This might be my weirdest and most random Tumblr post ever.

In my classroom (toddlers) we have a toy train that has a button that plays music and has different characters speak. There is a kid voice on there that I swear sounds exactly like Graham D'Amato, matching his excitement level and everything. And every time I hear it, it makes me miss Single Parents. Still one of the worst cancellation injustices ever.

But I'm positive that Will and Angie got married and Graham and Sophie get to be best friends and step-siblings in their happy blended family. ❤️

Wednesday bluntly saying "you should know I'm waiting for someone" and "I'm actually here for Tyler" to Xavier and continuing to frown unfazed as Xavier's face contorts in disapproval whenever Tyler shows up beside her, BUT pausing before saying "Xavier" when Tyler asked her who she asked to the Rave'N.

mmmnnother idea too

Reason 156853214577 why Netflix are the worst - cancelling Lockwood and co after 1 season.

It only needed a second season to finish adapting the books. This is Julie and the phantoms all over again 🤬🤬🤬

goodbye watcher i guess

one of those crying in the shower kind of days

the thing is i'm hyperaware of the fact that i'm Weird About Andrew Dabb but it comes from a place of me realizing back in fall 2021 that i wanted to identify why exactly i didn't like him and deciding to do a close watch of his spn eps. and when i realized i was enjoying parts of it, i decided to see what i could turn up any of his non-spn work. (this is something i've always tended to do with creatives: tracking down older stuff for a more holistic view of their work.)

i was so stuck on how much i hated some parts of his writing (s7 dabb-loflin is horrendous) and couldn't get past that... then i found out independently that he was showrunning the upcoming netflix resi show (a franchise i both love and have complicated feelings about) which filled me with dread that the guy who co-wrote 07x22 would helm a show with a predominantly black cast -- especially with the ultimate villain, albert wesker, played by a black man (RIP lance reddick, you are dearly missed). i wanted to be optimistic but i was ready to be infuriated and was so nervous that i'd hate something i'd been looking forward to as some camp horror tv.

but then. oh. OH. it was everything i ever wanted from resi and never thought i could have. i could not conceive of a resi like this. a resi where women and poc are treated with empathy and as nuanced characters with interiority. where they are the central characters. the video games have their own issues but the movies are truly egregious when it comes to black characters. so to have a predominantly black cast (and a black female protag, no less!) and have them treated respectfully was amazing. this was a show that had heart and a somewhat diverse writer's room and bts crew (not saying it was perfect) and you could see that difference in how characters were treated and how the plot and direction was handled. (i think having female directors and producers in particular helped a lot.)

for those who have not seen the anderson/jovovich movies: there is always a token black character and they will always die by the halfway mark bc they make stupid decisions. it's non-stop tits and ass shots of jovovich (which feels super weird when the director is her husband). alice (jovovich) is an Action Girl who is frequently subjected to sexualized violence but unfortunately, i love the camp horror of it. it's complicated. the video games have their own issues with the portrayal of women and ada wong being DLC feels really shitty when she's so pivotal. women are largely either helpless or Strong Sexy Action Women.

like i really cannot express just how much 8 episodes of tv so wholly changed my opinion of a writer/showrunner bc it showed such growth. a showrunner is only one piece of the puzzle of a tv show but they are the ones guiding it and the ones who have substantial influence in the hiring and development/direction of the story.

it's like. i don't forgive dabb for 07x22 and the shit he wrote with loflin (or solo, tho he improved a lot without loflin), but to see how resi turned out and to read/watch interviews with him and the bts crew is like. oh, okay. i think this person gets it now. i don't think i can forgive and forget bc s7 makes my blood boil, but i can accept that growth has happened here and that's what we should want from people.

also i'm gonna say that when i look at how i am Weird About Dabb and take a step back, i can see that i'm about as weird about him as some folks are about other writers and actors from spn (and willing to acknowledge his faults). i just chose a weird writer to be Weird about.

sorry but i just have a lot of feelings about resi.

This is such a long post that nobody asked for but I've been seeing Discourse again...

I feel like something that’s missing in most of the discussions I’ve seen on Tumblr about how streaming companies like Netflix have changed TV production for the worse is the profit motive. Or at least, it’s misunderstood. For example, I see a lot of people complaining about how Netflix only considers a show worthwhile if a bunch of people binge it as soon as it comes in, which is true - but I don’t know that everyone understands why, and it's lead to a skewed perception of what's actually going on, and why various studios and platforms make the decisions that they do.

