Just with the Mandalorian release schedule thing, I feel like it's important to note that Disney+ isn't an exclusively American service. Midnight in LA is 6am in London, 11.30am in Delhi, 3pm in Tokyo and 5pm in Sydney. They all get Mandalorian at the exact same time. There's no "good" time slot for everyone.
Standing in the tall weeds, on the edge of Nowhere, I say - again - clearly and loudly, but firmly and respectfully, regarding What Hollywood Needs To Do: Tell. Me. A. Good. Story.
There’s no right answer as to what time to release an episode of Mando.
Your suggestion of an early evening slot might suit Americans, but what about the rest of the world who will then have it ruined as soon as they wake up and go online.
The only way around it is to avoid the internet sadly. As it is with most things Star Wars.
I find muting key words works really well. I tried it with TROS last year and was able to browse Twitter on release day without a spoiler in sight.
That said, with Mando I’ve found this whole season I’ve had to wake up (I live in the U.K.) and watch it at breakfast time - just to avoid having it all ruined. I loved the finale, but certainly would have preferred watching it in the evening.
I’ll swap watching it at 8am for midnight all day long! ;)
I am glad that I managed to be unspoiled for almost all of the Mandalorian so far. I suppose I am fortunate in that social media is not a big part of my life and not necessary in any way for my career, so I just tune out until friday or saturday night when I sit down with the family to watch. I am supremely pleased with the once-a-week release schedule, because the anticipation is great and it is the only thing like that so far in my kids lives. Something so special about that aspect alone. Not sure it is possible to find a perfect time for everyone, certainly 9pm EST would mean my family would watch Saturday instead of Friday.
As far as things that have been spoiled, I can't really think of any prominent examples. I am sure it has happened, but my foggy memory of it indicates to me that it has not spoiled my enjoyment. More than specific plot points, I feel my enjoyment has been impacted by negative reviews at times, but I have made a conscious effort of late to set those aside when I sit down to watch something. Some of my favourite films, especially franchise-fare, as an adult have been savaged by critics so I can't let others opinions get in the way of my own enjoyment I've realized.
Biggest spoiler ever? After waiting in line, for 6 hours, at the Egyptian Theater, in Hollywood, to see The Empire Strikes Back, the show ahead of us lets out... and, from the exiting crowd, some asshole shouts out-- "I CAN'T BELIEVE DARTH VADER IS LUKE'S FATHER!!!" Most of the people in line started laughing... but, I knew, instantly... that it was true.
Don't know if it's the Biggest, but this is the spoiler that has stay with me for 30 years.
Reading a magazine(!) review, I think Newsweek, for JACOB'S LADDER and the review goes something like, "and I won't spoil the movie, but if you've seen "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge-" and yelled "FUCK!" and threw the magazine down. Couldn't believe the reviewer did that!
I self-spoiled RETURN OF THE JEDI and "there is Another", but reading a random part of the novelization-while waiting in line to see the movie!
I wish there was an easy answer to "The Mandalorian" Problem (which is about to become the "WandaVision Problem", but I don't see how, since people are fucking barbarians. I finally gave up the fight and got up and hour early to watch the last two episodes of Mando before getting ready for work. Glad I did to... and I sure as shit didn't spoil it!
Biggest spoiler would be the death of Qui-Gon via the soundtrack and the internet. Second would be The Village via a friend who heard about it on the radio on opening day.
As for what I'm watching and enjoying ... just saw Spontaneous and Soderbergh's Let Them All Talk today and have been pulling in Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams s1 which came and went completely unnoticed a few years ago. HBO's Chernobyl miniseries from last year withstood ridiculously high expectations and was massively applicable to all corporate hierarchies as well.
Biggest Spoiler for me was back in ‘99 with The Sixth Sense. I sat through the movie thinking “this would be brilliant if I didn’t know the twist”.
As as Australian, the release schedule for The Mandalorian is PERFECT for us: it comes out on a Friday evening at 7PM. Typically we can come home and watch it with some Friday night take away. It’s been a bright spot in a crappy year. It’s really bizarre that it gets dropped @ midnight in America.
Hi from New Zealand! things are indeed more or less business as usual down here, including live sports with crowds - we're in summer, so it's cricket season...
