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weekendwarriorblog · 3 years ago

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The Weekend Warrior 8/13/21 - CODA, FREE GUY, DON’T BREATHE 2, RESPECT, THE LOST LEONARDO, WHAT IF, and More!

Well, that was kind of a disappointing last weekend as James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad pretty much tanked at the box office, making less than Birds of Prey did back in February 2020 with all sorts of backseat analysis explaining why it didn’t do well as anyone, other than a scant, few thought. I mean, I’m still kind of stunned, even though COVID and the Delta variant seem to be losing steam as far as being news. It certainly didn’t help that HBO Max decided to release the movie concurrently on HBO Max on Thursday at 7pm.

The nice thing about this week is that we have three new movies, none of which are on streaming or On Demand at the exact same time, so if you want to see any of them, you’ll have to put on your N96 masks and get yourself to theaters. Two of the three movies are originals, while the third is a sequel to quite an original horror movie from about five years back. All of them are pretty good, actually. We’ll get to them soon...

But first, let’s start with this week’s “The Chosen One” and it’s gotta be Siân Heder’s CODA i.e. “Child of Deaf Adults,” which will play in select theaters and on Apple TV+ starting Friday. If you hadn’t heard, it was the belle of the ball at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, winning the Jury Prize and Audience Award alike. Heder previously directed Tallulah and is the showrunner on Apple’s Little America, but this really is a very special film that I’ve enjoyed on repeat viewings now.

It stars Emilia Jones as Ruby Rossi, the sole hearing person in her family of Gloucester fishermen, who are out every day on the sea making the latest catch in their nets. Ruby has other aspirations, and when she joins the school choir, the teacher, Mr. Villalobos (Eugene Derbez) sees talent in Ruby that he thinks might get her into the Berklee College of Music. Ruby has to weigh that with her family’s need to have her as an interpreter while dealing with the other fishermen of the town.

I didn’t know what to expect when I saw this at Sundance back in January, and it still surprised me when I rewatched it again, because it’s a movie that involves a lot of elements that shouldn’t necessarily work, between the fishing and the singing and all the ASL between the amazing ingenue, Ms. Jones, and the deaf actors playing her family, including the one and only Oscar-winning Marlee Matlin. If not for these disparate elements, Coda might be a fairly standard indie family drama, but Heder finds just the right balance of showing how these disparities in Ruby’s life make it hard for her to pursue her dreams.

Ferdia Walsh-Peelo from Sing Street plays the classmate who Ruby is set up with to perform a duet at their high school recital, and of course, he also becomes an unwitting love interest. Unfortunately that’s the aspect of the film that’s the weakest, because Jones’ scenes with Matlin and the other actors, including Derbez, as well as Troy Kotsur and Daniel Durant, as Ruby’s father and brother, are just so powerful and moving even if they’re all in ASL with no dialogue or even incidental score.

Coda is Heder’s second film after Talllulah, a movie starring Elliot Page that never really connected with me, but Coda is such a strong and exceedingly crowd-pleasing film that I have to imagine that this would connect with everybody. I’m not sure if Apple’s gonna be able to get this movie all the way to Oscar night, but I do like its chances for Adapted (?) Screenplay, and maybe Matlin and Kotsur Supporting? I don’t know, because it’s so early and hard to tell, but hopefully the decision to wait so long after the virtual Sundance won’t hurt this movie as it hurt other Sundance award-winning films. Coda is just a joy that I’m sure will be many people’s favorite movie.

You can read my interview with Ms. Heder over at Below the Line.

Incidentally, in last week’s column, I talked about the 20th New York Asian Film Festival, but I didn’t realize that it was only running at Film at Lincoln Center for a week before going down to the SVA Theater on 23rd Street, and you can check out the schedule of movies playing there at the official site. And of course, there’s still the Virtual Festival that’s running through August 22. Also, Fantasia is still going on in Montreal, and I still haven’t had time to watch very much. What can I say? I suck.

Let’s get to some wide releases, shall we?

First up and probably the most likely to win the weekend is Ryan Reynolds’ new action-comedy, FREE GUY (20th Century Studios), directed by Shawn Levy and co-starring Jodie Comer from Killing Eve. The high-concept comedy has Reynolds playing Guy, a bank teller, who actually is a non-player character in a video game called “Free City” that’s kind of a cross between Grand Theft Auto and Fortnite. When he meets Comer’s character in the game, he falls mady in love and decides to do whatever it takes to get on her level. (Get it?) In doing so, Guy ends up becoming a hero for Free City, as well as a viral sensation across the globe as gamers thrill to Guy’s adventures.

Free Guy is Ryan Reynolds’ first live-action starring role theatrical release since…. Oh…. the action-comedy sequel The Hitman’s Bodyguard’s Wife a little under two months ago. Considering that barely made half of what its predecessor did, and that’s with Reynolds sharing the screen with Samuel L. Jackson and Salma Hayek, one wonders if his draw as an A-lister can be maintained during a pandemic. Before that, you’d have to go all the way back to 2018’s Deadpool 2 for a fully live Reynolds movie, because he wasn’t seen as himself for most of his role in and as Detective Pikachu. Of course, Reynolds’ unmistakable voice was back in DreamWorks Animation’s The Croods: A New Age, the sequel to the 2013 blockbuster that made the ballsy move to be one of the first movies to open during the pandemic. It grossed $58.6 million in theaters, which was slightly more than Christopher Nolan’s Tenet and even more than the Warner Bros. sequel, Wonder Woman 1984.

This is also a big movie for Jodie Comer, who won an Emmy and was nominated for two Golden Globes for Killing Eve, but hasn’t really been in too many movies, other than playing Rey’s Mum in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Later this year, she’ll star in Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel and may possibly be back in the awards game again, we’ll see. The movie also stars Lil Rel Howery, who seems to be everywhere and in everything these days, as well as Taika Waititi who is super-hot right now due to 2019’s Jojo Rabbit, and his various television projects, as well as having a small role in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad last week.

In some ways, Free Guy is gonna be a test for a lot of things, the first one being whether Reynolds is a big enough draw when not playing Deadpool to get people into theaters, just as people are starting to get skittish again about going into movie theaters. More importantly, it will show whether not having a movie on streaming or VOD means that people who want to see it will put aside their fears and return to theaters… like they did with F9 and Black Widow and Godzilla vs. Kong. Is an original non-franchise movie like Free Guy enough to get people interested in getting their butts off the couch and into a far more comfortable movie theater seat? (I’m being facetious, if you didn’t guess.)

After The Suicide Squad last week, I’m really not sure whether I can trust my own instincts, but I also don’t want to lower my prediction to something ridiculous out of fear that the pandemic really is destroying any chance of the box office fully recovering. One thing working in Free Guy’s favor, besides its PG-13 rating is that it’s not available on streaming and VOD. Anyone who has been intrigued by the film’s great reviews will HAVE to go out to a movie theater to see it or else, they’ll have to wait 45 days.

Maybe if this opened last month, I could see it open in the $30 million to $40 million range, but with things being the way they are, I’d probably go with high $20 million, so close to $30 million but not quite.

You can read my review over at Below the Line, and I’ll have an interview with the film’s Production Designer, Ethan Tobman, fairly soon.

Also opening Friday is the horror sequel DON’T BREATHE 2 (Sony/Screen Gems), starring Stephen Lang as the blind former Navy Seal who terrorized a bunch of kids who broke into his house in 2016’s Don’t Breathe.

The original movie, which starred Jane Levy, reuniting with director Fede Alvarez after the two remade Evil Dead for producer Sam Raimi, opened in late August, on the fourth weekend of the original Suicide Squad, in fact, and it knocked the movie out of the #1 spot. Its $26 million opening in 3,000 theaters was impressive for the time, partially because late August has never been great. It stayed #1 for a second weekend, over Labor Day, and it ended up grossing $89.2 million in North America, which is great for an R-rated horror film.

Levy isn’t around for the sequel and Alvarez has moved into a co-writer/producer role for his creative partner, Rodo Sagayes, to take over the directing reins, but honestly, I’m not sure how many people will know or care, because Lang’s character and the film’s violence and chills are it’s real selling point. Like many horror movies, there isn’t much in terms of star power other than Lang, but that has never really hindered the success of a horror movie in the past.

As with every movie I cover in this column, there’s the pandemic in the room and whether that might hold people back from going to theaters. I wish there was a way to calculate the effect that’s had on moviegoing, because it seems to affect movies differently. For instance, the recent The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It was able to open with $24.1 million just two months ago, although that was down from the $40 million of the previous two chapters. So that’s about a 40% drop-off in a similar five-year gap between movies. (Actually, it’s kind of strange that 2021 is replicating 2021 with three sequels to movies from five years earlier.) There’s no denying that the number of Covid cases are way up since June and movie theaters are still being painted as the “enemy” even though no significant cases have been traced back to the movies.

We also have to look at Sony’s last horror sequel, Escape Room: Tournament of Champions, which I quite enjoyed, but it ended up opening with about $10 million less than the original movie a few years back. We can probably expect Don’t Breathe 2 to have a similar pandemic drop-off even if it’s another movie that won’t be on streaming or VOD this weekend.

I think Don’t Breathe 2 should be good for around $15 million this weekend since it’s catering towards a young audience that’s a bit more devil-may-care about going out to theaters. It will also probably appeal more to older single guys than something like Free Guy, which seems different enough to pull in a different audience.

My review will be posted over at Below the Line later on Thursday, plus I have a bunch of interviews coming, including this one with Rodo Sayagues and Fede Alvarez.

Next up is RESPECT (MGM), the long-awaited Aretha Franklin biopic (for those that didn’t see Genius, like me, I guess), starring Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson as the Queen of Soul. The movie directed by Liesl Tommmy was supposed to be released in January to take part in last year’s Oscars race, but I guess MGM wanted to make sure it got a proper theatrical release, which wasn’t possible since NYC and L.A. movie theaters didn’t reopen until March after the cut-off. But MGM had already decided to push the movie back to the summer in hopes of having more theaters able to play the movie, which is kind of true now?

It’s been a while since we’ve seen JHud in a high-profile theatrical release, and unfortunately, the last one was 2019’s Cats, a movie in which she probably was the best thing, although it still only grossed $27 million domestically, a flat-out bomb. Before that, she provided her voice for the animated blockbuster Sing in 2016, and then a bunch of smaller movies before that. She’s joined in the movie by the likes of Oscar winner Forest Whitaker, Marlon Wayans, Titus Burgess, Mary J. Blige, Marc Maron, and Audra MacDonald, quite an impressive array of talent that shows how many wanted to be involved with this project. Director Liesl Tommy is making her feature directorial debut after directing a ton of theater and TV shows like The Walking Dead and Jessica Jones.

Even so, it’s obviously that the ongoing popularity of Aretha Franklin, especially since her death in 2018, is going to go a long way into getting people into theaters, which includes a lot of older black women who really haven’t had much to get them out into theaters in recent months. Will this be enough?

Before Respect was delayed from its original January release, many thought that Hudson would receive another Oscar nomination for her performances. Having not seen the movie at the time of this writing, I can’t confirm or deny those chances. If that’s still the case, then releasing the movie towards the end of the summer (similar to The Help, successfully, and The Butler, not so much) is an odd decision rather than just holding the movie for festival season by holding until next month.

Either way, I think the love Aretha’s fans have for the Queen of Soul as well as Hudson’s fans, Respect should be good for between $8 and 10 million this weekend -- hard to pinpoint exactly without knowing how many theaters MGM is getting for it against the stronger summer movies.

Mini-Review: I wasn’t really sure what to expect from Respect, even after seeing the trailer a couple dozen times in front of other movies, but it’s a respectable biopic that cover 20 years in the life of the Queen of Soul from singing at a young age in her father’s church to returning to church for the gospel records as captured in the recently-released doc, Amazing Grace.

But first, we go back to 1952 where Aretha is a young girl (played by Skye Dakota Turner) is uncertain of her future as she’s being ordered about by her preacher father (Forrest Whitaker) and trying to find direction. The movie casually sets up the fact that young Aretha was sexually abused by a family friend, and maybe she got pregnant, too? It’s hard to tell and maybe a little odd since she would only have been 10 at the time, but it’s something that will be brought up (just as subtly) over the course of the film.

Jennifer Hudson takes over as Aretha as she turns 19 and goes to New York City to start recording, meets Marlon Wayans’ Ted White, makes him her manager and marries her, which basically has her going from one abusive man in her father to another one. It feels like the movie spends a long than normal time on the ‘60s, which is when Franklin’s career really took off with “Respect” and then a series of hits that took her all around the world. That whole time, she’s dealing with Ted’s abuses and jealousy while trying to write and record those hits, before her dark demons return and she starts drinking heavily.

