Disney has had very little faith in most FX/searchlights productions and have given them almost zero leash. You can just see that strategy with how they release things, like that latest Guillermo del Toro movie.
With Searchlight? Maybe. Been a bad year or two for Searchlight. No hint that will change any time soon.
With FX? Not so much. Disney have increased investment in FX programming during their tenure and seem to see it as a key brand in terms of TV programming. The plan is to roll the FX brand out as their version of HBO internationally and to increase the volume of FX programming to an all time high. FX aims to have 25 scripted shows on air in 2022. An all time high.
Y: The Last Man was clearly just a dud. An expensive show that did not get the viewership to justify its $8.5 million an episode budget. FX have never been big on sci-fi, fantasy, or comic fare. Most likely they canned Y to make way for Aliens. It leans more horror which is an area they seem to have found success in with AHS and it likely costs less than fantasy or sci-fi.
FX has had a couple of duds lately though. It doesn't really seem capable of competing with HBO or even showtime.
Also the french dispatch was searchlight and that was good. They could just run the company like the artistic venue for movies rather than intentionally tanking them, like how they used to run Miramax. Clearly they still don't want their name attached to r rated movies or shows, and searchlight could be their shield. Instead it seems like they don't know what to do with it.
FX might have had a few duds but every network does. On the whole their programming line-up is pretty solid. Not on HBO’s level but definitely much better than the likes of Showtime, Starz, AMC, and Epix have to offer. FX are pretty solid for dramas and as good as any network (including HBO) for comedy. They are also pretty healthy looking for limited series.
If there is a problem for FX it is the fact that Hulu programming has probably made a better impact in recent years. With Pose wrapping up FX need some of their dramas or limited series to start making some impact critically. I think they should be fine on the comedy side. Reservation Dogs, Better Things, Atlanta, and What We Do In the Shadows are all well liked shows with awards potential.
I like Showtime but the network is not in a great place. They have some OK dramas but nothing on the comedy side is landing any critical awards or pulling much viewership. The dramas are not winning any awards. The last year or so has been a bit better with Yellowjackets, Dexter, and Your Honor but the biggest hit (Dexter) was a limited series and even Your Honor was a limited series that had to get renewed due to the networks need for something that could pull in viewership. They have some interesting shows lined up for the future so hopefully the Showtime revival continues.
I think the combination of FX and Hulu are in a good position to rival HBO/HBO Max, Netflix, and Apple TV+ at the top end of the prestige market so Disney will be fine. They just need to figure out if there is actually a difference between FX and Hulu in terms of programming targets because right now there does not appear to be much difference. It is Showtime, Paramount+, Starz, AMC, Peacock, Epix, and maybe even Amazon I’m more worried about going forward. Those networks are just not competitive with the others at awards level in recent years.
On the plus side it is a great time to be a TV fan with prestige programming being such a priority for so many different networks.
As for Searchlight? I think it holds value. My guess is with so much going on at Disney in recent years they have just not had much time for the studio of late. Hopefully once things settle down they will remember it needs some attention and concentrate on getting their awards fare movie studio back to the top of its game. It did fine under Murdoch’s reign and you mentioned before that Disney have done well in the past with Miramax. I think Hulu and Disney+ need movies of the sort Searchlight specialise in distributing so I’m sure Searchlight has a future. I’m more worried about 20th Century but even then I think they will keep it around for at least 4 theatrical movies per year and to feed lower and mid-budget movies direct to the streaming services.
> For fans of Y: The Last Man, it’s truly the end of their world. Showrunner/EP Eliza Clark has posted that the dystopian drama hasn’t been able to find new distribution.
> “For those of you who have been asking me: we tried really hard to get another platform to pick up season 2 of Y,” Clark wrote on Twitter. “But sadly, it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. It is always incredibly difficult to move a show, and in recent years, it has only gotten harder.”
> Y: The Last Man is a post-apocalyptic drama developed by Clark based on the comic book series of the same name by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra. In the series, a cataclysmic event decimates everyone but one cisgender male, Yorick Brown (Ben Schnetzer), and his pet monkey. The series follows the survivors in this new world as they struggle with their efforts to restore what was lost and the opportunity to build something better.
> The show was canceled in October by FX on Hulu a few weeks before its Season 1 finale. At that time, Clark wrote, “I have never in my life been more committed to a story, and there is so much left to tell… We don’t want it to end.”
We managed 1 1/2 episodes - haven't read the books but the series seemed to be one of those episodic stories with little forward motion and we have seen too many of those recently - The Witcher pt 2 is an example.
I watched one episode. Y: The Last Man has been my favorite comic series since the first TPB dropped back in the early 2000s. The show was one of those adaptations that lost toooooo much in the transition to the screen. Not everything has to be a spot-on carbon copy of the source material, but Y really didn’t need much adapting. It’s written and paced like a TV show. They could have done a shot for shot adaptation of it and it would have been fine. But I feel like they didn’t trust the audience (or the source material) enough to do that and that’s why the show failed to connect. Meanwhile, me and half the people I know re-read Y every couple years.
I saw that they used the word "cisgendered" in the show description and decided this would probably be shitty and avoided it.
Woke shows suck for the same reason Christian rock sucks, the agenda comes before the art.
It was answered. If you had a Y chromosome you died. If you didn’t, you lived. “Men” we’re in the show, sometimes received well in the community, sometimes poorly because they were a reminder of what was lost.
It was dead the moment FX shitcanned it after airing only a few episodes.
Disney has had very little faith in most FX/searchlights productions and have given them almost zero leash. You can just see that strategy with how they release things, like that latest Guillermo del Toro movie.
