For the Yanks feeling guilty about watching the Screener

[kidgloves]

Redemption

http://www.amcspreadthedead.com/

[Legion2213]

I bet that every single person here who watches this screener will follow the series proper, I would go even further and predict that every person here will own this on DVD/BD within about a week of it's release.

[MoonSylver]

Am I being dense, or is this just something they're doing get people to help spread the word. I didn't see anything about watching the actual 1st episode. Or am I missing something? :rockbrow:

[kidgloves]

I bet that every single person here who watches this screener will follow the series proper, I would go even further and predict that every person here will own this on DVD/BD within about a week of it's release.

Oh. Thats a given Legion.
I'll be rewatching Nov 1st in HD courtesy of the interwebs. Then Nov 5th again to support it. All episodes will be kept in my library until the blu is released and anyone who hasn't seen it, who knows me, will be subjected to showings in the home cinema until they succumb.[COLOR="Silver"]

Edit for Moonsylver

Yeah. It looks like one of them Twitterythingys

[Danny]

the leaked pilot on the net was a way for everyone to watch it free. like the old saying goes "the first taste they give you is always free" this leak was an inside job to generate mass marketing for no cost. we did it for them, then we all watched it and who wasnt sold on the whole series? theres why it was leaked, they will get more people watching now than if it didnt 'leak'.

[MoonSylver]

the leaked pilot on the net was a way for everyone to watch it free. like the old saying goes "the first taste they give you is always free" this leak was an inside job to generate mass marketing for no cost. we did it for them, then we all watched it and who wasnt sold on the whole series? theres why it was leaked, they will get more people watching now than if it didnt 'leak'.

Opinion, or do you KNOW something...? :rockbrow: Enquiring minds wanna know! :D

[JonOfTheShred]

the leaked pilot on the net was a way for everyone to watch it free. like the old saying goes "the first taste they give you is always free" this leak was an inside job to generate mass marketing for no cost. we did it for them, then we all watched it and who wasnt sold on the whole series? theres why it was leaked, they will get more people watching now than if it didnt 'leak'.

Ya know, I kinda have the feeling you might be right. It feels like they were extremely confident in the end result of the pilot, enough so to let it circulate on the net to generate a good deal of buzz. Now lets hope it works and the show gets a dozen seasons

[CooperWasRight]

I personally don't think it was leaked on purpose... This is a screener copy. Some journalist who got a screener decided to upload.. Simple as that.

Most artist don't want the first experience to be of shitty quality when revealing there work. And networks much like music labels aren't smart enough to use the net in this way. Execs are just to stupid and disconnected to get this kind of publicity... The would hire a pr firm to come up with an idea... And it would simply be "Let's leak the screener we sent to the press"??? If they were gonna do it on purpose why not leak a quality version... Many people are turned off by lame quality screeners... Critics are paid to watch it.....All just my opinion though.

[ProfessorChaos]

what i don't understand is this: if it was a journalist who uploaded his screener copy to the internet, why did he only upload one episode? the disc that lee and other got with their press kits have 2 episodes on a single disc, so wtf?

[JDFP]

I don't get AMC (I have limited basic cable, which means I get like 13 total channels which works fine for me because I'm not shelling out $$$ for shitty stuff I wouldn't watch anyway) but I will re-watch it again on Fancast or HULU or Netflix or someplace that actually "tracks" your watching for show statistics so the network knows how well the series is going. Eh, I figure I can do that much even if I have to deal with a few annoying commercials.

I don't see the point in 2010 to spend money on cable really. You can find every show on the net within a day or two of its being released and you can always get the series later on on Blu-Ray/DVD if you want it bad enough. Cable is really, well, becoming obsolete.

I wouldn't be surprised if in another 20 years "traditional" television as we know it (i.e. network and cable) is no longer in existence.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dRBhMWxpNjM/TJNYiVeDbQI/AAAAAAAAADs/1_KDv9HwHcE/s1600/065G-1.jpg


"Cable television come forward! You are charged with being obsolete by the State!"

j.p.

[ProfessorChaos]

i came to the same realization earlier this fall, jp. you get decent rates for year, then BAM! shit nearly doubles. and with only a handful of shows worth viewing these days, i'm not paying 60 bucks a month to flip through 70 channels of garbage programming.

[CooperWasRight]

Im not there yet as there are a few shows I still watch... But I now only subscribe to premium channels like hbo and showtime when the shows I watch are on... Like Dexter and things like that.

When HD rips are more easily available without having to re codec for my xbox/ps3 im sure I will drop cable all together... Thank god for TeamPS3.. On the other hand I feel a little torn as if there are now subscribers the is little reason for advertisers to pay and in which case gives little reason for the networks to spend money on high quality programing.

[Wyldwraith]

Well,
On the one hand I totally agree with you. TV is currently dominated by imagination-devoid spinoffs of Law & Order and CSI. Once you add in Without a Trace, The Closer, Cold Case Files, Criminal Minds (the only one I can watch, personally), you're into the A&E cop shows. Criminal Minds reruns, American Justice reruns, The First 48, Dog The Bounty Hunter. Then on to the Animal Planet Cop Show, Animal Cops. Back down to USA for JAG reruns, NCIS reruns/new episodes, Numbers reruns. Etc etc.

