Hidden Gems of Amazon Prime instant videos

Sydhart wrote:

Started watching Good Omens and really digging it so far. Only through episode 1 but I really like the narration and the acting is superb. The sets and cinematography are spot on as well. I think this is going to be a good one.

Just watched the first episode, got a real Pushing Daisies vibe from it.

Hobear wrote:

Dammit sneaky Pete just got canned too. So tired of getting to a 2nd or third season then everything getting the axe.

Hobear wrote:

Dammit sneaky Pete just got canned too. So tired of getting to a 2nd or third season then everything getting the axe.

Guess I'm not going to be able to sell you on Wolf Hall, then.

Hobear wrote:

Dammit sneaky Pete just got canned too. So tired of getting to a 2nd or third season then everything getting the axe.

The bizarre part is how often they are cancelled mere days either before or after the next season drops. As if they decided internally to cancel it before even seeing viewership results.

Articles I read stated the streaming services judge success on how many new subscribers a show brings and after three seasons a new fourth season is not a selling point to new customers. Existing subscribers want it sure but you already have them. Cancelling and spending that money on another show that will bring new people makes sense if you goal is signups, not retention. I don’t like this model either...

New shows help retention more than renewing old shows, too.

But hey, we are killing off the format that resulted in long running TV shows, because ad supported TV is the devil. Enjoy!

Yup.

If you can forgive the annoying website, this Deadline article explains the phenomenon pretty well. It's specifically about Netflix, but I would assume the Amazon situation is fairly similar.

https://deadline.com/2019/03/netflix...

LeapingGnome wrote:

Articles I read stated the streaming services judge success on how many new subscribers a show brings and after three seasons a new fourth season is not a selling point to new customers. Existing subscribers want it sure but you already have them. Cancelling and spending that money on another show that will bring new people makes sense if you goal is signups, not retention. I don’t like this model either...

Also explains why you can never get a good deal as an existing subscriber with your cable company. They only care about new subscribers, and the only way to get a good deal after that is to cancel for at least a month, and come back, which seems short-sighted.

It's worth mentioning that season 3 of Sneaky Pete ends in a very nice place. After it finished I thought everything has been tied up and it would be hard to top what happens to the Bowman family in season 3 without breaking the world. Sometimes it nice to have a series end.

zeroKFE wrote:

Yup.

If you can forgive the annoying website, this Deadline article explains the phenomenon pretty well. It's specifically about Netflix, but I would assume the Amazon situation is fairly similar.

https://deadline.com/2019/03/netflix...

That article does make some good points, but can anyone explain to me the "I hear..." mantra of its author? It's so bizarre that I found myself questioning: 1) is this author credible? (the points are largely cogent, otherwise) or 2) Is this actually written by AI?

By the end I thought the author was maybe channeling some kind of PostModern affectation or writing a strange new kind of poem. A full 30-40% of the sentences in that thing have "I hear..." as the main subject/predicate. So strange.

Yeah, I took it to be a less formal way of saying "sources that wish to remain anonymous" or "sources speaking on background only." I'm not familiar with the house style at Deadline, so I don't know if it's that author or that site or what, but I do believe they are at least a moderately respected outlet covering the entertainment industry.

DoveBrown wrote:

It's worth mentioning that season 3 of Sneaky Pete ends in a very nice place. After it finished I thought everything has been tied up and it would be hard to top what happens to the Bowman family in season 3 without breaking the world. Sometimes it nice to have a series end.

I was flagging on season 3. I’ll try and get it watched now you’ve said that.

I've been trying to push through Bosch because I respect a lot of the people in this thread who are really high on it. But I don't think I can do it. It's got the politics of an 80's action movie. The press is always bad, Internal Affairs are traitors, the cops always have their hearts in the right place, even when they're stepping way over the line, killing people, etc. It's a throwback, but not in much of a good way by my standards.

I'm not judging anyone who likes it, but if you were put off by the first half hour or so, I'm not seeing it getting any better a couple hours in. And moreover, I'm not finding it to be a good enough procedural to overcome all that.

