HBO shows > All other network shows?

DoYouEvenLift

I only got into TV over the last few years, I never saw anything that gave the experience a movie could, mainly production and quality. Still, I always knew TV had the possibility of being better than movies, especially for dramas, as they can easily fit multiple detailed plots and characters that all run alongside one another perfectly whereas movies are mostly limited with run time and pacing. The first show I watched that proved me right about this was The Wire. This got me interested. Seeing all the different plots and believable characters being totally unique and contributing different things that all affected how their stories played out and also affected other characters stories and being totally engaged in it was unreal. After I finished it I felt like sh!t! No more updates on where any of the characters ended up or went on to do. Felt like I was attached to the characters like they were real people I had known lol.

After this I started trying new shows but never paid attention to who made them. I couldn't finish a lot of them and a friend suggested The Sopranos. It took me a few episodes to get into it but again, just like the wire, it was different than the other shows. After I finished that it was the same thing I felt with The Wire. Next thing I watched was Band of Brothers. That's a miniseries but I think its still relative because again, it was so well done that you get totally engaged with it. Along came Game of Thrones and *here.we.go*. Possibly the best one yet. Could not believe how good it was. The characters and acting, the sets, the production values and CGI quality. All as good as what you'd see in a cinema watching some big scale movies. Wasn't surprised when I heard it cost $60,000,000 per season. It's the most downloaded show for a reason.

And True Detective. I remember seeing the bill board with McConnaughy and Harrelson and thinking it was a new movie. Was pretty crazy finding out it was actually for a new series since they're two huge actors and wondered how they managed to get them to do TV. The end result was one of my top 3 favourite seasons of any show. Hopefully season 2 onwards live up to the standard season 1 set since it could be the best show to date. Entourage is also similar in how they got big Hollywood names involved in TV that you'd never expect to "lower themselves" to doing something that at least used to be considered beneath them as they're involved in movies. Like James Cameron. How did they manage to get him actually in episodes in some seasons?

Boardwalk Empire is the latest show I'm watching as I copped on that all the others were HBO and obviously they're doing something right that most other networks can't. Again, like I said in another thread, some scenes in Boardwalk could easily pass as something you'd see in a movie, one in particular is like something Tarrantino would do. On season 4 at the moment and can't get over how good it can be.

The only show that wasn't done by HBO that I can compare to any of these are Breaking Bad (shocker). Honourable mentions to Dexter, Vikings, Hannibal and Sons of Anarchy. But even those I always think how much better they could have been if they were done by HBO since they'd be able to give higher budgets and allow full nudity, all curse words, better actors and more realistic violence. This is especially relevant to Sons of Anarchy: it's about a biker gang yet they never use proper curse words or derogatory terms. This mightn't be a big deal to most people but when you think about it, it takes away authenticity from the show and that can make it harder to fully engage in it. Even worse if a show bleeps words, that just takes you right out of the show.


For anyone who agrees, would you be prepared to pay for HBO's services if they expanded and provided them in Ireland and UK? I don't even know how much it costs but chances are I'd pay for it happily since it'd contribute to the massive scale shows they're working on. I can see TV shows taking over as my choice of entertainment over movies in the next few years as the quality gets better and better and as TVs themselves get big enough to make you not want to go to the cinema. Picturing having a 100" screen and watching shows like Game of Thrones live with surround sound every week...it'd be incredible, and as the years go on the more possible this is!

Anachrony

DoYouEvenLift wrote: »

For anyone who agrees, would you be prepared to pay for HBO's services if they expanded and provided them in Ireland and UK? I don't even know how much it costs but chances are I'd pay for it happily since it'd contribute to the massive scale shows they're working on.

An HBO subscription currently adds about $10 to your cable bill in the US. But you can't get it a la carte without also paying for basic cable channels, which can get expensive. If HBO were able to sell HBO Go directly to customers, it would probably cost in that vicinity. It's well worth it with the number of excellent shows they have consistently throughout the year. They also get recent movies much quicker than services like Netflix.

I think in the next decade or two, they and other networks like them will have to switch their business model to offering content direct to customers online rather than making deals through cable providers. The days of cable are numbered. Broadband speeds are nearing a point where it isn't justified to continue treating television as a separate type of data from internet content. We're already past that point with radio and land line phones, and it's just a matter of slightly more bandwidth to reach that point for video.

For now they limit their online HBO Go service in the US to subscribers so they don't upset cable companies who are still their core business. But both sides know that eventually they'll be competitors rather than partners. As long as HBO is still trying to play nice with cable providers, they'll have to stick with their deal with Sky and not try to compete with them.

