Links and Updates

My ongoing topic of interest (and outrage) at the moment is the dramatic culling of television shows by studios and streaming services, with dozens upon dozens of projects being canned long before their stories are completed. I’ve touched upon this before in other posts, but as the death toll continues to rise, I find myself more curious as to what exactly is going on. Why does this keep happening? (I mean, besides capitalism screwing us all over).

Three possibilities spring to mind. Firstly, that streaming services make shorter seasons which are (usually) dropped all at once. This is in comparison to how we used to watch shows: one episode per week for about twenty-two weeks, during which the actors and writers would have their break and then get started on the next season, which led to a regular output of fresh material.

Audiences would end up spending a lot more time with characters and storylines, not just in terms of run-time, but in getting the chance to percolate over certain events and developments over the course of the intervening week. Now, even the lack of ad-breaks means there’s no chance to have any quick conversations about what’s going to happen next.

When a season of television comes out in its entirety, there’s a certain pressure put on the viewer to watch it all as quickly as possible, lest they are exposed to spoilers or unable to discuss things around the water cooler at work. But watching something in a compressed space of time means there’s no chance to savour it, or give it any degree of thought (don’t get me started on how stuff like TikTok has destroyed our attention spans). It’s in and out of our heads in a flash.

This leads into my second point: the interim periods between seasons are ludicrous at this point. People just cannot retain information if they have to wait up to three years between instalments in a story, especially if it’s a complex one. This naturally leads to other problems, like actors not willing to commit to decades of their lives on a single project, or writers getting tired of material that’s being strung out for an extended period of time.

In fairness, the pandemic and the writers’ strike had their part to play in this, but even projects that weren’t held up are still looking at over a year between seasons, usually to allow for post-production special effects, which take huge amounts of time to perfect – sometimes unnecessarily. We’ve all heard that production studios prefer CGI over practical effects due to the fact animators aren’t unionized, and therefore cheaper to hire.

But by the time these stories come back around, a lot of viewers either can’t remember where the story left off, or have been distracted by all the new and fresh shows that’ve appeared during the interim in the relentless churn of content.

And that’s if the studios even have faith enough in the project to bother promoting it. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard people say they hadn’t even realized a new season of something has dropped. And naturally, this gives the studios the excuse they’re looking for to cancel it, since if it’s not an immediate monster hit, they deem it a failure.

Finally, there is just too much stuff for people to watch. If there were only ten shows in existence, then all of them would get off-the-charts ratings, since the ratio between people and their choices in viewing would be that much more limited. But there are quite literally millions of shows out there at the moment, and so naturally audience eyes are spread more thinly over the material. People cannot watch everything.

Unfortunately, this is not what competing streaming services want to hear. They want all eyes on ONE thing, their thing, and the best way to do that in a competitive market is greenlight a lot of projects, throw it all at the wall, and see what sticks.

They’re chasing the next Game of Thrones or Stranger Things, even though the success of those shows was very much lightning in a bottle and not something you can really anticipate. This mentality ignores that sometimes it takes a while for a show to find its audience, or the possibility of word-of-mouth marketing. And when things are deemed a disappointment right out of the gate and cancelled almost immediately, then there’s no chance at all of it taking off.

In short, this is storytelling under capitalism. It’s always been out there, in publishing as well as television, but streaming has exacerbated the problem, since in many ways it’s an unsustainable business model. At this point, everyone who wants a streaming service has it, which means profits have levelled off. And ironically, with their platforms becoming graveyards of unfinished shows, people are finding less and less incentive to staying subscribed.   

So instead of accepting a regular income and maintaining customers by delivering quality in shows that get completed, companies are demanding larger profit margins, playing the “bet on everything” card when it comes to commissioning shows, relying on recycling old IPs and nostalgia instead of taking a gamble on anything that’s risky or different, and culling anything that isn’t an instant success.

There aren’t stories anymore, only content. Even movies are less self-contained and more franchise-oriented, in which each instalment is just an extended trailer for the next in the series, that may or may not get made depending on how much money the first (subpar) one makes.