Also, how does this LAPD detective live in what appears to be a 15 million dollar home in the LA hills? I feel like you probably want to address that pretty early in if you're the showrunner for this series.

kazooka wrote:

I've been trying to push through Bosch because I respect a lot of the people in this thread who are really high on it. But I don't think I can do it. It's got the politics of an 80's action movie. The press is always bad, Internal Affairs are traitors, the cops always have their hearts in the right place, even when they're stepping way over the line, killing people, etc. It's a throwback, but not in much of a good way by my standards.

I'm not judging anyone who likes it, but if you were put off by the first half hour or so, I'm not seeing it getting any better a couple hours in. And moreover, I'm not finding it to be a good enough procedural to overcome all that.

Also, how does this LAPD detective live in what appears to be a 15 million dollar home in the LA hills? I feel like you probably want to address that pretty early in if you're the showrunner for this series.

I hear ya. I'm able to shut my brain off and ignore lots of the aspects you bring up just because I like the style of plot and filming. I am actually surprised I've been able to enjoy the last couple seasons since it's a cop show.

The fancy home is explained because he apparently sold some movie rights to a true life story.

It's explained in the first series I think. Bosch worked as a consultant on a TV dramatisation of one of his cases.

While Bosch is portrayed as being a maverick but always having his heart in the right place, later stories do deal with corrupt cops and honest lawyers & politicians.

I haven't read the books, but my impression is the TV series does a better job of giving the side characters like Irving their own narrative to put their interactions with Bosch into some kind of context.

kazooka wrote:

I've been trying to push through Bosch because I respect a lot of the people in this thread who are really high on it. But I don't think I can do it. It's got the politics of an 80's action movie. The press is always bad, Internal Affairs are traitors, the cops always have their hearts in the right place, even when they're stepping way over the line, killing people, etc. It's a throwback, but not in much of a good way by my standards.

After my original inquiry on the last page and the praise it received, I've been working my way through it. I think I'm somewhere in-between: it's decent but not mind-blowing.

I definitely get that feeling you have. It's certainly old-school and formulaic - I feel like Bosch's hunches always end up correct, the dramatic tension with his immediate family and co-workers always ends up at 11 at some point, and about 80% of the time I figured out the next clue about 30 minutes before he does so you kind of always know where the story is ultimately going. On the other hand I just finished Season 4 so it must be compelling enough for me. Part of it is I've been watching a lot of heavy and/or depressing stuff recently so it's a good break for me. I also really like how every season is just one case so there's a lot of investigative work that's interesting to me.

I will say that as the series progresses it gets a little bit better with the internal politics stuff, even within the first season. You see Bosch face his hypocrisy as he deals with colleagues who also feel like they are justified crossing the line and trying to defend why he's supposedly better than them, and a lot of issues getting thrown under the rug for strategic reasons or for the city to save face. It's still a bit much that anything racially charged ends up being an honest mistake with the LAPD of all institutions.

It doesn't help that the guy who plays Irving played a similar role in the greatest cop show ever made, begging comparisons.

So, I guess what I'm saying is it improves as the series goes on, but I can't guarantee it will be enough for you.

kuddles wrote:
kazooka wrote:

I've been trying to push through Bosch because I respect a lot of the people in this thread who are really high on it. But I don't think I can do it. It's got the politics of an 80's action movie. The press is always bad, Internal Affairs are traitors, the cops always have their hearts in the right place, even when they're stepping way over the line, killing people, etc. It's a throwback, but not in much of a good way by my standards.

After my original inquiry on the last page and the praise it received, I've been working my way through it. I think I'm somewhere in-between: it's decent but not mind-blowing.

I definitely get that feeling you have. It's certainly old-school and formulaic - I feel like Bosch's hunches always end up correct, the dramatic tension with his immediate family and co-workers always ends up at 11 at some point, and about 80% of the time I figured out the next clue about 30 minutes before he does so you kind of always know where the story is ultimately going. On the other hand I just finished Season 4 so it must be compelling enough for me. Part of it is I've been watching a lot of heavy and/or depressing stuff recently so it's a good break for me. I also really like how every season is just one case so there's a lot of investigative work that's interesting to me.

