Tonight on Netflix Insomniac Theater

[Saz]

Man in the High Castle is awesome, just finished it.

[Kane]

[Spider]

Yeah, just watched the pilot. Excellent.

[Ben Huh]

[Spider]

[Ben Huh]

It exist in the same universe, but you'll never see Hulk, Iron Man, etc. actually appear on those series, which is something I prefer as opposed to trying to ram every character they can into the films simply because they're all Marvel characters (Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver in Age of Ultron). This gives the Netflix series more opportunity to focus on the characters that are important to the series they're doing and not giving other Marvel characters screen time for the sake of including them. I think you also run into a problem with the amount of content you put out, where some people might not necessarily watch the TV shows, but watch the movies, so if Jones shows up in Thor 3 some people might be like "who?" It's similar to books and other mediums filling in the time periods between certain film franchises and without reading the books, you'll get left behind a bit. That kind of shit can annoy people who want to be included on what's going on in the film they're watching without the need to reference other mediums.

edited to add: Both Jones and Daredevil are marketed towards older audiences with their themes and dialogue, whereas the films are more for general audiences to include young children. I highly doubt many of those children are going to be watching shows made more for adults and would be confused by Kristen Ritter showing up in one of the films. Children are going to be drawn in more by the big budget productions of the films as well.

[Spider]

Some might find it confusing, sure...but Marvel's position seems to be, "Yes. It all matters. It pays in terms of plot and character development to watch it all." So, maybe some people who only watch the summer superhero movies are going to be nonplussed if Jones or Cage strolls through. I guess if someone watched AoS, they might not really get the significance when Nick Fury or Lady Sif (two chacters from the movies who did cameos) strolled in. I personally saw both Avenger's movies having skipped the Thor movies entirely. And I've never seen Iron Man 3. The Thor movies were OK I guess...but the blanks they filled in didn't make the Avengers less interesting.

I'm OK with confusion over minor characters who are basically just there for fan service. I mean, Robert Downey Jr has said he'd love to do some Tony Stark cameos on the TV shows...but...contracts. So its probably not happening. But really, since his character doesn't have anything to do with those plotlines...it would just be fan service anyways. What's the harm?

What they're actually doing is a wide angle filling-out of this world in much the same way as a good space opera series of novels. And really, the Marvel Universe after all this time is far larger than anything else. Far larger than Trek or Star Wars, even. And I say this from some basic reading about it. I confess I've never read a comic book in my life. So I'm just enjoying all of this cinematic universe and TV stuff for what it is, entirely ignorant of whatever they're getting wrong.

[Spider]

[Kane]

[Spider]

Did you read the books, Kane?

I *loved* it. (Of course, I would.) But as I was watching I kept feeling like, "Damn. The way they are introducing these characters is going to be trouble for those who don't already know them..."

The production values were absolutely through the roof. Extremely high quality production...I was expecting it to be "barely had a budget" scifi channel stuff...but this thing looks expensive. Amazing sets, quality zero G work, very sold special effects, etc. Certainly more expensive than BSG. The best put together science fiction show in years. Its already been renewed for a second season...I really hope its able to build an audience beyond the book people. There aren't that many of those anymore.

/gushing

There is just so much good stuff on TV lately.