So, it’s no secret by now that THE NEVERS has been cancelled. And although its initial season was to be released in 2 parts, the cancellation came after part 1. This coming to pass shortly after allegations against Joss Whedon, the show’s creator, were made about misconduct on the set of JUSTICE LEAGUE. And as many of you will know, the allegations came from actor Ray Fisher, who played Cyborg in the movie.
Of course, I am by no means wanting to minimalize the impact of Fisher’s experience under Whedon’s direction, this is more about Warner Bros. Discovery CEO, David Zaslav.
Since Zaslav became CEO of the new Warner Bros. Discovery, quite a few of his decisions has the studio’s audience scratching their heads. No doubt, with the promise of finding $3B in savings over the next few years, I’m sure shareholders are happy. But from a consumer perspective, definitely some confusion. Most notably the shelving of the BATGIRL movie starring Leslie Grace (IN THE HEIGHTS). Reportedly, the shelving was done due to a lack of confidence in the movie, as well as taking the route of a tax write-off, which, one can only assume, goes back to the $3B mission mentioned before.
But the WBD chopping block continued to HBO, with cancelling of shows like THE NEVERS, but in addition, other great shows like WESTWORLD and MINX to name a few. But didn’t stop there, in cost-saving measures, all the aforementioned shows were removed from the, then, HBO Max platform.
No one will argue that hosting content, especially for something like streaming, is cheap. And there was sure to be some kind of cost benefit there, like not having to pay residuals, or something of the like. But as a customer, still sucked to be sure.
But there was hope! A light at the end of this tunnel if you will. Earlier this year it was announced that HBO Max reached a partnership with Tubi to license and stream the cancelled/pulled content from Max. Amongst them? THE NEVERS. But not only that, it would INCLUDE the 6 episodes of Part 2 that never aired.
Though, sadly, my joy was quickly stomped on. Don’t recall the date all of this was happening, but a little late to the game to be sure. But when I downloaded the Tubi app, made a profile and dove into the library… THE NEVERS was nowhere to be found. As I frantically searched, the series just wasn’t there.
What happened?
Well, upon investigation, looks like that license to stream was only for a limited time, specifically a week.
Though ever hopeful, looked to VOD for hope. Went to iTunes, Amazon, and more, but while THE NEVERS was there, the episode count clearly didn’t include Part 2.
And that’s what bugs me. Can’t pretend to know the expense to keep/have shows like THE NEVERS available in its entirety. But at least having it all available on Digital, just seems to make sense. But sadly, that doesn’t look like that’s going to be case, and those episodes to be lost forever.
I guess that’s just a long-winded way of ranting, that in the time to come, I hope Zaslav will make decisions good, not only for shareholders, but looking out for the audience as well.
But we’ll see what happens.
All that aside, how do you feel about the moves Zaslav has been making? Drop your thoughts on the Fuzzybug Facebook Page today.