As you might imagine, you go to see Respect to see how well Jennifer Hudson pulls off the Queen of Soul, and she’s an incredibly complex character that needs a nuanced performance, which Hudson tries to pull off by bringing different aspects of her life into different scenes.

There are some scenes that don’t work as well as others, and it feels like there’s a bit of time-crunching or futzing around so that at a certain point, her father seems to be de-aging, although I was just as impressed (possibly even moreso) with Forrest Whitaker, whose performance as Aretha’s father is more than just a full-on villain despite his violent treatment of his daughter. Wayans is also good and almost unrecognizable at first, and there are a few other nice performances in there as well, including Marc Maron as record label head Jerry Wexler.

But the performances Hudson gives as Franklin are goosebump-inducing, leading up to the recording of her record-selling gospel record as depicted in the aforementioned doc.

A fairly decent representation of Franklin’s little-known life leading up to her fame, Respect probably succeeds the most when Jennifer Hudson is performing as the Queen of Soul, but she’s also created a fairly moving portrait with strong dramatic moments that far outweigh any of the film’s issues. Rating: 8/10

With that in mind, this is how I see the weekend looking with two of the new movies bumping Suicide Squad down to third place where it will be facing off against Respect.

1. Free Guy (20th Century/Disney) - $28.5 million N/A

2. Don’t Breathe 2 (Sony/Screen Gems) - $15 million N/A

3. The Suicide Squad (Warner Bros.) - $10 million -62%

4. Respect (MGM) - $9.6 million N/A

5. Jungle Cruise (Walt Disney Pictures) - $8.7 million -55%

6. Old (Universal) - $2.5 million -36%

7. Black Widow (Marvel/Disney) - $2.4 million -39%

8. Stillwater (Focus) - $2 million -39%

9. Space Jam: A New Legacy (Warner Bros.) - $1.3 million -43%

10. The Green Knight (A24) - $1.1 million -56%

Donnie Yen stars in Bennie Chang’s RAGING FIRE (WELL GO USA), which premiered at the New York Asian Film Festival on Monday and at Fantasia in Montreal on Tuesday, and I’m not going to review this, because honestly, it’s such a cookie-cutter Hong Kong police action-thriller that I’m not sure I really have much to say about it, so I won’t.

On the other hand, I do have more to say about Andreas Koefoed’s documentary, THE LOST LEONARDO (Sony Pictures Classics), the Leonardo being Da Vinci, the master artist behind the Mona Lisa and many other works. Since I don’t really follow the world of art, I really didn’t know about the Salvator Mundi painting found about 10-12 years ago that was thought to be an original Da Vinci worth in the hundreds of millions, often dubbed “The Male Mona Lisa.” But it’s also a painting that was surrounded by controversy due to the 5-year restoring job that may have left very little of the original painting.

As the film began, I was groaning a little about sitting through another movie of art experts and historians talking about how important a find this is and why it’s either great or horrible, depending on who is being interviewed. Eventually, the film gets more interesting as it starts getting into the idea of selling it. After being sold to a wealthy Russian oligarch by an unscrupulous Swiss art dealer who made a nice profit on it, the painting ends up being auctioned by Christie’s, and the story just keeps getting more and more interesting as it goes along.

While I’m not one to go ga-ga over any painting by Da Vinci or otherwise, I do like a good mystery or suspense-thriller, so good on Koefoed for realizing about halfway through this movie that the talking heads will never be as interesting as actual footage. And that’s what happens here, too. I actually feel a little ignorant that I wasn’t aware this was going on as it was, maybe because I don’t really follow the art world in that respect. Maybe I just missed it, so it’s good that Sony Classics (who loves making movies about art) is giving this a fairly high-profile release following its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival a few months back. In that sense, The Lost Leonardo is quite a gem.

Heinz Brinkman’s USEDOM: A CLEAR VIEW OF THE SEA (Big World Pictures) is a somewhat intriguing doc about the Baltic island of Usedom, the location of a number of imperial German health resorts, beaches and such, and how the Jews were kicked out by the Nazis before Usedom was split into a German and Polish half after WWII. I wish I could get into this more, but I just have a limited mental capacity for a lot of German talking heads.

Which brings us to Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein’s THE MEANING OF HITLER (IFC Films), the new doc from the team behind Gunner Palace, which looks at the cultural fascination with Hitler and Nazism and the recent rise in white supremacy, antisemitism and the “weaponization of history itself.” I don’t know what that last part means, because I got so swamped this week that I didn’t get to watch this, and like another recent doc on the subject of Naziism and the Holocaust, I just couldn’t get into the right head space to hit play on this doc. Maybe I’ll watch it sometime down the road.

Similarly, I didn’t get around to watching Dutch filmmaker Jim Taihuttu’s THE EAST (Magnet Releasing), which I may like as a fan of Paul Verhoeven’s Dutch WWII films, and I probably should give this a look, but I just ran out of time this week. It’s about a young Dutch soldier who joins an elite unit led by a mysterious captain called “The Turk,” and it takes place in the Indonesian War of Independence after World War II.

As far as TV goes, Wednesday sees the debut of Marvel Studios’ WHAT IF...? on Disney+. I’ve seen the first three episodes, and I was a pretty big fan of the comics in the ‘70s (sadly, part of the giant collection that I sold a few years back), and I guess this is okay. The first episode is the one with Haley Atwell voicing “Captain Carter” i.e. Peggy Carter gets the Super Soldier Serum, which is one of the more obvious What Ifs that could possibly done, so that we can get another “women are as good as men, and they need to be heard” storyline that’s in 90% of the Marvel movies already. On the other hand, the first episode does include the voices of Sebastian Stan and others, so it’s quite a coup in that sense, but whoever wrote it, clearly doesn’t understand that people spoke differently in the ‘40s. I liked the 2nd episode, a mash-up of Black Panther and Guardians of the Galaxy, which is a fun idea that brings together a lot of great characters -- including Chadwick Boseman’s last voice performance -- but again, hearing the voices just isn’t the same when the writing isn’t as good as the movie. I feel like the animation for the show is okay, maybe not quite on par with some of the great Batman or Superman cartoons we’ve gotten over the years. On the other hand, the entire series features the great voice of Jeffrey Wright as The Watcher, acting kind of like the Rod Serling for the series, much like the Watcher does in the comics. I also dug the music by Emmy winner Laura Karpman (Lovecraft Country), and I’ll watch the rest of the series as it debuts, but I’m not sure it’s as much a rush to see each episode to avoid spoilers as with Loki or WandaVision.

Hitting Netflix this week is the limited series, BRAND NEW CHERRY FLAVOR (Netflix), starring Rosa Salazar, Eric Lange, and Catherine Keener. The tagline is: “Lisa Nova (Rosa Salazar) comes to LA dead set on directing her first movie. But when she trusts the wrong person and gets stabbed in the back, everything goes sideways and a dream project turns into a nightmare. This particular nightmare has zombies, hit men, supernatural kittens, and a mysterious tattoo artist who likes to put curses on people. And Lisa’s going to have to figure out some secrets from her own past in order to get out alive.”

Also, TITANS Season 3 debuts on HBO Max, but since I haven’t watched seasons 1 or 2 yet, it might be some time before I get to it.

Next week looks like it could be a bit of a dog with four or five new wide releases but nothing that really jumps out, plus I’ll be in Atlantic City all next weekend, so who knows how much I’ll be able to watch or write about?

#The Weekend WArrior #Movies #Reviews #Coda #Free Guy #Respect #Don't Breathe 2 #the Lost Leonardo #Box Office

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linestv · 4 years ago

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Top 10 New Shows of 2019

Luckily, 2019 turned out to be a much better year for freshman TV than the year before. Cutting down the list to just 10 was a hard enough task, and that is with me still missing some great stuff that I didn’t manage to finish in time. I had a total of 26 new shows to choose from, which is 24 down from last year. Turns out this list is better than last year’s, so quality over quantity?

10. Perpetual Grace, LTD (Epix)

Perpetual Grace, LTD was given a chance just because it existed on Epix. Get Shorty managed to find itself in the #2 spot of returning shows last year, so it was only natural I should try out some of their new offerings. Good thing Perpetual Grace did not disappoint! Led by a fantastic cast, the story is truly one of the most insane things I’ve seen on TV. Not even necessarily because the story beats are unique, but because the presentation is unlike anything else. Fantastic cinematography and directing gave this it’s very own look, and I loved every second of it. Add some Ben Kingsley giving amazing monologues here and there in his typically psychopathic speech pattern, and you’ve got a winner.

9. Catch-22 (Hulu)

Catch-22 was a real breath of fresh air. It’s not often I’ll try out a show set during a World War, as that is not usually my cup of tea. I went against my instincts with this show though, and I am so glad I did. Catch-22 is not at all your average war show or movie. It has such a different tone to it that I haven’t seen in any similar show. Some really clever writing throughout, and some of that elevated by Kyle Chandler’s incredible performance. It’s a short show to get through, but it’s a great watch. I’d love to see more of these somewhat light-hearted shows set in times and settings you wouldn’t usually see them.

8. Undone (Amazon Prime)

How could you not give Undone a shot? Just one look at its gorgeous animation should be convincing enough that this is worth the small amount of time it asks of you. Rose Salazar turns out to be a great lead, and Bob Odenkirk is as charming as always. The way they play into the story with this unique style of animation is stunning. The story, it’s the type of mindfuck that I absolutely adore. Not only are you traveling through time, experiencing timeloops and entering potentially different universes, you’re doing all that with amazing visuals and performances to boot. It got a surprise renewal for season 2, but I’m not complaining!

7. Doom Patrol (DC Universe)

Doom Patrol might sound all doom and gloomy, but it really is not. In fact, it’s probably the most ridiculous superhero show or movie I have ever seen. And I mean that with all of my possible affection. This show does not seem to give a fuck in all of the best ways. It’s constantly surprising you with whatever weird shit they try to do next, and almost always easily succeeding. Diane Guerrero anchors the whole show with a compelling and believable turn as the personality-changing Crazy Jane, but all the others characters are a total hoot as well. Normally I would argue a show is too long if it’s 15 episodes of roughly 60 minutes, but every minute here was enjoyable.

6. Harley Quinn (DC Universe)

A second animation show to add to the list! Harley Quinn more than earns its spot. As if a show starring Harley Quinn wasn’t amazing enough, it turns out to actually be great on its own as well. Always hilarious and constantly cracking jokes, it’s hard not to enjoy a single second of this show. Kaley Cuoco does a brilliant job at portraying Harley Quinn exclusively through her voice work, and her relationship with Poison Ivy is easily the standout of the show. Enter lots of cameos from all kinds of DC characters too, and you know you’re in for a good time. They also swear a lot. Fuck.

5. Encore! (Disney+)

A reality show?! First a documentary show on last year’s list, and now we’re doing reality! Encore! easily deserves it’s #5 spot. Not often does a show bring you this much joy. I’m a big fan of musicals overall, and seeing these people go back to their high school lives and give an encore performance of one of their high school musicals is just too fun. It brings me tears of happiness. I have cried. Many times. It’s a shame Kristen Bell decided that she didn’t want to show up anymore, because that’s the only thing that could’ve made this better!

4. Why Women Kill (CBS All Access)

Why Women Kill was a total surprise. Sure, I was always gonna watch a Marc Cherry soap show. I’ve never seen more than one episode of Desperate Housewives, thanks to its terrifying length, but that doesn’t mean I have to miss out on his new projects! Glad I decided to not miss out on this. It’s a genuine soapy spectacle that had me rolling as much as it had me tearing up. Ginnifer Goodwin and Lucy Liu’s storylines are a total blast, and while the Kirby’s isn’t quite as good, it doesn’t let down the show in the slightest. Add some really fun production design and an incredible directed finale, and you’ve got a soap for the ages. Also, that intro!

3. The Morning Show (Apple TV+)

Probably my most anticipated show of the year, and while it didn’t quite manage to get to first on my eventual ranking too, third is pretty damn respectable. It’s hard to pass up a show starring both Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston, who are both masters of the ACTING here. It manages to balance its more light-hearted storylines as well as it’s very serious and touching storylines very well. They also made Aniston sing Not While I’m Around, which is as if someone looked into my brain and knew exactly what I would want.