Essentially, storytellers are better off making one-shot films or a limited series in order to get the chance to tell their tales with a beginning, middle and end... but of course, studios don't like that option because it destroys any franchise potential. You can't make money from sequels when there are definitive (and deliberate) endings to whatever IP you want to wring money from. 

And that’s not even getting to that whole issue of taking advantage of tax cuts by either pulling shows from streaming services, or making entire seasons of television and then never airing them at all. I can’t get my head around that, but it’s led to the disappearance of the Batgirl movie, of shows like Willow and The Nevers, and of completed seasons like The Spiderwick Chronicles, Star Trek Prodigy and Nautilus being cancelled before they’ve even been released (though I’ve heard they’ve since been sold to other distributors).

Apparently the final season of Snowpiercer has been completed, but there are no plans to release it at all. Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies and A League of Their Own were greenlit for second seasons (albeit shortened) and then not only cancelled, but pulled from their platforms. They were on my watch-list, but because there was too much other stuff to get through, I had to put them on hold. Now I know there’s no point watching them at all.

Edit: Would you believe that the day after posting this I came across yet another example of studios pulling this inane stunt: Warner Brothers scrapped a fully-made movie called Coyote vs Acme.

It's officially insane. This simply isn’t sustainable. Here’s a list of all the shows that have been cancelled this year alone, and it’s telling that most of them are only one or two seasons long (and it’s far from being a comprehensive list). We're at a point where studios hate the fact that to make money they have to tell good stories... because they're utterly flummoxed by the fact that they have to spend money to make those stories. 

At this rate, is it even worth getting excited for Percy Jackson? It’ll probably go the way of the films – making enough of an initial bang to warrant a sequel, and then getting unceremoniously cancelled after the second instalment. Not only that, but according to this Variety article, each episode cost between twelve and fifteen million dollars. I’m sorry, WHAT? How in the hell is a streaming service, with no revenue from advertisers and a bunch of subscribers whose numbers are levelling off, going to recuperate that?

Shows do not need to be that expensive. Is it nice when things like dragons and monsters look realistic? Sure. But things like Legend of the Seeker and Buffy the Vampire Slayer are just as fun to watch for considerably less money, despite their dodgy special effects (and have more episodes, to boot). It’s called suspension of disbelief and using your imagination!

And given the intricacy of the plotting involved in those first five Percy Jackson books (not counting the range of sequel and spin-off series), the whole thing will be rendered a waste of time when it inevitably ends with no definitive conclusion. There is simply no way in hell that there’s going to be five seasons of this show. There just isn’t. Prove me wrong Disney. (They won’t).

Ditto Netflix’s live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender. I am supremely confident that there will not be a second season of that show, and absolutely not a third one. Best case scenario: the showrunners are given advanced warning of impending cancellation and they attempt to cram the last two seasons worth of story into one. Which will render it utter dreck. 

Heck, I even raised my eyebrow at the fact the upcoming season of House of the Dragon is getting two less episodes than its first. That’s never a good sign.

Edit: And I have just this second learned that Shadow and Bone (and its proposed Six of Crows spin-off) has been cancelled. What a fucking joke. I’ll finish up with Disenchanted this weekend and then cancel my Netflix subscription. At this point, it’s just a waste of money.

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Whew, okay. Let’s talk about some other stuff that’s not the grim landscape of storytelling within the confines of streaming services.

Several of the trailers for Disney’s next Princess-themed movie have been released. It’s titled Wish and is apparently about the wishing star that features in so much of the studio’s lore (though as a plot-point it only really turns up in Pinocchio).

This is for the studio’s 100th anniversary, so let’s hope they’ve cooked up something good. From what the trailers divulge, our princess is called Asha and voiced by Ariana DeBose, our villain is mercifully not another Secret Villain and voiced by Chris Pine, and our cute animal sidekick is a goat voiced by (who else?) Alan Tudyk.

Yes, I know the Disney conglomerate is terrible, but I’m still interested in how it exists as a brand – in how it chooses to develop and expand and build on its own history. Just how meta is this film going to go, for example? Is the titular wishing star going to explicitly be the one that Geppetto wished upon to bring Pinocchio to life?

