#usa news viewership

[crazykuroneko]

Good News: You can watch IWTV on ABC iview for free with VPN!

So, if you are like me, who literally have no way to watch IWTV except by 🏴‍☠️ despite you really really want to give them the money and viewership, now you can!

Just set your VPN to Australia, open ABC iview on your browser and sign up with email. They'll ask if you're in an Australian suburb and a postal code. Just pick "overseas" and it will work. You can then watch on browser or download the app APK on your phone (with VPN on). With this, at least we can help the viewership 😉

Additional info on The Newsreader: afaik the new episode will drop on iview after the TV broadcast. So, if you log in around 8.30-9.30 pm AEST, you can watch the TV livestream on iview (pick the ABC TV stream).

Of course please watch IWTV on AMC+ if it's available in your country. that will help AMC to know there are fans there 🫶

Other streamers that carry IWTV afaik: MAX (USA), AMC+ (USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, South Korea via Genie TV), BBC/BBC iplayer (U.K), Sky (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), OSN+ (Middle Eastern and North Africa), TVNZ+ (New Zealand)

[lorelaiislatte]

Do you think there's a chance a streaming service will pick ncis:h? I've signed the petition but do we dare to hope? I'm tired of this happening all the time. I just dont understand. It was doing fine in ratings and it's a part of a franchise that keeps getting more spin offs? How that makes sense? Do you know the ratings compared with the others ncis shows? Sorry im asking you but im not from usa and i have no idea how american netwoks work. So sad rn.

okay SO i am also not from the us but have done this dance before sooooo:

1) from what i’ve heard, they were planning to move either another ncis show (i think sydney?) or another cbs show to paramount plus - which they now are no longer doing. in theory yes, this opens up the possibility for ncishi to move over there; in practice, i’m not holding my breath, as typically that negotiation would happen before a cancellation announcement

2) how does it make sense? the honest answer is that it doesn’t. like, it really doesn’t. it’s been holding steady at sixth of 14 cbs shows in the ratings (which is a brilliant number, ensures it’s profitable, and is also impressive for a procedural that’s still relatively new). it’s been beating a LOT of other crime procedurals in viewership and viewer retention, and reviewers have been singing its praises. i think this is why it feels so much as if it’s because they just view this show as less valuable (socially and economically) than their usual white guy cop shows; it’s very difficult to argue that your profitable, successful show is too expensive when you’re flying cast and crews across - or, potentially, internationally to - australia, to continue a less-highly-rated show with no issue.

3) as far as ratings go - ncis hawai’i episodes were pulling in as many as 10 million viewers last year (s2 e10 came in with 10.5 mil, as per variety telecast viewership reports) which has it going toe to toe with the core ncis (seems to pull approx. 8-10mil per episode, via hollywood reporter). for the 18-49 demographic across us series, ncis hawaii is ranking at #13 of #21 as per tvseriesfinale.com - this is significantly above ncis sydney (renewed, #15), and elsbeth (#19, renewed), two other cbs shows, one of which in particular is incredibly expensive. crucially, ncishi has actually increased its viewership, which is VERY difficult to do on a year to year basis. its up by 4.18% among 18 to 49 year olds - for comparison the core NCIS is down 0.83% and fbi international - a competing show - is down by 3.73%. bear in mind that even a single percentage point represents hundreds of thousands of viewers.

i also want to point out that ranking at #13 isn’t strictly representative of viewer numbers, it’s about percentage of viewers that are within that core age bracket. the neighbourhood is ranking at #6, but only pulling in 4.8 million viewers - ncishi is at #13, and pulling in 5.2 million. ncishi pulls in over half a million more viewers than four shows ranked above it in that chart.

so essentially - it doesn’t make sense. from any perspective. it doesn’t make sense from a business perspective (ncis sydney is more expensive to produce and brings in approx. 200k less viewers than ncishi, and ncishi crew had already agreed to a shortened, budget-restrained final season), it doesn’t make sense for a ratings perspective (it continues to outperform many of cbs’ own shows, including ones that have been renewed), it doesn’t make sense from a social perspective (people are loving it, even outside of our fandom spaces).

objectively, it’s a really, really bad move by cbs. i also thought being part of a franchise would be a kind of safety net - fool me once, i guess. all the evidence suggests that they just don’t care enough about ncishi, especially when they’ve got their bullshit white guy ncis origins show, a young sheldon spinoff (?? who asked?) and a plethora of other cookie-cutter shows they can just keep going with. and we can make a pretty educated guess as to why, when the main things that set ncishi apart from the other ncis shows are its diversity and character dynamics

(edit: it was pointed out that people aren’t being flown to sydney from the us, which is true, and bad phrasing on my part - but many are flown across australia at seemingly similar costs to mainland us/hawai’i flights, and i believe not all of the leads are based in australia either, so i’ve updated that bit for clarity. apologies!)

[disneytva]

Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur crew opened a Tik Tok, in their countdown videos they mentioned that Disney+ USA will drop 14 episodes likely 12 new episodes if we don't count S2 E1-E2. 🌕🦖✨➕

A third season will depend on the viewership of this first batch.