2. The Other Two (Comedy Central)

This show came totally out of nowhere. The Other Two suddenly got these great reviews, and I was like: why the hell not? Turns out to be one of my best impulsive decisions of my TV career. Heléne Yorke gives an astoundingly funny performance was Brooke, and genuinely might end up in my comedy hall of fame if she keeps at it like this. Not just Heléne makes the show though, because the writing of the show is as sharp and funny as anything. Molly Shannon makes for a great supporting role too, so really you can’t go wrong with this show in general. Easily was my favourite of the year until...

1. Watchmen (HBO)

... until Watchmen happened. I’ve already got a soft spot for Damon Lindelof, okay? I’ll admit it. The Leftovers topped my returning shows of 2017 list, with good reason, and now Lindelof returns with Watchmen to once again top a list of mine... with good reason! Watchmen is an incredible miniseries. Twists galore, top tier performances, sharp writing and huge standouts such as A God Walks Into Abar and This Extraordinary Being is probably the best way to summarise the beauty of Watchmen, but no words will truly do it justice. Do yourself a favour and just watch it already.

The top 10:

1. Watchmen (HBO) 2. The Other Two (Comedy Central) 3. The Morning Show (Apple TV+) 4. Why Women Kill (CBS All Access) 5. Encore! (Disney+) 6. Harley Quinn (DC Universe) 7. Doom Patrol (DC Universe) 8. Undone (Amazon Prime) 9. Catch-22 (Hulu) 10. Perpetual Grace, LTD (Epix)

Honorable mentions:

David Makes Man (OWN) Evil (CBS) Unbelievable (Netflix)

My hope and prayers from 2018 came true. 2019 ended up being a fantastic year for TV. Would I have expected most of these shows to make my list when we started? Probably not. It’s always best to be surprised however, and I hope that 2020 will have many surprises in store for me as well. Let’s not alternate between good and bad years, let’s make it all great.

#top10 #2019 #TV #ranking

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ackackh · 7 years ago

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HBO War YouTuber Headcanons

(SO MUCH MORE under the cut)

BAND OF BROTHERS

George Luz George has a review channel He sits at his computer at his desk where his camera is set up A lot of the time, you can see his (big ass) mic in the shot. He doesn’t care. He’s almost always wearing headphones. Either apple-type earbuds with the cord under his shirt, or giant headphones, one covering an ear, one tucked behind his other ear. He’s really onto hi-fi audio tech, it’s where most of his spending money goes. He reviews music, tv shows, movies, books, video games. Anything popular and anything he likes.

The reviews are always fair and he tends to review things he likes anyway so there aren’t a lot of negative vibes on his channel. He also does some reaction videos. When he’s feeling up to it, he’ll make fun of Trump (and when he does it’s hilarious) but the boy has his limits. He wants his channel to be a reprieve for himself and for others. He has a lot of followers and they all just fawn over him because George has such an animated face and he gets so excited about things he likes. It’s adorable. Too pure. He also produces some original music! It’s mostly beats and he has a SoundCloud and a Patreon. He uses Snapchat and Vine a lot, in tandem with his channel. What’s on his snapchat/vine you ask? Every. Impression. Ever. And George is really good at them! They’re funny and accurate and his viewers really like them! He also has a million videos of him bugging his friends (mostly on vine). His favorite stunt is to see how long he can film Joe without him noticing. Spoiler: it’s not very long. Most of his vines end with him running away from an irritated Joe or with Joe smacking the phone out of his hand. The phone falls to the ground and you can hear George whine “What’d you hafta do that for?” He loves to do Special Guest Episodes! Sometimes the guest is Perco, sometimes it’s Skip, or Don, or even Carwood. He’s a good friend and if they have a channel he’ll plug for them. BUT he gets the most requests for Special Guest Episodes with Joe Toye! Joe will pull up his own desk chair beside Luz and reviews things with him (George will pick things Joe is actually interested in for the video). Joe has a harder time remembering that there's a camera and a mic to perform towards, and he’s quieter than Luz, but he gives his honest opinions which are always well thought out. Plus the viewers dig his voice. People will comment or email Luz, saying how much they love their banter, their chemistry. How they love how earnest Joe is (he’s a naturally charming guy!) Sometimes they get carried away with the “light” flirting, always smiling and always completely focused on what the other has to say. Joe doesn’t always stay for the whole video because he has shit to do, ya know? So he’ll get up and kiss George’s head or squeeze his shoulder and say “later, Georgie” And George will look at the camera and and yell to him “I LOVE YOU, JOE” and you can faintly hear Joe somewhere else in the house say, “love you, too, idiot!” And George giggles and gives the camera a wink.

Carwood Lipton Carwood keeps a video diary! He just films wherever he feels is right. Sometimes the family room, sometimes the office, sometimes the bedroom. The vibe is really chill, relaxed. You can almost think of Michael Aranda’s What I’m Doing Right Now He has a modest following, but he’s really interactive with the community: frequently answering questions, participating in conversations and debates. His vlog is multimedia! He uses twitter and snapchat a lot too, sometimes incorporating them into his videos. He loves to take candid videos and pictures of himself and his friends, with or without their immediate knowledge. (He always gets their permission before he posts anything) Viewers will often times find his video for that day is a mash up of videos of time spent with friends, Ron, Harry, Kitty, Dick, and Lew, on some small adventure. There’s some pleasant, energetic music playing, spliced with audio of the original video when someone says something particularly interesting or funny. His videos are for his followers, but he also keeps in mind that some of his family watches too, so everything is pretty PG. Ron isn’t super interested in YouTube, but he like’s to watch Carwood’s videos. He lives with the guy, and he always sees the bits and pieces as Carwood puts it together, so he likes to see the finished product. Sometimes he’ll come sit and be in a video, just for a little while if Carwood asks him. And of course they’re super in love, and Ron is so taken with Carwood, that the community comments like, “WE LOVE RON, GIVE US MORE RON PLS.” Ron will sometimes sit down with Carwood and answer questions. Either from the viewers or from a top googled list. It becomes a segment, titled something like Everyday Answers with Ron. And people love it because Ron can’t be anything but himself and he’s so oddly charming and adorable with how straightforward he is. he doesn’t quite understand why people like him so much. Carwood’s most viewed and most liked video is the one of the day Ron proposed. Harry, Kitty, and Nix were all in on it and got the whole thing on video and made sure they got footage of the celebrations afterward. He recorded in their bedroom that night, all sleepy and lovey with Ron, who kisses his cheek and thumbs over the band on Carwood’s finger.

Kitty Grogan Welsh Kitty’s channel is full of really fun things! Like stories, adventures in things like baking or hand crafts, personal make up tutorials. And, maybe most surprisingly, video games. So, she doesn’t do the average let’s plays. She’s not actually interested in showing people the game. Instead, she picks a topic, often sent in by fans, and shares her thoughts and ideas on this topic while she plays whatever games she likes. She plays games like, FIFA, Madden, Overwatch, and random platformers. These are her most watched videos. Maybe about once a month she has Husband Episodes where Harry sits and plays with her or watches her play while they discuss whatever topic they’ve decided on. He’s adorable and she spends a good amount of the time teasing him. Upon many, many requests, she has posted both a “My Husband Does My Makeup” video and an “I Do My Husband’s Makeup” video. I can’t reiterate enough how adorable Harry is here.

Joe Liebgott and David Webster Joe and Web don’t share a channel. Because that would be a disaster. But here’s how they know each other: That Prick YouTuber Whose Opinions Are Wrong Joe’s channel is mostly about music. He reviews artists, albums, and singles. AND he records original pieces and post the videos to his channel. He’s really. really. good. His emotions are so raw, he doesn’t even have to be singing for them to come out and it’s frankly… enchanting. A decent chunk of his viewers started watching because Joe is hot AF™ but they stayed because he’s talented and smart as a whip. While Joe does love The Clash and other punk groups, he one thing that speaks to his soul is an angry John Darnielle. That’s right kids: The Mountain Goats. They serve as a lot of inspiration for his original songs. So Joe plays and talks mostly about music, but he also talks about things like art, fashion, and COMIC BOOKS. Listen, he preorders that shit, he has whole videos just about how excited he is for some edition of some comic. So, Web stumbled upon one of his videos, this particular one about an artist, and ugh, everything about this guy just rubs him the wrong way. He falls down a rabbit hole of Joe’s review videos and he decides he basically can’t stand him or any of his very wrong opinions. Don’t ask him why he hit subscribe. Joe finds Web in his Suggested Videos Feed and listens for maybe two minutes to Web talk about his college classes and all the literature he’s reading and all the things he knows now and he’s like, fuck this guy. Joe just thinks he’s so pretentious. He likes The Catcher in the Rye. Like, come on, dude. Most of Web’s videos are about literature. Books and Poetry he’s read and likes/dislikes. He really enjoys the Transcendentalists. He loves the themes of man v nature and the natural imagery and how they talk about what makes up the human soul. Joe fucking hates Transcendentalism. As far as he’s concerned, they were a bunch of rich, white men who pretended to be one with nature or some bullshit but didn’t acknowledge the privilege of their status or even mention the fact that they could go back to their cushy homes whenever they liked! Eventually they bump heads and get into a few times through comments. They can’t stand one another, can’t see anything from the other’s point of view… UNTIL Until Web listens to one of Joe’s original songs. And it’s so raw and personal and the lyrics! He can’t believe how beautiful the lyrics are! They’re simple and effective and they hit him right in the chest. Until Joe listens to some of Web’s spoken word poetry. It’s not his usually style, it’s flow-y and flowery and romantic. But it’s fucking beautiful and it stirs emotions in Joe he’d forgotten about. Joe also listens to Web go on and on about his ideas for the books he wants to write. And he finds it’s almost impossible not to fall in love with Web like this, so animated and happy. Here’s what happens: they meet sometime in real life, maybe at Vidcon, and after arguing for forever, they decide to try and put there heads together and write a song. Joe on the music and Web on the words. And it’s great. Their ideas are different, but they feed off of each other well, and they find a good balance. They record a video of it, Joe performing with his guitar and Web watching him, taking notes, even. And when the music trails off and they fall into each other, the kiss doesn’t make it to the final cut of the video. Neither does the making out on Joe’s hotel bed.

Babe Heffron and John Julian Their videos are just fun and silly shenanigans. They play games (lots of Cards Against Humanity) and do every youtube challenge. ever. Chubby Bunny and the Cinnamon Challenge are two of their most viewed videos. So many stupid dares. So many ER visits, all filmed and all with an angry Guarno grumbling about how fucking stupid these “kids” are. Julian: I am not a kid! Bill: Come talk to me when your foot isn’t in a boot, alright? They have more than one video of them trying to do parkour. I mean, how do you think they ended up in the hospital? The channel is called Orange Julian and their icon/header image is the two of them, wearing only boxer-briefs, completely covered in orange body paint. They’re standing next to each other, purposefully looking a little awkward. Like, it’s almost album art worthy. All of this for a stupid Orange Julius pun that only like 1/3 of their viewers get.

Renee Lemaire Renee has a small channel about her life! It has lots of sweet things in it! Soft, gay vibes!!! Her dog. Her cat. Her good friends, Gene Roe and Ralph Spina. Delicious food and cooking! Crazy/hilarious/gross stories about working in the children’s ward of the hospital. Her experiences in America as a French woman. French history lessons! French language lessons in modern day/interesting/specific vocabulary! Gene and Spina often come on and they have culture clash videos about France and America at large. Sometimes Gene will talk about Cajun culture or stories or food. And Renee and Spina will sit there just bewildered by everything he says. Sometimes Renee and Gene will trail off in French conversations together, leaving Spina to either complain loudly OR look into the camera like he’s on The Office™ Renee can only upload like every other week or so because she’s so busy. But her viewers don’t mind! Her videos are like little presents!