And I can’t help the fact that Disney animation was such a huge part of my childhood, in which anticipation and excitement for each new release was something to savour (I still remember staring at the Mulan poster in the lobby of my local cinema, trying to soak in all the details). That said, I’m reminded of a recent Tumblr post that railed against nostalgia and its inability to recapture the feelings of one’s youth, stating: “you’ll never feel like that again because you’re not a child anymore.”

That’s harsh but true, and I felt the veracity of it in seeing this trailer with my best friend’s girls when I took them to see Barbie. I might be intrigued by the idea of this film, but that overwhelming sense of fascination and exhilaration is long gone. I can only feel the memory of feeling that way.

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Orphan Black is getting a sequel/spin-off series starring Krysten Ritter called Orphan Black: Echoes, which... okay? I know there are several comic books and a drama podcast featuring Tatiana Maslany which is also promoted as the “official continuation” of the show, so I’m not entirely sure what’s going to happen here. Will any of the original cast turn up?

I mean, it looks fine, but Orphan Black was such an incredible show due to the supernatural chameleon abilities of its lead actress, and also came to a reasonably satisfying conclusion. I’m not sure I really want more from this franchise... but you know I’m going to watch it anyway. Eventually.

Then there’s Slayers, a podcast that continues in the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel, bringing back a host of original cast members – most notably James Marsters and Charisma Carpenter as Spike and Cordelia. But wait, wasn’t Cordelia killed off in Angel? I’m afraid my enthusiasm for this project diminished a bit when it was revealed it would at least partially take place in another dimension where Cordelia was the Vampire Slayer (I am SO SICK of multiverses) but in saying that, it’s an opportunity to provide justice to that character in the wake of Charisma Carpenter’s terrible experiences back when the shows were airing.

I’m also curious to see how much it’ll fit in with post-show continuity, specifically the comic books (of which there are many at this point). Didn’t they eradicate all magic at one point? I lost track.

Merlin fandom was excited for about three seconds over the show’s Twitter account reactivating with a post that announced: “we’re back in Camelot,” only for it to soon clarify the show is now available on a streaming service. And honestly, good. I don’t want it back. There were plenty of fun mutuals in that fandom, but the greater part were misogynistic, racist, entitled assholes who spent the entirety of the show whining about Merlin and Arthur not hooking up. I sure as hell didn’t want a return of that nightmare. Besides, what would a return to Camelot even look like? Almost all the main characters were dead by the end of the show, and I’ve no desire to see pathetic hobo!Merlin in the modern day.

The first trailer for Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender has been released, and I mention it only to say that I have no real interest in seeing it. Besides my general dislike of live-action remakes, this sort of has the same aesthetic issues as The Wheel of Time, in that everything looks too pristine (especially the costumes). There is nothing here that wasn’t done first and better in the cartoon, so come February, I’ll settle down for a rewatch.

However, the Zutara contingency are already out in force, trying to manifest their ship into canonicity.

This is my favourite Tweet on the subject:

They get it. 

But whatever happens, I’ll be lurking with popcorn. I'm sorry, but I love this very specific type of drama.

The first trailer for Inside Out 2 has been released, which is surprising since it feels like it was announced just a few months ago. In any case, this is a film that actually warrants a sequel, since following Riley into her adolescence is a pretty ripe premise – but apparently Bill Hader and Mindy Kaling aren’t returning as Fear and Disgust? Why can’t studios hang onto actors these days??

Though Damsel looks interesting:

(I’ve heard about this before, though my head mixed up with The Princess, which came out last year).

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Reading wise, I’m trying to get through the large stack of library books I’ve managed to accumulate. My birthday is coming up in February and it would be nice not to have any due-dates hanging over my head for when I settle down to re-read some of my favourite authors as a treat. But I can’t seem to stop bringing books home from work, probably because I know they have a limited shelf life and can be withdrawn from the system at any time. Sound familiar? It’s like trying to figure out what to prioritize on a streaming service, knowing that things are getting pulled or cancelled on a regular basis.

