AMC's fall from grace

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Originally published at: AMC's fall from grace | Boing Boing

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And as noted in the video, way back when, they started out as a place to show vintage movies, ala Turner Classic Movies. “American Movie Classics” is what AMC originally stood for.

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It was when they ditched RUBICON after one season.

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Rubicon was so good.

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“went on to become one of the defining shows of the two thousands”

Uh, I think you meant to say “aughts”?

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My mom and grandma would tape all of their favorite old classics from AMC and TCM (Turner Classic Movies) constantly. It was such a great resource for films that don’t have the same cultural longevity as, say The Sound of Music. I really wish one of the streaming services would make a push into featuring classics because the selection is paltry, at best.

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I think part of the trouble is talent spreading too thin across too many new players in the original content game. Also, you can’t force lightening to strike the same place twice.

I gave Halt and Catch Fire a chance but the writing was just so cliched I found I was just hate watching. Maybe I’ll give it another chance as the video claims it got better.

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[citation needed]

It’s not completely devoid of merit but it ain’t what it used to be. Or maybe I should say, it’s mostly what it used to be (i.e. lots of great back catalog but not so much right now)

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Well, when you think about it, that was the whole thing behind HBO (Home Box Office, also known as “Hey, Beastmaster’s On” or Hey, Batman’s On" later) and if they hadn’t switched to being known mostly for shows they wouldn’t have the viewership they have now.
I remember the first ones I got into were Dream On and Larry Sanders back to back. The former was absolutely inspiration for Ally McBeal, BTW. I’ve been a subscriber (streaming only now) since then and they kept hitting it out of the park, IMO. Succession has been my latest obsession. I also highly recommend Station Eleven.
As for AMC, I never did watch Mad Men (though I would like to see it at some point) and baled on Walking Dead a few seasons after the guy in the above video did.

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Nope, nothin’ good on AMC at all. :roll_eyes:

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criterion channel?

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or the naughties?

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I dipped during the first season of Halt and Catch Fire. After several recommendations, I gave it another chance, and the rest of the show is pretty excellent. It centers the relationships between the two female leads, and becomes much more interesting in terms of what it does character-wise, period-wise, and thematically.

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This. So very this.

They had no ads, except for themselves and the films they would be showing, and those were only shown between features. We caught lotsa great, obscure films on that channel (e.g. 1969’s Hard Contract with James Coburn, Lee Remick, Sterling Hayden, and Burgess Meredith!), films that no one else has shown before nor since.

I’ll never forget their brilliant Hallowe’en thang from many years back! They showed classic spooky Roger Corman films, with Mr Corman hosting and telling great stories between the films, stories about their making, their actors, and some of the mad shit that went down during filming/production.

And No Ads!!! Did I mention that?

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You’re in luck. TCM is largely part of HBOMax now.

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TCM has gotten interesting in its choices.

Fridays at 2:00 AM has been for cult films/R rated content (TCM Underground).

They recently upped their foreign and silent content considerably.

Also Tubi has been an interesting service for 90’s TV shows orphaned by streaming services, unusual documentaries and off kilter movies. Plus its free.

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Well for one thing when you pay for their AMC+ streaming service you can’t even stream Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul. How do you offer a streaming service and not even have two of your network’s best shows on it?

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In many ways, FX (The Americans, Fargo, Atlanta, What We Do in the Shadows, etc.) has stolen AMC’s thunder to become the new AMC-style success story.

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Yeah, definitely no need to worry about HBO becoming a channel that just runs a bunch of spinoffs of its hit genre show.

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I always found FX series to be more interesting in general. They are more willing to go into lurid/“trashy” territory.

“I can’t believe they went there!” is a common refrain when talking about The Shield, The Americans, Justified, Sons of Anarchy…

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