Is Sony AXNs Absentia a Sign of Yet Another TV Industry Evolution The world of television how its made and how people watch it has changed rapidly over the last decade. A prime example of this is Sony AXNs. Absentia.  In discussing the show making its world premiere at the Monte Carlo TV Fest,Variety rightly dubbed Absentia a hotly anticipated Hollywood show. Yet this show wasnt made in Hollywood it was shot largely in Europe. Furthermore at the moment it doesnt have a US release. Is this the next wave in Americas new golden age of televisionThere are a lot of pieces needed to solve this puzzle, so bear with me. What is TVs New Golden Age What Does Absentia Have to do With it Officially the New Golden Age is marked by the HBO drama The Sopranos. I agree, but Id say as do others the precursors to it could be seen in the NBC drama Hill Street Blues. Directed by Darnell Martin, Martha Mitchell. With Jerry Orbach, Jesse L. Martin, S. Epatha Merkerson, Sam Waterston. A man scheduled to testify in a murder trial. Directed by Mike Flanagan. With Catherine Parker, Courtney Bell, Dave Levine, Justin Gordon. A woman and her sister begin to link a mysterious tunnel to a series of. The Crying Game is a 1992 BritishIrishJapanese thriller film written and directed by Neil Jordan. The film explores themes of race, gender, nationality, and. Download Dvd Movie In Absentia ' title='Download Dvd Movie In Absentia ' />The X filesalsoplayed a role in shaping it. Lets look at the components of TVs new golden age and how Sony AXNs Absentia fits in. The First Factor Movie Quality Television. One of the hallmarks of American televisions new golden age is highly creative and multi layered storytelling. However, this trend didnt start because TV executives thought the world needed to see The Sopranos. HBO needed a way to create must see TV in a way that people would pay for. That meant it had to be different from the traditional formulaic shows the networks offered. While at the time no one would frame it this way, the answer was to make movie like television. However the movies being emulated are from David Chase, the creator of The Sopranos originally had envisioned the story as a film. Falcon Crest. Set in the vineyards of California, this primetime soap opera featured the conflict within the powerful Gioberti family, owners of the vast Falcon. Absentia is a 2011 American independent supernatural horror film written, edited and directed by Mike Flanagan and produced by FallBack Plan Productions. A key change that happened when HBO agreed to make the series is that Chase was given creative control of the series. This fundamentally changed the role of the writercreator of a show and soon it became TVs new normal. Movies and Television  Then and Now. It used to be that great television was the purvey of the executive producer whether they created it or not. Today we talk about the showrunner. That person is usually the writercreator of a television series as well as a hands on executive producer. Much like the director of a film its the showrunners vision that is allowed to shape and drive a show and whom its success or failure is pinned on. Another connection between American film directors and showruners is what occurred to define those roles. One of the things that led to whats referred to as Hollywoods second Golden Age or. New Hollywood, was the introduction of television. Televisions New Golden Age was also pushed by the introducing of new technologies first by cable TV and then the internet. The two eras are similar in the sudden burst of creativity sparked by the freedom given to the artistic side of production. A quick anecdote illustrates this perfectly. During his time directing the Boardwalk. Empire pilot for HBO, Martin Scorsese told his fellow executive producer Mark Wahlberg,I feel like Im back in the 7. Variety.  Scorsese is one of the greatest auteurs to come out of that New Hollywood period. If he says the two periods feel similar to him theres definitely something similar. The Second Factor Niche TV   The Internet. The other thing that helped create this golden age of television is the ability cable and streaming have to cater to specific interests. This is because cable and streaming shows arent dependent on the number of viewers at a given time. Ratings are irrelevant. In fact, streaming wont give out numbers. What these services both needed was critical acclaim to create buzz and viewers passionate enough about a show to buy a subscription. It meant cable stations and later the streaming services could afford to experiment and break with network TV norms. Its the structure of cable and streaming that made it safe to offer writercreators so much creative control. The Avid Viewer. We will always take a show for a small passionate audience over one that is for everybody. These days, nothing is more important than passion to making a show a success. Joel Stillerman,  AMCs EVP of original programming,                                                                                                                                              production and digital content. THR Many sneer at the term fandom, but are quite comfortable with the term avid viewer as coined by cultural critic Anna Leszkiewicz. To be fair, not all avid viewers are part of a fandom, but all people involved in a TV fandom are avid viewers. An avid viewer is someone with intense interest with all aspects of a show and the people who make it happen. Fandom. Theres always been groups of people