Alexandra Cheney in The Wall Street Journal reports that Netflix's new Lilyhammer series "tests new ground in streaming."
E Street Band guitarist and "The Sopranos" actor Steven Van Zandt has Olympic-size dreams for his new Netflix Inc. original series, "Lilyhammer."
Mr. Van Zandt, who also co-wrote and executive produced the hour-long drama, will star as Frank "The Fixer" Tagliano, a mobster who enters federal witness protection after testifying against his boss. Frank is relocated from New York to Lillehammer—or as he calls it "Lilyhammer"—the Norwegian town that hosted the 1994 Winter Olympics, to begin his new life.
"Lilyhammer" is the first of five original series Netflix is developing as exclusive content for its 23.5 million streaming subscribers.
All 8 episodes from the first season of Lilyhammer will be available on February 6th.
Am I the only one who thinks that netflix should do something more TV-like and release an episode a week for 8 weeks instead of all of them at once?
Posted by: apc | February 01, 2012 at 08:16 AM
apc - I think that might have happened in the "old" days of tv programing, when shows ran 24 episodes over 10 months, Sept. to June. Now, even though shows usually run once a week, the calendar is all over the place, and a lot of people get their tv viewing on DVD or DVR or streaming, so once a week is not a good way to launch to a new tv program. That said, I would have gone with 1 episode per day myself, with either the first 2 or last 2 on the same night to run for 7 days. I'll probably watch this, but no more than 1 or 2 episodes per day. And if it sucks I'll stop watching.
Posted by: Robert Emmerich | February 01, 2012 at 09:59 AM
No way. Netflix knows its viewers love to plow through multiple episodes in one day, so releasing an entire run of a show is a great way for Netflix to go about this. This show doesn't look all that great to me so I will probably skip it entirely, but I like the idea of Netflix doing shows and releasing it all at once.
Posted by: Tsuyoi | February 01, 2012 at 01:17 PM
Still, a valuable PR opportunity is lost by dumping all 8 episodes on at the same time. I'd would've preferred releasing 4 episodes a month, create some buzz, anticipation. Netflix added an original series last summer about the Borgias- albeit not something they commissioned themselves, and I haven't even checked it out. Why? Because they've done nothing to make me interested in looking at it, to see if I might like it.
Posted by: Kale Barton | February 01, 2012 at 02:07 PM
One of the main principles of Netflix streaming is "Watch what you want, went you want to watch it". Why would they do it any different just because they are producing the content this time? If you want to watch it one episode per week that's perfectly acceptable, but Netflix doesn't want to force that on you like the current cable model dictates. Are we really debating giving the customer choice and control of what they've paid for?
Posted by: TomFresh | February 01, 2012 at 02:27 PM
Great.
I don't have to wait for it to come out on DVD to not watch it.
Posted by: shthar | February 01, 2012 at 10:56 PM
Am I the only one who thinks that Netflix should keep its focus on movies instead of being just another TV channel?
Posted by: thatboy | February 02, 2012 at 04:13 AM
Lets agree to disagree, but I think Netflix should have done an episode a week, just like HBO and Showtime do. It would've guaranteed viewers stayed subscribers through the duration of the run, and it would have had more speculation in forums and articles as to what happens next in the story. But of course the whole thing out is better for the customers.
BTW, this show is currently being shown in Norway through NRK in a weekly basis, they are a few episodes in but apparently they had excellent ratings (I believe NRK had an issue with product placements not being allowed in Norway, which caused the show to be cancelled for 3 weeks before bringing it back). Can't wait to watch this!
Posted by: Hallbabies | February 02, 2012 at 12:39 PM
I'm glad NF is making original content. Its a better use of my subscription fees.
Posted by: BruceBruce | February 03, 2012 at 02:43 AM
Well, NOW i can put it in my queue.
Why wasnt I able to add it sooner ?
Even kept the trailer in there which disappeared on its own thinking this might be added in its place. It was not.
Posted by: RJM | February 06, 2012 at 06:54 AM