The Boys? Invincible? Fleabag? Transparent? Marvelous Mrs. Maisel? The Expanse?

I disagree with your premise entirely. I see them trying to unseat HBO as the resource for all the pop culture shows you remember twenty years from now.

I definitely believe them to be bolder than Netflix for their breadth of original libraries.

That might be a little bold, but that’s what I see them trying to do.

> The Boys? Invincible? Fleabag? Transparent? Marvelous Mrs. Maisel? The Expanse?

It is worth noting that major studios (or the BBC in Fleabag's case) make all of those shows and Amazon buys them.

But I still agree with the general point that it's unfair to argue Amazon "beats the creativity" out of productions it deals with.

Totally agree. I don't watch much streaming these days but from my limited experience Amazon and HBO are the only ones where i can tune in to a random new show and have a better than even chance it's not total pap.

I beg to differ the Asian and Europeans content of netflix is quite different from the usual blockbuster hollywood content,

Yeah I'm not saying Netflix never has good stuff, just that it's few and far between in comparison to the others I mentioned.

I enjoyed the series about the Romanovs

> Most of the new prime video content, that I've seen, seems to have a very safe tone to it. Yes, it's new but it's safe. No one will be surprised or insulted by it. It starts to get boring very quickly.

Overall I agree with your point and I'm extremely confident Amazon buying MGM will completely and utterly fuck over any creative potential that company has (similar to what's happening with AT&T and HBO), but - if you're looking for something good to watch on Prime, take a look at Invincible. I was actually about to give up on it and then I got to the end of the first episode and I binged the rest of the show in less than a day.

It's the first time in years I've looked forward to the next season of a show that isn't a comedy.

If you like Invincible, you should The Boys a try. It is fantastic, great cast, great cinematography, and great source material which is adapted in such a way that it is honestly better than the original comics it is based on.

When was the last time MGM did something truly creative? They pretty much just churn out the same formulaic franchise films every 2-3 years (James Bond, Rocky/Creed) or do pointless reboots (Robocop, Legally Blonde, Pink Panther). The studio has already gone through bankruptcy and layoffs and is on its last legs. There isn't too much left for Amazon to ruin.

This is exactly it. The goal of the sale is to own the rights to semi-famous original content and an interesting back catalog on the cheap. Amazon just sees the sale as better then bidding against Netflix for the same content.

Fleabag and Marvelous Mrs Maisel didn't seem very safe to me at all

Or The Expanse or Invincible or The Boys. I think there are plenty of examples of good content.

Amazon didn't produce Fleabag, they just have international rights.

I was surprised to learn that it was actually co-production between the BBC and Amazon

Often all this means is that they put $ in and trusted the BBC to oversee.

Exactly I watched it on BBC.

If we're splitting hairs, BBC didn't produce it either.

I really liked Fleabag. Maisel seemed too pretentious, watched only 2 or 3 episodes. Maybe should try again.

> Maisel seemed too pretentious

Opinion that you didn't ask for: I felt that it was both a good show and a terrible one at the same time and decided to stop watching it. It felt like it was 40% "haha these mega-rich Jews are mega-rich, Jews, and also out of touch", 40% "Gilmore Girls in New York", 19% "romantic nostalgia for Lenny Bruce and a young Joan Rivers", and 1%...I don't know...maybe "they showed boobs on screen that one time".

Agree, I think the same thing happened when Disney acquired Fox film studios. Disney is notorious for low pay and alot of the fox execs/creatives were extremely worried after the acquisition, same thing going on with with Amazon/MGM.

I know amazon paid a fortune for Tolkien's Silmarillion TV rights and we haven't seen a single thing about that situation. My big worry is amazon screws around with the Bond franchise and ruins it, it seems to be doing extremely well with top directors and large blockbuster returns.

Amazon is very busy making it's LOTR First Age show still, it's just a big, multi year production.

Some of the Prime content (my point of view is as a consumer in India), seems to bank on portraying sex / sexuality in a more open manner (depictions of sexual acts, topless scenes, etc). Feels like there is a certain degree of planning to "exploit" this type of media, considering Indian society and media itself is fairly conservative.

Ya the violence and sex on some of the Amazon original content like Mirzapur is shocking!

In India, Amazon ran into troubles for a bunch of its show. It's another thing that India is becoming more and more politically volatile. But yea, Amazon did make bold enough stuff here.

Invincible is probably the "least safe" superhero show I've ever seen in terms of content and themes. It's tonally bizarre too.

I disagree with this. The search for "safe" is by no means an Amazon problem exclusively and in many ways they do it much less than most.

> Most of the new prime video content, that I've seen, seems to have a very safe tone to it.

Watch Invincible.

> Yes, it's new but it's safe. No one will be surprised or insulted by it.

Are you sure? I was just watching the first episode of Solos where the character says that Trump has defected/escaped to Russia. I won’t call that a safe line..

Similarly they have Borat 2, again not very safe.

Perhaps you’re referring to some other type of content..