Episode 143: Netflix Is Screwed

I mean this one's a no-brainer, surely?

The streaming juggernaut that is Disney+ rumbled onto instant global domination in March 2020 and since then it has wound it's content production up to deliver a series of high-profile body blows to the competition in the form of desirable franchise goodies dripping with loving care and high production values. The pace doesn't seem to be dropping, no, indeed, it's picking up. Everyone should be worried.

Actually the two parties who should be worried in particular are the UK's Now TV whose content delivery potential has been stripped back severely losing primary delivery of Disney and Fox content libraries and, of course, Netflix who are now trying to carve out a brand that offers counter-programming to Disney's slate of super-popular franchise fare and edgy drama (on Hulu in the States and inside the Star section of D+ elsewhere). We haven't forgotten Prime Instant Video but Amazon delivers content as an after thought, not as a primary goal, so it seems. Of all these, then, Netflix seems like the one that's in most trouble, Now TV is just an offshoot of a satellite TV provider, Amazon couldn't really care less but Netflix, it has to fight for it's very identity and it can't just be a constant diet of Squid Game, can it?

This week's episode features an excerpt of Lo-Moments by Skipless and bedding music Moon Forest (threads version) by 4T Thieves. Both are licensed under a creative commons non-commercial attribution-based licence. Follow links for more information.

Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/143-netflix-is-screwed/143-Netflix-is-Screwed.mp3

Episode 139: I'll Just Stop At Home Thanks

Following on from last week's Autopsy on all things 2020 we turn to the obvious question. If all the cinemas were shut what did your average cinephile do for entertainment whilst locked up in their homes for several months waiting for an end to the global pandemic?

In Ian's case the answer is "not watch much on telly". In Leo's case the answer is: watch a bunch of stuff that was hurled in our general direction as a way of keeping us distracted as the world collapsed outside the window. So, different approaches, very different. But the underlying question is what did all the streaming services actually do with this literally captive audience? What was strewn before us to while away the long hours? How did the movers and shakers entice the idle and bored into their gardens of content?

It may not surprise you to learn that the answer is... virtually nothing. As you shall discover, not one of these companies really had the muscle to throw out something seriously arresting, compelling and noteworthy during this time. I guess you just don't have to work as hard when you've got no competition. Oh, well, sigh... best wait on for the cinemas to opern up again.

This week's episode features an excerpt of Ego Trippin' by Lo-Fi Scientists and bedding music Mystical Forces by Citizen Crane. Both are licensed under a creative commons non-commercial attribution-based licence. Follow links for more information.

Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/139-will-just-stop-at-home-thanks/139-will-just-stop-at-home-thanks.mp3

Episode 132: There's Something Whiffy About Skiffy

We're unsure which of the multiple dismal Netflix Original SF movies pushed this button, but their roster of misfires definitely made the penny drop. The outburst goes something along the lines of: "Oh come on! What are they even doing, this isn't proper Science Fiction like The Matrix, or 2001, what are they trying to achieve?". Then, of course, you think: "Mind you, 2001 is a bit... slow. But The Matrix? Ah, there's the stuff. Good old Matrix. Sequels drifted a bit of course, but, still, The Matrix. And Predestination. That's a good one, although time travel... isn't that technically more a sort of philosophical fantasy?"

That's where it starts to unravel, Pi? Mathematical fantasy. Cube? Kafka-esque social commentary. Primer? More time-travel whimsy. What movie is *really* pure science fiction. Of course, in both The Matrix and 2001 we have AI and we don't really know how that would work, but we have more of an idea than time-travel. How does paradox work? No one knows, and no-one in our lifetime is ever likely to know.

Eventually, you have to entertain the possibility that SF and film will never have the same happy relationship as, say, spy thrillers and film, or romance and film, or high fantasy and film, or, of course, superheroes and film. The fact is Science Fiction is like an ingredient to a story in some other genre rather than a happy genre by itself. Core SF texts don't really care about character as much as they do ideas, and film needs characters in order to live and breathe.

If you can have a spoiler for a discussion then watch out, because we come up with precisely zero answers for this proposition but we do give it a bit of a kicking. Whether we come back to the topic is down to whether anyone cares to opine whether we're "Wrong on the Internet" about this one. Time will tell, but SF is never going to be happy at the movies. Change our minds.

This episode uses excerpts of User Friendly by Lee Rosevere

Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/episode132somethingwhiffyaboutskiffy/Episode%20132%20-%20Something%20Whiffy%20About%20Skiffy.mp3

Episode 125: Halloween Special - Stranger Kids

It is the weird time, the time of long shadows, where the cold bites harder, above the ragged fingers of blackish clouds claw at the bone-white surface of the moon. It is the time of bizarre happenings, of disquieting omens and of throwback 80s nostalgia weird fiction that you can binge watch on a popular streaming service.

Grabbing the chance as the kids whizz by (you know, on their bikes) those other kids, the ones from the 80s mull over the new hotness of all things 80s throwback. Is the current fad any more than that? Are kids on bikes integral to the vibe? Are these artefacts true to the era, or just fluffy (if tentacly) nostalgia for the time of the 80s? Does any of this matter if we're all having a good time?

Taking in the sights along the way the 80s kids stroll, unaided by human-powered bi-pedal assistance, through the cultural thicket, and wonder what happened to the good old family weird fiction movie of yore. Has the double whammy of IT and Stranger Things created the illusion of a new phase of the 80s culture revival, or is there more to be gained in the future from the neon past of the Goonies, the Monster Squad and, of course, Explorers?

This episode uses Excerpts of John Bartmann's My Time Done Come, available on Bandcamp and used under a Creative Commons License

Direct Link: https://archive.org/download/302HalloweenSpecialStrangerKids/3-02-Halloween-Special-Stranger-Kids.mp3