I just finished watching the 3 episodes of Reacher and the final season of Jack Ryan. Which leaves me more confused at the state of show production at Amazon.
Reacher so far has been great, he's not ever belittled or sidelined for a woman to take the spotlight (in fact his nickname is 'the big guy' and a running joke is not to mess with him as he'll hit you like a freight train)
Jack Ryan was more questionable in the beginning, first season was good in proof of concept though that UAV pilot sidestory was unnecessary, 2nd season was weakest with Venezuela. 3rd season really improved from secret Soviet Union plots, using NATO to bait WW3, coup and false flag nukes. 4th season that I just watched would probably be something everyone here would like since the bad guys are NGOs using their fame as cover to run drug, exploitation and terrorist operations with the help of corrupt US officials in Government and CIA. Then we have something like Invincible too which haven't caught the second season yet but heard it's good.
Now I try to counter that with something like Rings of Power or the Wheel of Time and now you get where I'm confused. How can a company that can bring an audience to niche franchises flop SO hard with established well known franchises? The reason I'm MORE concerned than ever is because of this that there finally seems to be movement on a 40k production with Cavill as a producer but if the same people that did Rings of Power are involved, this might be used to bring in the worst thing imaginable: Female space marines..
Is it just which team is working on it as it sounds like after Rings of Power, that team has been largely demoted or how the contracts for adaptation are in place? I've not watched Netflix ever since Cuties was on there but they seem to be sticking a lot closer to the author's intentions with things like One Piece and Quiet on the Western front and been more successful for it so is that the main thing to look out for?
Sorry for long post just TDLR; trying to know how Amazon makes stuff so I know if 40k gets Rings of Power treatment or is actually good.
You missed a big data point in The Terminal List, a Prime show which is very much in the same heroic, conservative vein as the other unpozzed side of the bracket. So yes it is confusing.
The thing is, swashbuckling tales of adventure are just kind of what people default to when there's less of an agenda involved. There being less of an agenda involved sometimes does not mean there is no agenda involved overall. At the same time, there being an agenda apparent sometimes, does not mean that publishing less obviously woke stuff is somehow part of the same agenda.
Uncontaminated stuff creeping through is either a calculated move or uncalculated. Uncalculated could mean laziness (ie. lack of a strict ideological filter) or innocence, but Amazon are obviously not innocent based on the totality of their output, so you're left with laziness as one option. If it's calculated then it either means they're not fully invested in woke concerns yet mostly follow them anyway for some reason, or else their un-woke content is a way of making shows specifically for conservatives to placate them and keep them onside. Honestly, anything besides laziness (occasional slackening of agenda enforcement) seems too convoluted to me.
I'm reminded of a thread here about the show The Continental, on NBC's streaming platform. There was a smear article bitching about Mel Gibson's character in it. For my part, I'm going to assume that everything on an NBC streaming platform is pozzed - I'm just not going to watch. But someone on the production of that show must happen to be uncommitted to the culture war to the extent that they're happy to cast Mel in the first place. Yet their audience is fully committed and they want 100% message, 100% of the time - and so you get seething articles about how The Continental is problematic and Gibson's char is the worst part.
Your only hope for media in this era is that these producers are lazy enough to allow a whole show go unpoisoned. Weirdly, on Amazon it seems like you have a non-zero chance of this. I still wouldn't get my hopes up for any single show.
I didn't mention the Terminal List as I still haven't watched it (I'll see it over Christmas as heard good things) whereas I have context for the other 3.
It could be laziness but I'd like to put another point across: tiredness. Others have pointed out how Reacher, Jack Ryan, Terminal List etc are all smaller productions with competent teams so there's less to do than just give them a budget, a deadline and let them get to work.
Compare that to any if the left's pet projects and it's worse than if PETA meeting crossed with a Bridezilla bachelorette party. There's SO many hoops to jump through to get them to meet basic deadlines and if you don't jump through THEIR hoops quickly enough, you get 'cancelled' by their online sycophants. The only reason they got this far is thanks to ESG and shit like it.
With that drying up quickly now and a looming economic situation, seems like Amazon is too tired to do it anymore and will let the shows like Reacher be done because they don't need to do anything and Rings of Power gets a budget cut and less involvement because they are too tired to give a fuck anymore.
I'm hearing in the grapevine that it's not just studios affected by this, Twitch is REALLY in the cliff now as talk Amazon might just sell them off and that recent TOS change might've got them to slap them down because advertising was calling them.