Beyond these you have the endless mindless reality TV shows. For God's sake, Survivor is down to grubbing for ratings by inviting back every Anti-social, borderline personality with sociopathic and/or sadistic tendencies and throwing them against all the most clueless, naive, bubble-headed "innocents" for whatever vicarious thrill the viewing audience can derive from watching these folks race to the bottom of the inverse bell-curve of immorality. Sad as that is, it doesn't compare to the sheer mind-numbingly pedestrian Reality Shows that universally function by building up the hopes of no-talent hacks in various creative arenas, then tearing them down as savagely as possible for the entertainment of the slush-brained spuds that can stare at that crap hour after hour.

Figure we're what, maybe 10 years from public bloodsport-shows? Perhaps the Running Man, The Most Dangerous Game or maybe just some old-school gladiatorial games between convicts?

And why? That's the easy question. No one with the money/resources wants to risk any of that money on truly original creative endeavors anymore. It's so much easier to calculate returns on remakes, reinterpretations, medium conversions and (if they're really desperate) maybe a genuine sequel or prequel. It's crazy, because on the rare occasion some talented director actually DOES secure a healthy investment in a new movie, the Box Office hit pays off like powerball.

You're right, every month or two it costs more for the privilege of watching unwatchably derivative crap. It's my opinion The Walking Dead only got this far because A) AMC is genuinely desperate, B) The Walking Dead is a successful comic, so others took all the genuine risk involved in making it successful, so all they have to do is harness that preexisting winning formula in a comic-to-TV conversion. Don't get me wrong, I'm as jazzed about the new series as everyone else, but that doesn't mean I don't recognize it's derivative as well.

Anyways, one can hope that the guys with the cash will realize before they don't have the creative mediums anymore and thus they've run out of chances to change their ways. Our creative mediums were built on originality, and until that originality returns they'll continue to decay.

Edit: Just thought of something else. The various studios, publishing houses etc. have had the government up in arms about Film/Book/Music piracy for years, allegedly on behalf of the artists. Only now though, when we're reaching the absolute nadir of creativity and both TV and the movie theaters grow increasingly devoid of anything interesting with every passing month is the government moving with force to finally go to the heart of the Pirates' power and attempt to stamp out all freedom on the Internet by creating legislation allowing them to compel ISPs to block any site/domain that earns the displeasure of the various layers of government agencies. Specifically, I'm talking about the last bastion-holdout Torrent sites. Demonoid being the flagship/leader of the Pirate activity.

They couldn't crush Demonoid the way they did Pirate Bay and many of the others, where the identities of the owners/admins were easily discovered. Demonoid's controller has managed to keep his identity secret and his Net activities obscured in some manner. Probably due in some way to the enormous revenue-flow gathered into his accounts from advertisers paying rates almost equivalent to commercial airtime during the Superbowl/World Series etc.

No, I'm not saying that the full might of the world's intelligence agencies couldn't find Demonoid's controller if so directed, but *something* has obviously prevented the information-brokers from either getting the right answers, or passing those answers on to the government agencies that want Demonoid crushed as a favor to their Hollywood associates. I mean, the guy isn't Bin Laden. Personally, I suspect it's some sort of jurisdictional issue, because it's known that Demonoid's owner/controller isn't a citizen of any North or South American nation. Maybe it's as simple an answer as the actions required to do the job make it an unpalatable process.

The reason I bring up piracy is that the devaluing of all the derivative crap Hollywood churns out seems to be the only mechanism that offers any hope of reversing the decay of creativity in the various production mediums. After all, pirate copy or not, everyone I know buys the DVDs of the rare few really good movies each year. Motivations vary, but people seem to want the extras such DVDs come with, and the greater quality offered by legit copies of the movies. Same goes for books, music and comics. (Well, not so much comics, but I could make a strong argument that in the case of comics the additional exposure actually helps/increases their sales. It's certainly been responsible for the success of the American counterpart-companies that handle all the english language-dubbing of Japanese Anime/Manga & Hentai)

Sorry for the rambling nature of my post and my post add-on, but I'm seriously interested in what everyone here thinks about all this. Thoughts?

[kidgloves]

For years now I've had the attitude of try before you by. I show my support after I've sampled the product. I NEVER watch live tv unless it's an important sports event. I have a basic cable package which includes FX and is supplemented with a 50mb connection from the same provider so they do get some revenue from me. I watch what I want to watch when I want to watch it. There's been a noticeable increase of on demand programming in the UK so there obviously paying attention. I can understand the commercial channels making these cheap reality programmes that the great unwashed love to watch but is frustrating when the BBC do because if I want to watch tv by law I have to pay them. The BBC make great nature programmes and science programmes but to me the rest is all tosh. The drama they put out these days is either reworkings of classic novels that have been done numerous times before or it's shite. The best thing they have in there scheduling is usually imported drama.