GENERATION KILL

Rudy Reyes Rudy also keeps a diary! It’s called “Fruity Rudy” and the graphic has a cute lil peach on it. He always films in his living room during the day. The video and audio are both super high quality and he even has a nice front light. He looks fucking beautiful, as always. He just talks about his day, his friends and family, whatever subjects he’s been thinking about recently. And his house is always fucking perfect. 9 times out of 10 Pappy is in the kitchen cooking, slightly out of focus, while wearing an apron. He likes to listen to Rudy do his thing while he prepares dinner or w/e (cooking and baking is a big hobby of his). Every once in a while he’ll comment on something Rudy says or talks about, or he’ll poke fun at someone or tell a joke. Usually the mic picks up what he says, but it’s faint and Rudy adds in little subtitles in the bottom of the screen. And he either reacts with a fond smile of some kind of comment or comeback. The viewers love their banter because they’re HELLA MARRIED Like literally. And also figuratively. Like sometimes Rudy will call back to Pappy to ask him questions, sometimes looking for a real answer, sometimes because he knows the kind of sassy reaction he’ll get, and he’ll just roll his eyes at the camera. He gets like a million comments a day telling him that they adore Pappy. “omg u guys are so cute” “I wish pappy was in more videos!!” “is pappy his real name? if not, what is?” When Rudy hits 10,000 subscribers (“wow, that’s insane, thanks you guys!!!”) as a present, he makes this big reveal video of Pappy’s name. “Drum roll please… *drums on his thighs* it’s Larry.” *in the background* “RUDE, WHAT THE FUCK?” *uncontrollable giggles from Rudy* *the camera is lifted from it’s place by ~~someone~~ unseen and a blurry Rudy can be seen half-heartedly protesting before the footage cuts*

Ray Person Ray is basically iDubbbz/h3h3 He’ll get all of his friends to participate in stupid videos. Mostly it’s Walt, Christenson, or sometimes Q-tip or Gabe. But sometimes he’s by himself, it just depends. So we get lots of these types of gems. (x) (x) Brad hardcore pretends like he doesn’t want to be a part of it but look, he operates the camera for every video, he’s not fooling anyone. It’s hard to mistake his laughter when he’s right next to the mic. Sometimes Ray keeps in the little bits where Brad comments or calls him an idiot and you can see Ray look behind the camera, laughing and smiling or giving it right back. Ray’s channel is nuts!! but every once in a blue moon Ray will upload a video called “Serious Talk #1” (and so on) where he talks about something he really cares about or is really bugging him. And people are like, I knew you were smart, but oh jeez, this is scary.

Nate Fick The videos started out as study tools for his undergrad students but eventually gained a legit following. So, it’s basically an educational channel, but there’s no company or anything funding him. He tries to be as professional looking as possible, though. He talks about history! All types of history! And guess what, this boy is salty about the many, many important peoples and their accomplishments that are always left out of textbooks and shit. And he’s going to do his best to cover them properly. As in, entire episodes dedicated to shit (most) people don’t know. And he was in the military, so he has… lots of feelings about that as well. If he talks about military history or social issues he puts a disclaimer in the beginning of the video like “This is tainted by my feelings, I can’t help it, but this is my channel and I’m gonna say what I like.” He has some crash courses and some videos that go way too in depth. Like, maybe calm down, boy scout. Brad and Mike are his most frequent guests. He’ll do things like quiz them (on shit he knows they don’t know) or ask them for their opinions or direct the whole freaking lesson just to them. Brad and Mike really like picking on him, but he knows they love him. He invited Ray on the channel once. Once. It was… an experience. But Ray surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, has some really well educated and in depth thoughts on certain subjects. He gets lots of comments from girls/boys being like, “Hello, Professor Hottie.” (He gets the same reaction from many of his undergrads, so he’s used to it.) BUT most of his following watches because they’re interested in what he has to say, so don’t worry.

Poke Espera Poke has a channel with no schedule or organization. The video’s care shot from a cheap video camera and he doesn’t have a proper mic. And you know the Channel name is literally just his name. It’s literally all just videos of him from the chest up with titles like: “THOUGHTS ON ALL THE BULLSHIT” and “I’M GONNA KILL ME A WHITE BOY” and “PAUL RYAN CAN SUCK MY THICK LATIN DICK” They’re always in all caps. You knows the type. Yes, he does have a whole video dedicated to the story of the time he saw a dude get killed behind a Tastee-Freez. He has over 2 mil followers and all the boys are like …how? He just has good things to say, yo. People appreciate the cruel honesty.

Q-Tip and Christenson These cute boys have a let’s play channel! It’s pretty straight forward, they just play whatever games they like the best and sometimes play other games on request. It’s got Game Grumps vibes because it’s these two dudes who are BEST FRIENDS and they spend nearly every episode talking about whatever they want. And usually they want to talk about each other. Because they’re hardcore Bros. They get some of their friends to sit with them and play or just talk, depends. But their most requested repeat guest is Ray. Because Ray sure as hell doesn’t need a camera on his face to be animated as fuck. Also There’s lots of singing. Almost too much singing. At least they have excellent taste in music.

The Lady Marine (Whose Name We Unfortunately Don’t Know) She has a youtube channel that she really enjoys putting a lot of creativity into! Like, it’s great quality, for starters, and she also designs her own awesome graphics and animation!! She’s so talented!! Because everything is so damn quality, she only puts out a video every couple of weeks. But they’re pretty lengthy and always SUPER worth it. It’s about her (current) career in the military and focuses on a lot of social justice themes. Not only does she a) have a lot of interesting/enlightening things to say, but b) she also understands her privilege as a white woman and plugs for a lot of other women of color vloggers when she talks about something a little out of her depth or better said by someone who actually experiences it. She has a very complex view of the military and simultaneously knows how it manipulates/harms people and can’t help but love her job. She feels like she was born to do it, honestly. Idiot men come at her in the comments and she gets a lot of harassment. But let me tell you… She takes those motherfuckers out. You thought she was just talking shit? Bitch, she has 8 peer-reviewed scientific studies! She can cite her sources, all 2 dozen of them! She knows her shit, don’t test her. And if that doesn’t satisfy you, she’s always got her M16. One time she slams a dude so hard it goes viral over night and she gets hundreds of new followers, most of them young women looking for some source of empowerment and encouragement. She takes her new role very seriously. She will always, always listen and talk to young girls who are struggling or need an outlet or someone to talk to who won’t get upset with them for thinking X or Y. I love her, she’s my wife.

THE PACIFIC

Bob Leckie Leckie’s channel is called “Dear, Vera.” Each video is an adorable virtual letter to his wife, who he is just crazy smitten with. They started out as literal messages when Leckie was traveling for his first book tour (very proud of him). Like, he would literally just write out letters and then read them to the camera. Of course, Leckie is the most poetic idiot on the planet, and lots of people started following him because his words were honestly so beautiful. Even if he’s extra as heck. The following isn’t huge, but it’s substantial, and he still addresses each video to his wife. So he talks about whatever he likes. It was updates about his life when he was traveling, but when he’s home he likes to get creative about it. And not every episode is so serious. He invites dudes from Team Leckie to come hang all the time! And the boys are always like, “Hi, Vera!” and wave like she’s actually there. (She’s in the next room doing a Sudoku puzzle or something). Every video, he signs of with, “Yours, Robert.” AND AND AND when Vera tells him they’re going to be parents, Leckie gets extra extra. But it’s so cute, like, he makes a single video about it. He opens it with, “To my future child” And he basically goes on this whole teary-eyed kind of schpiel about how he’s so exited to meet them and how he and Vera are going to love them unconditionally and protect them and do their absolute best to keep them happy. He signs off with, “With love, your father.”

Hoosier Smith Hoosier is literally Cr1tiKal

Eugene Sledge Eugene’s channel is about ornithology, botany, and BEES! He loves bees! He uses the channel to geek out over biology things and it has so many cute graphics and jingles. Like, I mean, it’s hella gay. And he’s kind of awkward, but it’s so endearing. Most of his subscribers are girls and mlm and he’s just like, huh *shrug* He has little segments about current scientific events/findings. He has a birb of the week. It’s just… so nerdy. Like, chill out, dude. (Jk pls don’t ever chill out, follow your passions.) Snafu refuses to be in videos but he shouts at him from other rooms in the house, being a dick on purpose, calling him nerd, telling him to shut up. But Eugene is pretty good at coming back at him. He’s known Snafu too long for that kind of shit to actually bother him. And Eugene is like 70% sass, anyway.

Eddie Jones Eddie has a channel entirely dedicated to his original music!!! All his spending money goes to instruments and high quality recording equipment and audio editing software. He’s so good. Like. He’s got this warbling kind of sweet and broken voice. It’s very similar to jpitts, actually. And there’s so much heart in it. Not to mention the songs he writes are amazing and have clever lyrics. And guess what, boys and girls!!! Andy Haldane can sing. But he’s super shy about it. He and Eddie have had so many conversations that are like “Andy, come on, one video” “Nooo…” “Just one!” “Eddie, I caaaan’t” (Andy gets a little whiny when he’s nervous) So Andy won’t sing in a video BUT his soft voice can be heard harmonizing in some official recordings. Eddie loves listening to Andy sing. He’s not perfect or anything, but his voice is pretty and light and Eddie’s head over heels for him, so he can’t help but love it.

So, like I said. Way too long. But I had so much fun thinking up this stuff, so time well spent! I just did the boys (and girls) who came naturally to me when I tried to think of who would have a YouTube Channel. If anyone feels like adding to this monstrosity, go for it!

#hbo war #band of brothers #the pacific #generation kill #headcanon #my headcanons #youtube #yeah again #sorry this turned into an enormous monster #but i still love it #this isn't really edited so forgive me my mistakes #my writing

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pridesofblack · 5 years ago

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Sorry Marvel, I'm Not Watching Two Entire TV Shows To Understand Doctor Strange 2

I'm sick of making sense of how to adjust my checkbook to make sure I can keep or potentially procure Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, CBS All Access, Apple TV, and, most as of late, Disney+. At the point when it was declared that WandaVision, Loki, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and a few other new Marvel shows are headed soon, it's hard not to let out an exasperated murmur. Particularly when it was declared that we have to watch them to comprehend up and coming blockbusters like Doctor Strange 2. As everybody and their corporate-accommodating sibling is hoping to get into the spilling game, we're veering perilously close into content over-burden. The quantity of spilling administrations giving unique substance at the present time — or promising to discharge unique substance on their imminent gushing administrations — is astoundingly high. There is no real way to stay aware of everything out there, and I'm drained. As Marvel Studios Chief Creative Officer Kevin Feige noted in a meeting not long ago, individuals should stay aware of in any event two or three the Marvel appears on Disney+ so as to pursue the course of events set out in MCU Phase 4. In particular, Feige noticed that the occasions in WandaVision and Loki, for example, will play a submit forthcoming blockbusters, incorporating Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. For certain fans, there will be no complaints. It's more Marvel content, they'll state, and more is always better, in their view. More capacity to them. On the off chance that they need to stay aware of everything and anything that is set to be discharged by this media aggregate, that is thoroughly fine. I'm not here to offend anyone or let them know not to watch these pristine shows. I'm not against the new Disney+ Marvel appears. I'm eager to see She-Hulk, for example, and I'm fiercely inquisitive to discover how they'll make an interpretation of Moon Knight to the screen. Yet, in my view, by making watchers see these shows are pre-essentials for what will occur in the realistic universe, Marvel is fundamentally anticipating that watchers should do schoolwork to make sure they can go out to see the films without feeling lost. Notwithstanding staying aware of the 20 or more films in their all-encompassing true to life universe, the makers additionally need watchers to observe considerably more long stretches of substance just to remain conscious of the world inside the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Its unimportant idea is debilitating. Now and then, you want to put down your foot and essentially state, "No." Throughout everyday life, you need to pick your fights. This is one fight I should battle. Perhaps I'll alter my perspective sometime in the not too distant future. Perhaps the trailers for Loki and WandaVision will persuade me to look at them. However, for the time being, I should state, I would prefer not to watch a lot of shows to make sure I can comprehend the plot for Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. I have an actual existence to live, in all honesty. I don't need it to be filled solely with Marvel content.

The Desire To Make Marvel's Disney+ Shows A Necessity Is Taxing

At last, it's conceivable that Kevin Feige's words were misinterpreted. It's conceivable that the head maker of Marvel implied that, with the end goal for fans to have a full comprehension of the films ahead, they'll have to comprehend what's going on with Loki or Scarlet Witch in the spilling appears. That would propose that, for example, there may be a couple of scenes where you go to your pal and ask them what the heck that implied, yet else, you can pursue the plot alright. That is what I'm seeking after, in any event. In any case, in the event that it truly expects everybody to get a Disney+ membership and watch a long time of gushing TV to make sure they can know the complexities of Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness … I'm heartbroken, yet that is a difficult task. Films aren't intended to be conditions. You shouldn't require many separate factors so as to pursue the plot. The delight of going out to see the films is that you can place the world in your rearview reflect for a couple of hours and become involved with an intense, unique vision or cleared into our very own world outside. All things considered, except if you're viewing a narrative, obviously. By and by, in the event that you make it a command for watchers to stay aware of each new Marvel shows that is accessible on Disney+, the makers will definitely confine whatever steady commitment watchers can have with their most up to date blockbusters. As I said previously, there will clearly be people who'll eat up anything Marvel puts out decisively. In any case, that ought to be the special case, not the standard. I never watched a solitary scene of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or then again Agent Carter, and that didn't keep me from understanding the plot of Avengers: Infinity War or Avengers: Endgame. Because the artistic universe is presently making a jump into the universe of gushing substance doesn't implied that watchers should naturally be stuck into all the guaranteed demonstrates just to remain over everything that is going on the big screen. It feels exceptionally burdening to me.

