Netflix: One Day at a Time

[KMan101]

 

Aw  I thought it was a great show. Each their own and all  

 

This. She's excellent.

[DramatistDreamer]

When I took a course on writing the TV sitcom, you learn that the comedy and the pathos are always heightened because the format is so condensed, compared to an hour-long serial.

 

Machado has chops.  Can she sing?  Lin-Manuel should consider her for the stage.  She's small but she has boundless energy.

 

Not every show is going to appeal to everybody.  I hated Full House and rarely thought it funny or entertaining but I respect people's right to enjoy it and was happy for the people who got to see it rebooted for the time.

[victoria foxton]

It's very look at me.  I'm very cutesy pie. I don't know for some reason i don't like her. But you guys enjoy the show. I do hope someone picks it up. It's just my dopey opinion. Maybe i might enjoy it, if they all weren't so hammy. Just because i don't enjoy it. Doesn't mean other people shouldn't be able to enjoy it.  

Edited March 18, 2019 by victoria foxton

[DRW50]

 

If you don't like the show that's fine - lots of people here treasure Game of Thrones but I'll never watch it again. I just replied because I think Justina is one of the things that grounds the show rather than being sugary. Here's one of my favorite episodes (scenes from it, anyway), when Penelope goes off her meds. I'm not posting this to make you watch the show - just to try to show what she brings to the role.

 

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Edited March 18, 2019 by DRW50

[DramatistDreamer]

Ideally ODAAT should've have to option to have been released the way a traditional sitcom was--on a weekly basis.  Hasan Minhaj's Patriot Act is released on a weekly basis.  When you have episodes that are choc-full of content that can get emotional or have intense moments (a la ODAAT) it might have been preferable to allow the viewers to take in one episode per week.   One thing I really resented was how Netflix made bingeing into their model of how successful a show is for the majority of their series television.  It was as if you had to watch at least 5 episodes in one weekend or the show was under threat of cancellation.  Well, I don't like that threat hanging over a show like the sword of Damocles.  I prefer to watch three episodes in a weekend, or two episodes or even one in a weekend, if that's what I feel like doing.  

 

Also, am I really to believe that The Ranch, that Ashton Kutcher series is really doing all that well?

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  I hear almost nothing about that show and haven't for at least a year.  Maybe it's better than I thought.

[DRW50]

 

The only reason I've ever heard of the show is because of the women who had to fight like hell to get Danny Masterson fired.

 

I also hate binging. I loathe it. I'm tired of this being pushed. I don't understand when I see people bragging about how they binged through an entire 8 years of a show in a week. Good for you. What will you remember of it? Anything??

Edited March 18, 2019 by DRW50

[DramatistDreamer]

 

I like Sam Elliott and I Iike Debra Winger.  I could not make it through more than one episode of that show.  I'm really out of the Hollywood loop because until last year, I knew almost nothing about Masterson, other than he was said to be a Scientologist because of that HBO documentary, most likely.  I didn't know that he was a predator.

[Vee]

Yes. This has become much more prevalent for them in the last couple years, and I deeply resent it. I don't binge shows that quickly because I like to make them last, especially when turnaround for production is much longer than it used to be. I understand the nature of the uncertain new media landscape and their evolving business model requires constant engagement but guess what - that's not my fault.

 

I don't mind bingeing when there is a large backlog and more coming soon. But I will never do more than 5-6 episodes of a show within a few days or a week. I don't think that allows time to process and sit with it.

Edited March 19, 2019 by Vee

[Khan]

I wonder if that's (the bingeing phenomenon) why so many shows today are sooooo slowly paced.  Perhaps they don't want to throw TOO much at you since you're watching several episodes at a clip.  Unfortunately, for me, slowing down the storytelling is having the opposite effect: some shows (that I'm forced to watch with Mama Khan because "family togetherness" and all that bull) produce episodes that are so dull (not to mention, so dark and ponderous) that I find I can't finish even one episode before finding an excuse to leave the room.

 

OTOH, could you imagine trying to binge a fast-paced series like, say, KNOTS LANDING, where something big happened in just about every episode?  I feel like the back of your head would be blown off by the end.

[DramatistDreamer]

@Khan I think the model for online streaming has gradually but definitively become predicated on 'binge-viewing'.  At first, I thought that binge-viewing was a gimmick, a way for streaming platforms like Netflix to differentiate themselves from broadcast networks with Netflix's 'all at once' model of releasing episodes.

 

Even though binge-watching didn't begin with online-- it began with DVD release of seasons by popular shows and people's consumption of multiple episodes in one sitting--online streamers like Netflix made it

"a thing" that they could capitalize on by marketing themselves as a platform that allowed subscribers to binge to their hearts' content.

 

I don't really associate terrestrial, network TV as binge-able or promoting binge-watching, I actually think the networks want to promote the opposite-- a SLOW viewing model, where episodes are released one by one and viewers savor them.  I think the episodes tend to move slower these days because executives likely want to the shows to feel as though they are giving viewers a chance to get an "in" to the series wherever they are, without feeling lost, giving the viewer a chance to get acquainted with the show and 'catch up' no matter where in the season the viewer begins to watch the show.  It's more of a strategy to attract new viewers, who generally feel that if they miss the first few episodes, they may not bother to start watching the series--this is those networks' efforts to ingratiate their shows to those viewers.

[KMan101]

 

Yep. I'm not forcing anyone to watch the show either but it's a bit bizarre we can watch the same thing and have two totally opposite opinions, lol.

 

And at the end of the day, it's a sitcom. Of course some things will be a bit hammy. But that's not really this show.

[Khan]

Frankly, Norman Lear's shows tend(ed) to feature a hammy, over-the-top performance style.

[DRW50]

Somebody wrote this scathing article about how unoriginal Netflix actually is, and I agreed with a lot of it.

 

https://theconcourse.deadspin.com/netflixs-bright-future-looks-a-lot-like-televisions-dim-1833056161

[KMan101]

Most of his points get lost but I agreed with a lot of it too. And of course in the comments a slew of people defend Netflix. I've never been gaga for Netflix like some are.

[DramatistDreamer]

Netflix from the mid 2000s to 2014 was a pretty good service, in the fact that you could find quite a few indie hidden gems that you really couldn't find elsewhere.  Over the last few years there has been a big push for big names, in terms of directors and showrunners, not to mention over-emphasis on algorithms and other nonsense metrics.

It happened (in a slightly different way) with terrestrial network TV, it happened with cable TV ("150 channels and nothing to watch?") and it's happening online with online streaming. 

 

Everyone's focused on Netflix because it has become a behemoth but much of the same can be said of Amazon (perhaps on a more modest scale) especially if you go back and read the criticisms of Transparent (even before the sexual harassment scandal), which was at least good.  The Man In The High Castle but does anyone remember Alpha House?  Hand of God? Let's not even get into the stuff with Woody Allen's contract with Amazon, although I suspect the lawyers will get into it as the lawsuit progresses.

 

It's the nature of TV, quite frankly to go through periods of fresh and stale.  There's that old joke (or is it an adage?) about TV being referred to as a Medium, because it is neither Rare nor Well-Done.

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Edited March 19, 2019 by DramatistDreamer