Hollywood's Bad Habit!!!

So, last weekend, I got one of the biggest shocks of my life! A new Apple show was released, and it was starring none other than Jason Mamoa (Aquaman and Fast X), Luciane Buchanan (The Night Agent), and Temuera Morrison (Aquaman and Moana). This was a show that had quite a level of star power and the ability to drive traffic to it. Jason was enough alone to make sure that many fans subscribed to Apple TV just to watch the show.

But then, it turns out, I never knew about it. I like to pride myself on being tuned to the movie world and knowing what movie or show is coming out and when it is. Of course, I know that I can’t know every single movie, but at the very least, when one of my favorite actors is working on a movie, I believe I would know about it.

_{Jason Mamoa, Cliff Curtis, and Sihua Ikale'o in Chief Of War}

But in this case, it was as if they just snuck the show in, without all the buzz that we know Hollywood for. The show is titled Chief Of War and it’s been on since last week, at least that’s when I found out about it. When I saw it, I first had to watch the trailer to know what it was about, and that was intriguing enough for me. And I decided to give it a shot. And I actually enjoyed it. The third episode was released today, but I’m yet to get to it.

You see, this particular habit is not unique to Chief Of War. Apple TV seems to enjoy making shows but giving them little to no publicity. And many times, these are great shows that cost lots of money to make, but they’d be quiet about it. As if they don’t want too many people knowing of their existence. Dark Matter is also a similar show that suffered the same thing. It’s a great show that has so much promise, but people rarely talk about it.

Or should I mention other shows like Silo, Severance, Smoke, Foundation, and so many more? These are all great shows, but I’m sure that many of you don’t even know about them. I don’t really know why the platform seems to employ such a tactic. Is it because they don’t want to spend money on marketing? I know the amount of hype Netflix puts into their movies and shows, and I know how much Disney invests in their works. So that even if the movie is trash, it would still bring in some profit. But not Apple TV.

_{Rebecca Ferguson in Silo}

Another possible culprit of this is Amazon Prime, although they seem to be selective of the shows they promote. While they had popular shows like The Boys franchise, Invincible, and even the just-canceled Wheel Of Darkness, some other shows seemed to slip through the cracks. Shows like Countdown (starring Jensen Ackles from Supernatural and The Boys, Jessica Camacho from The Flash and Bosch: Legacy, and Eric Dane from Grey’s Anatomy and Bad Boys: Ride Or Die), the entire Bosch universe, and so many more.

I don’t really know why these guys approach marketing this way, maybe because the movie business is not their main source of livelihood. After all, Apple TV is only a sister company to the main Apple Computers that produce the iPhone, iPads, and MacBooks. The same can be said for Amazon Prime, because they’re owned by… Amazon! So, maybe these guys don’t need the money that could come from movies, which is why they don’t really care about promotion like that.

_{Jensen Ackles in The Boys}

Because I know that Disney and Netflix won’t dare such a thing, even Starz and HBO Max won’t try it because these guys rely heavily on the movies they produce to remain in business. For Prime Video and Apple TV, they most likely have a fat account to cushion the bad decisions they make. Well, that’s how I see it. It’s not like I’m in the boardroom meetings with them.

I just hope that they’ll put in more effort to market their shows because these shows are genuinely good and have great potential. Because it won’t be funny when one of our favorite shows gets canceled because there’s not enough traffic to justify it. But how will there be traffic when no one is talking about it? Shows that already have a dedicated fanbase have been axed. What will be the fate of shows that no one even knows exist?

They really need to do better.

_{Lee Byung-Hun in Squid Game}