Magicians creator teaming up with the Russo Brothers on Amazon Pilot

[url]https://www.tor.com/2019/07/19/lev-grossman-and-the-russo-brothers-are-making-a-space-opera-for-amazon/[/url]

I love the tv series and books, the Magicians, by Lev Grossman, and it looks like he is going to be working on another property for amazon in a sci fi world.

Amazon is not playing with this kind of content.

I always wanted netflix to get off its ass and dive more deeply into sci fi and fantasy, and they have expanded a bit, but Amazon under that directive by Bezos himself seems to be going full tilt on bankrolling high concept genre sci fi and fantasy series. It probably helps that he is actually into that kind of stuff whereas I get the sense people like Ted Sarandos could care less.

amazon has a new hero-ish show coming out within a week, they are working on a lord of the rings series, took over the expanse, are bankrolling a wheel of time series, and probably many more things I've unaware of. It's just great what is going to be available down the pike.

Netflix probably thinks all people want are shows like the office since it does so well for them, and they may be right for much of the general audience. But I for one am grateful amazon is trying to cater to more of my personal genre tastes long term.

[QUOTE=Sammael;4477806]Netflix probably thinks all people want are shows like the office since it does so well for them, and they may be right for much of the general audience. [/QUOTE]

It isn't even about that. It's about advertising money. Shows like The Office and Suits make a ton of ad money with very little production costs. That's why networks milk successful sitcoms for all they are worth, because it's basically like printing money.

Genre shows obviously are harder to sell because as a general rule, they don't last as long because their production costs are significantly higher. Most genre shows don't even come close to bringing in GoT audiences, so they have to bring in much more people to justify higher ad prices. Since most do not do this for even one season, they get cancelled at much higher rates. No TV network or streaming service wants a bad show that costs a lot to make. So, genre shows generally have to be based on concepts that proved popular in other mediums first, like comics and books, or have production teams who have produced high rating shows before.

It's simple economics. If a show makes money, it stays on the air. If it doesn't, it goes away. That's why telenovas and soap operas last for decades while genre shows are lucky to make it past 2 seasons. It's all about bringing in enough people to watch a show to justify the production costs and the price for the ad time that TV and streaming services are charging.

It's as simple as that. I hope like you do that these shows are very successful, but history isn't kind to genre shows. For every GoT, you have thousands of Dresden Files that only last one season.