who form social groups based on the love of something. From people who dress up to go to Renaissance fairs or Star Trek conventions, to cinephiles and members of. The Dickens Fellowship Old Movie clubs, they all can fall under the idea of fandom. Fandom The fans of a particular person, team, fictional series, etc. What niche TV has done is allow for shows to be directed to a narrower group of people. In time even network television caught on that you no longer had to write a show to appeal to everyone in the 1. A show that created a passionate response and intense discussion could create interest for a larger audience, as well as sustain a decent baseline viewing. Ideally, youd want both, but for subscription cable it was more about the prestige of a well crafted show. For networks whose ratings have been splintering because viewers have so many options, being able to point to a core audience of certain demographics has become crucial. The Internet Social Media. The internet created a space for these avid viewers to read about and discuss their favorite shows. The X Files debuted just as the internet, aka the world wide web, was becoming more mainstream due to browsers like. Netscape.  Its that show and the internet communities created by it that gives us the idea of television fandoms that we use today. Social Media. After our initial love of AOL Netscape died with the onset of Google, the next big shift in the post internet world came withthe onslaught of social media. While Facebook and Twitter werent the first, they really were the game changers. Facebook founded in 2. It also, via its Facebook games, encouraged becoming friends with people you didnt know who played the same games as you. These connections had nothing to do with where you lived, but what you liked. Two years later Twitter took this connecting by interest to a new level. Now people were encouraged to follow others based solely on their interests. Suddenly people from all over the world were talking to each other directly about everything and anything politics, food, music, movies, and TV shows. This rise of social media has taken fandom to the level of being able to make or break a television show. Dont believe meWhat tipped Fox into giving Fringe its fifth wrap up season What pushed ABCs Castle to scrap its season nineWhy is Supernatural still on the air There is no disrespect intended to Supernatural fans in asking that. The answer to all of these questions are the fandom. Hollywood has certainly noticed thepower of fandom last year a bunch of media broadcasters paid for a study to try and figure out how they work Golden Age or Not, Its Always About The Money Although everyone loves to talk about the creative freedom in this New Golden Age of Television, dont think its a total free for all. TV showrunners just like movie directors are ultimately controlled by the bottom line. Nothing changes that. Whether its about production values or getting good talent when you look at a show like HBOs Game of Thrones, or CBSs long running comedy The Big Bang Theory, its clear that TV continues to get more expensive to make. The Crying Game Wikipedia. The Crying Game is a 1. British Irish Japanese thriller film written and directed by Neil Jordan. The film explores themes of race, gender, nationality, and sexuality against the backdrop of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The film is about the experiences of the main character, Fergus Stephen Rea, a member of the IRA, his brief but meaningful encounter with a soldier, Jody Forest Whitaker, who is held prisoner by the group, and his unexpected romantic relationship with Jodys girlfriend, Dil Jaye Davidson, whom Fergus promised Jody he would protect. However, unexpected events force Fergus to decide what he wants for the future, and ultimately what his nature dictates he must do. A critical and commercial success, The Crying Game won the BAFTA Award for Best British Film as well as the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, alongside Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Rea, Best Supporting Actor for Davidson, and Best Film Editing. In 1. 99. 9, the British Film Institute named it the 2. British film of all time. Romance Films Saint Seiya: Legend Of Sanctuary. At a fairground in rural Northern Ireland, Provisional IRA volunteer Fergus Stephen Rea and a unit of other IRA members, including a woman named Jude Miranda Richardson and led by Maguire Adrian Dunbar, kidnap Jody Forest Whitaker, a black British soldier, after Jude lures him to a secluded area with the promise of sex. The IRA demands the release of jailed IRA members, threatening to execute Jody in three days if their demands are not met. Fergus is tasked with guarding Jody, and develops a bond with the prisoner, much to the chagrin of the other IRA men. During this time, Jody tells Fergus the story of the Scorpion and the Frog. Jody persuades Fergus to promise to seek out his girlfriend Dil Jaye Davidson in London should Jody be killed. The deadline set by Jodys captors passes, and with none of the IRAs demands being met, Jody is to be executed. When Fergus takes him into the woods to carry out the sentence, Jody makes a break for it. Fergus cannot bring himself to shoot the fleeing Jody in the back, but Jody is accidentally run over and killed by a British armoured personnel carrier as they move in to assault the IRA safe house. With his IRA companions seemingly dead after the attack, Fergus flees to London, where he takes a job as a day