HBO's THE NEVERS to air in April 2021

[Ran]

Claudia Black has tweeted a bit about it:

 

[Lord Varys]

2 minutes ago, Werthead said:

Reportedly the second batch of episodes will round off the story, so not really? The actors were great, the story was interesting and it was a fairly solid, entertaining show (for those who could divorce Whedon's personal problems from the product).

If they are actually released, to be sure. I took it that chances were pretty low that this might happen.

But even then - I really don't like finishing shows which ended prematurely. Still haven't finished Sense8 for that very reason.

[Werthead]

54 minutes ago, Lord Varys said:

If they are actually released, to be sure. I took it that chances were pretty low that this might happen.

But even then - I really don't like finishing shows which ended prematurely. Still haven't finished Sense8 for that very reason.

Sense8's conclusion was okay. A little bit rushed, but fun. And I think it might have been a blessing in that I'm not sure they had the legs to last the originally-planned 5 seasons (listening to JMS's plans for killing off one or more of the Senseates suggested they weren't the best thought-out ideas).

[Ran]

Vulture has more info on what's going on:

Quote

The short answer, based on conversations with sources familiar with the situation, is this is a sequel to the story we saw play out earlier this year. Programs such as Minx and Westworld are being shelved because WBD is taking advantage — one last time — of special circumstances related to the merger of the former WarnerMedia and Discovery Networks. Long story short, there are legal rules and regulations allowing a company like WBD to write down costs incurred as part of a post-merger restructuring — but only for a short amount of time. Taking shows such as Minx or Westworld out of the HBO Max and, more importantly, WBD library will apparently help the megacorporation make its future balance sheets look a lot better. This isn’t just about saving a few thousand dollars on residual checks or licensing costs; it’s about writing down millions in amortization costs these titles would have incurred in coming years. A vanished show here, a vanished show there, and pretty soon you’re talking about a meaningful impact on WBD’s overall earnings report — or so the company hopes.

....

While there have been reports that these shows would end up on a planned WBD-owned ad-supported streamer, sources tell me that’s unlikely. Because they are being shelved as part of the “restructuring” savings, those shows can’t make significant money for the company anymore. Any revenue gleaned by selling to an outside FAST platform, however, would be so relatively small that, apparently, it’s okay.

 

[Ran]

Good news! It looks like Roku and Tubi will be airing The Nevers, including the unaired episodes that wrap up the series. Many thanks to TV Line for actually specifically confirming with HBO that the deal includes the unaired episodes.

I hope this includes international rights, because we don't get Tubi here in Sweden, but we do get Roku...

[williamjm]

I wonder whether Sky Atlantic will continue to show the remaining episodes in the UK? They do still have the original batch of episodes available to stream.

[Corvinus85]

11 hours ago, Ran said:

Good news! It looks like Roku and Tubi will be airing The Nevers, including the unaired episodes that wrap up the series. Many thanks to TV Line for actually specifically confirming with HBO that the deal includes the unaired episodes.

I hope this includes international rights, because we don't get Tubi here in Sweden, but we do get Roku...

Do we know when those episodes were completed?

But unless the show's finale has an actual conclusion that ties off the the plot points, I'm not sure I'm going to bother.

[Ran]

Ugh, found out that we do not in fact have Roku in Sweden. Fingers crossed that HBO Nordic's HBO Max will run it instead...

@Corvinus85 It's been reported that the new showrunner used the last couple of episodes to try and conclude the story. As I understand it, Whedon had overseen the first ten episodes, but they hadn't filmed four of those (plus the two more that hadn't been finished being written), so to what degree  they rewrote some or all of those episodes to contribute to the conclusion, I don't know.

 

[Jerol]

Damn, damn, damn. This show had so much potential, especially when we learned of the time travel aspect. Shed a few Whedon tropes and we'd have a real compelling genre show. I guess I'll have to check out Tubi at some point on my FireStick.

[SpaceChampion]

The release schedule for the new episodes of The Nevers on Tubi is kind of weird.  The first season is available tomorrow, and then the new episodes will be up beginning on Feb 14th at times seemingly picked by throwing a dart at a corkboard.

Quote

• 2:38 pm ET The Nevers Ep 107 “It’s a Good Day” (Feb. 14)
• 3:46 pm ET The Nevers Ep 108 “I Don’t Know Enough About You” (Feb. 14)
• 4:47 pm ET The Nevers Ep 109 “Fever” (Feb. 14)
• 2:40 pm ET The Nevers Ep 110 “Alright, Okay, You Win” (Feb 15)
• 3:45 pm ET The Nevers Ep 111 “Ain’t We Got Fun” (Feb. 15)
• 4:50 pm ET The Nevers Ep 112 “I’ll Be Seeing You” (Feb. 15)

 

Edited February 13, 2023 by SpaceChampion

[grozeng]

So do you have to watch them at those times or is it something you can stream at anytime?  I have never used Tubi and can't stop in the middle of the day to watch 3 hours of TV.