This Decision Feels Like A Ploy To Get People To Buy Disney+

Tune in, Disney is a monster enterprise. This is anything but a mystery and it shouldn't be a disclosure. Making cash is the main concern for this combination, plain and straightforward. They will take the necessary steps to get individuals' cash streamlined into the pockets. Regardless of whether it's interminable product, an all-encompassing history of discharging direct-to-DVD spin-offs, endless special endeavors for their items, also indecent endeavors to play into individuals' sentimentality, or what-have-you, Disney needs to have your cash in their grasp. That is the manner in which it has consistently been; Disney+ is essentially another layer of paint in this progressing procedure. Recall the Disney Vault? Disney+ is the following development of the Disney Vault, in numerous regards. This should go to nothing unexpected. All things considered, Kevin Feige telling individuals that watching the Marvel appears on Disney+ is for all intents and purposes a necessity for their forthcoming motion pictures feels like a grimy ploy to get individuals to become tied up with their spilling administration. Why settle for your exhausting ole' Netflix membership when you can get Disney+ and stay aware of Marvel's most recent stream of new shows. It contains every one of the subtleties you NEED to know for the following Marvel motion picture. Assume out your praise card or sign on the primary concern. It feels in an exposed fashion straightforward. What's more, once more, that is the same old thing for Disney. However, it doesn't try feel any less pessimistic either. Saying this doesn't imply that that the gushing shows were structured exclusively to sell stock or get individuals to purchase a goliath company's spilling administration. However, it's hard not to feel like these tycoons need individuals to toss as a lot of their well deserved money their way as they're willing to give so as to keep their cash shower streaming. This statement from Kevin Feige propose that the rewarding organization needs Marvel to stay productive through additional costs. Possibly my promise to the brand isn't sufficient? Perhaps I'm not a large enough Marvel head to welcome the plentiful blessing given to us? However, it is difficult for me to see Kevin Feige's words as something besides a ploy to get individuals to buy in to one more spilling administration to keep benefits up.

It Feels Like Marvel Is Trying To Dictate My Viewing Habits

In our period of steady substance, it's difficult to look over the weeds and make sense of what to watch. However, an excellent aspect concerning our advanced day-and-age is that you have a plentiful stream of films and demonstrates accessible to you at the pinch of a catch. You ought to be excused on the off chance that you haven't had the opportunity to watch The Americans, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, or Fleabag since there is so a lot of good stuff out there, in what manner can you single out what you watch? (Be that as it may, genuinely, you should watch Fleabag. It's extraordinary. Just sayin'.) Everyone has their very own selection of shows to watch. No one ought to be compelled to observe any one show in light of the fact that, truly, how might you be relied upon to stay aware of everything accessible out there? It's unthinkable. By and by, Marvel is attempting its damnedest to make its substance the terminology of the 21st century. Maybe it as of now is? Be that as it may, regardless, the craving to constrain watchers to watch its gushing shows in the event that they need to have a legitimate comprehension of the up and coming MCU motion pictures makes it feel like Marvel is allotting the world schoolwork. Turn in your TV report before the week's over. Saying this doesn't imply that that the new shows won't engage or charming in their own right. In any case, it's difficult to marshal up certified eagerness for new shows that feels like a necessity instead of good, restful excitement. Once more, I'm truly anticipating watching She-Hulk, Moon Knight, and What If? at whatever point I get an opportunity to look at them. I'm not out and out restricted to WandaVision, Loki, or The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on head either. In any case, when you have a maker telling individuals that they should watch something to comprehend something different, that strikes me as a business endeavor to sell their spilling administration as opposed to a persuading want to get individuals to look at their gushing shows. I lean toward the choice of deciding to watch these TV arrangement without making them feel like prerequisites. These are only a couple of the reasons why I'm not especially energized about Marvel's prospective run of gushing shows on Disney+. By and by, I don't have anything against the shows themselves. I need to watch a couple of them, and I'm willing to be convinced to look at different ones. In any case, if Disney is going to cause it to appear as though it is coercively feeding its substance down our throats, I have the tendency to spit it pull out. So no, I want to watch these new gushing shows out of corporate interest. On the off chance that that implies I'm going to be lost when it comes time to watch Doctor Strange 2, so be it. Read the full article

#DoctorStrange2 #doctorstrange2cast #doctorstrange2horror #doctorstrange2nightmare #doctorstrange2rating #doctorstrange2trailer #doctorstrange2wiki #doctorstrange2007 #doctorstrange2016

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kiradurbin · 5 years ago

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Super Short Reviews: Fall/Winter TV part one

Merry Happy Whatever (Netflix) – Skip it. Sorry, Dennis Quaid.

The Moodys (Fox) – You could do a lot worse for a Christmas show (see above.) The suspension of disbelief that Jay Baruchel is somehow Denis Leary’s son is funny enough... and then Denis Leary trying to pronounce “Ecclesiastes” is hilarious. If you’re from Chicago you’ll love the uncle who always has the best directions. The rest of this south side family is all adopted, apparently, as none of them look like each other or their parents... which is also funny. It’s network, but thumbs up from me.

Holiday Secrets (Netflix) – Germany. Sort of like a female driven This Is Us – three timelines of family drama and love. More of a movie than a series (totally running time of under two hours) and I enjoyed every emotional revealing second of it.

The Morning Show (AppleTv+) – Talk about a hot button issue. Well played, Apple. Steve Carell’s performance as the ousted offender is so good it almost makes you wonder if he really did anything wrong. But this is not just a show about “times up,” this is a show about “the news,” and how ridiculous that idea has become and how ratings are always the bottom line. Great writing and great performances. (Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Billy Crudup, Tom Irwin, Mark Dulpass, Karen Pittman, etc etc etc.) Makes my must see list.

Dark Crystal (Netflix) – The visuals are stunning, and the pupperteering is amazing... but only you can decide if you can really take Muppets seriously. I mean... they’re Muppets. If you loved the movie as a kid this is a prequel to that story and there’s a few characters you’ll recognise. The Gelflings have a sort of magical wonder about them that may be better suited for kids than old people like me.

Modern Love (Amazon) – John Carney et al take on the articles / podcasts from the NY Times column of stories submitted by real folks about their romantic hits and misses. Probably only for rom lovers, although the on location shots of NY are always appreciated.

Home for Christmas (Net) – Norway. Leading lady Ida Elise Brock is ADORABLE and this very short series has all the Christmas cliches you want including Love Actually references. Fun to laugh and cringe along with this story of a smart, funny, loving woman just trying to find a decent date. Must see for rom-com lovers.

Mr. Mom (Vudu) – Not as dumb / bad as plenty of other sitcoms you’ve seen, and only 11 minutes an episode. If you’ve never heard of Vudu, take a few minutes to check it out. They say that ad-based streaming is the future of television. But isn’t that just... television? SMH.

High School Musical: the Musical: the Series (Disney +) – For teenagers (or anyone really) that loves musical theatre and has a hearty sense of humour. So sweet it gave me a tummy ache, BUT there is real humour here, and if you take away the musical theatre its still a really fun show for YA viewers.

Watchmen (HBO) – AWESOME. Watch It.

Three Days of Christmas (Net) – Spain. Another emotional heavy hitter that kept my eyeballs glued to the screen. Definitely the most morbid of the bunch, this set of three timelines sticks to one day per episode (hence the title.) The main characters again are all women, so to tally from above – that’s three home runs from Netflix on foreign Christmas shows.

The Mandalorian (Disney +) – At best this is a super expensively made kids show... at worst its outright goofy. Sure, Baby Yoda is REALLY cute cute cute, but why does the lead actor sound like he can’t act? Am I supposed to know already who the Mandalorians are? Who am I supposed to care about? Why don’t they ever take their helmets off? Felt more like I was watching a video game than a show. (But still it’s Star Wars so you know yer gonna watch it all.)

NOT REVIEWED:

Mad About You (Spectrum) – Not a new show. Somehow now more sad than funny.

His Dark Materials (HBO) – please read the books; I LOVED them. (His Dark Materials trilogy Philip Pullman circa 1995-2000)

Toast of London (IFC) – not new, aired in 2012

Wu-Tang American Saga (Hulu) – based on the true story of the formation of the Wu Tang Clan.

The Promised Life (Acorn)

Mrs. Fletcher (HBO)

In the Long Run (Starz)

Back To Life (Showtime)

all other Apple TV

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phooll123 · 7 years ago

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Here’s what you need to know about the U.S. lawsuit against the AT&T-Time Warner merger

AT&T and Time Warner plan to merge in a $85 billion deal that would unite one of the largest distributors of content with one of the biggest producers of content, a roster that includes hits like HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” the Harry Potter films and major cable franchises like CNN.

But not if the Justice Department has its way. The U.S. government has sued to block the deal, a move that some fret is actually political reprisal for CNN’s reporting on President Trump. The trial begins on Wednesday, March 21.

Here’s what’s at stake and what to look for.

Why is the Justice Department suing AT&T?*

The government says the merger will be bad for consumers. A combined AT&T and Time Warner would have much more heft and could force higher prices on TV distributors, leading to higher cable and satellite TV bills.

“Consumers will end up paying hundreds of millions of dollars more than they do now to watch their favorite programs on TV,” the Justice Department said in court filings.

AT&T’s counter? The government’s analysis relies on an improbable hypothesis: In order to extract higher fees, AT&T would have to withhold Time Warner channels like CNN and TNT from the pay TV distributors.

In theory, that would also allow AT&T to raise prices on its own TV customers (via AT&T’s U-verse and DirecTV), since it would be the only place a viewer could watch Anderson Cooper or key games of the NCAA basketball finals.

But the economic harm from doing so would far outweigh whatever gains AT&T could get, the company says, making it an unworkable bargaining tactic. AT&T has also made a commitment to not black out any TV channels in any future fee disputes, removing its most powerful bartering tool. In short, prices won’t go up, and the TV landscape will remain competitive.

What are the stakes for AT&T and Time Warner?

Time Warner could lose out on $85 billion — which would go to its shareholders, including to executives. Anyone who bought stock prior to news of the deal stands to gain at least a 36 percent profit based on AT&T’s offer of $107.50 per share.

But after the government filed its suit in November, shares dropped below $100, a sign of low-to-medium confidence that the merger will be approved.

If AT&T loses, it would also have to pay Time Warner $500 million in what’s known as a reverse breakup fee. That’s small relative to the typical payout, usually between 3 percent to 9 percent of the deal size. In this case, it’s less than 0.6 percent. Time Warner and AT&T, it seems, were confident the deal would pass regulatory muster, which might explain the low fee. The Trump Administration, of course, ignores all past precedent.

It would also be a blow to Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes, who sees this deal as his grand exit.

Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes

Drew Angerer / Getty

For AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, buying Time Warner is a way to set the company apart from its key rival, Verizon, which has done its own content deals by acquiring both AOL and Yahoo. Pricing wars have pushed down monthly cellphone bills, which has been good for consumers but not so great for mobile phone operators.

AT&T’s key thesis in buying Time Warner is that the combined company could speed up the development of new types of online video (which it would own), and drive bigger profits by marrying AT&T’s consumer data with Time Warner’s TV content to sell targeted advertising, which is worth more than the usual advertising.

What it means for the media industry

But there’s something bigger in play here.

If the court rules against the acquisition, it might chill other media mergers in the works. Disney plans to buy Fox’s entertainment business and CBS and Viacom are working on a merger. There’s also Comcast’s bid for European pay TV operator Sky, a deal that appears to be designed to spoil Disney’s play for Fox — more on that here.

If, however, you believe President Trump is just trying to punish CNN with the suit, then you’d also have to think these other media deals are safe, since, in the Disney-Fox case, Trump is an avowed fan of anything Rupert Murdoch owns, specifically Fox News, and so is happy for him to succeed; in the CBS-Viacom merger, neither side has been a target of Trump’s ire, despite the reporting of CBS News.

If that’s too cynical a take for you, then you’d have to allow that these deals would have to be in doubt, and therefore would/should invite the same Justice Department scrutiny.

