The Power Of Fandom.

[rogueslayer452]

Because I cannot stop thinking about it, ever since the cancellation announcement there's been numerous articles written about how unfairly The Acolyte was treated and that it should be given another season, calling out Disney and criticizing streaming services for how they handle shows.

This one from Inverse mostly talks about the way Disney has been handling the Star Wars IP, going from movies to focusing on shows to what it seems like they're going back to movies again, abandoning most of their live-action shows. Another article points out why the cancellation is a bad sign due to Disney not wanting to take risks in anything new and why that should be a concerning to everyone, not just hardcore Star Wars fans. And another article says the same thing. The Rolling Stone has an article about the toxicity of certain fans, Forbes reports on the cast reactions to the news, and another article agrees that The Acolyte deserved a second season. Bryan Fuller even tweeted his support of the show to get renewed. There are definitely others out there reporting on this, I'm sure.

Additionally, there's a petition to renew the show, including instructions on how to contact Disney+ directly.

Which the petition itself even got a shoutout from Forbes when it previously exceeded their goal at the time.

I don't think I've seen this kind of newsworthy activity over a show's cancellation in a long while. Then again, it is Star Wars, one of the biggest franchises in mainstream media, and this is the first of the live-action Star Wars shows that has actually been cancelled so shortly after it aired.

Now, as far as effectiveness on whether this will do anything productive to actually getting the show renewed, I don't know. Realistically speaking, as passionate as fan campaigns and petitions are very few have actually been successful, and since this is on a streaming service done by the company that owns the IP, I'm not entirely sure how that would work. Fans can and should make enough loud noise of course, but ultimately the ball is in Disney's court. Regardless what happens from here on out though, it's honestly amazing seeing fans (and non-fans, non-watchers alike) rally together like this. I've done this song and dance before with many shows in the past, I know how devastating it is. As I stated previously I hadn't even watched the show aside from some online clips, but the cancellation bothered me. It's more than just wanting to see more of Qimir and the development of Qimir/Osha and that story, but it's also about the way shows are often treated on streaming platforms. It's big mega corporations making these rash decisions that make no sense. It's about not allowing shows longer seasons, giving them a chance to marinate and breathe and grow organically on their own. Damn right we're pissed off.

Comments

[blakmagjick]

Off the top of my head I can't think of any...but I do know that some shows that were cancelled moved to another channel, but that definitely won't happen cause Disney >.>

[rogueslayer452]

It has been possible with some streaming shows, which is miraculous in itself, but Disney has a chokehold on IPs they own. It's what makes them consuming other properties worrisome because of how much control they have.

[elizalavelle]

I don't know if Disney will care about the response but I do like that it's pushing a discussion about how Disney is treating the IPs it owns and I think that probably spills out to most every streaming platform. They want immediate hits and in pursuit of that risks get eliminated so we get less and less original or good shows. Everything starts to be written by committee trying to hit every nostalgia button rather than tell a good story.

Plus we should talk about toxic fans and how they can be the loudest group but not the majority by far. It's like when James Gunn got cancelled for old tweets that he'd already apologized for well before Disney hired him and Disney fell into the trap of far right wing using those old tweets to get someone who was being outspoken about Trump sucking to get fired. Such a mess and it really showed how much people can get manipulated by the loudest people.

[rogueslayer452]

Oh yeah, that's definitely an upside that I've seen throughout the articles I've read where it leads to discussing the concerns people have been having for a long long. People want something new and different, we want good stories that have passion and drive behind it rather than something that is clearly created by a corporation.

(This is why I'm worried that, if The Acolyte does miraculously get renewed, Disney will hold a tighter leash on it and make drastic changes to what would've originally been planned for the show. The Acolyte did have a second season hook, but it ended on something that could stand by itself as a single season. So it's that conflicting thing of wanting it renewed so the story Leslye Headland can continue telling the story she wanted to, but worrying that somehow Disney will ruin that by intervening and meddling behind the scenes. IDK.)

Such a mess and it really showed how much people can get manipulated by the loudest people.