The thing about Netflix is that it’s a public company that's currently unprofitable - so, every single thing it does is oriented toward "growth" (gaining new subscribers). Every show they decide to invest in, they do so because they think it’ll make people who don’t have Netflix want to get Netflix. And if they launch a show, and a whole bunch of new people join the platform, AND their viewer data shows that this show received disproportionate viewership in the same month all those people joined the platform - then it was a good investment. The further out you go from the release, the less correlation there is between the viewership of a show and new subscribers, so the less those viewer numbers matter to them.

Additionally, people talking about the show is more valuable to them than people actually watching it, because people talking about the show gives them free word-of-mouth marketing. Once your friend has bought a Netflix subscription, Netflix doesn't care what they watch, or at what pace. So obviously, if you can make everyone feel like they need to watch the entire show RIGHT NOW because everyone is talking about it and they can't avoid spoilers, that's a much stronger marketing strategy than letting people watch at their own pace.

And that’s why seasons are so short - a longer season costs more money and won’t bring in any extra subscribers, so it's a bad investment. It’s also why Netflix shows tend to be cancelled after only a couple of seasons - if a show hasn’t brought in many new subscribers after the first two seasons, it’s not likely to do so in the future, and so it becomes a poor investment, regardless of how many people already on the platform love it. And even beloved shows like Stranger Things eventually reach a point where everyone who loves it is already on the platform, and even though it's still massively popular it's no longer profitable on the same scale.

All of this is to contrast with network TV, where the revenue comes from advertisers. The more eyeballs are on a show, the more money a network can charge for ad space during that show. So the more beloved a TV show is, the more episodes you want in a season; even if the quality of some of those episodes is poor because the creative team is overworked and underpaid (ie exploited), people will still tune in and you’ll still make money. And that’s also how you end up with shows of 10-15 seasons, even if the show starts to suck around season 8 or 10; as long as enough devoted fans are still watching the show, they can still charge mega ad dollars and make a lot of money. A long-running show with name recognition will make more money, even when it sucks, than an excellent brand-new show with no name recognition. It also means that shows that are self-contained “plot of the week” type shows do a LOT better than stories with season-long arcs, because those shows are more likely to attract casual viewers in addition to regular ones, and people are less likely to abandon the whole show if they miss an episode or two. Plus, if you don't need to worry about the order a season airs in, you can make a lot more money off of rerun adspace outside of the regular season.

And finally, growth looks different for a network. On Netflix, a single person can only provide a single unit of growth, because you're only going to purchase one subscription, so there's very little incentive for Netflix to cater to existing subscribers so long as the platform is 'good enough' for them to avoid cancelling. On the other hand, network growth is calculated based on viewership. So, let's say I watch "The Office" on NBC every week, and nothing else. And then one day, a friend tells me how much they love this other NBC show, "30 Rock", that's halfway through its second season, so I start watching that. That's growth for NBC! They can now charge a little bit more for ad space on 30 Rock than they could before - and it's happened without a whole new person needing to be introduced to their network. So there's a strong incentive to pay attention to what existing viewers want, rather than just focusing on what brings in new viewers. After all, not watching one specific show is a much easier decision than cancelling an entire platform subscription. (The downside of this is that network TV creators are far more beholden to the demands of the audience than a show on a platform like Netflix or HBO, and that can lead to sacrificing some creative integrity).

Overall my point is that the entire structure and shape of TV shows has ALWAYS been motivated by profit. That doesn’t mean the complaints about Netflix are invalid - they are VERY valid and I agree with most of them - but I think it’s important to diagnose the problem correctly: the people with the money to make a tv show are also usually the people who would like to make as much money as possible off your tv show, and will manipulate it accordingly. What’s the solution? I’m not sure, but pretending that these studios are making decisions based on “bad data” or “not understanding what people want” or just pure caprice is simply naive. Its not that they don't know what you want - they just don't care.

I’m really happy for the Warrior Nun fans, but as a JATP fan I can’t help but feel disappointed we didn’t get the same. I guess we didn’t fight back hard enough :/

heyoo and oof that hit hard. you know to this day I'm still quite shocked that jatp didn't end up being saved given that I think it won an Emmy too? damn. but I hope you guys (jatp fandom) don't blame yourselves tho :(( like there are other business factor shits behind the scenes in every cancellation and save - so the fault will never and should never rest on your guys' shoulders. I'd say it was a matter of circumstance - but you guys fought a good damn fight nonetheless.

keep watching duncanville even tho its so so so so so so so mid

Ugh, just finished my rewatch of Single Parents, and the finale makes me cry EVERY FREAKING TIME. It's just so UNFAIR. 😭😭😭

Gonna go re-read the Will x Angie fic I wrote to help feel better.