Nomadland sounds riveting and timely; income inequality has been sharply rising in New Zealand during the 21st century as well, and the current government (despite their stellar international reputation) has been negligent regarding proposed overhauls to our welfare system. We also have a mounting housing crisis, so 'freedom camping' could be the way of the future for many squeezed out by the system.
NZ has under-reported issues in terms of foreign bribery and corporate lobbyists (including foreign film industries!), so it's not all smooth sailing. For example, in the 2020 budget, roughly $230 million went to tax credits for foreign film productions (who seldom hire local cast or crew in above-the-line roles), while the amount allocated for local productions was $60 million.
Local films have been performing extremely well at the box office this year - Savage and This Town in particular, so the discrepancy kinda grinds my gears!
I've been watching a lot of local archival content; we have a resource called NZ on Screen which has about 800 hours of historic and modern Kiwiana. This saw me through a good chunk of lockdown and has been continuing to throw up gems. Also caught up with Lodge 49 and some shows on Netflix, but haven't seen many new movies.
Really appreciate your reviews, though - probably going to check out Mank and Nomadland over Christmas.
I have to say I didn't particularly care for the big shocking twist in Promising Young Woman as I felt like it undermined the main character somewhat even if the ending is kinda clever, as far as films with that sort of premise go I liked M.F.A.(i have a feeling that's the film you wanted to compare this one too) better. I was enjoying PYW until the twist, I didn't think it was bold or clever, just contrived, whereas M.F.A. not only fully commits to the darkness, it does so in a way that does not come across as forced or like it's trying too hard to be surprising.
All of my big spoilers were self-inflicted, i'm someone that just can't resist looking up a film whenever someone tells me how "Shocking" the twist is. I kind of regret spoiling myself on the big events in Last of Us 2(which is now my favorite game of all time) I only did that because the trailers implied the game was going to go in a direction that too many pieces of media with lesbian characters have gone, thankfully it didn't go that way and I feel silly for ever believing Naughty Dog would let me down in that department.
The only time stuff was spoiled for me against my will was when I went to the Sons of Anarchy sub-reddit earlier this year to chat about a certain event in season 1 that came off as contrived to me, I had some other stuff in season 1 spoiled for me, but in all fairness that was my own fault for not being more specific that I hadn't finished season 1 yet and it was only a spoiler for like the next episode or so. I did accidentally come across some bigger spoilers on the sub(I already knew the really big one from the end of season 6 already before I even started watching the show) but I ended up getting so sucked into the show that I forgot them so I ended up being surprised by them anyways.
I hate it when trailers blatantly spoil twists(looking at you Terminator Dark Fate) which is one reason why I go out of my way to avoid movie trailers these days.
Day ROTJ came out ,10yo me skipped school. Got on my bike and rode down to the old Sher-Den Mall in Sherman, TX. Got there around 9am and there was already a line. Box office opens for the 11am show and sells out, so I have to wait for the 2nd show. Buy tickets, in line inside, door swings open from the 9am show and out walks my asshole friend Leslie from Cub Scouts who says "Darth Vader turns good, then he dies."
Biggest spoiler ever: I’m driving to the 3:30pm showing of The Phantom Menace and the DJ for WBCN Boston did a bit at the start of the show saying, “This is Liam Neeson and my character is killed by Darth Maul at the end of The Phantom Menace.”
This was the most anticipated movie of my 20 odd years and this was a major buzzkill going in.
Not my experience, but that of my college roommate who told me how his family went to see Superman 2 when he was a kid, but they got there too early and went inside the theater right when Superman steps from the crystal chamber and crushes Zod's hand in the last 5 minutes. I remember having Return of the Jedi spoiled for me by the Scholastic Book fair in the 5th grade. Every kid in my class it seemed ordered the ROTJ storybook that spelled out EVERYTHING a month before the movie came out.
The minute you take the title father and mean it- desperate is your life. My kids are finally grown enough that while I am walking away from a marriage, I don't feel it like I once did. The older ones are nearly self-sustaining and the youngest is almost of that age. It is a GREAT relief. I was almost there in marriage, but que cera...
