Marvel Studios may be planning more MCU for the small screen

[dansigal]

You can pay for cable with money orders, which you can get with cash at almost any grocery store of sufficient size or places like wal-mart. Once cable is set up, any TV in your house can access it easily (assuming its not a log cabin or isn't a decades old house that hasn't been updated since the 60s). You can have a 30 year old TV that you bought for $5 at a garage sale and it will almost certainly be able to use cable. You don't even need a remote control, you can manually switch between channels. Its very different from netflix, and is much more convenient and cheaper when it comes to equipment you need.

As for DVDs, its like I said. Why should I assume that shows distributed digitally first are made by people that don't hate physical media? People who really like digital stuff do tend to dislike/dismiss physical media.

You can pay for internet access and Netflix with a debit card (and you can do it for significantly cheaper than cable), which you can get linked to any checking account. So essentially your argument has boiled down to "Netflix isn't inclusive enough because it doesnt' cater to be people who don't use banks." There isn't a single argument that you're making that couldn't have been made by people by 30 years ago who only had standard television channels and didn't want to have to pay to watch original programming on cable.

It's also a massive generalization, entirely baseless, and pretty insulting to say that just because someone likes digital media, they most likely don't like physical media.

 

[TemporalFlux]

Where we're really headed is the theater model; they're just doing it slowly. You want to watch the show? You have to come to streaming and give us 5 bucks. You want to watch it a second time? Give us another 5 bucks. There will be no ownership and you'll be milked dry.

When will this finally be achieved? Not soon. First they have to convince the super majority to discard all physical media. It's an acclimation process, and they're working on it.

 

[Pavonis]

But once you subscribe to Netflix, you can watch their shows as many times as you want. That's no different than owning the physical media. They're not going to find shifting to a pay-per-view model successful. Netflix subscribers throw fits when they change the littlest thing and changing their subscription model would not be a little thing.

Anyway, physical media ownership and Netflix subscriptions are complementary. Netflix doesn't provide the behind-the-scenes and bonus material that physical media usually carries. For instance, I only purchase films and television shows that I love, while Netflix is for everything that I like.

 

[Venardhi]

Major media companies shouldn't have to cater to bizarre luddites who refuse to have technology less than 30 years old, or to build up credit.

The 30 years was an example. There are still millions of people like my family. People who aren't rich or tech savvy shouldn't get screwed over by the kind of people who spend there time talking about everything from books to video games will all be digital in a few years and people that hate reading books on a screen or who like actually physically owning stuff they buy are cavemen resistant to change. Luckily they make more than enough money from people like my family that the "digital only" people won't be getting their digital utopia anytime soon.

You aren't being screwed over. The fact that you would rather they didn't make these shows than to make them and not put them on network TV means you're the asshole in this scenario. "If I can't have it, no one should!" Is so pathetically childish I'm not even sure why I'm responding to it. Netflix isn't some strange alchemist's magic only available to city folk with IT degrees who hate physical media. It is 8 bucks a month and available on devices you already own. If you don't want to take advantage of it, then that is your choice and you will enjoy (or not) the results of that decision.

These are shows that would likely not survive on network or cable TV. Even if someone at the big 4 were interested in a Daredevil show, or a Luke Cage show, none of them want to invest in limited run series like Marvel is proposing here, and cable hasn't shown much interest in miniseries of late either. Netflix, HBO, etc. are just about the only options available and that means if you want to see it you have to support those services or wait for wider distribution. This isn't a difficult concept. You aren't the only one who matters in this equation, and as far as Marvel/Disney is concerned, you and your luddite family probably matter less than most.

As far as the parallel conversation here on the content of these shows, I think it is natural that this street-level side of the MCU will be a bit harder and harsher a place. They can make it 'gritty' and 'mature' without making it R-rated. On some level these are people running around beating up bad guys, and don't have the luxury of faceless Nazis or robots like several of the movies have been able to use to tone down the realism of the action; real violence will ensue at some point.

I honestly don't see why this street-level side of the MCU has to be especially family friendly anyways. They make cartoons for the kids, and the movies are (for the most part) accessible to kids, so why not have this corner be for the Dark Knight and Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones crowds? If it doesn't work, they can always be retooled for the movies anyways.