labourer, using the alias Jimmy. A few months later, Fergus finds Dil at a hair salon. Later they talk in a bar, where he sees her singing The Crying Game. Fergus suffers from guilt about Jodys death, and sees him in his dreams bowling a cricket ball to him. He pursues Dil, protecting her from an obsessive suitor and falling in love with her. Later, when he is about to make love to her in her apartment, he discovers that she is transgender. His initial reaction is of revulsion. Rushing to the bathroom to vomit, he accidentally hits Dil in the face. A few days later he leaves her a note, and the two make up. Despite everything, Fergus is still attracted to Dil. Around the same time, Jude unexpectedly reappears in Fergus apartment. She tells him that the IRA tried and convicted him in absentia, and she forces him to agree to help with a new mission to aid in assassinating a judge. She also mentions that she knows about Fergus and Dil, warning him that the IRA will kill her if Fergus does not co operate. Fergus, unable to overcome his feelings for Dil, continues to woo her. To shield her from possible retribution, he gives her a haircut and menswear as a disguise. The night before the IRA mission is to be carried out, Dil gets heavily drunk and Fergus escorts her to her apartment, where she asks him to stay with her. Fergus complies, then admits he had an indirect hand in Jodys death. Dil, drunk, appears not to understand, but in the morning, before Fergus wakes up, Dil ties him to the bed. She unwittingly prevents Fergus from joining the other IRA members and completing the planned assassination. Holding Fergus at gunpoint, Dil forces him to tell her that he loves her and will never leave her. She unties him, saying that, even if he is lying, it is nice to hear his words. Dil then breaks down in tears. Meanwhile, Jude and Maguire gun the judge down, but Maguire is shot dead by one of the bodyguards. A vengeful Jude enters Dils flat with a gun, seeking to kill Fergus for missing the assassination. Dil takes several shots at Jude, hitting her, whilst stating that she is aware that Jude was complicit in Jodys death and that Jude used her sexuality to trick him. Dil finally kills Jude with a shot in the neck. She then points the gun at Fergus but lowers her hand, saying that she cannot kill him, because Jody will not allow her to. Fergus prevents Dil from shooting herself and tells her to hide out in the club for a while. When she is gone, he wipes her fingerprints off the gun replacing them with his own, and allows himself to be arrested in her place. A few months later, Dil visits Fergus in prison where he is serving six years. After discussing his post release plans, she asks why he took the fall for her, and he responds, As a man once said, its in my nature. He then tells her the story of the Scorpion and the Frog. ProductioneditThis section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. January 2. Neil Jordan first drafted the screenplay in the mid 1. The Soldiers Wife, but shelved the project after a similar film was released. He sought to begin production of the film in the early nineties, but found it difficult to secure financing. Potential investors were discouraged by his recent string of box office flops, as well as the difficult themes of the script most studio heads believed the role of Dil to be un castable. The film went into production with an inadequate patchwork of funding, leading to a stressful and unstable filming process. The producers constantly searched for small amounts of money to keep the production going and pay disgruntled crew members. The film was known as The Soldiers Wife for much of the production, but Stanley Kubrick, who was a friend of Jordan, counselled against the title saying that audiences would expect a war film. The opening sequence was shot in Laytown, County Meath, Ireland and the rest in London and Burnham Beeches, Buckinghamshire UK. ReleaseeditThe film was shown at festivals in Italy, the US and Canada in September, and originally released in Ireland and the UK in October 1. Director Neil Jordan, in later interviews, attributed this failure to the films heavily political undertone, particularly its sympathetic portrayal of an IRA fighter. The bombing of a pub in London is specifically mentioned as turning the English press against the film. See List of terrorist incidents in London, 1. October 1. 99. 2. The then fledgling film company Miramax decided to promote the film in the United States where it became a sleeper hit, earning over 6. A memorable advertising campaign generated intense public curiosity by asking audiences not to reveal the films secret to their friends. Jordan also believed the films success was a result of the films BritishIrish political issues being either lesser known or completely unknown to American audiences, who thus flocked to the film for what Jordan called the sexual politics. The film earned critical acclaim and went on to be nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Film Editing, Best Actor Rea, Best Supporting Actor Davidson, and Best Director. Writer director Jordan finally won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The film went on to success around the world, including re releases in Britain and Ireland. Critical receptioneditCritics in Los Angeles and New York, where The Crying Game opened last week, were ecstatic about Jordans picture, greeting it with 3. Weekly Varietys reviewers poll. The Crying Game received worldwide acclaim from critics.