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Comment by iforgotpassword | Hacker News Reader

I somehow managed to watch 1899 right on release and really enjoyed it, so am really bummed. But a lot of people around me just haven't gotten around to it because of the holidays, and now say the same thing as you do.

And I've heard some fans of DARK saying they just couldn't get into it because it was too slow, but I really liked that style of storytelling.

I just wish everybody and their mom would put on that show now even if they don't actually watch it, so maybe the numbers change and they reverse their decision. I actually took this as the final straw to cancel my Netflix subscription and will only ever sign up again if that show gets finished.

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> But a lot of people around me just haven't gotten around to it because of the holidays

Amazon's the tick was canceled, based on views, before I even got around to seeing it. Media companies need to get it through their heads that we're done watching TV and movies on their schedule. I've got far to much competing for my time and I'll get to things when it's good for me. That's what drove people to VCRs, then DVDs, then DVRs, then streaming.

They're still trying to stuff the genie back into the bottle. They often withhold episodes, choosing to dole them out once a week so they can longer maintain and better control social media coverage/adverting. I already wait until a season is fully released before I start watching (it's saved me from a lot of disappointment already).

> I just wish everybody and their mom would put on that show now even if they don't actually watch it, so maybe the numbers change and they reverse their decision.

Streaming services need to accept that the times and their viewers have changed. I'm not going to let them make me feel pressured to jump on every episode of something I enjoy the moment they release it, and I'm not going to spend my time trying to manipulate their numbers and hope that somehow that gets me what I want. Time is short and I've got plenty of better things to do than play games for the sake of clueless streaming companies.

I get it, from a business standpoint it probably makes sense to do it like Netflix, I guess one huge viral hit still more than makes up for those few enraged customers who cancelled their subscription because some not-that-successful show they got attached to got cancelled for the third time in two years. Because most just default to what the article describes, never touch a new show until it has a couple of seasons or clearly went viral. So worst case we get a race to the bottom, only shows that are the equivalent to a TikTok video that immediately grabs your attention, or viral hits that create FOMO.

> I'm not going to spend my time trying to manipulate their numbers and hope that somehow that gets me what I want.

Well I was half joking there, but it seems like this would be the only way to vote for a show if you don't have the time right now, but would like to watch it later and make sure it gets an ending. I don't know if this would really be worse than not doing it. Getting a show you'd have watched later cancelled, and then rewarding them for that by not cancelling your subscription also seems wrong.

I don't know if it actually makes business sense to do it like Netflix. All the money spend on making a show is basically OpEx rather than CapEx -- each show keeps the lights on for another month of subscriptions, but nobody a year down the line is going to subscribe to watch all the old cancelled shows

If the point was to build up their own backlog of tv shows people watch, they aren't making much progress on that goal

> I don't know if this would really be worse than not doing it. Getting a show you'd have watched later cancelled, and then rewarding them for that by not cancelling your subscription also seems wrong.

this implies that we can choose to "get a show canceled" or not when the truth is we can only make guesses about what might or might not save a show. If netflix posted numbers on how many more views were needed to save a series, just for example, I might be more tempted. As it stands now though, there's no telling what will please them, or if it would matter, so there's little point in trying.

I'd rather continue to use the service I pay for in the way that's most convenient for me and most respectful of my time, and hope that eventually netflix realizes that if they cancel good shows over shitty and meaningless metrics they're not only throwing away the money they invested up to the point of cancellation, but that what they're left with can only hurt them from that point forward.

I've been with netflix since it's early days and while they get closer and closer to making me cancel every year I'm still hoping they do better. They don't really care about feedback though, so how I interact with their service has to express what I want from them.

I doubt that the holidays are the explanation.

1899 released five weeks before Christmas. The peak viewership for a Netflix show is typically first or second week (I guess mostly since the first week tends to be partial) and drops of fairly rapidly.

For comparison, Wednesday released 1 week after 1899, even closer to the holidays, racked up 5x the view numbers of 1899, and even had more viewers on Christmas week than 1899 had in its best.

(For me, it's that the word of mouth on 1899 was not good. The specific complaints people had were just the kind of thing that would drive me up the wall. So while I binged a bunch of shows during the holidays with different subsets of family, 1899 wasn't even in the discussion with any of them.)

Demographics and density matter.

1899 was a detailed slow burn, not something you could throw on in the background while you're doom scrolling and still capture 90% of. Wednesday was a shallow faux-dark drama for the kids on holiday. We watched one episode, decided it wasn't for us, watched one more just to make sure, then never picked it back up.

Minors are where the money's at. Just look at YouTube and Twitch. Content for mature audiences is effectively over.

Edit: I should explain. We preferred to sit down to give 1899 our full attention. It's shot very dark, so we had to watch it at night after work and dinner, and when we were too tired, we waited until the next night to continue. Between holiday planning, wrapping gifts, shopping, travel, and all of the obligations that arose shortly after 1899 came out, we only managed half the season and haven't had time to complete it or any other show since returning to work. 1899 isn't really a show you can watch on your phone while you're brushing your teeth or async with another person, but it's so a bit much to binge.

So, obviously, we're not who Netflix makes shows for. We don't buy merch or follow stars on the social media we don't have. Our interaction is limited to watching and rating in the app and talking to coworkers and family about it.

I guess it's one of those shows you need to mentally prepare yourself to watch. Maybe I'm just trying to make excuses now to feel better, but there's something different about watching a mystery show where I have to pay close attention if I really want to get it, and something like Wednesday which I can watch in whatever exhausted state of mind.

>something like Wednesday which I can watch in whatever exhausted state of mind.

Ironically, everything "mysterious" is foreshadowed perfectly well. They're just using enough Standard Netflix Writing to cover it up at the start.

I do think there is a mood aspect to it. I didn’t watch 1899 right when it came out because I wasn’t ready for it mentally yet. A lot of things I watch around Christmas are lighthearted movies, including a bunch of Hallmark stuff. I don’t have the time or headspace to get to something like 1899, but when I finally did, I enjoyed it greatly.

Where do you get these numbers?

Thanks, interestingly, 1899 is number 2!

Netflix publish them weekly: https://top10.netflix.com/tv?week=2022-11-20

It wasn't on Dark level but it was still good. I was able to finish it within 2 days probably because most of shows nowadays, especially from Netflix wasn't that good.

I can't remember the last time Netflix released an amazing series.

Amazon might pick it up. They also picked up Expanse after enough fan noise.

and then ended it sadly. IF Jeff really wanted to give something back, he'd give us another 20 seasons of the Expanse.

They ended it horribly.

Shit, I'm binging it right at the moment. I guess I'll mentally prepare for a horrible ending!

op exaggerates. it has proper ending. the pace questionable, but it more or less exactly as book. no liberty to make big change in story like other shows do.

It's slow. I love dark, probably my favorite tv show, still 1899 is slow. That being said, it's still looking like an amazing show, I like slow, but it was way too slow, but not to the point of canceling. They would have improved with the next season. Bah, I'm so disappointed in Netflix.

It seems like only books get endings. Isn't there a way to read books in a shared way, like tv, so that I could do that with my wife?

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