[fans4wga]

Netflix seems to release much more feoreign and mire unknown movies (atleast here for me in germany) do you think thats strike related or is it to early to assume streaming services are trying to release non american movies due to big budget american production having been brought to a halt?

It's been a long time coming that Netflix (and other streaming services such as Amazon, Disney+, Apple TV, Paramount, etc.) are making more and more in non-US markets, though the stuff coming out right now was largely written & filmed pre-strike. Still, Netflix and other studios definitely saw the strike coming and invested more in non-US content to help themselves weather the strike, so you're absolutely right on that count! (source).

It's worth noting as well that many other countries do not have strong unions like the USA's WGA and SAG-AFTRA to protect the rights of writers and actors. See the example of Netflix's South Korean breakout hit Squid Game: "In his contract, [Squid Game creator & writer Hwang Dong-hyuk] had forfeited all intellectual property rights and received no residuals — royalty payments that writers, directors and actors normally receive when their work is reused after an initial broadcast. He said in an interview that “Squid Game” had earned him “enough to put food on the table.”'

For a show that won awards and boasted millions of views, it's absurd that Hwang didn't get some kind of success-based residual payment—but Netflix essentially cheated it out of him and made all the profits without paying Hwang commensurate to his value.

On the other hand, Netflix must pay viewership-based residuals to writers in Germany and Sweden (news story from 2020) because of differing legal requirements, which is great—it proves that it's very possible for Netflix to afford this and make it happen. And the success-based residual is one thing the WGA is fighting for in its current negotiations: if a show does well, the residuals ought to reflect that success. (There's currently just a flat rate paid to writers—imagine the writers of Stranger Things getting paid the exact same as a show that got only a few thousand views. It's just nonsensical.)

At the same time as all this is true, we want to caution strongly against placing any blame on writers/actors in non-US territories for continuing to work right now. There's no contract that protects non-WGA/SAG-AFTRA creatives legally if they walk out in solidarity, or a strike fund that supports them if they stop working. We do hope to see other countries' entertainment industries following suit and unionizing soon as a direct result of the 2023 strikes (and the way the WGA and SAG-AFTRA are effectively communicating their value and demands!)

(As a brief tangent, even countries with preexisting industry unions, such as the British actors' equity union and Writers' Guild of Great Britain, simply don't have the institutional strength to combat some of the exploitative practices that are so common. We want to see these unions get stronger as a result of this hot labor summer & everything that's happening so visibly with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA—but we also don't blame their members for continuing to work right now because there's no promised guild protection if they walk out.)

Thanks for your question, and please let us know if you'd like clarification on anything here!

[longwindedbore]

The Question of the Day: How was the Trump Hush money trial ‘politically motivated’ as the GOPee cultists screech -

- IF every one of the 34 felony charges involved demonstrable falsification of business records?

The GOPees never mention that ALL 200 documents entered into evidence were exclusively from the Trump Organization.

The witness testimony in the trial explained a prosecution narrative of why false documents were created.

It is always a Felony to charter a business in any State in the Union - or in any Developed Country- and create fraudulent business documents. To keep a ‘second set of books.

The GOPees have no explanation why the Defense team were unable to successfully dispute the factual nature of even one of the 200 Trump created documents that supported the 34 counts of felony falsification of business records.

The GOPees do not have from Trump or his Defense team an alternate narrative, in whole or in part, about the documents.

Media reports have ignored the nature of the charges and all 200 documents. Ignored the witnesses testimonies about the documents.

Instead focused on the bombastic theatrics of the Defense cross examination of Prosecution witnesses.

Implying that the Defense bombast was equal in effect on the jury as the Prosecutions far more boring-to-media direct questioning of the witnesses which created a connect-the-dots between each of the charges.

This media approach was better for the viewership numbers that bring in higher ad revenue to the six corporations that own 95% of USA news outlets.

To increase viewer ratings the media focused on the potential felony charges the Witnesses described; HOWEVER these are alleged felonies for which Trump was not indicted or charged in this case.

By pretending that these potential felonies were the included in the case was how the media created a false but far more exciting narrative.

The false media-created narrative presented what appeared to be a far more evenly balanced trial between contending sides. After all, Prosecution definitely can be seen not proving the non-existent charges.

This 🐴💩 approach wasn’t just Faux News. It was all of the media outlets including most of the ‘respected’ overseas outlets.

[misalpav]

you don't understand the makers of the kerala story speared propaganda against islam and kerala and you are navie lured to hindu fanaticism

first of all, if you're denying the existence of ISIS conversions in Kerala and the larger India then, the Observer Research Foundation published, in a 2019 report, that between 60-70 individuals in Kerala joined ISIS between 2014-18. Also, the NIA has entered various times into Kerala due to suspects of ISIS interactions. ISIS has existed in India for a while now and denying it would require your eyes to be closed.

