Comment by swanson | Hacker News Reader

Comment by swanson | Hacker News Reader

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Most posts about the future of the "Golden Age" of TV indicate that AMC is about to drop off the scene entirely. Breaking Bad and Mad Men are titans but they are on their last legs, Walking Dead has been getting worse and worse. The new goldenboy on the scene is FX but it seems like they have their own plans (they recently segmented into two channels, one for comedy and one for drama).

I am not sure what Netflix gains content wise from buying AMC - they already have rights to Breaking Bad and Mad Men. Orange is the New Black and House of Cards both seem to be better received than any of AMC's new programming (Low Winter Sun is getting skewered by blogs/critics).

I agree that Amazon and Netflix are in the midst of the original content battle. Netflix is taking the analytical approach, whereas Amazon Studios seems to be scaling the typical production process to the web (scripts -> pilot -> pickups).

In the end, I think AMC needs Netflix more than Netflix needs AMC, so I don't see this kind of acquistion happening. But still a fun article to think about. Thanks for posting!

PS If you are interested in this kind of meta-TV stuff, check out Andy Greenwald's stuff on Grantland: http://www.grantland.com/contributor/_/name/andy-greenwald

When you say Walking Dead has been getting "worse and worse" are you referring to the show itself or the ratings? While the show itself is debatable, the ratings are not suffering in the least.

‘Walking Dead’ Season 3 Mid-Season Finale Ratings Top 15 Million http://screenrant.com/the-walking-dead-season-3-ratings/

I was speaking in terms of quality. I think both can fuel subscriptions/customer acquistion. Quality leads to "omg you have to watch this show it is soooo good" and ratings lead to "everyone I know is watching this, I should give it a try"

I think you're really overstating the case for Walking Dead being bad, here. Everyone I know watches it, it's a huge hit. I would agree that it isn't as good as the first season, but it's still better than most shows. I'll be watching when it come back.

This is all completely anecdotal but the general consensus of the many people I know who watch it is that season 3 was mostly terrible, and allowing the Governor to survive the finale was a huge mistake (because the dragging out of that story, which has long ago worn out its welcome in the tv version of it, is a bad idea).

Having said all of that, of the people I know who really follow the show on the creative/biz side are happy that the former show-runner was canned and replaced with Scott Gimple who wrote a lot of the best episodes.

Personally I'm taking a wait and see approach with the next season. If things aren't solidly turned around by the middle of the next season, I'm going to quit watching. I don't want to make the same mistake I did with Lost where I was so convinced they would fix the problems that presented themselves in later seasons that I stuck with it to the bitter end.

I agree, but I would agreed with you at the end of Season 1.

The whole show one bad cry away from being a zombie chick flick. The writing and scenes are just bad, unrealistic(if that quality means anything here, which I feel it does) and just so stupidly emotional.

Ugh, don't people want anything makes them think anymore, this whole mass market shit is catered for those with not so much critical thinking ability. Maybe I'm lacking some emotional intelligence, but wasting my attention on petty and shallow relationships and trying to delay the plot from continuing was acceptable during the Dragonball Z days but not now.

Take an amazing show like Burn Notice and apply that methodology to creating action, drama or what have you. If you look at the plot over the 8 seasons, you will notice for sure that the story cannot really top the first few seasons, but it doesn't matter. The execution of the show is what really matters, and a certain level sophistication, acting and chemistry is important.

These shows lack any direction or purpose and that's important.

Whoa now... spoiler alert.

It was... a while ago now.

I just finished watching my DVR'd copies last week. It would have been a spoiler for me. Nowadays you can't expect for people to watch something even within the few weeks surrounding the original airing. I'm sure that makes it hell for ratings companies.

It would have been nice for a little * spoiler alert *.

Sorry. I'd edit it to include one but HN won't let me.

No worries - it's not that big of a deal. But I think you're right that leaving that character alive at the end of the finale seems messy. I assume that they'll keep playing out the Governor as an enemy for a while. Or maybe he'll just come back in after a season or two hiatus... hopefully that.

I'll still be coming back, but I agree with OP. I think Frank Darabont leaving has led to a dip in quality. Many people complained the pace was too slow in season 2, but it what that "slow pace" that really helped deepened the character development, and emotional impact of certain scenes.

I still watch it, but it's more out of loyalty than quality.

Your points are valid, but the deal might make sense just for the syndication rights to Breaking Bad and Mad Men in the future, possibly as exclusives.

AMC, Netflix, etc. are just licensees of the content. It is just like being the first one to buy a copy of Photoshop, you don't have any influence or financial interests over future sales.

For the rights you describe, Netflix would need to figure out how to buy Sony.

I see. That's an interesting distinction. Presumably AMC exercised some sort of exclusive rights to Breaking Bad? Does that mean that the fact that Netflix has Breaking Bad right now has nothing to do with AMC?

There is a whole web of rights when it comes to media distribution. AMC has the linear rights for Breaking Bad but not the digital distribution rights. Meaning, when you buy Breaking Bad on iTunes the money does not go to AMC. Netflix's Breaking Bad deal benefits AMC in that people can catch up with the show and then watch it on AMC but AMC didn't sell those rights to Netflix, Sony did.

I work in the industry and am happy to answer questions.

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