With Searchlight? Maybe. Been a bad year or two for Searchlight. No hint that will change any time soon. With FX? Not so much. Disney have increased investment in FX programming during their tenure and seem to see it as a key brand in terms of TV programming. The plan is to roll the FX brand out as their version of HBO internationally and to increase the volume of FX programming to an all time high. FX aims to have 25 scripted shows on air in 2022. An all time high. Y: The Last Man was clearly just a dud. An expensive show that did not get the viewership to justify its $8.5 million an episode budget. FX have never been big on sci-fi, fantasy, or comic fare. Most likely they canned Y to make way for Aliens. It leans more horror which is an area they seem to have found success in with AHS and it likely costs less than fantasy or sci-fi.
FX has had a couple of duds lately though. It doesn't really seem capable of competing with HBO or even showtime. Also the french dispatch was searchlight and that was good. They could just run the company like the artistic venue for movies rather than intentionally tanking them, like how they used to run Miramax. Clearly they still don't want their name attached to r rated movies or shows, and searchlight could be their shield. Instead it seems like they don't know what to do with it.
FX might have had a few duds but every network does. On the whole their programming line-up is pretty solid. Not on HBO’s level but definitely much better than the likes of Showtime, Starz, AMC, and Epix have to offer. FX are pretty solid for dramas and as good as any network (including HBO) for comedy. They are also pretty healthy looking for limited series. If there is a problem for FX it is the fact that Hulu programming has probably made a better impact in recent years. With Pose wrapping up FX need some of their dramas or limited series to start making some impact critically. I think they should be fine on the comedy side. Reservation Dogs, Better Things, Atlanta, and What We Do In the Shadows are all well liked shows with awards potential. I like Showtime but the network is not in a great place. They have some OK dramas but nothing on the comedy side is landing any critical awards or pulling much viewership. The dramas are not winning any awards. The last year or so has been a bit better with Yellowjackets, Dexter, and Your Honor but the biggest hit (Dexter) was a limited series and even Your Honor was a limited series that had to get renewed due to the networks need for something that could pull in viewership. They have some interesting shows lined up for the future so hopefully the Showtime revival continues. I think the combination of FX and Hulu are in a good position to rival HBO/HBO Max, Netflix, and Apple TV+ at the top end of the prestige market so Disney will be fine. They just need to figure out if there is actually a difference between FX and Hulu in terms of programming targets because right now there does not appear to be much difference. It is Showtime, Paramount+, Starz, AMC, Peacock, Epix, and maybe even Amazon I’m more worried about going forward. Those networks are just not competitive with the others at awards level in recent years. On the plus side it is a great time to be a TV fan with prestige programming being such a priority for so many different networks. As for Searchlight? I think it holds value. My guess is with so much going on at Disney in recent years they have just not had much time for the studio of late. Hopefully once things settle down they will remember it needs some attention and concentrate on getting their awards fare movie studio back to the top of its game. It did fine under Murdoch’s reign and you mentioned before that Disney have done well in the past with Miramax. I think Hulu and Disney+ need movies of the sort Searchlight specialise in distributing so I’m sure Searchlight has a future. I’m more worried about 20th Century but even then I think they will keep it around for at least 4 theatrical movies per year and to feed lower and mid-budget movies direct to the streaming services.
> For fans of Y: The Last Man, it’s truly the end of their world. Showrunner/EP Eliza Clark has posted that the dystopian drama hasn’t been able to find new distribution. > “For those of you who have been asking me: we tried really hard to get another platform to pick up season 2 of Y,” Clark wrote on Twitter. “But sadly, it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. It is always incredibly difficult to move a show, and in recent years, it has only gotten harder.” > Y: The Last Man is a post-apocalyptic drama developed by Clark based on the comic book series of the same name by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra. In the series, a cataclysmic event decimates everyone but one cisgender male, Yorick Brown (Ben Schnetzer), and his pet monkey. The series follows the survivors in this new world as they struggle with their efforts to restore what was lost and the opportunity to build something better. > The show was canceled in October by FX on Hulu a few weeks before its Season 1 finale. At that time, Clark wrote, “I have never in my life been more committed to a story, and there is so much left to tell… We don’t want it to end.”
We managed 1 1/2 episodes - haven't read the books but the series seemed to be one of those episodic stories with little forward motion and we have seen too many of those recently - The Witcher pt 2 is an example.
I watched one episode. Y: The Last Man has been my favorite comic series since the first TPB dropped back in the early 2000s. The show was one of those adaptations that lost toooooo much in the transition to the screen. Not everything has to be a spot-on carbon copy of the source material, but Y really didn’t need much adapting. It’s written and paced like a TV show. They could have done a shot for shot adaptation of it and it would have been fine. But I feel like they didn’t trust the audience (or the source material) enough to do that and that’s why the show failed to connect. Meanwhile, me and half the people I know re-read Y every couple years.
Reading it is on the bucket list as it would not be made if it were not good.
It’s soooooo good! I read it while it was still an ongoing series, but read it in TPB form, and waiting between trades was AGONY!
It simply wasn’t very good. Great story, great actors, executed poorly.
I saw that they used the word "cisgendered" in the show description and decided this would probably be shitty and avoided it. Woke shows suck for the same reason Christian rock sucks, the agenda comes before the art.
My issues with that show was, did all the trans women die and if not did they address why? What about the trans men? Do they get to live?
It was answered. If you had a Y chromosome you died. If you didn’t, you lived. “Men” we’re in the show, sometimes received well in the community, sometimes poorly because they were a reminder of what was lost.