[Ran]

The times basically are serializing the episodes and slotting in time for commercials. Between slightly varying episode length and commercials, the timing seems reasonable enough...  but early afternoon for three hours straight in the middle of the weekday is pretty awful, and suggests they're showing it that way because Tubi agreed to it as a way to get a cut-rate price. Or HBO insisted on it.

No word yet on if anyone in Sweden is carrying it.

Edited February 13, 2023 by Ran

[grozeng]

So are they going to show them again at night for people that can't watch them mid-day?  Or can you record them?

[SpaceChampion]

27 minutes ago, grozeng said:

So are they going to show them again at night for people that can't watch them mid-day?  Or can you record them?

No, it's like any streaming service, click play when you want to, pause when you want to...

The posted times just mean you can't watch them earlier than that.

Edited February 13, 2023 by SpaceChampion

[grozeng]

OK, dense moment.  Now I get it.  Posting times if you wanted to watch it like it was on TV. But there is no need for that.  Thanks.

[Werthead]

The new episodes haven't appeared in the UK yet.

[Ran]

Spoiler

Managed to catch them all thanks to a friend who used a watch party thing.

Hopefully Roku will have it in the next month and actually be on-demand, for those who missed it.

In any case.

 

That was rather expectedly  deflating. The fact that all the writers and story editors from the first half were gone was ... maybe not surprising, but it was very obvious. It wasn't just the fact that they had to wrap it up, some of the characters and language just felt different. It was a lot less funny, for one thing.

Super-obvious that a number of threads were just outright dropped to try and wrap it. Pretty sure the Galanthi ending here and Myrtle's post-credit hint were not what was part of the long term plan (given the ep ... 5, 6 flash Amalia had). Fairly certain that the intention for Augie was not that he "got angry" at Lavinia that one time, either -- still convinced the plan was that Lavinia and Hague got in touch because Hague treated Augie after the Jack the Ripper murder spree.

What's a real shame is that the show looks very much an HBO show -- set and costume design was strong, general production design was very good, and so on -- and the actors were quite good. But the writing here... the Purifiers led by that girl who looked all of 12, the Maladie cosplayers, ... just a lot of hurried choices and unappealing decisions. 

Ah, well. Nice to see Claudia Black as Stripe again.

 

Edited February 16, 2023 by Ran

[Myrddin]

So... it's not worth catching up to watch unless you were really looking forward to an ending?

 

*I watched the first two episodes way back when, and enjoyed them, but I paused when I learned the back half hadn't dropped (and was MIA at that point).

[Ran]

Just now, Myrddin said:

So... it's not worth catching up to watch unless you were really looking forward to an ending?

The first six are worth watching, and then if you enjoy those enough, might as well watch these last six, just be prepared to watch the wheels comes off at various points in the latter half.

 

[dog-days]

21 hours ago, Ran said:

  Reveal hidden contents

Managed to catch them all thanks to a friend who used a watch party thing.

Hopefully Roku will have it in the next month and actually be on-demand, for those who missed it.

In any case.

 

That was rather expectedly  deflating. The fact that all the writers and story editors from the first half were gone was ... maybe not surprising, but it was very obvious. It wasn't just the fact that they had to wrap it up, some of the characters and language just felt different. It was a lot less funny, for one thing.

Super-obvious that a number of threads were just outright dropped to try and wrap it. Pretty sure the Galanthi ending here and Myrtle's post-credit hint were not what was part of the long term plan (given the ep ... 5, 6 flash Amalia had). Fairly certain that the intention for Augie was not that he "got angry" at Lavinia that one time, either -- still convinced the plan was that Lavinia and Hague got in touch because Hague treated Augie after the Jack the Ripper murder spree.

What's a real shame is that the show looks very much an HBO show -- set and costume design was strong, general production design was very good, and so on -- and the actors were quite good. But the writing here... the Purifiers led by that girl who looked all of 12, the Maladie cosplayers, ... just a lot of hurried choices and unappealing decisions. 

Ah, well. Nice to see Claudia Black as Stripe again.

 

Shame. I'd been planning to catch up on the first half whenever it became available cheaply in the UK, but I don't think I'll bother now. If the writing quality isn't there, the rest is no good, despite the Claudia Black.