You're saying that this movie is against Islam and Kerala but from where I stand, it's a movie against ISIS. That's something I will support to the end, both as someone who's lived through the repercussions of 9/11/2001 and the fact that they are literally a salafi jihadist terrorist organization. Anyone minus a few select people who went and watched TKS today are making conclusions about the entire movie from a short teaser/trailer clip, which, many times, isn't even an accurate portrayal of a movie. People who watched the full movie in the Kerala Supreme Court themselves had refused to restrict the release of the movie on the same premise of being against ISIS, not Islam.

Obviously, the biggest argument being made right now, and one I'm 100% expecting you to bring up if you choose to come back into my asks, is the figure of 32K conversions in Kerala. I don't believe in that number. What I do believe in though, is that The Kerala Story is a mere movie. All these people arguing against this movie claim to be "secularists". News flash, any film in a secular industry is gonna be dramatized because in a secular industry people look for viewership and how to make any small story compelling be it through caricature or exaggeration. As far as I care, people can consume whatever media they want and then are responsible for researching and fact-checking on their own. Quick examples of this that I can think of are the Netflix TV show Narcos where they antagonized a supposed "judy moncada" who was completely made up, and The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, a supposed retelling of events in the Vietnam war that he later concedes wasn't accurate apart from the emotion. Authors, writers, and any other artist for that matter take creative liberties in storytelling. I don't know how or why people are taking this so seriously. Congratulations you can do your research!

Now in terms of being a "navie" that's lured into Hindu fanaticism, what's naive about loving a culture that's been here for centuries that resulted in the construction of beautiful architecture and tells the some of the most enthralling stories? If anyone called any of the Abrahmic religions fanatical, they'd immediately be pegged as islamophobic, christianophobic, etc, why can't Hindus get the same respect? Honestly, the one common trait in any land with foreigners is the sheer lack of respect for natives and it shows, be it India, the USA, Australia, etc. I'd highly recommend you get a reality check on yourself.

[freshthoughts2020]

They Moving Different FrFr

They Moving Different FrFr

April 24, 2023

You don’t have to be a fan of sports to know that women’s sports doesn’t receive as much respect and admiration as men’s sports. However, a step in the right direction started happening during the 2023 Women’s NCAA Basketball tournament. It starts with Caitlin Clark, the 6foot guard from Iowa, who is on the court making threes all the way from Mumbai. Her high velocity play via her vicious 3 pointer started putting eyes on the women’s tourney.

Many people in media started giving the public heads up that it was time to start tuning into the women’s tourney because they’re turning up. So when it time to get to the finals the spotlight grows bigger as people created a “Bird vs Magic” scenario with the predominately white team Iowa, facing off against the predominately black team the LSU Tigers. The finals then gave birth to the beginning of new era fueled by the passionate and beautiful forward, Angel Reese and the multi-talented Flau’Jae Johnson.

The finals show off turned out to be the biggest college sports event of the year even outperforming the men’s tournament. The 2023 viewership brought in a whopping 9.9 million viewers. With LSU bringing home the trophy along with some controversy a star was birthed and we are witnessing someone who is using their new found fame to its full advantage.

Angel Reese is a breathe of fresh air for women sports because she maintains her femininity while being an actual great player.

Making her extremely marketable, combined with the power of youth, she’s an unstoppable force as long as she keeps up an elite level of play. She currently has one of the highest NIL deal of any college athlete which as of today is at $1.3 million and increasing. Her partner in crime, Flau’Jae is also taking advantage of her platform by still pursuing her passion of music and going viral with freestyles every chance she get.

The pair even made their way to legendary morning show The Breakfast Club, where Reese reveals her achievement has even caught the attention of the likes of Drizzy and Future, both congratulating her on her dominance.

I really like the way their moving because the bigger they get the bigger women’s sports and opportunities get. Next LSU games are probably going to look like LA games and if they continue to rise to the occasion, which is elite play winning chips every year is not required, they can make WNBA games a star studded event as well.

These girls are making all the right moves and its a joy to see women players thrive in their space.

Update: by the time I actually wrote this article, Latto & Cardi B released a video “Put it on da Floor Again” featuring a cameo from Angel Reese further cementing her star power.

The best part of this, the young ladies are handling their stardom well by staying in the gym and maintaing a perfect balance between hoops and socializing. They both even got selected to participate for USA women’s team, after not getting selected previous years which shows the hard work never stopped. In fact its just getting started and the ladies are showing us how they will continue to move different and take women basketball to new spaces.

Follow me on twitter @onlyonejaevonn

visit gettothecorner.com

[readinginthestarlight]

Miscellaneous thoughts on the whole PHF & PWHPA situation

This is a hockey post. Also, much of this is based on what I've seen on twitter and tumblr since there's currently very little veritably true information about this situation. Scroll past this if you don't care, read more if you do.

Ok, moving on.

It sounds like the news leaked on twitter. I wonder if the press around this would've been handled better had it not leaked.

This is a shitty situation for the PHF players.

I'm wary of the supposed "early 2024" start date for a new league, which I think is what the PWHPA previously announced as their league start date. If my memory serves correct, the PWHPA has pushed back their league start date several times already.

