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andreasklinger

I think the perfect example is "The Expanse"

- Easily the best sci-fi show in 10 years(1)

- Latest season has a 100% score on rotten-tomatos

- The visual effects are absolute top of the art (2)

- The fanbase is franticly close to the show (look at twitter how much they interact w/ the cast etc)

- Season 3 and we are about to start the big turn of the story arch

BUT… Canceled by Syfy because not enough people catch it at the time they happen to transmit it into the air.

If this show would be on Netflix it could become on of the defining sci-fi shows of our generation. Now we have to hope Netflix or Amazon happen to pick it up before the team disperses. (3)

(1) seriously watch it… the first few episodes are a bit slowish worldbuilding but it gets really good

(2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yKn_EqA0ik (shitty rip unfortunately)

(3) Please sign: https://www.change.org/p/netflix-or-amazon-please-buy-the-ri...

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While I love RottenTomatoes for Movies, I find it abysmal for TV Shows. Here are some shows with a >90% score:

- Almost all seasons of Supernatural

- Seasons 3 & 4 of Veep

- Seasons 4, 5 & 7 of New Girl

- Season 2 of The Flash

- Season 2-4 of Arrow

Now I'm not saying that those shows are all shit (tho they are certainly not in my ballpark), but I doubt anyone thinks of them as 100% shows, in the same sense that Moonlight is a 98% movie.

The problem comes with few reviews (which is also a thing with more niche-y movies), which is probably amplified in later seasons, where reviewers who don't like it stopped watching.

To a far greater degree than the vast bulk of movies, TV shows, especially genre ones, spawn pretty fanatical followers. And, as you suggest, rather than ragging on a series for wasting 2 hours of their life, they just stop watching.

Among the series you listed, I see several that, for me, were basically meh superhero shows I might have watched an episode of and then tuned out. There’s too much good TV for me to bother with stuff that I suspect I’ll be indifferent to in the 5 hours or so if TV I watch in a week.

It's been on Netflix outside the US and Amazon Prime in the US since season 1. You can't blame this one on the lack of a streaming option.

Edit: Wow, those are some fast downvotes. Here are sources if you don't believe me

Amazon Prime acquires US rights in 2016: http://archive.li/yc23D

Netflix acquires international rights in 2016: http://archive.li/Ww3Z0

In all fairness, they’re just distributors in this case and don’t hold the purse strings. It seems like a fairly dysfunctional distribution arrangement all around.

I agree with what I think your broader point is though that a second tier cable channel like SYFY is probably not in the position to produce expensive fairly niche programming any longer.

Minor correction: Syfy doesn't produce The Expanse.

The Expanse was entirely conceived, financed and produced by Alcon, an independent film production company. Outside the US, Netflix has the exclusive distribution rights, and in the US, the show is also carried by Amazon. Alcon also produced Blade Runner 2049 and Villeneuve's earlier film Prisoners.

No doubt Alcon needs someone else to pay for the distribution rights now, and I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up on Netflix or Amazon, both of which are pushing sci-fi pretty hard. Amazon would be a good fit: The Expanse was co-produced with the Sean Daniel Company, who are also working on the new adaptation of The Witcher, and whose new production startup Mythos recently signed with Amazon Studios.

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