It is 2026. You are 24 years old. You are laying in your bed thinking about the past, the year 2025, and your memories about it. You remember the cancellation of ST S5, and the way people were so sad but eventually they accepted that it was fate. You remember the day Netflix came back, and decided to hire a bunch of AI writers to conclude the show. But that the AI was homophobic and never made Byler canon and Will died the worst case of bury your gays in TV history.

stop...😭😭

https://www.tumblr.com/dreamings-free/714024439553146880- Nah you don’t get it. Like at all. Artists like louis (or any foreign artist) RARELY visit continents like asia. Its not about him “missing” 7 shows its about him missing 7 shows in countries he comes to like once every seven years. Eu and US fans never get what’s it like to be an international fan because you get fed with shows, asian fans being pissed is justified, not to mention a lack of any explanation (not that were expecting one). I’m not hating on you, but maybe you shouldn’t hold an opinion when you don’t actually get what it’s like to be in that spot.

well that’s not really what I’m talking about. my tag post was a reaction to seeing this post (with which around a hundred people apparently agree..) that is (and I’m sorry op but..) grossly over-simplifying what that broken arm meant to louis versus his reaction to this asian tour cancellation.

and yes I get why asian fans are disappointed and that it is a big deal to those fans of course it is. I know he hasn’t been to those places in years but also not for lack of wanting to. last year’s japanese shows were cancelled due to covid restrictions making touring in japan impossible. this time we don’t know exactly why shows couldn’t happen but I don’t agree that anyone is owed more of an explanation than what we got. people are out there demanding he makes goddamn video messages or a 'better tweet' like..? no. as I wrote here sometimes tours get cancelled and we are not entitled to know why.

I'm currently watching Better Call Saul, only on s1 so can't really judge it, but so far I think they did a very good job. the spin-off has its own identity and the tone is different, but it's still the same universe, the balance is good between the new characters and old ones from breaking bad. only if pina managed to do something like that with berlin and not just use the face of pedro...

Oh yeah, believe me, they really did!

BCS is one of my favourite TV shows so far, not just for its great balance between comedy and tragedy, but most of all for the beautiful, moving, deep characters arc. They didn't leave anything to chance, they made me empathize with FUCKING CRIMINALS in a good way, and they built strong bondings between the characters.

You've picked the perfect example btw: when the Berlin spin-off was announced, the first thing I thought was "please let it be like BCS", because (calling myself out here) I genuinely believe that it's even better than Breaking Bad. Maybe not the ending (don't worry, I won't give spoilers here), but about the character study... *chief kiss*

And this is definitely the way how a spin-off should be made, with deep respect for the character, no judging, and most of all, knowing his whole backstory, even if it's mainly stuff that won't be showed.

The difference between BCS and Berlin at the moment (and of course with the latter it's just speculations) is that writers seem unaware/oblivious about Berlin.

You got me right: they know nothing about they're own character. The character they created. The character they wrote 5 seasons about. The character they choose to shoot a spin-off about.

They're just inventing, building step by step, sticking together pieces of a puzzle without even knowing the whole picture.

And now, if you ask me if is this the correct/conventional/right/functional way to write a spin-off, and most in general a character, I'd say no.

In BCS they didn't ignored Saul Goodman's past, they just found a way to fit it fluidly in the main narration. They gave the audience ACTUAL reasons why he became the criminal morally grey lawyer he was in BB.

They didn't pretend he was someone else back then, like they seem to be doing with Berlin, because it would've been a losing strategy from the start.

People want to know more about the character they love; that's all. They don't want to see someone else with their favourite character's face just with the excuse he "was different back then". Ok, dude. Tell me why???

You can't just say "Berlin used to have a deep passion for pet elephants because we never said he didn't", or "Berlin had a lot of friends before LCDP, and for some reason even though they're beta versions of the original Banda, they used to appreciate him a lot because he was a cool guy", cuz NO, you're mischaracterizing him for the plot's sake.

They had several characters connected to Berlin. They could've created a couple of others, like in BCS, but that's all. Vince Gilligan brought up like the 90% of BB characters, something he never had issues with, because he knew that:

1) fans needed a connection with the main show to keep follow

2) it's necessary narratively speaking

Hoping that Pina will reach the same conclusion at some point.

ALSO MATT MURDOCK!!!! OBVS!!!!!!!!!! i am obsessed w him via osmosis of info atp

he holds multitudes <333 there's so much to be obsessed over I love him so much !