Mpampis:

Why on earth do you mind if a character has a certain identity? Is the senario good? Is the screenplay decent? That's all that matters. I mean, The Wire had a black gay murderer character, and he was great, the show was great.

Exactly this. If it isn't ham-fisted and force-fed and it fits the story, then it doesn't matter. The problem with Netflix, however, is that they are obsessed with altering preexisting material to fit their worldview, and they neither do it subtly nor tastefully.

mackintosh:

Exactly this. If it isn't ham-fisted and force-fed and it fits the story, then it doesn't matter. The problem with Netflix, however, is that they are obsessed with altering preexisting material to fit their worldview, and they neither do it subtly nor tastefully.

it's called "pop culture" for a reason. many on this thread are sounding like hateful troglodytes. not everybody lives in "Mayberry". trash or not, all shows cited have been popular so it shows there is a market for it. you can always watch something else. the first Amendment & creative freedom rules. it sounds like no-one has heard of artistic license.

tunejunky:

it's called "pop culture" for a reason.

Even in this "pop culture", this is considered a dick move...

Would you kindly not mess it up Netflix?

I expect this to be bad since it is hard to make a good Bioshock movie if it's strictly about the events of the first game, but some other stories before the moments either of Rapture or Columbia could work, how Rapture or Columbia was founded perhaps? I have to google what Ken Levine is being up to. The man has gone completely underground since he introduced some great game design concepts he was going to utilize in some unspecified new game of his small newly founded team - this was years ago. He got fed up by his games going too big, because that makes developing a focused experience harder, possibly preventing many creative attempts when trying something new. System Shock 2 was a smaller project and it was quite innovative I have to say, but I'm little saddened that many who seem to appreciate the game very much never comment the first game, which is in fact better if you ask me and really has the same base design, but nailed down little more fluently I'd say. If you are a true shock fan you must try out the first one, just for an hour or so. Personally I like both of them and every Bioshock too, but Bioshock 2 didn't have that strong narrative. Levine if you read this please announce what you are up to!

@Monolyth pure genius. I have high hopes!

There have been a few good shows and movies... A few! While all these kids are getting indoctrinated in schools and colleges to hate America and Trans/gay is the new normal, most things are going to suck. Protest with your wallet. A good story isn't going to overcome the weird sexual preferences.. Remember when they were harping about trusting the science? Pretty sure the science says there is a Man and Woman, Period! The woman can give birth, the man can not! Then there are the idiots that started the birthing people Bull sh*t! Just stop already! Its a small minority pushing this sh*t.. Yes guys.. We get it already, stop with the message and put out good content.. But, the other problem is you would actually have to fire all these people and put actual talent in their place.. That's the problem. So glad this crap wasn't around when I was younger. I feel for kids and young adults now days, the fun is gone! Its amazing that studio's care more about the lefts woke agenda/indoctrination than they do making money and having fans.. Weird, just weird.. Bizarro world indeed!

goat1:

There have been a few good shows and movies... A few! While all these kids are getting indoctrinated in schools and colleges to hate America and Trans/gay is the new normal, most things are going to suck. Protest with your wallet. A good story isn't going to overcome the weird sexual preferences.. Remember when they were harping about trusting the science? Pretty sure the science says there is a Man and Woman, Period!

People shouldn't trust "the science" they should trust the scientific process. Sometimes science and scientists get things wrong, but the process should eventually find the correct and/or better answer. It's also not really as simple as "there is a man and woman period" - there is gender and sex and those two things are different and there are a whole number of conversations that can stem from those differences and what it even means to "be" a male or female. Regardless the whole "netflix is SJW" is a pretty braindead take. I was tongue and cheek with my Ozark comment earlier in the thread - it' one of their biggest shows.. yet where are the trannies? Where's all the gay characters and SJW getting pushed in my face? What about Witcher? Midnight Mass? Arcane? Etc? Netflix gives creative control to it's showrunners and they are targeting young up and coming people.. that's why you get more than traditional media channels.. not because there is some agenda to push it. Still there's hundreds of shows I've watched that feature none of the complaining in this thread is talking about. Will Bioshock be a good movie/show? No it's probably going to be trash - but just assuming they'll have trannies everywhere because its on Netflix is dumb.