A January 2024 league start means a gap of several months between the start of the hockey season overall and the start of the league. Professional women's hockey is still new and small in North America. I can't see this gap, combined with all the teams changing, doing anything other than hurting the sport. How many fans will move on to other teams? There's no shortage of college teams or men's teams. Ideally this will just be a dip in viewership, which will recover within a few years as the new league gets more established, but it's not a good start.

Season tickets at still on sale for the 23-24 PHF season. That should maybe be turned off.

I don't understand why the plan is for none of the PHF teams are going to persist through this whole thing. Some of them were regularly selling out games (Boston Pride maybe sold out all of their games this past year). Is there a legal issue with the trademarks or something?

At will employment is stupid and mostly shouldn't exist. This is only tangentially related, but I feel strongly about it.

Professional women's ice hockey leagues in Europe and Asia are maybe going to get a bunch of good talent out of this.

This has been mentioned by others, but the PWHPA players are not to blame for this. The group that owns the PWHPA bought the PHF. Getting mad the PWHPA is like getting mad at Pixar because Disney bought Marvel.

The PWHPA members are voting on their CBA this weekend. This will not include PHF players. People are mad about this on twitter. I think it's inane that people are arguing about it on twitter.

I'm maybe going to buy some Boston Pride gear before it's all gone forever. Probably a swearshirt.

The new league had better have a good inclusive name. For anyone who is unaware, the PHF (Premier Hockey Federation) used to be the NWHL (National Women's Hockey League). They changed it because they wanted a name that was inclusive for players of different gender identities [source]. I do think that "Premier Hockey Federation" is a stupid name, so maybe the new league can go with something else such as the North American Hockey League (NAHL) or American Ice Hockey League (AIHL) or USA & Canada Hockey Association (UCHA, best acronym imo).

Also good inclusive policies of course, but hopefully the players won't stand for anything less.

This will hopefully lead to an NHL partnership, which would bring advertising, viewership, and financial stability. The NHL has been unwilling to consider such a partnership while there were two different leagues at odds with each other.

Good places to find more information:

Melissa Burgess on twitter

@letabbyfight

PHF official news

PWHPA on twitter

The Hockey News (website)

[razorroy]

A Date To Remember

On June 9, 1978 the NBA held their thirty second annual entry draft. The sixth pick in the first round that year was foward Larry Bird of Indiana State, selected by the Boston Celtics. Bird stayed one more seaon at Indiana State. His senior year. The Boston Celtics would have to wait one more year for their new addition.

The follwing year on June 25, 1979 the first selection of the thirty third NBA draft was a point guard named Ervin "Magic" Johnson Jr. from Michigan State. The Los Angeles Lakers held the rights to the first overall selection and thus selected the 6 foot 9 inch future Hall of Famer Johnson to pair with their other future NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul Jabbar.

The 1979 NBA season saw the begining of the famous rivalry between the two NBA greats Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird. A rivalry that lasted for more than a decade. Producing a combined: eight NBA championships, six NBA MVP season awards, five NBA MVP finals awards, 24 NBA All-Star game selections, three NBA All-Star MVP awards, and eighteen All-NBA First Team selections. Both were elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Sunday, April 7, 2024 saw the conclusion of the 2024 NCAA division 1 women's basketball tournament. A tournament that was supported by record television viewership. The final between the undefeated South Carolina Gamecocks and Iowa Hawkeyes featuring Caitlin Clark, averaged approximately 18.7 million viewers. A combined 24 million viewers between two networks: ABC and ESPN! This day also recorded for the very first time, the women's title game outdrawing the men's final in viewership!

An enormous success assured. But what comes next? Obviously the start of the WNBA season. However, the WNBA hasn't ever come close to the viewership numbers achieved by the 2024 women's NCAA tournament. Change however is about to happen.

Monday, April 15, 2024 was the day Caitlin Clark of the Iowa Hackeyes was drafted by the WNBA's Indiana Fever. A moment that could very well be the beganing of a golden generation for the women's national basketball association.

Now I'm not suggesting that we will see 18 to 24 million tune in to see a WNBA regular season game. Yet I do feel there will be a spike in ratings that has nothing to do with curiosity. The WNBA is a league that already has well established stars and is now about to get an injection of exciting new talent. Caitlin Clark may be the most recognizable name to enter the league this season. But she isn't the only skilled player joining the league this season. Kamilla Cardoso, Rickea Jackson, Cameron Brink, Angel Reese, and Aaliyah Edwards are just a few of the talented players that are about to begin applying their talents this season. A season that launches on May 14th.

Add the 2024 Paris Olympic games this summer. The women's Olympic basketball tournament opens play on July 28th. Some of the WNBA's best will be on showcase for team USA. Players like: Ariel Atkins/Washington Mystics, Aliyah Boston/Indiana Fever , Napheesa Collier/Minnesota Lynx, Kahleah Copper/Phoenix Mercury, Rhyne Howard/Atlanta Dream, Sabrina Ionescu/New York Liberty, Jewell Loyd/Seattle Storm, Kelsey Plum/Las Vegas Aces, Breanna Stewart/New York Liberty, Diana Taurasi/Phoenix Mercury, Alyssa Thomas/Connecticut Sun and Jackie Young/Las Vegas Aces. For those who miss the start of the WNBA season. Or for those that didn't watch the women's NCAA basketball tournament, but do watch and cheer on the United States during the Olympics. The cheering doesn't have to stop, once the Paris games have concluded. The WNBA will be entering the final month of their regular season when the Paris games conclude. A chance for many to jump on board just in time for the playoffs.