 

[dansigal]

Appropriate: http://www.xkcd.com/1289/

 

[kirk55555]

You can pay for cable with money orders, which you can get with cash at almost any grocery store of sufficient size or places like wal-mart. Once cable is set up, any TV in your house can access it easily (assuming its not a log cabin or isn't a decades old house that hasn't been updated since the 60s). You can have a 30 year old TV that you bought for $5 at a garage sale and it will almost certainly be able to use cable. You don't even need a remote control, you can manually switch between channels. Its very different from netflix, and is much more convenient and cheaper when it comes to equipment you need.

As for DVDs, its like I said. Why should I assume that shows distributed digitally first are made by people that don't hate physical media? People who really like digital stuff do tend to dislike/dismiss physical media.

You can pay for internet access and Netflix with a debit card (and you can do it for significantly cheaper than cable), which you can get linked to any checking account. So essentially your argument has boiled down to "Netflix isn't inclusive enough because it doesnt' cater to be people who don't use banks." There isn't a single argument that you're making that couldn't have been made by people by 30 years ago who only had standard television channels and didn't want to have to pay to watch original programming on cable.

It's also a massive generalization, entirely baseless, and pretty insulting to say that just because someone likes digital media, they most likely don't like physical media.

Its just an observation i've made. People with Ipods seem to hate CD's. People with kindles are dismissive of book readers. Digital people, a lot of the time, act like people who prefer physical media are cavemen and that their digital way of doing things is the best way. Obviously not everone is that way, in fact probably the majority aren't, but there are a lot of people like that.

Also, just checking online, many sites say that millions of people in the US don't have any kind of bank account, much less a checking account. I know my parents haven't used checks in years. Besides, its not just the fact that its extremely difficult to actually give Netflix your money. Its also that you have to invest a lot of money to be able to watch Netflix on anything but your computer. The whole service is, at best, super inconvenient if you're not already one of the super connected people who have a million things connected to the internet already. My family has a PS3, which is mine and my brothers and won't be used for any kind of viewing, and a computer that has to be shared by all four of us. Cable works fine in this situation and is far superior, for us, then netflix is or will ever be, even if we could pay for it.

I'm not trying to say my family isn't in the minority on this, but its a big minority. Anyway, I can't find concrete numbers, but I doubt Netflix is used by even 20% of the country. I think cable users still outnumber netflix users, and probably will for sometime. Which makes it weirder for me that Marvel isn't trying to use the media with the bigger audience.

 

[Christopher]

As long as we're discussing Netflix streaming, I have a technical question: Is there a way to adjust the settings to turn off the thing that automatically shrinks the picture at the start of the end credits? That's really annoying.

 

[dansigal]

That's all completely fair and a much more reasonable point then you were initially making. Netflix doesn't work for you, and there are lots of other people that Netflix doesn't work for either. I get that, and it stinks for people who want to watch these shows but aren't in a position to. But my overall point is, that's no different then many people who can't afford to pay for premium cable channels or just cable at all. You wouldn't make an argument that shows shouldn't be on cable for this reason. In fact, there are a growing amount of people who are financially strapped and choose to prioritize internet over cable, and for those people, Netflix is a cheaper option and they will actually be better served by this decision. You can't please everyone all the time, and that's just the way of the world.

My overall point here is had your reaction been more akin to "this stinks for me because I'd want to watch this and I can't because of my situation" rather than a rant against Marvel, Netflix and definitive statements like Netflix will never be able to do quality programming or the people who made this decision must be stupid or hate traditional media, then I think you would have gotten more people who agree with you and it would have facilitated some more productive discussion

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

Anyway, I can't find concrete numbers, but I doubt Netflix is used by even 20% of the country.

According to Nielsen.com 38% of the people in the United States use Netflix. That was of 9/18/13 so it's entirely possible that number has increased since then.

 

[Harvey]

As long as we're discussing Netflix streaming, I have a technical question: Is there a way to adjust the settings to turn off the thing that automatically shrinks the picture at the start of the end credits? That's really annoying.

I second this question.