But when that transition eventually happens, it will be relatively easy to open up their offerings directly to an international audience rather than going through local intermediaries like Sky.

drugstore cowboy

HBO also has the Bill Maher show.

Must see television if you like your politics.

spitfireIRL

Sky Atlantic is their outlet here and in the UK.

Lady Chatterton

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Please report offensive posts, don't quote or respond to them.

K4t

MrsD007 wrote: »

Mod Note

Please report offensive posts, don't quote or respond to them.

My post was a reference to Deadwood, a HBO show!

Relax people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4D3UdxM3OU

lertsnim

drugstore cowboy wrote: »

HBO also has the Bill Maher show.

Must see television if you like your politics.

One of the European HBO's show it and it's a pity Sky Atlantic doesn't

DoYouEvenLift

It's happening!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8CRJH-td_U

K4t wrote: »

My post was a reference to Deadwood, a HBO show!

Relax people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4D3UdxM3OU

Haha I understand the use of "c*cksucker" now. Haven't watched that show yet but it's on my list. I love the language, a big reason why I love HBO.

Anachrony

Deadwood got cancelled too soon. But I think HBO has learned its lesson about shows earning them money in the longer term, and are not so quick to pull the plug these days.

DoYouEvenLift wrote: »

It's happening!!!

Well I was only off by a decade. Cable companies are going to push back on this, and that's still their core business, but I guess they've decided that now is the time that it's worth taking on cable.

They may still have contractual issues that they need to work out before rolling it out in certain markets, but we'll see. If they've been planning this move for a while they may have made sure that their contracts wouldn't prohibit it.

DoYouEvenLift

Anachrony wrote: »

Deadwood got cancelled too soon. But I think HBO has learned its lesson about shows earning them money in the longer term, and are not so quick to pull the plug these days.



Well I was only off by a decade. Cable companies are going to push back on this, and that's still their core business, but I guess they've decided that now is the time that it's worth taking on cable.

They may still have contractual issues that they need to work out before rolling it out in certain markets, but we'll see. If they've been planning this move for a while they may have made sure that their contracts wouldn't prohibit it.

Is there anything holding them back from making it available worldwide, aside from costs, like copyright or distribution laws? I also saw in that videos comments that HBO is actually available in Norway?

Also wonder if they'll remove the shows they gave to Amazon once this comes out.

Edit: my bad for the first part of my post, misread your post. I'd assume there'd be a conflict between them and sky Atlantic. Maybe this could push sky to start trying to produce high quality British shows themselves. BBC already do it from time to time, Luther was an excellent show.

Anachrony

DoYouEvenLift wrote: »

Is there anything holding them back from making it available worldwide, aside from costs, like copyright or distribution laws? I also saw in that videos comments that HBO is actually available in Norway?

Since they own most of the content, it's probably significantly easier for them to roll out internationally than a service like Netflix that needs to negotiate the rights to lots of different intellectual properties for each country they operate in. The normal HBO Go does broadcast films that they don't own though, so they would need to work out the rights to those films in each country order to make HBO Go a comparable value.

But there could still be some issues. Like what are the terms of the deal they have with Sky. Sky seems to have exclusive rights to air their shows in the UK/Ireland for the next several years. Would this conflict with that? I don't know the details of their arrangement.

Even if there were no rights issues, they might want to take their time rolling it out one region at a time purely for marketing/business reasons.

DoYouEvenLift

Anachrony wrote: »

Since they own most of the content, it's probably significantly easier for them to roll out internationally than a service like Netflix that needs to negotiate the rights to lots of different intellectual properties for each country they operate in. The normal HBO Go does broadcast films that they don't own though, so they would need to work out the rights to those films in each country order to make HBO Go a comparable value.

But there could still be some issues. Like what are the terms of the deal they have with Sky. Sky seems to have exclusive rights to air their shows in the UK/Ireland for the next several years. Would this conflict with that? I don't know the details of their arrangement.

Even if there were no rights issues, they might want to take their time rolling it out one region at a time purely for marketing/business reasons.

Yeah, and the worst thing is Ireland and UK would be two of the places it could be really successful since they use a lot of British and Irish actors so I think people here would support it, especially if sky couldn't show any of what's basically their best shows anymore.

Also, I'd really like to see a zombie apocalypse show by HBO. They could make a way better one than AMC's walking dead, especially when it comes to the writing and pacing.