Devs thread (discussion of all episodes available)

[Werthead]

On 4/18/2020 at 2:46 AM, Vaughn said:

Anyone have an overview of the economics of making 8 episodes of super high production quality TV in a limited run, like 'Devs' or 'I am the night' last year (Chris Pine noir) vs going to series? 

You're spending a lot more money per episode (a typical network show is $2-3 million per hour, a prestige starts at $5 million and these days that's rock bottom), most of which translates into a much longer shooting time per hour. On a network show you're shooting one episode per week, strictly, and on a prestige you may be spending two weeks minimum on an episode and sometimes three. As a prestige will also shoot all of the episodes before releasing them, there's a much longer lead time involved, and also more serious discussions about renewal. There's usually more post production involved. These are often why you get 18 month breaks between seasons rather than 12 months.

It's why prestige dramas only make economic sense on subscription services with a guaranteed income. Being reliant on advertising slots is much chancier.

[red snow]

Was this show "expensive"? I'm 4 episodes in and while it's a slick production is it really that expensive to make? The devs facility is the only thing that requires a set being built/CGI. And the creepy girl statue. Everything else is just existing buildings and clothing. It's not like a SF/fantasy or period drama where they have to make lots of sets and costumes.

Garland made ex machina for $15 million so he has a knack for making things look good on a budget. I'm not denying it looks great I'm just not sure it necessarily translates to being very expensive to make.

This type of show is ideally suited to a one off production. As has been mentioned the cost of creating a "world" for SFF and costume dramas is such that it's not worth doing unless you can get 2-3 seasons out of it

[Vaughn]

It was only on FX on Hulu right, not broadcast over the FX channel? Is this pretty much a prestige play by Hulu then? 

Season 2 will be Kenton just thriving in the Bay Area underground, always just one step ahead of the cops trailing him for Jamie's murder. 

[ithanos]

On 4/21/2020 at 5:28 AM, Vaughn said:

It was only on FX on Hulu right, not broadcast over the FX channel? Is this pretty much a prestige play by Hulu then? 

Season 2 will be Kenton just thriving in the Bay Area underground, always just one step ahead of the cops trailing him for Jamie's murder. 

Where did you hear of Season 2? I'm happy that this season finished satisfactorily if a second second never comes. With the strength of how it ended, the season is worth rewatching sometime in the lockdown future.

I came across this catch on another thread and it blew my mind. 

Spoiler

In episode 4, Jaime cleans up his apartment and as he leaves, a shelf falls down. Later in the episode Lyndon proposes his adjusment and then we see Forest using Devs with the adjustment applied. Then comes a scene back at Jaime's apartment and although he could have replaced the shelf off screen it doesn't look like its the same arrangment. So, have we been watching different worlds since this episode?

And with the end scene...

Spoiler

We have Forest playing with his family and Sergei applying for the Devs team. But would Forest have initiated the Devs program in this world, given he did not have the impetus of losing his family?

 

[Raja]

 

[Vaughn]

To be clear, I don't there would be a season 2 - I was making a joke. Any more content would just lead into a Star Wars type quagmire where the plot and underpinning concepts would fall apart. 

[red snow]

19 hours ago, Raja said:

 

I'll definitely be giving that a listen.

I really enjoyed the show, while the ending was "out there" it certainly wasn't at "annihilation" levels. 

On 4/29/2020 at 10:56 AM, ithanos said:

And with the end scene...

  Hide contents

We have Forest playing with his family and Sergei applying for the Devs team. But would Forest have initiated the Devs program in this world, given he did not have the impetus of losing his family?

 

I guess the simple answer could be

it's not a deus program but a genuine devs program

I don't think the show needs or will get a second season but there was a pretty obvious set up for a second season that would be interesting to explore and be very different from season 1

Forest explains to Lilly when they meet that they are one of the simulations where things worked out for them both. There are others where that's not the case and where it may even be more shitty than the prime world they came from. A second season could follow Forest and/or Lilly existing in the shit worlds with the knowledge that it isn't real and why the hell should they tolerate living in it when they know others are existing in "heaven"? I guess the easy multiverse option is suicide but that wouldn't last 8 episodes. Another angle could be Sim Sergei inventing his own "Deus/Devs" (he was on his way there with the worm) and realising that Forest/Lilly are from another simulation - and acting quite pissed about it.