The Caitlin Clark frenzy for her final collegiate season that began on November 6, 2023 didn't end on April 7, 2024. Clark may be the spearhead for the heightened interest in women's basketball. But she isn't the only reason for the sudden enthusiasm.

Magic Johnson needed Larry Bird. Larry Bird needed Magic Johnson. Caitlin Clark's rivals are still to be determined. Those rivalries will create drama and increase television ratings and attendance. An overall increase in popularity for the WNBA. Which equates to money. Money = Everyone wins. And this is the date so many are waiting for.

[tinyozlion]

Addressing the Troubles: Part 2 / 3

A Brief History of Gundam in Japan and the USA:

Here is my go-to analogy: The Gundam franchise is to Japan what Star Trek is to America. And Gundam Wing is to the Gundam franchise what Deep Space 9 is to the rest of Star Trek.

Wing was part of an experimental phase in the franchise’s history; when they were intentionally trying to break away from the usual modus operandi. Wing, along with the earlier G Gundam, was intended to boost flagging viewership and sell model kits– like, expressly, openly, just to sell model kits. The plan was to start from a blank slate that would allow new viewers to hop on board, without having to be caught up on the sprawling canon of the UC timeline (Universal Century).

In Japan, audiences were already familiar with the general premise of A Gundam Show; rather than spend any extra time re-establishing details that an already Gundam-savvy audience would know, it skipped right to explaining on how this particular series was departing from the established material. In this case, the noteworthy information was that Wing takes place in the After Colony timeline, and is set wholly in its own universe– we have a different sinister organization with a ‘Z’ in its name, a different mysterious blond man who wears a mask, a different conflict between Earth and Space, and no mention of Newtypes. 

Perhaps the most significant difference between Wing and its predecessor was its tonal shift. In the original Mobile Suit Gundam (if seasoned fans will pardon my oversimplification), the good guys are a relatively wholesome bunch or reluctant civilian heroes coming together to survive, a found-family supporting each other and trying their best to protect the vulnerable. It’s just ONE Gundam, and a crew of overworked, under-supplied misfits. It’s still very much a complex narrative about the horrors of war, but like, there’s a goofy side-kick robot! Kids run around White Base causing shenanigans! The more the UC timeline progresses, the more complicated it gets, but the point is, it’s a different style of complicated. There's a relatable and familiar flavor to its protagonists and their struggles. 

Pan over to Wing, where we are served right away with the spiciest plate of the spiciest feral murder boys, possibly the LEAST reluctant people ever to get in a mecha and cause harm.

The protagonist pilots are remorseless teenagers who were robbed of their adolescence before the show even began, and thrown into the meatgrinder of revolutionary violence– not the most relatable bunch, and not one audience surrogate amongst them (that honor goes to Relena). None of them work together, everyone is morally ambiguous, and they’re all hyper-competent elite soldiers from the get-go. In MS Gundam, Amuro spends his first fight in the Gundam trying to learn to walk and shoot using a manual. 

Some Gundam fans were quite put off by this change, but in the USA, we had no basis for comparison. Gundam Wing was the only Gundam show we had, and furthermore, it was one of the first “serious” “cartoons” introduced to mainstream television. And it blew. Our. Fucking. Minds.

--I cannot stress enough how influential that early 2000’s Toonami programming block was in introducing anime to American audiences, and by extension, American television producers and toy companies. I recommend checking out this IGN article about the history of GW’s debut on Cartoon Network, and the effect it had on the industry at large: How Gundam Wing Found Its Home On Toonami 20 Years Ago Today . For another take on the phenomenon check out: Found in Translation: How Gundam Wing Became A Global Phenomenon (Opinions are those of the article writer, not mine.) 

For those of you who are of that Toonami-block generation who never encountered the original series: MS Gundam is truly gripping and powerful, and if you’re not already a Gundam fan but found that Wing tickled your fancy, the original line up of shows will probably be right up your alley too. Be prepared for a very different overall experience from Wing though– for one thing, you may be surprised to discover that the original series, with its earlier animation style and dated anime tropes, is absolutely fucking brutal.

Fundamentally, the original Gundam is a series that is steeped to its core in a very somber, distinctly post-war Japanese melancholy that Wing, for all its lofty philosophizing, lacks. I don’t mean to make that a criticism of Wing– it had a much, much shorter run to make its point, and it was intentionally trying to do something different from its parent series.

