching it with 0 expectations because there had been 0 trailers is still one of the best TV show watching experiences ever. But that also helped usher in the age of the 'full season drop' which I am pretty much not a fan of in any other context.

I do think that the full of half season drop can be good to head off fandom wank. For a canon returning after a looong hiatus, like Leverage, binge drops can be a useful tactic.

* I keep wanting to abbreviate Stranger Things as ST, but that is Star Trek. So, SThings?

Comments

[mistressofmuses]

Congratulations on continued fic posting!

I very much hope the new battery fixes the camera issues.

I'm torn on whether I like being able to binge shows vs. watching an episode a week. For a while I definitely fell on the "please just give us the whole damn season! This isn't network TV!" side, but now... If it's something you care about, there's a lot of pressure that you HAVE to binge it right away, or else something will get spoiled. With an episode a week, while you still probably need to watch it quickly if you're in fandom and want to avoid spoilers, that's less daunting than having a whole season!
The episode-a-week format also does allow for more fandom interaction, because you have a chance to pick apart each episode individually, as opposed to only being able to see it as a whole.

To be fair, the issue for me is probably just that I'm personally Bad At Shows. Unless it's something I'm *very* into, I forget about it on a weekly schedule, probably because I'm not really in any applicable fandoms, so there's no social buildup for it or anything. But I also don't especially *like* the experience of binging most things; I feel like I miss things, and struggle to appreciate individual episodes or remember which events happened in which episode... I get sidetracked and distracted after more than about three or four episodes, even with something I really enjoy.

But you're also right - having at least a few episodes at a time can head off some wank and build more interest right away. I think Hulu does that with some of their series - 3ish episodes at the season premier, one per week after that. (Though those are also the ones I'm then least likely to remember to come back to tbh.)

[olivermoss]

I just can't keep on top of binging shows. I will watch old stuff that fandom has moved on from, but full season drop shows never create the sort of buzz that lets me know if I should check them out. I'd need to check them all out... and who has time for that? So I tend to ignore most full season drop shows.

Yeah, I can see watching at your own pace being a good thing. I just forever want shows to be serialized, start in fall, and for it to be 2005 era LJ fandom where we post episode reactions weekly. I also just tend to be happier if I have weekly show.

[mistressofmuses]

That's true, too - the episode-at-a-time is much easier to judge the tone and get the benefit of fandom buzz to determine whether it seems like something I'd be interested in. Fandom chatter IS often what gets me interested in a thing. (And may be part of why I'm often SO BEHIND on anything resembling fandom, lol.)

I wonder if that's part of why so many Netflix shows (with a few exceptions, like Stranger Things or Umbrella Academy) get so LITTLE in the way of fandom buzz. There are other exceptions, but there are so many shows that I just... genuinely never hear anything about, and didn't realize existed at all until there's sadness about a cancellation or something. Netflix has been bad about advertising too, certainly, but I guess the full-season drops don't help. If something doesn't take off right at the premier, it kind of doesn't have any chance.

I do so fondly miss mid-aughts LJ fandom. I wasn't even IN any show fandoms at the time, yet I often knew what was going on in various series tangentially. (It was closer to 2009/2010 when I had a roommate and a friend group into SPN and so had more of that "scheduled fandom" feel.)

[olivermoss]

With full season drops there is rarely any metas or talking about the show because people move on so fast. No one reads anything. It can use useful if you want to squash fandom reactions, like with a revival show or anything Star Wars. But yeah, I prefer my watching spread out and to be a chance to chat about things.

I don't care how good some shows are. Unless they very specifically cater to certain things I like I am likely never going to watch them. I feel sealed inside a bubble with certain full season drop shows. I can watch it, but then no way to chat. I don't care how good Russian Doll is. It's not worth my time to watch. Sthings is the only show I think is often improved by being able to binge, just something about the structure. And s1 is such a good experience. I am glad S4 is broken up. I would have been fine with 3 drops, also breaking at episode 4.

I think Netflix is going to pivot to more promo now. They just haven't had to. So much growth with barely any ad budget until now. There are doing some NetflixGeeked thing with now where they are releasing bunch of interviews and materials about shows, but I am only even seeing the Umbrella Academy stuff so far. Actually, I did see the Sandman trailer that came out today. Today is UB, Sandman and some other stuff. Thursday is Stranger Things day.. oooh...

