All posts by Ross Miller

The Game of Thrones Finale: A Fitting End to a Subpar Season

game of thrones finale

Going into this final season, I feel like the Game of Thrones writers had two choices: they could either follow through on what was dramatically satisfying for the show, or intentionally subvert those expectations to make a point about the pursuit of power and the inevitability of corruption. The former ending is fairly predictable, but also feels right for the show: Jon Snow’s parentage is revealed, threatening Dany’s claim, but they get married to solidify their claim. Dany’s predilection toward “fire and blood” is tempered by the good people around her, including Jon Snow, just like it has been throughout the whole show. The prophecies about Azor Ahai/The Prince Who Was Promised all come true in the form of Jon Snow, the man born from fire and ice (as in, a Targaryen and a Stark), who ultimately defeats the Night King using Lightbringer, a sword forged in flame (you could even argue that Longclaw fits this description, since it’s made of Valyrian steel). Cersei and the throne is merely an afterthought, and she is ultimately killed by Jaime, who has turned over a new leaf and realizes that there will never be peace as long as his corrupt sister is in power (you know, what happened with Jon and Dany in the finale, basically).

But the showrunners (and, presumably, George RR Martin, although we can’t be sure) chose the other route. Instead, the prophecies were meaningless, and any similarities to events onscreen were just coincidences. Jon Snow’s parentage was a giant red herring, its pointlessness actually being the very point: that lineages are meaningless, and a terrible way to choose who should rule. Daenerys, who always showed an inclination toward violence and easy solutions, proved that absolute power corrupts absolutely when she chose mass murder over a well-considered approach to her rule. The White Walkers, despite being talked up in the previous season as the greatest danger the realm has ever seen, are dispatched halfway through the season and then rarely mentioned again. Jon technically does the right thing by killing Daenerys, but is punished for it, the way good deeds tend to be in this world.

Continue reading The Game of Thrones Finale: A Fitting End to a Subpar Season

In the Online Streaming War, Will the Machines Win?

Santa Clarita Diet, Netflix

This weekend, one of my favorite shows on Netflix bit the dust. Victor Fresco’s gleefully bizarre “Santa Clarita Diet,” about an undead realtor and her family murdering bad folks to keep her fed, was one of the strangest and most stylistically unique shows around. It was consistently hilarious in the way that audiences often appreciate, yet fail to properly value in a show until it’s ostensibly gone (see also: the fan outcry when the under-the-radar Brooklyn 9-9 was cancelled).

The cancellation was especially shocking, not just because the show ended on a major cliffhanger, but because nobody really knew it was in danger. We couldn’t, because Netflix famously does not share viewership numbers with anybody, even the people who actually create the shows. It’s easy to see why Netflix keeps this information close to the vest; if nobody knows how popular their shows actually are, then they can attract subscribers based on the perception that they have great, popular content. They don’t have to worry about failure narratives when their shows’ numbers start to dip the way that a series like The Walking Dead does.

Continue reading In the Online Streaming War, Will the Machines Win?

Is Netflix Saving Or Destroying Smart Cinema?

If you enjoy your studio films with a side of thoughtfulness, then you might want to start worrying. Last year, Warner Bros. stated that it wanted to move away from “auteur” directors who demand such things as final cut. Perhaps they were already worried about the release of Blade Runner 2049, which they distributed in the US. After that film’s inevitable box office failure (how they expected to profit on a $150 million budget with a sequel to a 35-year-old cult hit is beyond me), director Denis Villeneuve didn’t sound especially enthusiastic about the future either. “Let’s just say it would not be a good idea for me to make a movie like that twice,” he told The Telegraph. “It was only when I came out that I realized we had made a monster.”

Continue reading Is Netflix Saving Or Destroying Smart Cinema?

The Wild, Wonderful, and Extraordinarily Convoluted World of Digital Movie Ownership

Depending on who you ask, we’re either in the beginning of a transition to a fully-digital media environment, or we’re already there. Services like Netflix and Spotify have given users access to an unprecedented array of entertainment options, and platforms like iTunes and Steam have made true digital ownership a modern reality. However, when it comes to digital ownership of films and television, no one platform has truly taken hold. There are dozens of storefronts, such as iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Microsoft, Sony, and Vudu. But no store’s library is universally accessible from all devices, meaning digital owners often find themselves purchasing only on the storefront that is most convenient for them, or finding their libraries stretched out over a bunch of segregated storefronts.

In past years, the closest thing to a solution has been the Ultraviolet platform. While users can play back their movies and TV shows on Ultraviolet if they choose to do so, it’s true utility is in interconnecting various services and storefronts so that media is shared throughout. If somebody purchases a blu-ray with a digital copy or buys a movie on Vudu, that media will be shared with a linked Ultraviolet account which then redeems the same movie on studio’s storefronts, as well as other third party streaming services like (the now-defunct) Flixster. Even better, multiple Ultraviolet users can join together as a “family,” meaning all of their media is shared with each other across all platforms.

Continue reading The Wild, Wonderful, and Extraordinarily Convoluted World of Digital Movie Ownership