I would love to see a "Half-Life" Series worth binge watching multiple times.

I don't see how this is supposed to be good unless this is some side story that happens to take place in Rapture (maybe not even the same time period), in which case, Netflix can get away with all the SJW stuff they want since there won't hardly be any original characters. Besides... "reconstructive surgery" was pretty commonplace in the Bioshock universe, so, at least this would have an excuse for several trans characters, if that's what they're going to go for hahaha.

Mpampis:

Why on earth do you mind if a character has a certain identity? Is the senario good? Is the screenplay decent? That's all that matters. I mean, The Wire had a black gay murderer character, and he was great, the show was great.

There's 3 ways a character's identity not only works well, but is important: 1. Because the story revolves around the character's identity. This could be something like Huckleberry Finn, Queer Eye, Boy's Don't Cry, Hidden Figures, etc. 2. Because the character's identity is commonplace, and their identity is nothing more than an afterthought. This would be typical of anything that takes place in a major melting-pot of a city or if it's some international cooperative/travel involved. Such characters don't distract or detract from the story and their identity doesn't feel forced. I didn't see The Wire, but I'm guessing the character you described is like this. 3. When the character's identity is deliberately pointed out but typically for the sake of comedic relief (ideally, not in a malicious way) or making a plot more interesting due to cultural/preferential differences. People are right to care about a character's identity when: A. Representation feels forced, like where every other character for no apparent reason is a token and the only one of their kind B. The skin color, gender, or sexual orientation of a well established character is changed. This is far worse when it is a non-fictional character. C. It literally doesn't make sense, like 25%+ of the cast being non-Chinese when the setting is 16th century China, or speaking with a British accent in ancient Rome (for the sake of the audience, speaking English is fine, but at least use an accent that makes sense). D. When the actor playing the role doesn't even describe what the character is supposed to be (this is more commonly an issue of characters with a disability). It doesn't take a bigot to have a problem with this kind of stuff, and anyone who actually genuinely cares about the well-being of people who face discrimination will know that shoehorning them into media is only hurting their cause.

By the way, Bioshock is one of my favorite games of all times, and one of the few that I actually got to finish.

Funny how for me it was almost the exact opposite. I found the game such a chore to finish, and the only reason I did is because I heard the ending was good. The ending was substantially less impactful to me considering how linear the game was.

@goat1 That's very true. I don't mind who's in a Movie or Series tbh. But everything these days seems to fit a certain set of rules. Everything I seem to watch, Has to have. A black man with a White woman. A gay man or Trans or Lesbian. A Woman of Asian Descent I actually don't care about what ppl get upto or how people live in their life. But all these programs seem to push the same narrative. And once you've noticed it you can't un see it. People should be cast for Talent and Talent alone that fit the characters in the game or book etc.

H83:

Doing worse than Uwe Boll`s is no easy task, so it´s going to take somehing very special to do worse than him...

Ok i will do my best! I have no clue about writing a scenario ir how to direct so naturally i will do both ! Casting .... Protagonist ... Steven Seagal ,sisters : clones of Nicky Minaj, Atlas : Elton John! Would you kindly let me try to do worse than Boll ? 😛

schmidtbag:

