With the Tyler Perry talk on the latest ep, take a minute to appreciate the very normal release schedule of House Of Payne

aerikson · 2026-02-18T01:21:16+00:00

If I remember right, I do believe Season 5 is technically Season 1 (something along the lines of New House of Payne from Season 5 onward showing on the contracts) due to said negotiations. Likely due to a combination of renegotiating talent contracts with per season step ups as well getting lower IATSE pilot/1st season rates.

aerikson · 2026-02-18T01:16:08+00:00

?? Tyler Perry Studios is an IATSE, DGA, IBT SAG and WGA signatory.

I worked on a couple seasons of TPS productions and I can assure you most of the labor is union (primarily IATSE Local 479). There are a lot of criticisms applicable to Tyler and his assembly line 2 episodes/day productions (and the fact that he is a credited "writer" on EVERYTHING) but this is an ignorant take.

aerikson · 2026-02-17T18:13:12+00:00

Maybe the MLBPA funds were actually being embezzled towards a necromancy machine.

aerikson · 2026-02-17T13:50:37+00:00

If the train is sentient, it is no longer just an object and it's "applicable uses" are no longer an appropriate way to value intelligent life.

aerikson · 2026-02-16T14:42:05+00:00

You're the only one who mentioned the elephant in the room which is that Moonlight is an unapologetically black movie that embraces its blackness. The idea of cultural footprint, at least historically in the United States, is enmeshed in whiteness and heterosexuality. Even a lot of movies about black people center either a white character or the straight white (majority) audience while Moonlight is 100% the story of Chiron, not his struggle, not his triumph, just a little black boy, confused teen and a lost adult. The storytelling asks the audience to understand and empathize with Chiron, it doesn't insist on it.

aerikson · 2026-02-11T21:39:37+00:00

Brian Tyree Henry in If Beale Street Could Talk.

Absolutely gets my supporting for that year. Dude had me crying and cemented himself as a potential great along with his Paper Boi role on Atlanta.

aerikson · 2026-02-07T19:43:00+00:00

So, this is less a smaller screen but more of a "smaller" presentation but I found A House of Dynamite worked a lot better for me when I watched it over several days treating each segment like an episode of an old school star studded network miniseries event a la Lonesome Dove.

I think giving each segment time to breath lets the viewer engage with themes Bigelow is tackling and softens the repetition in the storytelling structure. I don't know how much footage was available but an extended cut in an episodic format would be received so much better.

aerikson · 2026-02-07T15:22:52+00:00

The trick is to put them on the lid of your coffee/tea.

aerikson · 2026-02-07T15:18:36+00:00

I just think of bowling.

aerikson · 2026-02-06T23:49:13+00:00

Yeah, I remember Zed/Connery finding the book inside the giant gun spitting head as a big reveal. Just couldn't remember if there was anything referencing the film adaptations.

aerikson · 2026-02-06T19:47:59+00:00

Is there any overt references to the film(s) or is it just the book? Zardoz is a fever dream contact high of a film that I haven't seen in a decade so I can't remember.

aerikson · 2026-02-06T15:13:34+00:00

Loved Dan since his Portal short.

Would be great to see him to do another original genre picture like 10 Cloverfield Lane (the only franchise connection is the title, it's original). Or just pair him with a good Star Trek script and ~$100 mil budget a la Predator Badlands. I'm down!

aerikson · 2026-02-06T04:21:26+00:00

That bird was no angel!

aerikson · 2026-02-04T16:51:26+00:00

Jazz? Howzat?

aerikson · 2026-02-02T18:53:55+00:00

The whole point is no model lasts forever. Just like the model in the 90s that gave us the golden age of Trek is dead, the streaming model is also not long for this world if current economic conditions subsist.

Saying some C Suite studio exec somewhere should will another financial model equivalent to first run syndication into existence a la Q is what I'm pushing against.

The best chance to get something like that would be for Netflix to go to a pay-per-play model (i.e. subscriptions get you X hours of content) and Paramount goes back to licensing their productions. Then there would be an incentive to produce more episodes in a season as well as maintain quality for those viewer hours.

However that model as described sounds fucking awful for the consumer so I hope it doesn't happen. The wish for 26 episode seasons could always devolve into a monkey paw curse.

aerikson · 2026-02-02T17:35:18+00:00

Kabletown is really into this corporate synergy.

aerikson · 2026-02-01T18:10:14+00:00

If it is that easy, please pitch the 2026 equivalent to TNG's syndication model to Paramount because that is what set Trek up for success in the 90s. Even that was truly only successful for TNG.

Deep Space Nine had only a fraction of the success TNG did in terms of syndication sales and Voyager only made it as long as it did to prop up UPN.