Gundam Wing may at one point had a reputation for being Gundam’s dark, broody, edgy cousin, but Wing is also as chaste as a Victorian romance novel, and obscures most of its violence in clean, bloodless explosions. In the first episode of MS Gundam you will be treated to first-hand mass civilian death. In the movie and at various points of the shows there are scenes deliberately and uncomfortably reminiscent of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In Zeta Gundam, you'll get to explore a wide selection of Horrible Ways To Die In Space that I suspect would have the same effect on a child as accidentally watching Watership Down (1978) thinking it was a Disney movie. (That's right: It makes you a more interesting person with good taste!) There's also like, nudity. And adults, with messy, adult relationship problems.

The U.C. timeline is just a lot more, I want to say, earthy as a rule. The characters are normal people and they have a wide range of interests and relationships to each other. Even when it’s reaching those philosophical high-notes, the focus is closer to the ground level; you see the day to day struggles of the crew, of civilians, of couples, you see their private lives, watch them evolve over the course of many years, how they fall in love, eat burgers, hook up, make friends, and make bad decisions. It’s a rich, diverse world filled with believable, complex people; the world building has more time to fill out, with its roots firmly in the soil of classic science fiction writing and space exploration; and it does what it sets out to do, which is deliver a gut-punch of an anti-war story.

If you take anything away from this, it’s that developing a tolerance for older mediums and long-term relationships with particular stories will give you access to some of the most rewarding experiences possible. And that’s true of many things, but especially of stories that have had lasting cultural impact and serve as time capsules for the struggles of their era. It’s true of The Iliad, it’s true of Lord of the Rings, it’s true of Akira, it’s true of Gundam. 

“Just Make Us Five Gundams” – Wing’s Famously Troubled Production & Why You Should Read Episode Zero

Gundam Wing was created flying by the seat of its pants from start to finish. 

Hideyuki Tomioka, executive producer on Wing, was still early in his career when he was cut loose on a new Gundam series with minimal oversight.

“Just make us a show with FIVE new Gundams”, Bandai said. “It’ll sell model kits!”, they said. “It’ll be fun!”, they said. And they laughed, and laughed. 

But Tomioka agreed, and set out to assemble his creative team– notably, Masashi Ikeda (series director), Katsuyuki Sumisawa (series composition / head scriptwriter), and Shuko Murase (character designer). Many of his chosen production crew had never worked on a Gundam show before, but everyone knew their stuff, and had been selected for their outstanding work or for showing promise in their respective fields. 

--Please, pour one out for them now.

The production schedule for Wing was apparently one of the roughest in Sunrise’s history. In a 2017 interview, producer Tomioka explains: “With Wing, we delivered the episodes to the TV network a week early. All of them. I was told by the producers at the network that there would be hell to pay if this next Gundam wasn’t delivered a week early like clockwork, and I said sure. I also told Mr. Ikeda and the company that we would maintain a one-week-before-air delivery schedule, and we delivered every single episode a week before air.” 

Head scriptwriter Sumisawa recalls camping in the Sunrise studio and working all night without sleeping in order to turn in scripts on time (something I vividly recall doing with my senior thesis). 

Despite the entire staff being burnt out from the continuous workflow, the team apparently met every single deadline, and still consider Gundam Wing to be some of their best work. 

However, Wing’s trouble didn’t end with just the frantic schedule.

Significant, under-the-table leadership changes at the studio level made a bad situation worse. Just before the production of Wing, parent company Sunrise had sold the Gundam franchise to Bandai, apparently in secret, leaving their creatives and producers like Tomioka in a lurch. The sudden change in sponsors led to an attitude change that would filter through the company, causing significant friction and splintering within the organization.

In fact, creative control of the series was tossed in the air at multiple levels:

 When series director Masashi Ikeda was hired for Wing, he was coming off a few rocky dismissals / resignations from earlier projects due to his disagreements with sponsors. He was new to Gundam, but was known for being a talented, if contentious, storyboard artist / director. Right away he took Wing in an unexpected direction, apparently derailing the series from its original trajectory after only 10 episodes. Signing off on these provocative decisions may have painted a target on his back, but it certainly made Wing stand out from its predecessors! Perhaps predictably, Ikeda either “abruptly resigned” or was fired from the project after Episode 29, and was substituted by Gundam franchise veteran, Shinji Takamatsu. Takamatsu would ultimately finish directing the remaining half of the series, though he was left uncredited.

Sumisawa too withdrew as a the lead scenario writer. He reports having to cope with curve balls thrown in the script by different writers who hadn’t run their decisions by him first, leaving him to struggle with reworking episodes at the last minute in order to accommodate the unsupervised changes. 

All the crunch and chaos, the impossibly tight schedules, the directorial and creative control changing hands mid-series, led to many of the important plot points and connective tissue that had been slated for reveal at the midpoint of the series being severely truncated, or scrapped entirely.

--And this, friends, is why there are so many instances in the early episodes of Wing where characters make reference to events and concepts that simply never show up in the series– the material got cut for time, and the unexplained anecdotes were left to dangle. 