I don't see how this is supposed to be good unless this is some side story that happens to take place in Rapture (maybe not even the same time period), in which case, Netflix can get away with all the SJW stuff they want since there won't hardly be any original characters. Besides... "reconstructive surgery" was pretty commonplace in the Bioshock universe, so, at least this would have an excuse for several trans characters, if that's what they're going to go for hahaha. There's 3 ways a character's identity not only works well, but is important: 1. Because the story revolves around the character's identity. This could be something like Huckleberry Finn, Queer Eye, Boy's Don't Cry, Hidden Figures, etc. 2. Because the character's identity is commonplace, and their identity is nothing more than an afterthought. This would be typical of anything that takes place in a major melting-pot of a city or if it's some international cooperative/travel involved. Such characters don't distract or detract from the story and their identity doesn't feel forced. I didn't see The Wire, but I'm guessing the character you described is like this. 3. When the character's identity is deliberately pointed out but typically for the sake of comedic relief (ideally, not in a malicious way) or making a plot more interesting due to cultural/preferential differences. People are right to care about a character's identity when: A. Representation feels forced, like where every other character for no apparent reason is a token and the only one of their kind B. The skin color, gender, or sexual orientation of a well established character is changed. This is far worse when it is a non-fictional character. C. It literally doesn't make sense, like 25%+ of the cast being non-Chinese when the setting is 16th century China, or speaking with a British accent in ancient Rome (for the sake of the audience, speaking English is fine, but at least use an accent that makes sense). D. When the actor playing the role doesn't even describe what the character is supposed to be (this is more commonly an issue of characters with a disability). It doesn't take a bigot to have a problem with this kind of stuff, and anyone who actually genuinely cares about the well-being of people who face discrimination will know that shoehorning them into media is only hurting their cause. Funny how for me it was almost the exact opposite. I found the game such a chore to finish, and the only reason I did is because I heard the ending was good. The ending was substantially less impactful to me considering how linear the game was.

Very well said.

I am sad to see Netflix is producing this. It's highly doubtful it will be great. It will end up being just ok. This addaptation should be done by Christopher Nolan or directed by Denis Villeneuve, with OUTSIDE backing, Not hindered by Netflix.

After seeing what they did with The Witcher season 2 and Cowboy Bebop, my hopes of this being good are extremely low.

Bioshock is THE franchise i never managed to get into. While i appreciate the technical quality, originality... I just don't like those games.

I haven't been subscribed to Nonceflix since May 2020. I don't think I've missed much! 😛

schmidtbag:

I don't see how this is supposed to be good unless this is some side story that happens to take place in Rapture (maybe not even the same time period), in which case, Netflix can get away with all the SJW stuff they want since there won't hardly be any original characters. Besides... "reconstructive surgery" was pretty commonplace in the Bioshock universe, so, at least this would have an excuse for several trans characters, if that's what they're going to go for hahaha. There's 3 ways a character's identity not only works well, but is important: 1. Because the story revolves around the character's identity. This could be something like Huckleberry Finn, Queer Eye, Boy's Don't Cry, Hidden Figures, etc. 2. Because the character's identity is commonplace, and their identity is nothing more than an afterthought. This would be typical of anything that takes place in a major melting-pot of a city or if it's some international cooperative/travel involved. Such characters don't distract or detract from the story and their identity doesn't feel forced. I didn't see The Wire, but I'm guessing the character you described is like this. 3. When the character's identity is deliberately pointed out but typically for the sake of comedic relief (ideally, not in a malicious way) or making a plot more interesting due to cultural/preferential differences. People are right to care about a character's identity when: A. Representation feels forced, like where every other character for no apparent reason is a token and the only one of their kind B. The skin color, gender, or sexual orientation of a well established character is changed. This is far worse when it is a non-fictional character. C. It literally doesn't make sense, like 25%+ of the cast being non-Chinese when the setting is 16th century China, or speaking with a British accent in ancient Rome (for the sake of the audience, speaking English is fine, but at least use an accent that makes sense). D. When the actor playing the role doesn't even describe what the character is supposed to be (this is more commonly an issue of characters with a disability). It doesn't take a bigot to have a problem with this kind of stuff, and anyone who actually genuinely cares about the well-being of people who face discrimination will know that shoehorning them into media is only hurting their cause. Funny how for me it was almost the exact opposite. I found the game such a chore to finish, and the only reason I did is because I heard the ending was good. The ending was substantially less impactful to me considering how linear the game was.