Just with the Mandalorian release schedule thing, I feel like it's important to note that Disney+ isn't an exclusively American service. Midnight in LA is 6am in London, 11.30am in Delhi, 3pm in Tokyo and 5pm in Sydney. They all get Mandalorian at the exact same time. There's no "good" time slot for everyone.
Standing in the tall weeds, on the edge of Nowhere, I say - again - clearly and loudly, but firmly and respectfully, regarding What Hollywood Needs To Do: Tell. Me. A. Good. Story.
https://iamcolorado.substack.com/
There’s no right answer as to what time to release an episode of Mando.
Your suggestion of an early evening slot might suit Americans, but what about the rest of the world who will then have it ruined as soon as they wake up and go online.
The only way around it is to avoid the internet sadly. As it is with most things Star Wars.
I find muting key words works really well. I tried it with TROS last year and was able to browse Twitter on release day without a spoiler in sight.
That said, with Mando I’ve found this whole season I’ve had to wake up (I live in the U.K.) and watch it at breakfast time - just to avoid having it all ruined. I loved the finale, but certainly would have preferred watching it in the evening.
I’ll swap watching it at 8am for midnight all day long! ;)
I am glad that I managed to be unspoiled for almost all of the Mandalorian so far. I suppose I am fortunate in that social media is not a big part of my life and not necessary in any way for my career, so I just tune out until friday or saturday night when I sit down with the family to watch. I am supremely pleased with the once-a-week release schedule, because the anticipation is great and it is the only thing like that so far in my kids lives. Something so special about that aspect alone. Not sure it is possible to find a perfect time for everyone, certainly 9pm EST would mean my family would watch Saturday instead of Friday.
As far as things that have been spoiled, I can't really think of any prominent examples. I am sure it has happened, but my foggy memory of it indicates to me that it has not spoiled my enjoyment. More than specific plot points, I feel my enjoyment has been impacted by negative reviews at times, but I have made a conscious effort of late to set those aside when I sit down to watch something. Some of my favourite films, especially franchise-fare, as an adult have been savaged by critics so I can't let others opinions get in the way of my own enjoyment I've realized.
Biggest spoiler ever? After waiting in line, for 6 hours, at the Egyptian Theater, in Hollywood, to see The Empire Strikes Back, the show ahead of us lets out... and, from the exiting crowd, some asshole shouts out-- "I CAN'T BELIEVE DARTH VADER IS LUKE'S FATHER!!!" Most of the people in line started laughing... but, I knew, instantly... that it was true.
Don't know if it's the Biggest, but this is the spoiler that has stay with me for 30 years.
Reading a magazine(!) review, I think Newsweek, for JACOB'S LADDER and the review goes something like, "and I won't spoil the movie, but if you've seen "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge-" and yelled "FUCK!" and threw the magazine down. Couldn't believe the reviewer did that!
I self-spoiled RETURN OF THE JEDI and "there is Another", but reading a random part of the novelization-while waiting in line to see the movie!
I wish there was an easy answer to "The Mandalorian" Problem (which is about to become the "WandaVision Problem", but I don't see how, since people are fucking barbarians. I finally gave up the fight and got up and hour early to watch the last two episodes of Mando before getting ready for work. Glad I did to... and I sure as shit didn't spoil it!
What I'm enjoying?
Honestly? The Mandalorian.
Biggest spoiler would be the death of Qui-Gon via the soundtrack and the internet. Second would be The Village via a friend who heard about it on the radio on opening day.
As for what I'm watching and enjoying ... just saw Spontaneous and Soderbergh's Let Them All Talk today and have been pulling in Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams s1 which came and went completely unnoticed a few years ago. HBO's Chernobyl miniseries from last year withstood ridiculously high expectations and was massively applicable to all corporate hierarchies as well.
Biggest Spoiler for me was back in ‘99 with The Sixth Sense. I sat through the movie thinking “this would be brilliant if I didn’t know the twist”.
As as Australian, the release schedule for The Mandalorian is PERFECT for us: it comes out on a Friday evening at 7PM. Typically we can come home and watch it with some Friday night take away. It’s been a bright spot in a crappy year. It’s really bizarre that it gets dropped @ midnight in America.
I personally saw that twist coming from light years away, always found that film massively overrated anyhow.
