'Arrested Development' Comes Exclusively To Netflix

First time accepted submitter Xondak writes "The cult series 'Arrested Development' is being resurrected and brought exclusively to Netflix streaming subscribers. This marks the first time a major studio has produced first-run content for the streaming service and perhaps this will afford other opportunities for cancelled Fox series. Firefly, anyone?"

Comments

I'll pass.

[Microlith]

I'm allergic to giving money to corporations that sponsor bills like SOPA.

Re:I'll pass.

[Bradmont]

Do you have a reference for that?

Re:I'll pass.

[Bradmont]

Oh, I thought you were saying Netflix was sponsoring SOPA.

Very Cool, but...

[ideonexus]

I closed my Netflix account during all the price-hike hoopla and really haven't missed it at all (started reading a lot more). So I guess I'll do what I do with TV shows (since we don't own a TV) and wait until they're out on DVD or streaming somewhere else for free online. I'm patient enough to do this with Futurama, so I can wait for more episodes of this awesomely twisted show.

Hate It

[afabbro]

This is what I hate about Netflix, Hulu, iTunes, Google Music, and every other digital music vendor - limited selection. I can get show X or album Y on service 1, but not on service 2.

I want every CD, every DVD, and every TV show available to me digitally. That's what we all want. It's not like they aren't already sitting in some digital format somewhere.

I've long thought that digital media should be like the Internet, with individual Music Service Providers competing based on their interface, features, etc., and not on their catalog. In other words, all content available through everyone and that's not why you choose one over the other.

iTunes, Google Music, Netflix, etc. are simply recreations of the record company distribution monopoly. At least with record companies, there was one LP, 8-track, cassette, and CD standard. Today you can own a piece of media and not be able to play it on all your devices.

Re:Hate It

[Karlt1]

More or less, but it's been that way for ages. I remember Apple using that as a way of damaging competing brands of MP3 player. They would have tons of DRMed ITMS exclusives that couldn't be played on other players without degrading the sound quality. All because Apple refused to license its DRM to competitors and wasn't willing to license MS' DRM.

And instead of licensing their DRM, they encouraged the music industry to allow all music to be sold DRM free.

http://www.apple.com/de/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/

The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.

Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it? The simplest answer is because DRMs havenâ(TM)t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy. Though the big four music companies require that all their music sold online be protected with DRMs, these same music companies continue to sell billions of CDs a year which contain completely unprotected music. Thatâ(TM)s right! No DRM system was ever developed for the CD, so all the music distributed on CDs can be easily uploaded to the Internet, then (illegally) downloaded and played on any computer or player.

Re:"Opportunities for cancelled Fox series."

[zippthorne]

Also, Bruce Campbell might have contractual obligations to the show he's currently working on...

Lord knows they're squinters

[shoppa]

And that's why you don't use a one-armed man to scare someone.

Re:"Opportunities for cancelled Fox series."

[mrchaotica]

For those reading this, "Burn Notice" is really good, by the way.

Exclusivity - what the price hike is paying for

[Bill Dimm]

Netfix surely could have gotten the content cheaper if it was non-exclusive. The price hike everyone was griping about isn't being spent (entirely) on bringing more content to Netflix subscribers. Part of it is being spent on keeping content away from subscribers of other content delivery services, i.e. exclusivity. You're happy to pay more to help Netflix shut out its competitors, right?

Note: I'm not arguing about whether or not Netfix is a good deal for the price. I'm arguing against exclusivity as a matter of principle -- it's an abuse of customers to make them pay more in order to make the market less competitive (which ultimately hurts consumers).

Re:"Opportunities for cancelled Fox series."

[Hatta]

No it's not. It's incredibly bad actually. None of the characters are remotely believable or likeable. It's hard to get into a spy show when you're rooting for the protagonist to get shot. And the premise? "When you're a spy, you don't get fired, you get sent to Miami." WTF is that? I watched a half dozen episodes of this with family and it was completely and utterly without any merit whatsoever.

Re:WTF is Arrested Development?

[Surt]

It's a fox tv series that aired in the US a few years back. Among people who watched it, it was exceptionally well regarded, but it suffered and died from two problems:

1) Jumping in was hard, because there were a lot of self-referential jokes from earlier episodes.
2) It got consistently stuck in terrible time-slots, and this was before Nielsen figured out how to deal with people using dvrs.

If you're a nerd and enjoy comedy series, I'd highly recommend it. In my opinion it's the best comedy series ever on tv, and the only one that I've watched the entirety of more than 3 times.

Re:Cult?

[kimvette]

Yes - Fox did everything they could to sabotage the show, including but not limited to musical timeslots. airing shows out of order, placing it in timeslots where it would be preempted by sports or political speeches, and so on. They went out of their way to kill the show, justifying their cancelling it due to low ratings which were due in large part to the musical timeslots and preempting and delaying of broadcast, and yet it STILL became an astounding success upon DVD release and reruns on cable networks have been strong as well. So yes, it enjoys a cult following.

I'd like to see "No Ordinary Family" and "The Sarah Connor Chronicles" be continued as well. Also, Firefly, I would second, providing the writers pretend "Serenity" never happened (It was a really shitty ending and we never did learn much about Shepherd's backstory and why at times he enjoyed a VIP get out of jail free card) and just pick up where the series originally left off.