Oh, the weird pressures of having to carefully curate your reading/watching queue when you just want to relax.

I’m making my way through both Elementary and Legend of the Seeker (there’s no way I’m going to finish the latter before the end of the year, though) and also... The Adventures of Robin Hood! This is the black-and-white show starring Richard Greene that ran between 1955 and 1959, and it’s clear just how much it impacted future takes on Robin Hood adaptations.

And Disenchanted got a proper ending! I’m so glad it got to end on its terms and not Netflix’s, and am genuinely shocked it got that final season to wrap things up (I’m catching up on weekends). And it wasn’t even an absolute must-watch show! I’m just happy something is getting a proper ending!

Finally, I’m listening to a Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel podcast called Hellmouthy on the way to work every morning, and man it’s making want to marathon those two shows. I just gotta get through Legend of the Seeker first. I’ve also been introducing a friend to the BBC’s Robin Hood and we’ve recently finished the first season, though my review/essay on the subject will still be a while yet.

There’s been talk on a third instalment in the Enola Holmes movies. It’s not confirmed like the article says, but apparently a script is being put together, so fingers crossed.

Ditto a standalone movie in the Fear Street franchise. That it’s a standalone piques my interest as it suggests the dramatization of one of the original trilogy’s massacres, as opposed to a continuation of Deena and Sam’s story. That feels like the right way to go, as I wouldn’t want to see those girls put through the wringer again, and there were a lot of past killers with what could have been fascinating backstories featured in the original trilogy.

I hope they tread carefully though, as the lore in those movies was pretty tight, and I definitely don’t want to see a near-perfect story get diluted. This is what our takeaway from the endless regurgitation of franchises should be – sometimes it’s better to leave well enough alone.

Speaking of, Fear and Loathing: Urban Legends and Legacies of Power in Fear Street is a great essay on the power of storytelling in the trilogy and how it’s used as a method of control over the disadvantaged.

I’ve been feeling superhero fatigue for a while now, but this blogpost: Stories Need Endings, is a great explanation as to why the MCU is losing steam. The story is done! We got catharsis and closure and a (relatively) happy ending with Avengers: Endgame, and part of the reason people have been so lukewarm about the franchise’s most recent offerings aren’t just because of “too much of a good thing” or the dwindling quality of the various projects, but because... it just feels over.

See also: Star Wars, a franchise that overrode its original happy ending in every conceivable way (the New Republic was destroyed, the next generation of Jedi were slaughtered, Anakin’s sacrifice to save his son was worthless because “somehow Palpatine has returned”) and Disney's enraging decision to turn our heroes – Luke Skywalker, Indiana Jones, Willow Ulfgood – into miserable, embittered old men. That there’s going to be a Shrek 5 and Toy Story 5 just hurts me somewhere deep inside.

An amazing cosplay of the Queen from Neil Gaiman’s Snow, Glass, Apples.

You’ve probably already seen it, but The Onion’s Conservative Man Proudly Frightened of Everything is so tragi-comically true.

In Praise of Baroness Schraeder, the Subversive Bitch from The Sound of Music.

The White Feminist Lead and her Posse of Colour; a good essay – especially in the wake of Barbie – that points out the pitfalls of having a girl-power white lead surrounded by people of colour.

In Defence of Critique: Let People Enjoy Not Enjoying Things. Amen! (Unless you’re whining about shipping. In which case, STFU).

I enjoyed Naomi Novik’s Uprooted... for the most part. This review very handily explains my problems with the rest of it, namely the downright awful relationship between the main character and her love interest, which is all the more baffling since it’s utterly superfluous to the actual plot.

This very cute review of I Spy Treasure Hunt, one of the seminal books of my childhood, which captures the eerie liminal ambiance of that book.

Cancellation Reiterates Why It’s Hard To Bother Investing In Netflix Shows. Just to finish off with the theme of this particular post.

Now starts the beginning of my three-day weekend, and I’m probably going to spend most of it stewing in bitterness over Shadow and Bone. Apparently the scripts were already written. We were gonna get the Ice Court Heist dammit!!