I know some claim that the higher ups don't listen to fans either way, but it's clear that they do. We've seen this happen numerous times before, and especially with things like Star Wars that influence certain decisions (re: the sequel trilogy). There is this major issue that while the toxic fans may be a minority, they are the loudest and dominate most social media platforms where they can be the loudest. These people aren't just ranting their opinions, they're gatekeeping and being incredibly hostile towards other fans and it becomes exhausting, especially when you see people literally falling for their rhetoric. It's depressing. :/

[rhoda_rants]

I'm definitely getting the sense that people are fed with investing in new shows only to have them cancelled just one or two seasons in. It's just not enough time to dig in with the characters, the universe, the plot, and everything else. It's a longer format than a movie for a reason, and as much as I enjoyed The Acolyte, it's definitely a long-ish movie chopped up to fit into the current 8 episode streaming format. This type of visual storytelling needs more time than that! We're still getting to know everybody, and the actors are still getting to know their characters! The writers are still settling into their groove! Supernatural didn't hit its peak until Season 4. Every fan I know of Once Upon A Time agrees that the best season is Season 3. Lost hit the ground running, but two of my favorite characters--Juliet and Desmond--didn't even show up until Season 3, and my absolute favorite episode, "The Constant," is in Season 4. Let's not even TALK about Doctor Who.

None of this is new, obviously, but given the amount of articles up there, I have to believe its finally hitting the ears of executives. Surprise surprise, people don't watch shows just to make YOU money, and if you piss us off enough times, the same way, we will stop coming back for more. I hope someone's paying attention out there, because this is not sustainable.

[rogueslayer452]

and as much as I enjoyed The Acolyte, it's definitely a long-ish movie chopped up to fit into the current 8 episode streaming format.

Yeah, and it's an unfortunate trend seen a lot with streaming shows where it's not made in a traditional episodic manner but for binging purposes. I get the feeling that there have been comments in the past about shows being very movie quality than most movies, particularly when Netflix started doing its streaming service, and sadly these services ended up focusing on the wrong thing from those statements.

Because what you said is true, a lot of amazingly popular shows didn't hit their stride until a bit later. Many start off awkwardly, but they have to work out the kinks before finding their footing. Nowadays on streaming, shows barely get a chance to do that, and it's frustrating because you see the potential there, you see what can be worked out to become better, but they don't get a chance because if they're not making the right amount of numbers. Plus, while I know the general consensus is that we want weekly releases to return, I do think The Acolyte could have benefited from it being released all at once because one of the common complaints I've seen was how awkwardly paced and slow it was, so the show supposedly being reported to having lost viewership as it went on makes a bit of sense. But unless it had extremely low numbers by the end, it didn't deserve to be cancelled especially after weeks from it premiering. In traditional television it would've simply been "on the bubble", but still renewed, giving it another chance. Plus, I'm sure some were just waiting until the show finished airing before they started watching. No wonder people don't want to invest in shows anymore because if something is just going to be cancelled anyway, what's the point? Why even bother? That's not the kind of mentality we should be having, and yet streaming had conditioned us to think this way, and it sucks.

With how this has gained a lot of traction, especially since Amandla recently posted on social media about how much hate they'd been receiving even before the show even premiered, I really truly hope this is something that is being heard from the higher ups to reconsider how they've been doing things.

[rhoda_rants]

Nothing wrong with movie-quality shows! But they still need to feel like shows. I didn't have a problem with The Acolyte pacing-wise, but I've realized I'm much more a fan of slow pacing than most people, especially those who like to binge-watch things. However, what's stopping them from tightening up the script and releasing it as a film? Or even two films, back-to-back? The cynical part of me theorizes that having several episodes, rather than a single movie, drives up the number of view counts on the app, and inflates the viewership. It's like that thing Netflix does where they encourage binge-watching even when you're not actively watching the show. I had several people tell me, unironically, that if I didn't want a show to get cancelled, I had to stream the whole thing start to finish and leave it running in the background, so the robot that counts completed binge-watches thinks I actually liked it. My first argument was, "No, if I haven't watched it yet, why would I work that hard to something I don't even know I like? What if the ending sucks? I'm not doing that." And also, NO ONE WATCHES TV LIKE THAT.

I feel so bad for Amandla. They did such a great job, and put in so much work, to creating not one but TWO incredibly complex characters, and now they're getting unearned fandom hate and cannot even finish their story. That sucks.

[violateraindrop]

I'm glad to hear that there is some support. The show got very little of that while it was being released.

[rogueslayer452]

Even before it was released, too. It truly was never given a proper chance. But yeah, I'm also glad that there's support and I hope that everyone involved with the show knows about it. Especially Amandla, who spoke out about the harassment they received which is heartbreaking, so I hope they see the outpour of love and support from fans.