This includes by far the most unfortunate omission in the series: the pilot backstories. In the postscript of “Gundam Wing: Episode Zero”, the manga prequel released seven years after the series first aired– scriptwriter Sumisawa makes this plea:

“[...] I would like to make a request of those who have read this book. I would like you to watch the entire TV series and Endless Waltz again. By so doing, I think you will be able to fully appreciate the work, Gundam Wing. This series of stories of the past was requested of me by Director Ikeda, and it was supposed to appear in the to the p20the TV series after episode 27. However, it was pigeonholed roduction schedule being the worst ever, and the fact that I withdrew ws scenarist. When I returned to the show, there was no chance to fit in the past, and we had no choice but to table it indefinitely (though we did try in episode 31, The Glass Kingdom). It was able to become a graphic novel through the kindness of the editors at Anime V Magazine and Mr. Kanbe's (artist) cooperation. As one of the co-creators, I am extremely grateful, and this has become a very emotional work.”

In one interview, Sumisawa laments: “Nobody wants to write recap episodes. Episodes 27 and 28 were recap episodes.” Producer Tomioka notes that “Everybody worked some serious miracles for part two. We never would have been able to do part two [of the series] if we hadn’t put in those recap episodes. It really was rough.” 

--This Is why I recommend that people read Episode Zero around the time they get to the mid-series point in the anime, where the backstories were always meant to go. Many, MANY questions and frustrations that I hear from first-time watchers will be cleared up.

It’s a damn good collection of stories, too! As you can see, my own copy is nearing a level of decrepitude that ought to make it Nursery Real at this point. I took it everywhere with me in my school bag as a comfort item.

–A link to the manga can be found in the Bookshelf section!

[bleuangel88]

We're back in a Suits Era!

The former USA Network hit drama has had a resurgence in popularity since it hit Netflix at the end of June, and it's wracked up over a billion minutes of viewership since. Four years after leaving the air, we're once again living in Suits Renaissance.

It has attracted a brand new audience with varying factors, from seeing the Duchess of Sussex in her acting prime to genuinely craving a delicious, fast-paced, witty series to hold people over as we deal with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.

For those who just hopped off the Suits train and are searching for their next great series that matches that same energy, here's a list of series you can watch if you love Suits!

[andiessoccerblog]

Women’s Soccer Globally: July 2, 2023

Around the world, women's soccer is in flux. There have been an incredible number of advancements in the last four years, but the increased media coverage has revealed a myriad of shortcomings as well. To be fair to the sport, I want to mention both here.

Norway and New Zealand were the only countries with equal pay between men and women in the 2019 World Cup; since then England, Brazil, Australia, and the USA have ratified similar policies. In Europe especially, women’s soccer is drawing sold-out, record breaking crowds. The women’s 2022 UEFA final drew 87,000 fans to Wembley Stadium in London, breaking the record for women’s AND men’s European championship game attendance. As much as western Europe remains a steady powerhouse of women’s soccer, other continents are starting to embrace women’s soccer as well. Morocco qualified for their first World Cup after unveiling a plan in 2020 to make the country a contender in the African Soccer Confederation, and proving that countries who commit resources to their women’s teams can and will see success.

However, equal pay in some countries definitely doesn’t mean equality is the priority in others. France, Canada, and Spain, all exceptionally well-funded and top-ranked teams, faced player strikes in early 2023 due to poor treatment of players by coaches and federations. In preparation for this world cup, Jamaica’s women’s national team has created a GoFundMe page just to cover expenses. 

Other aspects of women’s soccer have struggled to meet minimum standards as well. After FIFA hosted the 2022 Men’s World Cup in Qatar, a country where women aren’t treated equally to men, there was a little backlash. When FIFA tried to make Saudi Arabia Tourism a sponsor of the 2023 World Cup, there was a LOT of backlash, and FIFA eventually had to back off. In a similar vein of racist and sexist policy, 2022 saw the French Football Federation ban hijabs for soccer players at all levels as part of a law intended to keep religion out of public spaces.

FIFA confirmed recently that players will not be allowed to wear rainbow armbands in support of LGBTQIA+ equality. The federation has approved 8 possible wristbands that support various causes, but none that explicitly support LGBTQIA people. In a sport that includes more lesbians than you can count and boasts the first transgender olympic gold-medal winner (Quinn, from team Canada), this is causing a massive controversy. 

Despite the issues, FIFA maintains that they are making strides. In 2022 FIFA published the paper “Setting the Pace”, a report intended to benchmark the progress of women’s soccer globally. TV viewership, in-person attendance, and merchandise sales are up across the board. FIFA has also more than tripled the prize money available for the 2023 World Cup, although the men’s tournament was awarded four times as much. The president of FIFA has indicated that he would like to see an equal payout for the women as soon as 2027, but right now that is just an empty promise. 

In the opener of this World Cup, ticket sales proved that FIFA grossly underestimated the popularity of tickets, and games sold out in the first 24 hours of ticket sales. In response, FIFA moved the opening Australian game to a bigger stadium and has released additional tickets, which have now sold out for the second time. Again and again, fans and athletes alike prove that all over the world, people like women’s soccer.

[stephenjaymorrisblog]

Lugubrious Anarchist

Stephen Jay Morris

November 18, 2022

Scientific Morality©

My amygdala, otherwise known as the region of the right brain, is all fucked up. I don’t know whether I’m depressed or just frustrated. I know that Jesus was rejected by his own people. This doesn’t mean that I have a Messianic complex or a slight case of megalomania. I just feel bad.