 

[kirk55555]

That's all completely fair and a much more reasonable point then you were initially making. Netflix doesn't work for you, and there are lots of other people that Netflix doesn't work for either. I get that, and it stinks for people who want to watch these shows but aren't in a position to. But my overall point is, that's no different then many people who can't afford to pay for premium cable channels or just cable at all. You wouldn't make an argument that shows shouldn't be on cable for this reason. In fact, there are a growing amount of people who are financially strapped and choose to prioritize internet over cable, and for those people, Netflix is a cheaper option and they will actually be better served by this decision. You can't please everyone all the time, and that's just the way of the world.

My overall point here is had your reaction been more akin to "this stinks for me because I'd want to watch this and I can't because of my situation" rather than a rant against Marvel, Netflix and definitive statements like Netflix will never be able to do quality programming or the people who made this decision must be stupid or hate traditional media, then I think you would have gotten more people who agree with you and it would have facilitated some more productive discussion

I get what your saying. Honestly, I do truly believe that this decision was made by people that hate TV/physical media, and I do think the chances of people without netflix ever seeing the shows are 50/50 at best. It is probably Disney/Marvel's decision, not something netflix decides, but it seems like something people in charge would do because, traditionally, those people are fairly stupid. I get why people like netflix, and why its popular. Like i've said, if it wasn't so inconvenient to try to use and borderline impossible for people like my family to pay for, I'd love to have it.

But, I do think its a jerk thing to do and that TV would still be the better place for Marvel live action products. I also still say that I want something to happen to prove to Marvel that TV is the way to go with the shows, and that I think the quality of these shows is probably not going to be very high. I won't be sad if they fail and stop the Marvel netflix stuff, but if they do happen to be good, all I can do is hope for some DVDs. I do want shows with Daredevil, Luke cage, etc to be done well and work, but I don't want the netflix shows to set a precedent and make it so Marvel characters are never tried on TV. So, I'm really of two minds about it. On the one hand, I want awesome shows about characters I enjoy. In the other hand, if it makes it so that Marvel doesn't try anyone else on real tV, I'm not a fan. As much as I would legitimately enjoy Luke cage, Iron First, Daredevil and even Jessica Jones shows, if it stops Marvel from trying to make real TV shows, it just might not be worth it from my perspective.

 

[sojourner]

"hate", you keep using this word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I wouldn't be thrilled if it was only available on Hulu or Amazon or some other service I don't currently subscribe but I wouldn't say it was a "jerk move" or not "real TV". Why not just say "I wish it was available on a source I have" or something to that effect.

House of Cards and Orange is the New Black are coming to DVD, I would imagine it's
very likely this will as well.

As long as we're discussing Netflix streaming, I have a technical question: Is there a way to adjust the settings to turn off the thing that automatically shrinks the picture at the start of the end credits? That's really annoying.

I know you can cancel it but I don't think you can prevent it. Ideally they could add that as an account setting.

 

[Turtletrekker]

House of Cards and Orange is the New Black are coming to DVD, I would imagine it's
very likely this will as well.

I'm going to go out on a limb and call it an absolute certainty. DVD and Blu-Rays are too integral a part of the current studio business model to even consider otherwise. Even if the shows flop, video sales are a way to re-coup losses, and I doubt highly that these shows will flop. Dunno if they'll be ratings blockbusters, but they won't flop.

 

[Christopher]

^Right. Like I said before, most shows don't make a profit in their first run on television -- they earn it back over the following years in home-video release, or in syndication back in the old days. This is nothing new.

 

[Captain Craig]

True, they aren't the names that pop in my head when I think "Defenders":

My Defenders

1. Dr. Strange- Slated for a solo film, IIRC
2. Sub-Mariner-Ditto
3. Hulk-Tied to the Avengers feature
4. Silver Surfer-Part the FF licence
5. Nighthawk- C lister, but why not?
6. Valkyrie-Might be a good tie in to the Thor films

I know right?
Look, as many variations of the name that have existed there are a lot characters that were honorary Defenders for an arc or what have you. Which is where DD falls, he's been an honorary Avenger as well. Heck Luke Cage has been more Avenger than anything the last decade but people who know comics(which is participants in this discussion) have to admit that "honorary" aside the Defenders association isn't even the first or second team group you think of.