Hi from New Zealand! things are indeed more or less business as usual down here, including live sports with crowds - we're in summer, so it's cricket season...
Nomadland sounds riveting and timely; income inequality has been sharply rising in New Zealand during the 21st century as well, and the current government (despite their stellar international reputation) has been negligent regarding proposed overhauls to our welfare system. We also have a mounting housing crisis, so 'freedom camping' could be the way of the future for many squeezed out by the system.
NZ has under-reported issues in terms of foreign bribery and corporate lobbyists (including foreign film industries!), so it's not all smooth sailing. For example, in the 2020 budget, roughly $230 million went to tax credits for foreign film productions (who seldom hire local cast or crew in above-the-line roles), while the amount allocated for local productions was $60 million.
Local films have been performing extremely well at the box office this year - Savage and This Town in particular, so the discrepancy kinda grinds my gears!
I've been watching a lot of local archival content; we have a resource called NZ on Screen which has about 800 hours of historic and modern Kiwiana. This saw me through a good chunk of lockdown and has been continuing to throw up gems. Also caught up with Lodge 49 and some shows on Netflix, but haven't seen many new movies.
Really appreciate your reviews, though - probably going to check out Mank and Nomadland over Christmas.
I have to say I didn't particularly care for the big shocking twist in Promising Young Woman as I felt like it undermined the main character somewhat even if the ending is kinda clever, as far as films with that sort of premise go I liked M.F.A.(i have a feeling that's the film you wanted to compare this one too) better. I was enjoying PYW until the twist, I didn't think it was bold or clever, just contrived, whereas M.F.A. not only fully commits to the darkness, it does so in a way that does not come across as forced or like it's trying too hard to be surprising.
All of my big spoilers were self-inflicted, i'm someone that just can't resist looking up a film whenever someone tells me how "Shocking" the twist is. I kind of regret spoiling myself on the big events in Last of Us 2(which is now my favorite game of all time) I only did that because the trailers implied the game was going to go in a direction that too many pieces of media with lesbian characters have gone, thankfully it didn't go that way and I feel silly for ever believing Naughty Dog would let me down in that department.
The only time stuff was spoiled for me against my will was when I went to the Sons of Anarchy sub-reddit earlier this year to chat about a certain event in season 1 that came off as contrived to me, I had some other stuff in season 1 spoiled for me, but in all fairness that was my own fault for not being more specific that I hadn't finished season 1 yet and it was only a spoiler for like the next episode or so. I did accidentally come across some bigger spoilers on the sub(I already knew the really big one from the end of season 6 already before I even started watching the show) but I ended up getting so sucked into the show that I forgot them so I ended up being surprised by them anyways.
I hate it when trailers blatantly spoil twists(looking at you Terminator Dark Fate) which is one reason why I go out of my way to avoid movie trailers these days.
Day ROTJ came out ,10yo me skipped school. Got on my bike and rode down to the old Sher-Den Mall in Sherman, TX. Got there around 9am and there was already a line. Box office opens for the 11am show and sells out, so I have to wait for the 2nd show. Buy tickets, in line inside, door swings open from the 9am show and out walks my asshole friend Leslie from Cub Scouts who says "Darth Vader turns good, then he dies."
Biggest spoiler ever: I’m driving to the 3:30pm showing of The Phantom Menace and the DJ for WBCN Boston did a bit at the start of the show saying, “This is Liam Neeson and my character is killed by Darth Maul at the end of The Phantom Menace.”
This was the most anticipated movie of my 20 odd years and this was a major buzzkill going in.
Not my experience, but that of my college roommate who told me how his family went to see Superman 2 when he was a kid, but they got there too early and went inside the theater right when Superman steps from the crystal chamber and crushes Zod's hand in the last 5 minutes. I remember having Return of the Jedi spoiled for me by the Scholastic Book fair in the 5th grade. Every kid in my class it seemed ordered the ROTJ storybook that spelled out EVERYTHING a month before the movie came out.
The minute you take the title father and mean it- desperate is your life. My kids are finally grown enough that while I am walking away from a marriage, I don't feel it like I once did. The older ones are nearly self-sustaining and the youngest is almost of that age. It is a GREAT relief. I was almost there in marriage, but que cera...