Tag: streaming

“Historic” Watch: HBO’s Rome @StreamOnMax #GoodWatch #HBO #Rome #RayStevenson #tv #television #RIP

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Ray Stevenson’s death has inspired many articles on his career. I read a couple and saw that he had starred in HBO’s Rome. It’s a show I’d (somehow) never seen, so I decided to binge it this past week leading into the Memorial Day weekend.

Despite strong liberties taken with actual history, it’s a pretty good show that, as far as I can tell, reflects Roman life accurately and is both well-written and well-acted. So, it’s surprising it lasted only two seasons. One article explained that: It was simply too expensive for its time; they couldn’t afford to make more episodes.

As always, YMMV. R.I.P Ray Stevenson

The best part of the show was the name of season 2, episode 4: Testudo et Lepus. Go Terps!

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Playback Speed Controls #media #streaming #Netflix #Hulu #Paramout #Disney

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Google chrome is my browser of choice, and it has several plug-ins that allow you to control the playback speed of certain streaming services, which are Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and Hulu for me. Netflix requires no such plug-in because it has the feature built into its platform. Apple TV is my only platform that doesn’t have an associated Chrome plug-in, though I get the impression that, like Netflix, its proprietary streaming software includes it. I wouldn’t know because I’m a PC guy. MACs are for people that to use computers without knowing how to use computers.

PC users are so cool.

Enough insults. My observation is that the speed at which TV shows and movies are presented is too slow for me. I often use 1.25x speed when watching a show even if I’m not in a hurry to get through it (though sometimes I bump it to 1.5x). My mind wanders if I watch them at normal speeds, and there are some shows that I would never have finished if it weren’t for being able to watch them at a higher speed. Maybe I have undiagnosed ADD. I don’t know. I’m not going to diagnose myself.

I don’t have this problem with my Paramount+ shows, which right now are Star Trek: Lower Decks and the new Beavis and Butthead. I have no idea if there’s a plug-in for Paramount+ because I have yet to need one. I also haven’t had the need to use the plug-in for Disney+. I’ve watched all the MCU and Star Wars series that have come out and not once noticed a problem with their pace. Maybe those shows are just better written. Or maybe I’m weird (maybe?!), and these plug-ins exist because people’s time to watch shows are limited.

Could be both.

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Episode Lengths

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A while back, I talked about how much I liked Bloodline but had no intention of watching any season beyond the first. The show suffered from what many shows do: The slow burn. Broadcast shows have a formula. I don’t know the details, but I think 30-miunute shows are about 20 minutes of content, and 60-minute shows are about 40 minutes of content. The rest of the time is for commercials placed at specific points in the story. There are good reasons for that, but it creates an artistic problem. While episodes may be part of a larger story, each episode must be self-contained in the sense that a particular segment of the story must be told over the course of that episode. The result is that the writers sometimes must fill shorter story segments with meaningless filler.

With content that was created for streaming, the reasons for those traditional episode lengths and commercial placements aren’t strictly required. They make sense if you want to someday sell the material to a broadcast network, but if they aren’t required, then they should be ignored for the sake of the art. How valuable is syndication of you can’t get people to watch even the first season? I grow tired of it even though I’m an old guy and am used to it.

Look at the result where the artists don’t care about these restrictions. The Mandalorian does a lot of things right, so it’d probably be a success anyway, but creativity takes precedence. Any given episode needs a particular subplot told and action sequence shown. It does so, and then the credits roll. If that means the episode is appropriately 20 minutes long, that’s how long it goes. If that means the episode is appropriately 40 minutes long, that’s how long it goes. No one gets bored because there isn’t any useless filler added. Everything you see matters.

I hope that originally streamed content takes this same approach. If so, I expect the quality of the writing would inevitably improve. Of course, some writers are better than others, so this is just one factor in keeping my attention, but there’s a logic to this one.

I’m not an industry insider. I merely know what I like.

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