You missed the "certain" part, which was the whole point. All those things you mentioned, and also missing the original point (which btw for Bioshock is a critique for Ayn Rand's Objectivism) etc apply to every aspect of every adaptation. But I didn't see any comments saying "I hope the setting isn't on the desert so they can play the climate crisis card" or "I hope they don't remove the drills from the Big Daddies". There's never a "I hope they don't add aliens or wizards or talking trees". Not to mention that the director and screenwriter have every right to change things, deviate from the original, if it suits the TV narrative. Agreed, the connection to what seems important in the original idea must be kept.

Mpampis:

You missed the "certain" part, which was the whole point. All those things you mentioned, and also missing the original point (which btw for Bioshock is a critique for Ayn Rand's Objectivism) etc apply to every aspect of every adaptation. But I didn't see any comments saying "I hope the setting isn't on the desert so they can play the climate crisis card" or "I hope they don't remove the drills from the Big Daddies". There's never a "I hope they don't add aliens or wizards or talking trees". Not to mention that the director and screenwriter have every right to change things, deviate from the original, if it suits the TV narrative. Agreed, the connection to what seems important in the original idea must be kept.

I'm 99% sure people would be PO'd if the series did any of the things you mentioned. The reason nobody brought up such things is because they're not predictable tropes. There are countless ways to ruin a franchise but there's only a handful of ways where there is a very likely way it can be ruined. Pandering to any hot-button political movement is the most easily predictable way to ruin something, especially when it isn't necessary, and it can be done whether it's a fresh new series or an existing series. So, even though Rapture being underwater because of rising sea levels is a possibility and honestly a somewhat reasonable excuse, people are still going to get annoyed. Not only is it bringing reality into a fictional universe (which people don't tend to like) but it isn't canon. So, when you shoehorn a political issue into an already-established setting or plot where such issue didn't originally exist, that's bound to irritate people. People hated when Indiana Jones involved aliens. People hated that Sonic movie for making him look less cartoony. People were bothered by "Don't Look Up" being a metaphor for climate change. People get irritated in animated series where drugs and weapons are replaced with something "less impressionable". While I don't necessarily care that much about any of these things, they are valid complaints. When you start screwing with core elements of a franchise, like key items, important places, or most of all: the characters, you might as well just start something fresh and new, because no matter how well it was executed, it isn't what people are expecting. As tech enthusiasts, we know how much people can't handle change. Just look at all the outrage over every new version of Windows. Sometimes it's nothing more than just a different theme and people expressed their hate. It's no surprise why people get in a hissy-fit because a character they grew well-acquainted with became someone unrecognizable. In another perspective: don't give me strawberry ice cream and tell me it's pink-colored chocolate. Do one or the other. There's nothing wrong with doing either, but there is a problem when you try to screw with something that people already know and like.

mackintosh:

None of that matters if the writing is good. The problem with Netflix is that since they can no longer rely on external content, they have to mass produce their own. This obviously doesn't lend itself to quality programming. What makes it particularly egregious however is that since creating original content is risky, expensive and time consuming, they are trying to minimise exposure by grabbing every available franchise with a fanbase and trying to cash in on that. Every now and then they hit an accidental gem, but otherwise it's pure garbage dumpster fire.

The problem is the writing is rubbish because the writers priority is to push their agenda not actually write a good story. Because most of them aren't actually good enough to write original material their solution is to take an existing franchise with a good story and then re-write it to match their world view. This is compounded by the fact that the woke world view doesn't really make scientific sense - e.g. the law of woke basically says men, women, inbetweens are the same. It's every persons right to be strong if they want to be. Gender and muscles are a fashion choice so we get the 80 pound women throwing around 250 pound men like ragdolls. The end result is something doesn't really make sense, doesn't match the original story the fans love, but the writers are still proud. This is compounded by any fan's complaints about the series being seen as an attack on the agenda (as that's the priority not the story) so they all therefore those fans get pigeon holed as anti-woke and can therefore be ignored as they aren't true believers.