Market Distribution

The E wrote:

fallsfromtrees wrote:You are dreaming. The religious fundamentalists (of all ilks) will view any negative portrayal of religion as a veiled attack on their beliefs.

In order to be offended by Safehold, one would have to be the kind of person who is offended at literally everything even the slightest bit critical of religion. Over and over again, the books feature characters who, upon discovering the truth of the Church of God Awaiting, decide that their faith is still perfectly valid, it's just those damn [s]papists[/s]vicars who are morally corrupt. If that's a scenario a significant number of first-world people are offended by, I would be very much surprised. I do not doubt those people exist, but they are definitely not the target audience for works like Safehold, no matter which medium it is being presented in.

I think history firmly establishes that many, many such people exist. It is, after all, the basis for blasphemy laws. I would argue that you cannot find any religion that has not at one time or another in practice advocated annihilating non-believers. (Don't even bother bringing up Buddhists as a counter argument; medieval Japan shows Buddhists can be just as bloodthirsty as any other religion.)

Hildum wrote:I think history firmly establishes that many, many such people exist. It is, after all, the basis for blasphemy laws. I would argue that you cannot find any religion that has not at one time or another in practice advocated annihilating non-believers. (Don't even bother bringing up Buddhists as a counter argument; medieval Japan shows Buddhists can be just as bloodthirsty as any other religion.)

And how many of these people do have Netflix or HBO subscriptions and are in any way interesting to marketing people for those companies in terms of making decisions about which series to greenlight?

The E wrote:

Hildum wrote:I think history firmly establishes that many, many such people exist. It is, after all, the basis for blasphemy laws. I would argue that you cannot find any religion that has not at one time or another in practice advocated annihilating non-believers. (Don't even bother bringing up Buddhists as a counter argument; medieval Japan shows Buddhists can be just as bloodthirsty as any other religion.)

And how many of these people do have Netflix or HBO subscriptions and are in any way interesting to marketing people for those companies in terms of making decisions about which series to greenlight?

Irrelevant. The type of fanatics that would oppose this would be demanding the cancellation of the series before the first episode had been shown. And the fact that they didn't have a subscription would mean nothing. Case in point -- the hurrah about the serial Soap before it went on the air, and this was 40 years ago. They are much more militants and mouthy today.

fallsfromtrees wrote:Irrelevant. The type of fanatics that would oppose this would be demanding the cancellation of the series before the first episode had been shown. And the fact that they didn't have a subscription would mean nothing. Case in point -- the hurrah about the serial Soap before it went on the air, and this was 40 years ago. They are much more militants and mouthy today.

I can't fail to notice the utter lack of impact this has had on series like Preacher, Lucifer, Sense8, Game of Thrones and others with material that could be deemed offensive to religious fundamentalists.

Basically, what I'm trying to get at is this: For any material out there you can find someone to whom said material would be offensive, and yet, lots of that offensive stuff is still out there. Claiming that something as comparatively safe and inoffensive as Safehold would be at risk of provoking the ire of religious nutjobs and thus would be less attractive to make an adaption of is a spurious complaint when it is easily demonstrable that those religious nutjobs have little to no impact on whether or not a series gets made.

Safehold has many problems that make an adaptation hard, but "it may be offensive to catholics" is not one of them.

Here is how you view the marketability of a potential TV series or movie series: Through the eyes of someone who knows nothing about the series.

Thus, episode 1 (The Ark)

Begins with the convoy separating from the fleet to flee the Gbaba, and moves to the final naval battle. At one point, we hear comments along the lines of "At least we've given humanity another chance" before Nimue et al die. To make it really captivating, this takes 15 minutes or so to really set people up. Flash forward to Nimue waking up in her cave, learning the truth. This conflict, this battle, draw people in.

This then cuts to Charis, where humanity as it exists today is.
Haarhald, Cayleb, et al are introduced and the initial problems facing Charis are made known. Additionally, there is a cut to the plotters (e.g., Hektor) behind Cayleb's planned death. This intrigue further draws people in, in part because Cayleb is shown to be such a great guy.

Cut to Cayleb's hunting expedition, where the story takes off. There is at one point a mini-jump to Nimue's cave, where she (as Merlin) takes off, but it is shown as a race against time (slight change from books, but dramatic!). The mountain lizard, the battle, etc take place with the culmination being Merlin meeting Cayleb.

Such an episode gives nothing away, has plenty of action, and introduces the basic character of Cayleb, Merlin, and Hektor. Going forward, episode two could introduce Merlin to the Charis court, begin to show his knowledge to others, and introduce the COGA within Charis itself. Each episode could build upon the others, with the first look at the actual COGA being through Paitry's father (e.g., it is shown as moral an just).

Additionally, unlike everyone here who knows what is going to happen (like GOT readers did until this past season), the general public would have no idea what is happening. Characters like Ducharin could be made much more sympathetic, while someone like Clyntahn (for TV) could be made into a virtual Adonis-like gorgeous human. If the Wlysns (in the first couple seasons till they die) are visiting brothels while Clyntahn isn't, that introduces intrigue and some greyness. Now, of course, eventually people reveal their true selves, but that is true of everyone. Someone like Norhmahn starts out as a fat, ugly, priviliged manipulator trying to kill Cayleb and ends as a great ally.

In short, there would be a lot of the following:
1- Character growth and change (especially as they are let into the "inner circle";
2- Intrigue could be created as to whether Charis will survive, and people like Thirsk could lead to divided loyalties among viewers;
3- Large (and small) scale battles that are always popular on TV, and;
4- The exploration of deeper human emotion/religiosity that if done correctly could be both enlightening as well as great tv.

In summation - I don't know if Netflix is capable of such a show. But HBO certainly is, as they have shown by their adaptation of GOT. Sure, it isn't what the hardcore fan wanted. But, it introduces the story to tens of millions of people, many of whom have bought and read the books. And, it would be highly entertaining to see Merlin charging across 3 galleys, swords swinging or Rock Point leading the fleet into near certain doom.