I have been locked out of yet another anarchist message board. They must think I am a Cyber troll or an agent of the state. I have been locked out of other political message boards, too. From Twitter to FaceBook, I am buried in obscurity. My videos on YouTube have a low viewership. So, what now?

Should I blame myself? Conservatives would say yes, however, my logic says no. The type of Anarchists we have now are bourgeois, Millennial, white kids who started their careers playing video games on the Internet. As with any movement, the youth are the most enthusiastic and vibrant members. This incurs resentment by the preceding, older generation, which is a normal occurrence. Back in the day, we had a generation gap between the old Leftists and the new Left. I know I’ve said this before and I say it again here: The old Left declared, “Your long hair will alienate the working class!” Well, in a way, it did. The working class “Hard Hats” of New York City attacked Hippie, anti-war protesters circa 1970. A decade later, Hard Hats and major league baseball pitchers sported long hair! Truth be told, the old Left was opposed to identity politics. They used to say to us Yippies that homosexuality was not in the interest of the working class. Well, they changed their tune in the 70’s!

Today’s kids may dislike Baby Boomers, but the conservative Millennials have been brain-washed by Boomer Conservatives and routinely use their rhetoric to attack the so-called “Woke.” The stereotype of woke is not only cringe, but outright retarded and stupid! This is the real reason I am sad. The reality is that some Zoomers dislike me as a Boomer. It’s stupidity on their part, however. One day, they’ll realize who the real enemy is.

So, I am theoretically retired. I’ve promised myself to quit the Anarchist movement and do some charity work, or travel around the planet to see the natural beauty that it has to offer. Maybe explore the essence of inner peace and the soul of just being. Meditate by a waterfall and watch beavers gather up branches to build a dam across a river. Yeah, I might just stick my head in the sand or hug a Redwood tree.

All I wanted to do was to show the younger generation how corrupt American corporate culture is and the phoniness of Evangelical Christianity; how they advocate for personal liberty and then, on the other hand, want you to conform to capitalist classicism. I wanted to impress upon the youth that the Anti-Authoritarian left is different than the Authoritarian left, or just better than the Authoritarian right.

Maybe 200 years from now, there will be an Anarchist revolution. I think the only way America will have one is if Fascism does come to the USA, and the state’s suppression will push the youth into armed struggle. We are getting close. The ignorance of the working class is helping to bring forth this Fascist state, whether it be Christian theocracy or white nationalism. When the totalitarian state is established, the white working class will realize that the Fascist state will not improve their lives. In fact, it will make it worse. They will realize that Jesus is not coming back and the only way to survive is to sell Meth. They will realize that the Feminists, Blacks, illegal aliens, socialists, Islam, fake news, and rich Jews are not their enemies, but that it is the white men in corporate boardrooms and pastors behind the pulpit that are doing them in. Alas, they will find out when it’s too late!

As for me. My love of my life, Pamela, and I will live out our lives into our golden years with love, happiness, and freedom and, hopefully, peace. I will make damn sure that nobody hurts us!

I will slowly back away from American politics because it fuckin’ sucks! Good luck suckers!

[f1]

Verstappen returns to Drive to Survive as season five launch date is confirmed | 2023 F1 season

The fifth series of Netflix’s popular Formula 1 documentary Drive to Survive will appear on February 24th, the championship has announced. The latest instalment will cover the events of the 2022 F1 season. It is the first of two further series of the documentary which were confirmed last year. Drive to Survive first appeared in 2019 and has been credited with expanding F1’s audience in recent years, particularly in the USA. However the Netflix series has also been criticised for misrepresenting some events. Lando Norris said last year some parts of the programme were “definitely not correct.” Max Verstappen was among those who accused the programme makers of “faking a lot of stuff” in Drive to Survive. He refused to contribute to the series after its first edition, but after talks with F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali last year Verstappen indicated he had changed his position and said “you’ll see more of me” in the upcoming series. Verstappen won the world championship for the second time during 2022, clinching the title with four races to go. He suffered a difficult start to the season, however, retiring from two of the first three races. Few details of the new series have been confirmed, though it is likely to include 10 episodes lasting at least 40 minutes each as previous instalments have. F1 said the fourth season of Drive to Survive, which was launched last year, attracted its biggest viewership to date and was ranked among the 10 most-watched programmes in 56 countries. Don't miss anything new from RaceFans Follow RaceFans on social media: Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free 2023 F1 season Browse all 2023 F1 season articles via RaceFans - Independent Motorsport Coverage https://www.racefans.net/

[cavenewstimes]

WWE’s SmackDown Return to USA Network: Legends in the Mix?

One big thing WWE is considering bringing in wrestling legends for tonight’s SmackDown return to USA Network, potentially including Rob Van Dam, Teddy Long, Booker T, and Ron Simmons. Why it matters • This marks the beginning of WWE’s new five-year deal with USA Network.• Bringing in legends could boost viewership and create buzz for the show’s network transition.• It signals WWE’s commitment to…