The Disney-Fox proposal, for example, takes a competitor out of the marketplace by marrying two different content companies. In other words, Disney would no longer just be bringing its own TV networks (ESPN and ABC and Freeform) when bargaining with Comcast or Dish, but also Fox’s channels (its regional sports networks, FX and National Geographic).

Same goes for a tie-up of CBS and Viacom, which would put Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV, CBS and Showtime all under one roof.

Ironically, the AT&T-Time Warner deal is the one media merger that doesn’t change the content portfolio, which is to say that since AT&T doesn’t already own any TV networks, the addition of Time Warner wouldn’t reduce the number of competitors in the marketplace — what’s known as a vertical merger. That, in fact, has been the essence of AT&T’s legal argument.

You could also argue that since AT&T doesn’t get a distinct advantage by owning Time Warner, the merger actually doesn’t make sense.

But why are so many mergers happening in the first place? Because the media industry has turned into a zero-sum game. Fewer people are paying for TV, which means fewer people are watching TV, which means there’s less in subscriber fees and advertising dollars to go around.

That’s why the merger landscape has turned into a fight for assets, all the while as Netflix and Google and Facebook continue to eat into TV’s audiences.

Who is the real competition?

AT&T has stated pretty clearly in court filings that Google, Netflix, Facebook and Amazon are the real threats to its business as well as that of Time Warner’s. “Google,” for example, appears on 16 pages of the brief it filed on March 9. “Netflix” appears on 19 pages; “Facebook,” 15 pages; “Amazon,” 12 pages.

Meanwhile, “Fox,” “CBS,” “Viacom” and “Disney” each appear on no more than five pages; “Verizon,” only two pages. “Apple,” interestingly enough, also only appears on two pages.

*Is it really because Trump doesn’t like CNN?

The president has said publicly he had nothing to do with the Justice Department’s decision to block the purchase. Reminder: The Justice Department is supposed to remain independent of the White House.

But AT&T CEO Stephenson questions the timeline of events.

To start, Trump’s Twitter stream is already clear evidence of his hostilitytoward CNN.

The source of his acrimony might trace back to his relationship with the network’s president, Jeff Zucker. The two were compatriots at NBCUniversal**, where Zucker was CEO until 2011. He had hired Trump for the reality show “The Apprentice,” which became a ratings success.

Jeff Zucker, Donald Trump and Melania Trump at Focus Features Golden Globes After Party in Los Angeles, 2007.

WireImage for Focus Features

The fact that each ended up in adversarial positions naturally creates tension, but CNN’s aggressive coverage has only stoked Trump’s animus; his ties to Zucker seem to suggest he feels a keen sense of betrayal.

The thinking goes that by stopping AT&T’s purchase of Time Warner, it would hurt Time Warner and thus CNN.

In fact, while Trump was on the campaign trail, he vowed to block the merger in the first 100 days of his presidency, saying it “concentrates too much power in the hands of too few.”

Months after he took office, however, it appeared that AT&T’s merger gambit would pay off. The Justice Department had enlisted a new antitrust czar, Makan Delrahim, who just months prior to his appointment had publicly stated that AT&T’s purchase of Time Warner shouldn’t be an issue for regulators. “I don’t see this as a major antitrust problem,” he said.

But by the end of last year, Delrahim had pivoted. The Justice Department now wanted AT&T to sell Time Warner’s Turner unit — which includes CNN — in order to proceed with its acquisition, according to a report in the Financial Times and in the New York Times.

AT&T refused, and the Justice Department sued.

Worth noting: Delrahim’s reversal was eye-opening enough to inspire AT&T to attempt an unusual legal strategy. It included him on its witness list, and asked the court to compel the Justice Department to provide any communications it had with the White House via emails and phone logs about the merger, part of an effort to show Trump may have prompted the suit because of his feelings toward CNN.

It was a long shot. The bar for compelling that kind of information is very high, and the court denied the request. AT&T also removed Delrahim from its witness list with the understanding that it could still call him later to testify if there was good enough reason.

Noel Francisco, Makan Delrahim and Steven Engel being sworn in

Mark Wilson / Getty

Who’s the decider?

The case is what’s known as a bench trial, so the presiding judge, in this instance Richard Leon, will make the sole determination. There’s no jury.

Antitrust cases are typically a battle between experts, and AT&T has already started harping on the government’s analysis. The company cites Justice’s claim that the merger would lead to a 45-cent increase in a consumer’s average monthly TV bill, which AT&T calls a “remarkably small size,” and a finding it nonetheless still doesn’t accept.

AT&T even characterized the government’s case as like ”a Persian cat with its fur shaved...alarmingly pale and thin,” an allusion to another case that nevertheless drew eyebrows given the fact that Delrahim was born in Iran. His family immigrated to the U.S. as Jewish refugees.

Judge Leon is arguably already an expert on the economics of the TV business — or has at least been exposed to experts. He approved Comcast’s acquisition of NBCUniversal in 2011.

There is, however, a key difference this time around.

In the Comcast case, the Justice Department cleared the deal pending certain conditions, known as a consent decree — a set of rules designed to prevent potential harm to consumers or to competition. It was signed by Judge Leon.

The order laid out what Comcast could and could not do with NBCUniversal after the acquisition. As an example, it had to forfeit management rights over Hulu, a joint venture one-third-owned by NBCUniversal.

With AT&T, however, the Justice Department is asking the judge to block the deal outright.

The potential second part of the case

Some finer points to understand: The judge could wholly find in favor of the government and block the merger altogether, or he could find the government failed to prove its case and let the merger go through.

There is a third option: If Leon finds that the merger is anticompetitive, he could still let the deal go through with conditions or remedies to address anticompetitive concerns. Which would bring us to the potential second part of the case where each side will argue the merits of certain rules that would govern how AT&T manages Time Warner.

The Justice Department will likely argue that no conditions should be allowed and the deal shouldn’t go through, since 1) any conditions would do nothing to curb consumer harm, and 2) even if some rules proved useful, it would be far too costly for the government to monitor.

AT&T will argue it has already made a pretty big promise — to not black out any Time Warner channels in any future disputes for a period of seven years, with any disagreements subject to third-party arbitration. In other words, with that promise, AT&T has effectively already built in a key condition.

The judge could also apply his own prescriptions to the merger, but even then he would only do so very narrowly. If he does, he may work off the decree from the Comcast-NBCUniversal merger over which he presided.

Why won’t the government just allow for conditions?

Despite Delrahim’s reversal (or maybe in spite of it), when it comes to antitrust, he and many others in the legal community believe in what’s known as a “structural remedy” over “behavioral remedy.”

Comcast’s consent decree is considered “behavioral” fix to what the government saw as potential harm to consumers. But Delrahim has expressed skepticism that it has actually worked out. As an example, Comcast had met with fellow owners of Hulu back in 2013 over the streaming platform’s future, which could be seen as a violation of its agreement.

And as a conservative, Delrahim doesn’t believe that government should be meddling in a for-profit business, and behavioral remedies require government to make business judgments.

A structural remedy, on the other hand, is a do-it-once-and-walk-away process. That usually amounts to forcing a company to sell something, which would explain Justice Department’s request that AT&T sell Turner as part of the deal.

Case details

The case number is 17-cv-2511: United States of America v. AT&T Inc. et al., and it will take place at the U.S. District Court for D.C. The trial starts March 21 in Courtroom 18.

The proceedings will be open to the public, but Judge Leon has banned reporters from bringing in electronic devices, which goes against the standard policy. Leon was agitated by press leaks and warned both sides the case shouldn’t be litigated in the media.

The trial could last as long as two months, a change from the original three-week estimate. That’s because both sides have been arguing over the admissibility of certain types of evidence as well as what kinds of evidence should be kept confidential, such as rate pricing for TV channels.

Most of the testimony will likely feature economists and experts with charts and graphs. But the appearances of Stephenson and Bewkes (and possibly Delrahim) will be the ones to pay attention to.

** NBCUniversal is a minority investor in Recode parent company Vox Media.

via Blogger http://ift.tt/2HHknfL

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andrewdburton · 7 years ago

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How we watch TV without cable (and how much it costs)

One of the main reasons Kim and I decided to move from our condo to this quiet country cottage was to save money. We were spending far too much living in the city.

Simply moving made a huge difference to our budget. But now that the dust has settled, it’s time for us to look at other aspects of our spending to see where we can save. As part of that, I’ve been reviewing our recurring expenses to see what I can cut. Yesterday, I canceled our subscription to The New York Times (savings: $5/week or $260/year). Today, I’m reviewing how much we spend on TV and movies.

Cutting the Cord

It seems hard to believe, but it was ten years ago that I first “cut the cord”. Since then, I’ve used the Apple TV device to access most of my video entertainment.

In March 2007, my then-wife and I canceled our expensive TV package and moved to just basic cable. Our monthly bill dropped from $65.82 to $11.30. We supplemented our viewing with Hulu (free at the time), Netflix, and by purchasing shows from the iTunes store.

I’ve been cable-free for a decade now. I haven’t missed cable even once. Some folks are amazed when they hear I don’t have cable. “How do you manage?” they ask. Yet I am amazed that more people haven’t made the leap to a cable-free lifestyle. It’s easy.

One of the biggest objections I hear is, “What about live sports?” People pay big bucks just so they can have ESPN. Honestly, there are plenty of ways to watch live sports without cable. Sling, for instance, offers a package with ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN3. Plus, Kim and I have found that if we really want to watch a game, we’ll just head to a local sports bar where we can join the crowd over a burger and a beer.

In 2007, I calculated that Kris and I were spending $27.90 each month to watch television. If we added in our Netflix subscription, that total rose to $44.89. Not bad.

Reviewing our current expenses, however, I see that Kim and I currently spend $83 per month in subscription fees — plus whatever we spend to buy individual movies and TV shows on iTunes. Holy cats! How did that happen? We’ve experienced a bit of lifestyle inflation in the TV department.

Let’s review the different services we use — and how much we pay for them. Maybe there’s a way we can save some money.

iTunes (a la carte pricing)

By far, our biggest source of video entertainment is iTunes. I’m heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem, and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon. Since 12 October 2005, when video content became available on the iTunes store, I have purchased 611 movies (about one per week) and 107 TV shows. (It’s tough to determine exactly how many seasons or episodes that represents, though.)

With iTunes, you don’t pay a subscription fee. Instead, you purchase movies and TV shows “a la carte”. If you want something, you buy it and it’s your forever (at least in theory). Personally, I prefer this model, but I know I’m in the minority.

To avoid overspending, I have two rules for iTunes purchases.

First of all, I try not to buy anything unless I think I’ll rewatch it. That means I mostly use iTunes to buy movies or classic television shows that I’ve already watched many times. (I bought all three seasons of the original Star Trek, for instance. I watch those episodes over and over and over again. What can I say? I’m a nerd!)

Second, I rarely pay full price (which is between $15 and $20 for a movie, and up to $35 for a TV season). I’ll pay full price for something like the most recent season of Game of Thrones or maybe the latest Star Wars movie. Only if I love something am I going to pay top dollar. (Another exception: If I’ve waited years and never seen a price drop. Disney movies never go on sale, so I paid twenty bucks so that my nephew could watch Frozen whenever he’s here.)

In order to keep my iTunes costs down, I watch the weekly sales. Every Tuesday, Apple lists certain movies at a discount. This week, for instance, they have select “Spy Stories” on sale at “under $10”.

There are 32 of spy movies listed this week. Some weeks the sale only lists ten movies. It varies. If a film is under ten bucks and I want to watch it, I’ll consider purchasing it — but only if the price is less than twice the rental price.

For example, this week the 2011 version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is on sale for $9.99. If the rental price were $4.99 or higher, I might buy it. But the rental price is $3.99, so I won’t consider it.

The best deals on iTunes come on weekends. Each Friday, Apple places one film on sale for $4.99, which is roughly the price of a rental. These films are often related to something timely. Right now, for example, they’re likely to place Christmas films on sale. Around Valentine’s Day, they’ll put a romance on sale for $4.99.

Here are two final tips, one of which is a bit morbid.

Whenever a big-name actor or director dies, Apple has a sale on their body of work. Strange (and maybe a bit sad) but true. If Steven Spielberg were to die next week, for instance, Apple would have a huge sale on all of his films. When Stanley Kubrick died, they offered some crazy bundle of all his movies for cheap. I bought it.

Lastly, I make use of the iTunes wish list. Whenever I find a movie I really really want that’s too expensive (over ten bucks, basically), I add it to the list. Every few weeks, I check the list for price drops.