I'd still rather they'd leave it alone but it's not like there are no options to continue. I'd be far more interested in Garland getting to do another mini-series on some other pet project of his. I guess he could always give consent for someone else to do a season 2 but that rarely works out well.

[Mexal]

6 hours ago, red snow said:

I'll definitely be giving that a listen.

I really enjoyed the show, while the ending was "out there" it certainly wasn't at "annihilation" levels. 

I guess the simple answer could be

  Reveal hidden contents

it's not a deus program but a genuine devs program

 

I don't think the show needs or will get a second season but there was a pretty obvious set up for a second season that would be interesting to explore and be very different from season 1

  Reveal hidden contents

Forest explains to Lilly when they meet that they are one of the simulations where things worked out for them both. There are others where that's not the case and where it may even be more shitty than the prime world they came from. A second season could follow Forest and/or Lilly existing in the shit worlds with the knowledge that it isn't real and why the hell should they tolerate living in it when they know others are existing in "heaven"? I guess the easy multiverse option is suicide but that wouldn't last 8 episodes. Another angle could be Sim Sergei inventing his own "Deus/Devs" (he was on his way there with the worm) and realising that Forest/Lilly are from another simulation - and acting quite pissed about it.

 

I'd still rather they'd leave it alone but it's not like there are no options to continue. I'd be far more interested in Garland getting to do another mini-series on some other pet project of his. I guess he could always give consent for someone else to do a season 2 but that rarely works out well.

Garland has been pretty clear that Devs was meant to be a single season so I think it's pretty unlikely it'll continue. I'm going to be super interested in his take on Halo though.

[Raja]

39 minutes ago, Mexal said:

 I'm going to be super interested in his take on Halo though.

What???? He's doing Halo?

Also, the soundtrack is out on spotify now

[Mexal]

1 minute ago, Raja said:

What???? He's doing Halo?

I thought so from his IMDB page but I can't find any updated information on it so maybe he wrote an original screenplay awhile back and they're adapting from that? Not really clear actually.

[Isis]

This looked and sounded great. Ah, there is an official soundtrack now - I only found a playlist with less than 10 tracks on it when I looked on spotify.

I honestly don't get the complaints about it being slow. How is it slow? I'd call it more 'deliberate' or 'thoughtful'. Things happen, every episode the plot moves forward. Didn't feel slow to me. It felt appropriately paced for the story.

I guess eight episodes must feel like a mini-series to Americans, who are used to series having 20 episodes or something.

[Raja]

This is the spotify soundtrack link, before it was out all I could find were playlists of the songs featured, but not the original score

Also, here on bandcamp

 

 

[red snow]

On 5/2/2020 at 5:20 PM, Isis said:

This looked and sounded great. Ah, there is an official soundtrack now - I only found a playlist with less than 10 tracks on it when I looked on spotify.

I honestly don't get the complaints about it being slow. How is it slow? I'd call it more 'deliberate' or 'thoughtful'. Things happen, every episode the plot moves forward. Didn't feel slow to me. It felt appropriately paced for the story.

I guess eight episodes must feel like a mini-series to Americans, who are used to series having 20 episodes or something.

Outside of Gangs of London there hasn't really been anything I've properly binged but Devs was definitely one of them (guess being ill helps with binge viewing). It maybe didn't feel so slow because of that but I agree with your saying it was more deliberate. It certainly didn't feel like anything was added merely to pad the story.

On 5/1/2020 at 3:19 PM, Mexal said:

Garland has been pretty clear that Devs was meant to be a single season so I think it's pretty unlikely it'll continue. I'm going to be super interested in his take on Halo though.

It'd probably only continue in the way that "28 days later" did eg without his involvement.

The soundtrack is excellent, it feels like Garland picked them quite deliberately if not someone did an excellent job picking songs that fit the mood and story.

[Isis]

Can I also just say that I spent the whole season thinking her name was KAYDEE not Katie because of the way everyone pronounced it, like 'Hey Kaydeeeeeeeee, what are you doing?'.