Amazon Nears Deal to Buy Hollywood Studio MGM (opens in new tab)

The Boys? Invincible? Fleabag? Transparent? Marvelous Mrs. Maisel? The Expanse?

I disagree with your premise entirely. I see them trying to unseat HBO as the resource for all the pop culture shows you remember twenty years from now.

I definitely believe them to be bolder than Netflix for their breadth of original libraries.

That might be a little bold, but that’s what I see them trying to do.

> Most of the new prime video content, that I've seen, seems to have a very safe tone to it. Yes, it's new but it's safe. No one will be surprised or insulted by it. It starts to get boring very quickly.

Overall I agree with your point and I'm extremely confident Amazon buying MGM will completely and utterly fuck over any creative potential that company has (similar to what's happening with AT&T and HBO), but - if you're looking for something good to watch on Prime, take a look at Invincible. I was actually about to give up on it and then I got to the end of the first episode and I binged the rest of the show in less than a day.

It's the first time in years I've looked forward to the next season of a show that isn't a comedy.

When was the last time MGM did something truly creative? They pretty much just churn out the same formulaic franchise films every 2-3 years (James Bond, Rocky/Creed) or do pointless reboots (Robocop, Legally Blonde, Pink Panther). The studio has already gone through bankruptcy and layoffs and is on its last legs. There isn't too much left for Amazon to ruin.

Fleabag and Marvelous Mrs Maisel didn't seem very safe to me at all

Agree, I think the same thing happened when Disney acquired Fox film studios. Disney is notorious for low pay and alot of the fox execs/creatives were extremely worried after the acquisition, same thing going on with with Amazon/MGM.

I know amazon paid a fortune for Tolkien's Silmarillion TV rights and we haven't seen a single thing about that situation. My big worry is amazon screws around with the Bond franchise and ruins it, it seems to be doing extremely well with top directors and large blockbuster returns.

Some of the Prime content (my point of view is as a consumer in India), seems to bank on portraying sex / sexuality in a more open manner (depictions of sexual acts, topless scenes, etc). Feels like there is a certain degree of planning to "exploit" this type of media, considering Indian society and media itself is fairly conservative.

In India, Amazon ran into troubles for a bunch of its show. It's another thing that India is becoming more and more politically volatile. But yea, Amazon did make bold enough stuff here.

Invincible is probably the "least safe" superhero show I've ever seen in terms of content and themes. It's tonally bizarre too.

I disagree with this. The search for "safe" is by no means an Amazon problem exclusively and in many ways they do it much less than most.

> Most of the new prime video content, that I've seen, seems to have a very safe tone to it.

Watch Invincible.

> Yes, it's new but it's safe. No one will be surprised or insulted by it.

Are you sure? I was just watching the first episode of Solos where the character says that Trump has defected/escaped to Russia. I won’t call that a safe line..

Similarly they have Borat 2, again not very safe.

Perhaps you’re referring to some other type of content..

The Expanse was cancelled and then saved by Amazon within a year, Stargate has essentially been a dead property for 10 years.

Stargate is amazing. 17 seasons across 3 series (not counting origins), several tv movies, a few books... etc.

It started off cheesy, but the universe they built was so detailed and neat.

I'm definitely hoping Amazon buys them out and greenlights Stargate.

When they do something anti-consumer. As it is now, they are saving consumers so much money, the federal reserve has blamed them for keeping inflation low.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/01/new-fed-chairman-says-amazon...

This purchase should be illegal yesterday

They're betting on filling 5000 niches hunting for the next Stranger Things-level breakout hit.

The biggest IP is Bond and the Broccoli family own 50% of it and have creative control over the movies (and whether or not it can be a tv series).

I imagine that's the complication, you buy MGM but don't really have full control over the crown jewel so to speak.

Good point - you'd think Netflix would have been buying this stuff up.

You’ve just answered your own question. A huge catalog of classics as well as franchises that can be developed into new shows and movies.

The Bond franchise alone probably is worth half of what this deal is gonna cost.

Strategic power against other content creators. They need some can’t miss content similar to HBO/Disney/Netflix.