Kim and I mainly use iTunes for movies. We do buy TV shows — we’re watching The Orville on iTunes right now — but that’s not as common. Why not? Because most of the time there’s no reason to keep TV shows in our permanent library. Are we ever going to rewatch The Voice? No. For this reason, we tend to use other apps for our television viewing.

Hot tip: If you liked Star Trek: The Next Generation, you may like The Orville. It deliberately mimics the ST:TNG vibe in tons of ways, both obvious and subtle. But it’s hilarious. (Here’s a short trailer for the show.) Even though it’s not an official Star Trek show in any way, I’d classify it as my third-favorite Star Trek series. (I haven’t seen the new official Star Trek series because I refuse to pay for the CBS streaming service. No way!)

Netflix ($11 per month)

Our second-largest source of video content is Netflix. Kim and I have a “two screens at a time” plan for $10.99 per month. (The price just went up by a buck last week.)

For a long time, I didn’t watch much Netflix. Honestly, I think their movie selection sucks. They have a decent TV lineup, but it lags behind Hulu (see below) and doesn’t include things like Game of Thrones or Big Bang Theory. I thought I was going to cancel Netflix until they started producing original content.

And that’s where Netflix has really begun to shine. The original shows on Netflix are, quite frankly, outstanding. Left to her own devices, Kim would watch almost exclusively Netflix. (She’s a huge fan of Chelsea Handler.) Right now, Netflix has so many great original series that I can’t even keep up with them.

I don’t get $10.99 worth of entertainment from Netflix each month but Kim does.

Hulu ($12 per month with no ads)

I’ve been using Hulu for almost ten years now.

The main virtue of Hulu is catching current programs. Kim and I watch The Voice on Hulu, for instance, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. She uses it to watch This Is Us. Whenever Kim hears about a current show that sounds interesting, she checks Hulu first.

Hulu also has a decent selection of older shows, which is something that appeals to me. For some reason, I get great comfort from watching programs like The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Adam 12. Over the course of 2017, Kim and I worked our way through all 180 episodes of Seinfeld.

The primary problem with Hulu is that its selection is even worse than Netflix. The movies are woefully outdated. (They used to own the streaming rights for The Criterion Collection, but not anymore.) Its library of classic TV shows is good but spotty.

Luckily, Hulu has begun creating its own original programming too, including the award-winning The Handmaid’s Tale, which I have not yet seen.

Amazon Prime Video (part of Amazon Prime)

If you subscribe to Amazon Prime, then Amazon Prime Video is included in the service.

Like Netflix and Hulu, it offers a variety of television shows and movies — plus original content, some of which has received excellent reviews. (Last year’s Manchester by the Sea was nominated for Best Picture!) Amazon Prime Video also offers paid add-on subscriptions to services like HBO and Showtime.

Honestly, Kim and I haven’t used Amazon Prime Video much. I watched season three of Survivor on Prime a couple of years ago because it was the only service that offered it, but that’s the only thing I can remember watching. Why don’t we use it? Because there’s no Apple TV app. Until today.

Seriously: The Amazon Prime Video app for Apple TV came out today, and I’m downloading it as I write this very sentence.

There. Amazon Prime Video has been installed on my Apple TV. This opens a whole new world of video programming for me and Kim to discover. I’ve been wanting to watch several of these shows, including The Last Tycoon, Mozart in the Jungle, and — especially — The Man in the High Castle.

Time will tell if Amazon Prime Video supplants any of our other services.

Sling ($45 per month)

For folks who crave real television channels but still want to cut the cord, Sling is a terrific option. With packages starting at $20 per month, you’re able to customize the service to access the channels you’re most interested in. And you can access those channels on almost any device. (I have Sling set up on all of our computers, all of our portable devices, and on the Apple TV.)

Sling offers two primary bundles: the orange bundle ($20/month) and the blue bundle ($25/month). While there’s some overlap between these two bundles, each offers some unique channels. The orange bundle, for instance, carries ESPN and the blue bundle does not. But the blue bundle has Fox Sports channels while the orange bundle does not. If you subscribe to both bundles, you get a $5 discount so that your monthly total is $40.

On top of this, you can totally customize your subscription by adding various “packages”, such as the Spanish TV package or the news package or the comedy package.

Since summer, we’ve subscribe to the combined orange and blue bundles plus the Hollywood package (which includes Turner Classic Movies). That’s a total of $45 per month.

How much Sling do we actually watch? Very little. We certainly do not need the orange bundle, which I subscribed to because I thought I’d watch ESPN. (Turns out that in much the same way that MTV rarely shows music videos, ESPN rarely shows actual sporting events. It’s all chat shows and endless repeats of SportsCenter.)

Kim and I both agree that we can axe Sling completely without missing anything.

HBO Now ($15 per month)

HBO Now is the online version of HBO. We’ve only been subscribed for about a year. We’ve paid maybe $180 into it — but we have not received $180 worth of value. In fact, we hardly ever watch it. So why do we have it? One reason: Game of Thrones.

Until the most recent season, Game of Thrones was delayed by an entire year before being released to iTunes. Impatient man that I am — and wanting to play by the rules (no BitTorrent) — I thought we should sign up for HBO Now when it became available on Apple TV.

“We can watch the other shows too,” I told Kim. She likes Girls and True Blood and Entourage. I also thought we’d take advantage of HBO’s movie library. But you know what? We didn’t do those things. We’ve maybe watched two things on HBO Now in twelve months. That’s a colossal waste of money. (Think of all the beer I could have bought with $180!)

Besides, if I’m seeing things right, it looks as if some HBO shows are included with Amazon Prime Video. Rock on!

The Bottom Line

Let’s put all of this together. As a summary, here’s what we’re paying for individual services:

iTunes: no subscription fee — pay per show

Netflix: $11 per month

Hulu: $12 per month

Amazon Prime Video: cost is built into our Amazon Prime subscription

Sling: $45 per month

HBO Now: $15 per month

We’re paying a total of $83 per month (or roughly $1000 per year) in subscription fees. Plus our Amazon Prime membership. Plus whatever it costs for individual purchases from iTunes.

That’s too much.

Fortunately, we can easily trim $60 per month by getting rid of Sling and HBO Now, two services we barely use. That’d save us $720 every year. I’m comfortable keeping Netflix and Hulu. We use both pretty often, so that $23 per month is acceptable.

So, there you have it. It’s perfectly possible to watch all the TV you want without cable. But if your goal is to save money by doing so, you have to be careful. If you’re not, you can end up paying as much (or more!) than you were before you cut the cord.

There’s nothing wrong with paying for TV — if you use what you’re paying for. But if you’re not getting value for your money (as in our case with Sling and HBO Now), then it’s in your best interest to cancel services and put that cash to work someplace else.

Footnote Based on this post, you might think I watch a lot of TV. I don’t. I watch maybe an episode while I eat dinner with Kim on the week nights, then maybe one movie each Saturday and Sunday. Kim watches tons more than I do.

But don’t get the idea that I think I’m more virtuous for watching less television. I still waste my time, but I’m much more likely to waste it playing videogames. (As some of you already know, my game of choice is Hearthstone. But I’m also a fan of the Nintendo Switch, especially retro games like Mario Brothers.)

The post How we watch TV without cable (and how much it costs) appeared first on Get Rich Slowly.

from Finance http://www.getrichslowly.org/2017/12/07/tv-without-cable/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

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foursproutwealth-blog · 7 years ago

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How we watch TV without cable (and how much it costs)

New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/wealth/how-we-watch-tv-without-cable-and-how-much-it-costs/

How we watch TV without cable (and how much it costs)

youtube

One of the main reasons Kim and I decided to move from our condo to this quiet country cottage was to save money. We were spending far too much living in the city.

Cutting the Cord

It seems hard to believe, but it was ten years ago that I first “cut the cord”. Since then, I’ve used the Apple TV device to access most of my video entertainment.

In 2007, I calculated that Kris and I were spending $27.90 each month to watch television. If we added in our Netflix subscription, that total rose to $44.89. Not bad.

Let’s review the different services we use — and how much we pay for them. Maybe there’s a way we can save some money.

iTunes (a la carte pricing)

To avoid overspending, I have two rules for iTunes purchases.

Here are two final tips, one of which is a bit morbid.

Netflix ($11 per month)

Our second-largest source of video content is Netflix. Kim and I have a “two screens at a time” plan for $10.99 per month. (The price just went up by a buck last week.)

I don’t get $10.99 worth of entertainment from Netflix each month but Kim does.

Hulu ($12 per month with no ads)

I’ve been using Hulu for almost ten years now.

Luckily, Hulu has begun creating its own original programming too, including the award-winning The Handmaid’s Tale, which I have not yet seen.

Amazon Prime Video (part of Amazon Prime)

If you subscribe to Amazon Prime, then Amazon Prime Video is included in the service.

Seriously: The Amazon Prime Video app for Apple TV came out today, and I’m downloading it as I write this very sentence.

Time will tell if Amazon Prime Video supplants any of our other services.

Sling ($45 per month)

On top of this, you can totally customize your subscription by adding various “packages”, such as the Spanish TV package or the news package or the comedy package.

Since summer, we’ve subscribe to the combined orange and blue bundles plus the Hollywood package (which includes Turner Classic Movies). That’s a total of $45 per month.

Kim and I both agree that we can axe Sling completely without missing anything.

HBO Now ($15 per month)

Besides, if I’m seeing things right, it looks as if some HBO shows are included with Amazon Prime Video. Rock on!

The Bottom Line

Let’s put all of this together. As a summary, here’s what we’re paying for individual services:

iTunes: no subscription fee — pay per show

Netflix: $11 per month

Hulu: $12 per month

Amazon Prime Video: cost is built into our Amazon Prime subscription

Sling: $45 per month

HBO Now: $15 per month

We’re paying a total of $83 per month (or roughly $1000 per year) in subscription fees. Plus our Amazon Prime membership. Plus whatever it costs for individual purchases from iTunes.

That’s too much.

The post How we watch TV without cable (and how much it costs) appeared first on Get Rich Slowly.

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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Winter 2021 TV Preview

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Every New Year’s celebration comes along with some excitement, pomp, and circumstance, but rarely has the countdown from 10 felt more urgent in the waning seconds of 2020. Yes, 2020 is just a number and yes, time is just an abstract concept created to explain celestial bodies moving around one another. But darn it all, it still feels great to see “2021” at the top of this article.

2021 will hopefully come along with some good news (though admittedly early signs aren’t looking great on that front). At the very least, however, it should come along with some interesting TV options. Due to COVID-19 production delays, there perhaps aren’t as many confirmed release dates for early 2021 as we’ve seen in years’ past. Still, there are plenty of exciting new and returning TV shows to keep you occupied throughout the chilly season.

Winter 2021 is when Marvel makes its triumphant return to television. The official MCU canon gets started with WandaVision in January before continuing on with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in March. The newly-branded CWverse will make its debut this season with Javica Leslie’s Ryan Wilder taking up the mantle of Batwoman. And that’s not even to mention other genre options like Netflix’s Fate: The Winx Saga or season 2 of TNT’s surprisingly good Snowpiercer.

What follows are all the new and returning shows in winter 2021 that we’re excited about. You can also check out a list of our most anticipated returning British series here and new British series here.

Prodigal Son Season 2

Jan. 12 on Fox

Audiences were captivated by a shocking season 1 finale for Fox’s crime thriller Prodigal Son, and season 2 will continue the story of police profiler Malcolm Bright (Tom Payne), and his notorious serial killer father Martin Whitly (Michael Sheen). Malcolm’s sister Ainsley (Halston Sage) has gone from intrepid reporter to protector of family secrets by following her father’s deadly instructions.

With Malcolm’s life in disarray as a result, Prodigal Son season 2 will find him protecting his mother Jessica (Bellamy Young) from a secret that could tear the family apart even worse than before. Martin, meanwhile, is determined to strengthen the growing bond between him and his “prodigal son,” and the relationship is bound to produce more twists and revelations when the show returns on Jan. 12, 2021. – Michael Ahr

Superstore Season 6

Jan. 14 on NBC

Superstore will be taking a bow with its current sixth and final season, but there’s a big status quo change that will add plenty of drama to its final episodes. Jonah (Ben Feldman) will have to find out how to move on from Amy (America Ferrera) after her exit from the series less than three months ago.