But a lot of things listed, like The Midnight Club, I don't even know what they are.

The listings: https://about.netflix.com/en/news/everything-to-know-about-geeked-week

[mistressofmuses]

Ah yes, I can see the appeal of squashing down fan reactions for Star Wars shows, lmao.

I feel like it's been so long since I was into anything that was actively airing, that I sort of forgot how different it feels when people are engaged with it episode by episode rather than as a whole season. (I watched it happen when my entire tumblr flist exploded with OFMD, which I still haven't seen any of, ha.)

Knowing a series is good before getting into it can be nice - I've avoided getting into series that I know would ultimately have disappointed me. But... idk, you mentioned Russian Doll, and kinda same. I keep hearing how it (or a dozen other shows) are SOOO good! But... watching a whole season of something is kind of a high bar of entry, and even if it IS good, there's not a lot of active enthusiasm for it in a fandom sense, so it's hard to feel much desire to watch it.
There are a few exceptions that keep up fandom momentum in between seasons, even when the seasons drop in one chunk, but that's kind of an exception rather than a rule.

I saw people talking about the Sandman trailer - I'll need to give it a watch. (I'm trying not to get TOO hype in case it sucks, but I am excited for it.) I'm kind of glad they're doing more advertising, and I hope that they do a decent job of spreading the attention around. I know that was a frequent issue with shows that got cancelled quickly - people didn't watch them, because no one KNEW about them.

Was The Midnight Club one of Mike Flanagan's shows for them? I know House of Usher is, but I thought Midnight Club was, too?

I'll have to check it out in more detail - appreciate the link!

[olivermoss]

Oh, yeah, it looks like The Midnight Club is upcoming from Flanigan. That's confusing since his last project was Midnight Mass and these seems unrelated. It's an adaptation though, so the name is baked in.

I'll watch Sandman, but I am not going to get hype or be cynical. There have been attempts to adapt it for literally decades. Netflix is pretty much the only place it was ever going to happen.

[mistressofmuses]

I feel like that title similarity threw me when I heard about it, too. But makes sense for an adaptation, I suppose. I'll tentatively look forward to that, probably.

Yeah, I know Sandman has bopped around in various pre-development stages forEVER at this point. The comics hold a special place for me from when I read them in high school (and should probably reread...). But it's true - the current era of streaming shows is about the only time it could have happened. I'll watch it, and I hope it's good, but I can't let myself get too excited for it either, haha.

[olivermoss]

I feel like Netflix studios took on a few projects no one else could have done. Their production process is just really different at times. They are more willing to go all-in on shows having distinct flavors and not trying to broaden the appeal, which can dilute an IP and actually wind up messing up the themes and plot.

[mistressofmuses]

It's true! It's unfortunate that some of their proposed "changes" to make the platform more profitable sounds like it may nix a lot of those "wouldn't be made anywhere else" type projects (though it may be mainly targeted toward their animation studio, at least initially). I do realize that capitalism and artistic vision are going to be at odds pretty frequently, but sometimes it's neat to see projects come about that would probably never have otherwise found a place.

[olivermoss]

Yeah, it's too bad about a lot of that. But Netflix had decades or meteoric growth and then ran into... Russian sanctions. For all the online political/woke babble about Netflix what really happened is that almost all the closed accounts were Russian and they lost that growth market.

They were going to hit a growth wall anyway, but that meant it came a lot faster than anyone expected.

[mistressofmuses]

It's true - the idea that the growth should continue on the same exponential increase forever is just... well, not that different than the (impossible) continual new influx that crypto requires. Hooray for capitalism, baby!

But yeah, that was definitely a wall they hit a lot sooner than expected, with the Russian market pretty suddenly closing off.

I think some of the wank about proposed changes was wildly overblown, but I think some really is a shame, and is for the worse overall. (Though again... I mean worse artistically, but the financial part is the part that "matters".)

[olivermoss]

Yeah, the changes got overblown because everyone want to try to act like it was a 'get woke go broke' type situation and 'real america' was dropping them, which is ironic because they were obeying US sanctions!

[mistressofmuses]

Right? Ugh, sick of that particular tepid take, which I keep seeing repeated.