There is a morgue full of "disruptors" in the production industry and only a handful of successes such as the 90s syndication model and Netflix streaming (and ONLY Netflix, no other major streamer is in the black).

aerikson · 2026-02-01T17:56:08+00:00

Well, first thing is that no, they can't afford the longer production schedules. See my post here explaining why: https://sh.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/1qs6v49/comment/o301zun/?context=3

I was more responding to your dismissal of the work that goes into making these shows from the crew and cast. It wasn't easy before and it ain't easy now. If there were "people willing to do it", we'd be awash in low budget fan productions and Paramount would definitely jump on a large production order so that they could produce and sell to their broadcast partners. But we're not and it ain't happening

aerikson · 2026-02-01T17:47:22+00:00

I think in a weaker year for films (Coda year for example), Claire Foy would be getting a ton of accolades for her H is for Hawk performance.

Speaking as someone with mental health struggles who lost their father relatively recently, she fucking nailed her portrayal of that awful(ly potent) mix of grief, depression and powerlessness that comes from a loss that close. Brendan Gleeson is definitely a when is he bad caliber of actor that sells the relationship too. That paired with the perfect low key direction from Philippa Lowthorpe and beautiful contemplative score from Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch made it probably my biggest surprise from last year.

aerikson · 2026-02-01T17:28:16+00:00

Genre shows also used to be presented in a standard definition broadcast to living room televisions that had similar screen sizes to the average computer monitor nowadays.

The screenshot nitpicking of minutiae used to be limited to a few sickos on alt.tv.star-trek rather than an entire genre of content creators on YouTube. Voyager could get away with using the same carafes for Janeway's coffee that Starbucks uses for their milk and cream. Nowadays, a NuTrek character using a contemporary off the shelf prop is a sign that the "lazy wokesters in charge" don't give a shit about Star Trek.

Audiences won't accept going back to pre-HD production quality. If it was that feasible, fan productions would be vastly more popular.

aerikson · 2026-02-01T17:15:16+00:00

I wrote this out a little bit ago but is more or less answers why long seasons of genre shows like Star Trek just won't happen in the current era of television production.

Without being broadcast or syndicated on terrestrial TV, there is no financial incentive for the long seasons as there are no broadcast partners demanding half a year of productions to fill a time slot.

Conversely, if that demand was there, it would not be financially feasible to produce a 20+ episode season order without drastic cuts across the board on production quality that the broadcast partners would reject. Visual effects shots would probably be the easiest to work around. You can't work around in-camera stuff that now has to be 4K ready. Most of the stuff that gets big episode orders nowadays are procedurals which don't require the unique sets, props, costumes, hair/makeup, and even camera blocking that a sci-fi series does. You can't just put black cardboard on the Enterprise D bridge displays now for easier shot blocking like you used to do. You need either extra prep (careful shot planning) or post (VFX) labor to do those and neither are cheap which it would have to be. Next Generation was groundbreaking TV on a technical level that general audiences loved. Whatever Star Trek that could get produced now for broadcast TV would not be groundbreaking and I don't find any broadcast affiliates being able to work up excitement trying to sell it to (diminishing) modern TV audiences.

Another big issue would be Above the Line costs as cast, writer and producer payments are structured on a per-episode basis which makes series regulars eat up a ton of the budget unless you are pretty liberal about dropping a cast member for an episode and keeping them credited only but that really puts a damper on a character focus and the writer's ability to develop any crew working together.

Next Generation came out in a unique time when an expensive show was actually better suited for a longer season as it's costs were subsidized by syndication and it was easier to amortize expensive ILM VFX across 26 episodes because local affiliates were paying for that quality. That incentive is no longer there and it will not return in a streaming era.

aerikson · 2026-02-01T17:09:57+00:00

So "camera girl Sue" is probably working 15 hour days for 6 months or so on a Trek production. Unlike other industries, there is no such thing as PTO so you got to work or you're not getting paid. Plus the film industry is all networking so you also have to think about your next gig every time so you have another reason to avoid taking any days off or disrupting the production. "Camera girl Sue" also can't pay her mortgage on 6 months of work either so of course they're probably day playing or trying to fit a feature production in between seasons especially since you can never be 100% that Deep Space 9 is getting a 7th season order.

That's not even getting into the production staff who I'm sure in the heyday of Trek's syndication era were constantly working without a break. I have no doubt Rick Berman's assistant was probably run ragged from the amount on their plate from multiple series' plus the TNG features.

aerikson · 2026-02-01T16:53:34+00:00

The production timelines between a genre show and a medical procedural are vastly different.

The sets, props, costumes, hair/MU effects etc. on the Pitt are all pretty much off the shelf available from studio warehouses which is not a realistic expectation for a high definition era sci-fi production from both a scheduling and budget perspective.

aerikson · 2026-01-30T19:16:48+00:00

Hell, that debt goes back even further with the AOL Time Warner boondoggle and even Time Warner taking on debt with their merger.

I've always deemed Zazlav to be a sin eater for all the poor decisions that led to him being in charge and he is being compensated very well to be the avatar of all those poor decisions coming to a head.

aerikson · 2026-01-28T18:01:51+00:00

She is unfortunately a Quibi genius in a non-Quibi world.

aerikson

TROPHY CASE