Netflix: The Witcher

[underEJ]

Originally Posted by vailpass

They aren't necessarily wrong though are they? It seems like Netflix could have wring a lot more buzz, word of mouth, advertising, etc. out of the Witcher if they had gone the GoT release route.

In general, not completely wrong. For The Witcher though, I really think they needed existing game and book fans and new watchers who like to binge in order to contradict the reviews and give it some love. The needed them fast and on youtube in a hurry, and a bunch of fan videos went up in the first 24 hours praising the full season. It really depends on what the specific show needs. For instance, I'm not sure Stranger Things would have done as well with a weekly release, in the first season anyway.

Release strategy should be flexible as water cooler phenomenon are rare, and GoT in some ways ruined that as much as basked in it. When all that resolved to nothing, people were very disappointed. True Detective as well. Tons of conversation and theory leading to a much simpler resolution. Alot less people getting into things at that GoT level now. Something will come along to spark it again, but the signal won't be great weekly numbers in the first season. It will be big growth in between seasons. For Mandalorian vs. Witcher, we won't know until we see the growth into seasons 2.
Streaming means shows have year round life with new viewers joining and renewing the buzz.

I just don't think we have definitive answers to how shows are best released yet, and Forbes was recently bought by a Chinese media company though I haven't figured out what their interest is yet. There have definitely been rumors that the editorial board is not as free as it used to be.