Heroes for Hire
Avengers

Those two are.

I will say that The Defenders is a more noble-sounding name than Heroes for Hire. Heroes for Hire, at best, sounds like Jim Rockford asking for his fee up front and, at worst, a strictly mercenary organization that won't save people without money. The Defenders sounds more like they're doing it out of a sense of obligation. The only problem I have with the name is that it sounds too much like the Avengers.

That's true enough, can't argue against that logic and it my indeed be partially why.
Which on the flip side to your "problem" with the name is also a reason they may see it as a pro quite possibly. A linking by potential viewers of Avengers to Defenders, on paper, sounds like a good call.

 

[cylkoth]

As long as we're discussing Netflix streaming, I have a technical question: Is there a way to adjust the settings to turn off the thing that automatically shrinks the picture at the start of the end credits? That's really annoying.

Sadly, there is no way to turn that off. It bugs the heck out of me as well, as I don't like having the end credits cut off-some movies have end credit content, plus the cast credits can sometimes not be readable...and for tv shows, the auto play next episode, I'm not always interested in having the next episode play immediately.

You have to manually arrow up to the video window and press Enter to have the credits play full screen. Then try and rewind-but if you go back too far, the picture gets shrunk back into the box again...Many have complained, but thus far, they've shown no interest in tweaking this to make it an option that can be switched on or off.

Honestly, I do truly believe that this decision was made by people that hate TV/physical media, and I do think the chances of people without netflix ever seeing the shows are 50/50 at best. It is probably Disney/Marvel's decision, not something netflix decides, but it seems like something people in charge would do because, traditionally, those people are fairly stupid.

Your statements continue to confuse. What we're all trying to understand is why do you feel this way after being shown that dvd release of pay tv programming is standard practice and has been for years.
Are you getting hung up on the streaming aspect of Netflix' delivery, vs ordinary cable? Many people do. Netflix' Streaming service, is simply put, a pay television service no different than HBO or Showtime...with the only difference is that Netflix does not program a schedule. Other than that, it acquires content, and operates in exactly the same way as a cable based pay service.

I get why people like netflix, and why its popular. Like i've said, if it wasn't so inconvenient to try to use and borderline impossible for people like my family to pay for, I'd love to have it.

It seems the more we try to show you that it isn't inconvenient or complicated to obtain, the more you convince yourself that it is and impossible for you to have...If you can buy a money order to pay a bill, you can buy a prepaid debit card (basically a plastic re-loadable money order) to pay an online bill. Easy peasy...

But, I do think its a jerk thing to do and that TV would still be the better place for Marvel live action products. I also still say that I want something to happen to prove to Marvel that TV is the way to go with the shows, and that I think the quality of these shows is probably not going to be very high. I won't be sad if they fail and stop the Marvel netflix stuff, but if they do happen to be good, all I can do is hope for some DVDs. I do want shows with Daredevil, Luke cage, etc to be done well and work, but I don't want the netflix shows to set a precedent and make it so Marvel characters are never tried on TV.

Was it a jerk move for MGM to sell Stargate SG1 to Showtime, where is ran for 5 years on a season exclusive basis, beyond the reach of non SHO subscribers, who had to wait a year to see the past season sold into syndication to local tv stations? And it didn't run in every city in the country, so those who lived in area where no station bought it, missed out until the dvds were released. Did that derail the production of other series, or discourage others from being made?
Just honestly trying to figure out where this all comes from, and try and help you see that there's nothing to fear or worry yourself over.

 

[HaplessCrewman]

As long as we're discussing Netflix streaming, I have a technical question: Is there a way to adjust the settings to turn off the thing that automatically shrinks the picture at the start of the end credits? That's really annoying.

What really annoys me is not that the picture shrinks or that the next episode starts but that the opening credits for the next episode are omitted!

This happened while I was watching the 1960's Mission: Impossible TV series. Does anyone else notice this?

 

[cylkoth]

^ Yes...shows without an opening teaser, go straight to the first act. If there is a teaser, and a ''previously on'' recap, the recap is also by passed and it starts directly with the teaser. I hate it.

 

[Harvey]

I've noticed it happening on some titles. On others, it doesn't seem to happen. No idea why it's so inconsistent.