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WarLocke
Jun 6, 2004

You are being watched. :allears:

Sober posted:

Forever I can see why it was cancelled cause it was from WB on ABC, and maybe not entirely on brand as everything else but Limitless man.

Like literally Code Black which is also owned by ABC and had worse ratings than Limitless was renewed. Or I'm pretty sure the CM spinoff though also wholly owned had worse ratings and was renewed.

I guess Limitless just wasn't on brand enough. As in stuffy white people being professionals solving grizzly crimes or stuff.

Things would be so much better if people actually made TV shows in order to make good TV shows, and not to sell ad time.

Basically, gently caress capitalism.

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Feenix
Mar 14, 2003
Sorry, guy.

HUGE SPACEKABLOOIE posted:

Now that it's canceled the ending kinda bugs me. As they showed it, it seemed like they thought they already had a renewal in the bag with them talking about expanding the team and that sort of thing. If they thought it was on the bubble I'd think they'd have dropped in a short scene with Brian and Rebecca kissing or something.

Dude, what? They (thankfully) made it clear the Rebecca and Brian care deeply for each other but I respect that every show doesn't have to have man-tagonist and woman-tagonist need to gently caress.

Also they made it very clear that Brian and what's her name had more feelings than just a casual dating thing.


Also also: didn't he literally just say goodbye to her in that very episode?

Big Bad Voodoo Lou
Jan 1, 2006
I was also surprised every time they showed Brian referring to smoking pot or showing his bong in his safehouse, or even referencing his crazy musical tastes (metal or hardcore?). He definitely wasn't a traditional CBS-style protagonist, in that even the cute goth lady on NCIS is a patriotic, freedom-loving, church-attending all-American gal.

Sober
Nov 19, 2011

First touch: Life.
Second touch: Dead again. Forever.

WarLocke posted:

Things would be so much better if people actually made TV shows in order to make good TV shows, and not to sell ad time.

Basically, gently caress capitalism.
Every TV show short of actual premium cable is sold at a loss at an attempt to make a profit. It has been the fact of most of scripted television for decades. I wouldn't say it's necessarily a bad thing but people have been getting better at making commercial art, especially television, in the past decade or so.

I mean think about it, shows like Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Better Call Saul, The Americans, Mr. Robot - those shows are commercial art. They don't seem like it but they are. They are just better at the art part, maybe not so the commercial if you judge it by viewership/ad revenue it brings it/home release sales, etc.

Take Mad Men for instance, that show is a commercial art show ABOUT commercial art. Creatives in the advertising industry literally had have and still having the same dilemma, at a different scale. Are they making art? I mean they do obviously value that part of the creative process but at the same time they are literally making art to sell products or lifestyles or brands to people.

HUGE SPACEKABLOOIE
Mar 31, 2010


Feenix posted:

Dude, what? They (thankfully) made it clear the Rebecca and Brian care deeply for each other but I respect that every show doesn't have to have man-tagonist and woman-tagonist need to gently caress.

Also they made it very clear that Brian and what's her name had more feelings than just a casual dating thing.


Also also: didn't he literally just say goodbye to her in that very episode?

I think that if the show had gone on that eventually they would have ended up together, it's just the natural evolution of shows like that. Hell it wouldn't even be my pick, I liked the chemistry between Brian and Piper more. The ending was fine, even good it just felt like it was setup to continue and expand the story. So let me revise that. If they had thought they were probably getting canned then I think a scene with Brian and Piper sailing off into the sunset together would have been nice.

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

Sober posted:

Every TV show short of actual premium cable is sold at a loss at an attempt to make a profit. It has been the fact of most of scripted television for decades. I wouldn't say it's necessarily a bad thing but people have been getting better at making commercial art, especially television, in the past decade or so.

I mean think about it, shows like Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Better Call Saul, The Americans, Mr. Robot - those shows are commercial art. They don't seem like it but they are. They are just better at the art part, maybe not so the commercial if you judge it by viewership/ad revenue it brings it/home release sales, etc.

Take Mad Men for instance, that show is a commercial art show ABOUT commercial art. Creatives in the advertising industry literally had have and still having the same dilemma, at a different scale. Are they making art? I mean they do obviously value that part of the creative process but at the same time they are literally making art to sell products or lifestyles or brands to people.

Wasn't Mad Men actually super profitable because despite its relatively low ratings, the audience were a bunch of well of, white and males?

I remember reading a couple of articles about advertisers being happy to pay a premium for product placement and advertising that could target this group of rich wankers.

Why yes I still have my Mad Men tag.

odiv
Jan 12, 2003

HUGE SPACEKABLOOIE posted:

I think that if the show had gone on that eventually they would have ended up together, it's just the natural evolution of shows like that.
We'll never really know, but Limitless seemed like it was trying to do a lot more fun and less formulaic things as it went on. I really hope they wouldn't have fallen into that trap.

Democratic Pirate
Feb 17, 2010

Just think of all the set designers who got to make the arts, crafts, and fun cutaway gags who have to go back to boring other shows :(

Sober
Nov 19, 2011

First touch: Life.
Second touch: Dead again. Forever.

Kegslayer posted:

Wasn't Mad Men actually super profitable because despite its relatively low ratings, the audience were a bunch of well of, white and males?

I remember reading a couple of articles about advertisers being happy to pay a premium for product placement and advertising that could target this group of rich wankers.

Why yes I still have my Mad Men tag.
Oh probably, but I would have to bet early on or even right away you're making the thing at a loss (production costs, etc.) and something like Mad Men is probably lucky advertisers wanted in on ad time during that show and it ran long enough that it made a profit. I don't think broadcast shows can garner anything like premium ad space and they probably need to reach syndication for a chance to make money back for the production studios. Everyone is more concerned with sinking money into making their own original content so people will maybe watch their channel for an hour or two a week they spend less on syndication and in turn it means renewing for syndication's sake might not even be worth it depending on the show.

Remember Louis CK trying to foot the bill for his own pet project of a tv show? Now he's in debt. poo poo is expensive. There's a reason why web series aren't exactly blowing up either because you basically need to commit to a large batch of (semi-, even) regular content, keep whatever cast and crew you need on hand somehow (paid and/or fed for showing up), and having to worry about the logistics of the whole thing. At least an indie movie is something like a big lump sum you swallow.

HUGE SPACEKABLOOIE
Mar 31, 2010


odiv posted:

We'll never really know, but Limitless seemed like it was trying to do a lot more fun and less formulaic things as it went on. I really hope they wouldn't have fallen into that trap.

:agreed:

Just from a production standpoint though it's cheaper for two regulars to carry the relationship component rather than paying for a recurring guest. But yeah, we'll never know and that loving sucks.

LethalGeek
Nov 4, 2009

I know I'm late cause we just caught up to the finale and then bam gently caress you series is over.

Between this and forever my gf is about to throw something, this is ridiculous.

GreenBuckanneer
Sep 15, 2007

Not reading any spoilers, but I finally just saw the movie, got the book, and so far on episode 8. This is loving great. I hate that they didn't renew it because CBS cares more about people sitting down and watching a show as it airs, than DVR scores.

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Sober
Nov 19, 2011

First touch: Life.
Second touch: Dead again. Forever.

LethalGeek posted:

I know I'm late cause we just caught up to the finale and then bam gently caress you series is over.

Between this and forever my gf is about to throw something, this is ridiculous.
At least you and your gf have good taste.

I would say in the same vein, possibly try Lucifer if you haven't already. At least it got a renewal.

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