Final Space

[Ben Saunders]

My mate has got me watching this Adult Swim cartoon called Final Space recently, very Rick & Morty (I have never seen Rick & Morty), like Star Trek: Lower Decks but it isn’t so overbearingly loud and zany and random that it makes me nauseous. Anyway, I was three episodes in when I thought wait a fucking minute. This has so many parallels to Red Dwarf.

There’s an idiotic space bum serving a prison sentence out in deep space who is kept “sane” by an artificial intelligence that drives him crazy, there’s a cat-person-alien, there’s an absent love interest he is obsessed with but who he’s barely spoken to (an alternate-universe/timeline version of which ends up joining the crew), and they all form a ragtag group of misfits stuck on one ship together. It’s not afraid to get very violent and very sad, which I like. Not the greatest show I’ve seen but it’s very watchable. Just wondered if anybody else had noticed.

Topic

[Flap Jack]

I had no idea, Ben, thanks for spreading the info.

I see that Final Space was sadly cancelled after 36 episodes, so I guess this time we’ll never find out how the gang survived being blown up by their future selves.

Also, this can only be good news for Ganymede Dot TV. Any TV show that can be described as “similar or related to Red Dwarf” adds another month or 2 before they inevitably have to record a commentary for A Prince Among Men.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

I’ve not seen the third season of Final Space yet, but the first two were fantastic bits of comedy sci-fi, and I thoroughly recommend them!

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

I watched the first series.  It was originally on Netflix (probably still is?) and enjoyed it enough.  But a bit like Rick and Morty got tired of the zaniness after a while, and with a bit of a wait between series 1 and 2, by the time series 2 rolled around I’d largely completely forgotten what was going on so watched an episode and gave up on it.

I’m honestly surprised it’s taken this long to come up on this sub, most here would enjoy it I’m sure.

[Ben Saunders]

Final Space was sadly cancelled after 36 episodes, so I guess this time we’ll never find out how the gang survived being blown up by their future selves.

Apparently the creator is looking to fund a movie/special to wrap things up but is having difficulty doing so (sound familiar?)

 But a bit like Rick and Morty got tired of the zaniness after a while

Yeah, either it gets better for season two, or I’m just used to it at this point, haha. Not something I’d put on by myself at home, but definitely fun to watch stoned with a friend. I’ve not even finished season two but I’m already annoyed it was cancelled, because I find myself getting somewhat engaged in the plot and what’s going to happen to these characters.

I’m honestly surprised it’s taken this long to come up on this sub

I was surprised too, I did a search for it before making this thread because I expected it to be old news, but there was only one cursory mention of it on the whole forum!

[Rudolph]

I enjoyed all three seasons of Final Space, and what I found interesting is that it organically grew into a solid sci-fi drama – whilst still having a lot of comedic moments – that dealt sensitively with concepts like loss, guilt and responsibility.

A minor spoiler, but a couple of episodes in the lead character loses his arm and has it replaced with a mechanical prosthetic. Not a million miles away from Future Lister having a similar amputation.

[Ben Saunders]

The only time I have ever mentioned Final Space is in this very thread, and lo and behold Reddit picked up on it. They know too much.

[Toxteth O-Grady]

I started a thread about this over 4 years ago, and not a single fucker responded to it.

https://www.ganymede.tv/forums/topic/final-space-on-netflix/

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

I started a thread about this over 4 years ago, and not a single fucker responded to it.

On this forum you’ll find that sort of thing can happen several times. In fact, did anyone ever tell you about the time a guy started three separate threads on the same topic at once? Because if not, then I’d just like to announce that that actually happened.

[Flap Jack]

So apparently this show is being given the inexcusable “make unavailable forever” treatment by Warner Bros. Discovery.

https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/renew-final-space-olan-rogers-tax-write-off-new-t-shirt/

Don’t know how much longer it will be on Netflix UK, but if anyone still wants to watch it without needing to pirate it, I’d suggest doing so sooner rather than later.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

I saw this this AM.  Someone made the point that that means the only way to watch it will be illegally.  Which is mental isn’t it?  At a time when all media can be (and should be) made extremely easily accessible by everyone around the world.

The fact there will be no streaming, no physical more physical releases (and S03 didn’t get a DVD release) makes you a criminal if you want to watch it.  More so than “it just isn’t released here yet”.  I can’t understand why as an owner of content you’d hide it away like that.  It can surely cost nothing to sell streaming rights?  Other than maybe a little admin.

[Flap Jack]

It’s a pretty clear indictment of capitalism that it genuinely may make WBD more money to declare a TV show a tax write off and pledge to seal it away forever than to continue repeating it, selling the licence to it etc. At least in the short term.

I know it’s not exactly a new phenomenon for this to happen. In the pre-digital age it was common for TV shows to air once, get cancelled, then never see the light of day again. But with the internet there’s no real limit to how much content you can make available to watch or to buy at any one point, so there is no good justification for it.

If companies want to do this, then they should be legally compelled to enter the works into the public domain. If they’re committed to never make money off it ever again, then why should they care?

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

> If companies want to do this, then they should be legally compelled to enter the works into the public domain. If they’re committed to never make money off it ever again, then why should they care?

That’s a pretty great idea to be honest.  Presumably they’d never be allowed to release it under this write off scheme?  So why not force it into the public domain!

I don’t know enough about Hollywood accounting (I know its a sham) but I still can’t wrap my head around saving more in tax (and bear in mind, it’s only the tax portion you save, it’s not as though you write the whole project expenditure off against your tax obligation) than continuing to sell it worldwide.  Unless it really isn’t making *any* money at all, which I doubt.

All this will do is fuel the audiences desire for it and turn it into something of a cult status.  People will be continuing to watch it everywhere and none of the creators or the network will make any more from it.

[Author]

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