I will say that as the series progresses it gets a little bit better with the internal politics stuff, even within the first season. You see Bosch face his hypocrisy as he deals with colleagues who also feel like they are justified crossing the line and trying to defend why he's supposedly better than them, and a lot of issues getting thrown under the rug for strategic reasons or for the city to save face. It's still a bit much that anything racially charged ends up being an honest mistake with the LAPD of all institutions.

It doesn't help that the guy who plays Irving played a similar role in the greatest cop show ever made, begging comparisons.

So, I guess what I'm saying is it improves as the series goes on, but I can't guarantee it will be enough for you.

Bosch is that really good gut-bomb cheeseburger in that really sh*tty dive bar that you only swing by once a year.

Started Good Omens and did one episode each the last couple nights. Quirky tone and pretty funny.

Tennant is awesome as usual.

He definitely has swagger on those hips.

Im re-watching Stargate Universe and really enjoying it again. Towards the end of the 2nd season they're really finding their stride, which is unfortunate since the show was already doomed at that point. They were writing good sci fi storylines. They had a great cast of characters, they put aside some of the overly dramatic-for-the-purpose-of-being-dramatic conflicts between science/civilian/military interests.

I count at least 3 actors who became main characters in Travelers and several who had meaningful roles in episodes. Must be a product of shooting in Vancouver.

I am rewatching Psych. Just a fun nice show and plenty of episodes for good background while half doing other things. If you are looking for something like that, give it three episodes and see if it sticks with you.

I discovered they are making a second movie too!

Started watching Grimm, pretty good so far.

For UK gwjers, they have just added all of Justified to Prime. In case you are missing Timothy Oliphant in a cowboy hat after the Deadwood movie.

My standard disclaimer with Justified is watch until the episode with the dentist, it gets good.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

Started watching Grimm, pretty good so far.

There’s apparently a spin-off series with a female lead in production.

ruhk wrote:
Baron Of Hell wrote:

Started watching Grimm, pretty good so far.

There’s apparently a spin-off series with a female lead in production.

! Trouble?

Dr.Ghastly wrote:
ruhk wrote:
Baron Of Hell wrote:

Started watching Grimm, pretty good so far.

There’s apparently a spin-off series with a female lead in production.

! Trouble?

That's the obvious guess but there hasn't been much news since it was first announced, at which time there weren't any actors attached yet. They did say there would be some recurring characters from the original series, though.

ruhk wrote:
Dr.Ghastly wrote:
ruhk wrote:
Baron Of Hell wrote:

Started watching Grimm, pretty good so far.

There’s apparently a spin-off series with a female lead in production.

! Trouble?

That's the obvious guess but there hasn't been much news since it was first announced, at which time there weren't any actors attached yet. They did say there would be some recurring characters from the original series, though.

Yeah, last I heard the actress in question wasn't going for that role again. At least not in the MC capacity.

Halfway through the first episode of Madam Secretary. Seems smartly written.

DoveBrown wrote:

For UK gwjers, they have just added all of Justified to Prime. In case you are missing Timothy Oliphant in a cowboy hat after the Deadwood movie.

My standard disclaimer with Justified is watch until the episode with the dentist, it gets good.

What a great show. I remember that episode. Always fun for that actor to pop up.

I was interested to read this review of Nicolas Winding Refn's 'Too Old to Die Young', especially the part about how Amazon is apparently burying it on Prime Video--they released it last Friday but have done no advertising for it, you can't browse for it, you have to search for it.

Things this show has going for it: Co-written by comics writer Ed Brubaker, whose work I love; I thought Drive was a cool looking movie; the article describes it as similarly bizarre, idiosyncratic, Extremely This Director work as Twin Peaks: The Return was, which even if I ultimately found that show pretty disappointing (a debate for another thread, I'm sure) I found totally fascinating to watch.

Things this show has against it: its "glacial" pace and long (looks like ~70-80 minutes on average) run times; my general perception that Refn has not made any good movies other than Drive; the impression that Refn is way up his own butt here, including his declaration that you can watch the episodes in any order and his raising the extremely tired "It's not a TV show, it's an XX hour movie" line; the fact that it sounds like this show needs all kinds of content warnings for different types of unpleasant content.

Weighing both, this sounds like a thing I will hate, and yet it also sounds like something I will be really interested to see. I'm in for at least one episode.