So far we know that Jonah’s ex Kelly (Kelly Stables) has returned to the Ozark Highlands store. Also, there are rumors that though Superstore is coming to an end, characters Bo and Cheyenne could be getting their own spinoff. Perhaps we see some sort of backdoor pilot? Superstore will air 11 more episodes before concluding in the spring. – Nick Harley

Search Party Season 4

Jan. 14 on HBO Max

In addition to being a great TV show in general, Search Party belongs on a short list of the best “well…how did we end up here?” entertainment properties. This dark comedy from Sarah-Violet Bliss, Charles Rogers, and Michael Showalter began with one young millennial’s decision to go looking for a missing acquaintance. Somehow that led to no fewer than two murders and the trial of the social media century. For its fourth season, Search Party will up the ante yet again.

Search Party Season 4 Review (Spoiler-Free)

By Daniel Kurland

Cassidy Diamond is Search Party Season 3’s Vocal Fry Queen

By Alec Bojalad

As evidenced by the end of season 3, Dory Sief (Alia Shawkat) finds herself kidnapped and held by her stalker (Cole Escola). While Dory is missing, her friends Elliot Goss (John Early), Portia Davenport (Meredith Hagner), and Drew Gardner (John Reynolds) try to move on with their lives before deciding to make the name of the show make sense again. Search Party proved to be a modest cult hit when it originally aired its first two seasons on TBS. That was enough to get seasons 3 and 4 to HBO Max, where hopefully it will confuse and delight audiences for years to come. – Alec Bojalad

WandaVision

Jan. 15 on Disney+

Give it up for Marvel Cinematic Universe’s wackiest installment yet. Partially filmed in front of a live audience, this nine-episode TV series centered around Wanda Maximoff, aka Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and The Vision (Paul Bettany), is poised to herald in the new, Disney+ era of MCU.

While showrunner Jac Schaeffer has kept mum on the exact details of the plot, trailers tease a trip down TV sitcom memory lane that appears to be some kind of collective (forgive us) vision shared by Wanda, her late boyfriend android Vision, and others. We’ll have to wait to find out if it is a reality created by the uber powerful Wanda herself, driven by her grief over Vision’s Infinity War death, or if there is another force at play here. Whatever the answer, WandaVision looks to be a wild ride. – Kayti Burt

Disenchantment Season 3

Jan. 15 on Netflix

While Matt Groening is best known for a certain animated on Fox series that’s run for…a few seasons, to some he will always be known as the mastermind behind beloved cult animated hit Futurama. And it’s that series that fans hoped for more of with the announcement of the fantasy kingdom set Disenchantment for Netflix. Through two seasons, Disenchantment hasn’t reached Futurama’s heights yet (because really: what could?) but it has delivered on the promise of exciting, serialized storytelling in a wacky animated world.

Disenchantment season 3 is set to open up the show’s storytelling even more. The end of season 2 (or Part Two, per Netflix) finds Bean (Abbi Jacobson), Luci (Eric Andre), and Elfo (Nat Faxon) trapped in a catacomb surrounded by “Trogs” and Bean’s villainous mother Queen Dagmar. Season 3 trailers reveal that Bean and the gang won’t spend much time here, however, and will instead eventually make it to the previously hinted-at steampunk world known as Steamland. With the show transitioning from magic to science only three seasons in, perhaps it’s not much longer before we get a proper Futurama crossover. – AB

Servant Season 2

Jan. 15 on Apple TV+

The premise of Servant’s first season was a simple yet unnerving one. The M. Night Shyamalan-produced Apple TV+ series found two parents, Dorothy (Lauren Ambrose) and Sean Turner (Toby Kebbell), dealing with the death of their son by caring for a “reborn” doll named Jericho. The doll was creepy enough to begin with but made creepier by the Turners bringing a young nanny named Leanne (Nell Tiger Free) aboard who immediately accepts the doll as a real child without questions. And that was all just the setup for a show that absolutely wasn’t satisfied to let weird enough alone.

Season 2 finds Leanne on the run with Jericho and also perhaps with a cult? I don’t know, Servant really is a lot. The real question, however, is what kind of meals Sean will be preparing this year. As a professional chef, the character was always known for cooking up something truly delicious (and usually gruesome) in his expansive Philadelphia home kitchen. Hopefully he still has enough time to cook with all the missing baby and cult stuff. – AB

Batwoman Season 2

Jan. 17 on The CW

Batwoman is gone; long live Batwoman. Ruby Rose’s Kate Kane is out of the picture, but Javicia Leslie’s Ryan Wilder is here to put her own spin on the black and red suit. We’ve seen the first two episodes of season 2, and we can’t wait for more! The series makes room for Kate’s loved ones, Gotham, and the audience, to mourn her, while Ryan quickly establishes her own origin story and relationship to all our favorite returning characters, who have very different reactions to her presence.

Like Kate before her, Ryan opens up the world of superheroics to new communities. Oh and that villain Safiyah they teased all last season, who even makes Alice scared? Buckle up because she’s coming to Gotham and she’s not messing around. – Delia Harrington

All American Season 3

Jan. 18 on The CW

This CW sports drama breakout returns for a third season with a whole new set of problems for Spencer James, who returned to his former school, South Crenshaw, at the end of Season 2 in order to keep it from becoming a magnet school. From the looks of the Season 3 trailer, Spencer continues to be caught between two worlds; his former teammates at Beverly Hills High can’t get past the color of his jersey.

Meanwhile, Coach Baker’s own transition to South Crenshaw is anything but smooth, as he has to deal with a hostile school principal who has raised the required GPA for student athletes. Additionally, All American plans to explicitly integrate th Black Lives Matter protest in Season 3, promising another season that is as relevant as it is dramatically addicting. – KB

Riverdale Season 5

Jan. 20 on The CW

Riverdale’s fifth season will open with the prom, finishing up the season four stories that were cut off early due to COVID-19, with the trailer teasing eerie violence, plenty of twists, and a possible Barchie hookup. Then the show will fast-forward seven years to show the gang in their mid-twenties AKA at their actual ages. The main cast is returning, with Riverdale parents Skeet Ulrich (FP Jones) and Marisol Nichols (Hermione Lodge) leaving the show.

Riverdale has cast Veronica’s husband and he’s not played by KJ Apa or his secret twin, so we’re going to need some serious explanation about what happened to Varchie – and why, if they broke up, it wasn’t so Beronica could finally get together. Vanessa Morgan’s IRL pregnancy will be incorporated into Toni Topaz’s storyline – hopefully that means a gayby for Choni! Whatever comes next, it will definitely be bonkers-drama, stylized as hell, and at least 75% murder-y. – DH

Nancy Drew Season 2

Jan. 20 on The CW

If you skipped Nancy Drew last year because you think there are too many reboots and remakes, take this as an opportunity to correct your error! Part Veronica Mars, part ghost story, and actually as cool as Riverdale hopes to be, this refresh of the beloved books is a take on high-stakes small town crime, the haves vs the have-nots, and every conceivable legend involving a sea witch that fictional Horseshoe Bay, Maine has to offer.

How Nancy Drew Succeeds as an Adaptation Where The Hardy Boys Fails

By Lacy Baugher

How Nancy Drew Has Reinvigorated the Dark Young Adult Drama

By Lacy Baugher

This season Nancy and friends are left to deal with many cliffhangers – including visions of their own deaths! Season 2 promises more of Nancy dealing with learning who her real parents are and the mysterious and deadly Aglaeca and its connection to the Marvin family. – DH

Walker

Jan. 21 on The CW

The CW is rebooting the 90s television hit Walker, Texas Ranger for a new action series titled simply Walker, premiering January 21, 2021. Jared Padalecki takes on the titular role in his first outing after wrapping up 15 years on the network’s juggernaut series Supernatural. Texas Ranger Cordell Walker is haunted by the death of his wife Emily (guest star Genevieve Padalecki) as he returns to Austin after two years undercover.

Much of the drama centers on Emily’s suspicious killing, but Walker also must reconnect with his creative and thoughtful son August (Kale Culley) and his headstrong daughter Stella (Violet Brinson) while navigating clashes with his parents and brother. He also finds unexpected common ground with his new partner Micki Ramirez (Lindsey Morgan), one of the first women in Texas Rangers’ history. – MA

Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous Season 2

Jan. 22 on Netflix

Netflix and Dreamworks Animation’s Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous really could have been a phoned-in effort. The formula to success on such a series would appear to be: get the coveted Jurassic World license, animate some dinosaurs, throw the product out there, and profit. It’s to the show’s credit, however, that it sought to be a much more entertaining and enriching experience in its first season than mere IP mining.

Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous – The Origins of Bumpy Revealed

By David Crow

Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous Reveals That Friendship is When Trust Defeats Loneliness

By Alana Joli Abbott

Season 2 of the show will find the lead children outside the friendly confines of Camp Cretaceous but still trapped on Isla Nublar and looking for a way out. Camp Cretaceous excelled in creating an intense, yet still family-friendly narrative in season 1 and season 2 seems poised to do the very same. – AB

The Blacklist Season 8

Jan. 22 on NBC

When The Blacklist returns for the remainder of its eighth season on NBC, expect the already rapid pace to be increased. “The next season, season eight, starts in a much more heightened and dramatic place than normal seasons do,” writer and producer John Eisendrath told Cinemablend. “We are gonna tell the story that we were unable to tell at the end of last season.”

The latest season continues the ongoing saga of enigmatic antihero “Concierge of Crime,” Raymond Reddington (James Spader), the world’s most-wanted criminal who – unbeknownst to the general public – enjoys an immunity deal with the F.B.I. in exchange for leads about his vast array of criminal contacts (the titular blacklist), frequently shadowed by special agent Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone), who, as revealed later in the series, happens to be the daughter he conceived with a deadly Russian spy. – NH

Fate: The Winx Saga

Jan. 22 on Netflix

Netflix has taken on the daunting task of adapting Winx Club, a beloved Nickelodeon animated series, into a live action teen fantasy series called Fate: The Winx Saga, which drops its six hour-long episodes on Jan. 22, 2021. The story follows Bloom (Abigail Cowen) as she adjusts to life as a fairy at Alfea College, a magical boarding school in the Otherworld, where she must learn to control her dangerous powers.

The live action series promises to be darker and edgier than its predecessor as the fairies fight the Burned Ones, but Fate: The Winx Saga hopes to capitalize on the original’s iconic set of strong female characters to build an equally addictive genre series. The male specialists from the animated series will also be on hand, including Bloom’s love interest, Sky (Danny Griffin). – MA

Charmed Season 3

Jan. 24 on The CW

Like many a network TV show, Charmed was forced to cut its second season short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which left a lot of plot threads hanging—the biggest, a brewing battle against the Faction. Season 3 promises to see that power struggle through, with Macy, Mel, and Maggie jonseing for a fight in the trailer.

“I’m afraid not even the Charmed Ones can survive the death of all magic,” we hear someone voiceover in the sneak peek. If you’ve given this reboot a pass because you’re loyal to the original, now’s the time to reconsider. This show is forging its own path, and it’s filled with supernatural delights. – KB

Snowpiercer Season 2

Jan. 25 on TNT

The original 2013 film Snowpiercer has gone down in history for two main reasons. First of all, it’s another superb entry into the film canon of director Bong Joon-ho, who would go on to strike Oscar gold with Parasite. Secondly, it’s the movie where Chris Evans earnestly delivers a line about eating delicious babies. Beyond even those two heavily memeable factors, however, Snowpiercer is a great, exciting, and class-conscious movie.

The real surprise about the film Snowpiercer, however, is that the TV series it inspired is also pretty good! After some behind the scenes difficulties and a slow start, Snowpiercer chugged right along in its first season to become one of the more interesting cable TV dramas on television. Season 2 is set to become only more intriguing with the addition of Sean Bean as the elusive Mr. Wilford and with the train quite literally coming off the tracks. – AB

Resident Alien

Jan. 27 on Syfy

Sometimes a title is so good and so of its moment that the powers-that-be have no choice but to make a TV show out of it. Such is the case with Syfy’s Resident Alien. “Resident alien” is, of course, a (rather outdated) term for an individual residing in a country without having yet achieved citizenship. It also brings to mind the concept of actual outer space aliens. Resident Alien, based on the comic of the same name by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse, takes that latter concept and just runs with it.

Syfy’s adaptation will star Alan Tudyk as the titular resident alien, Captain Hah Re/Dr. Harry Vanderspiegle. After “Harry” crash lands in a small Colorado town, he must go undercover as a doctor, while also…solving a murder mystery? This all sounds like a fascinating mashup of genres with a satisfying arc at its center. Also Linda Hamilton is involved, so that’s pretty rad. – AB

Firefly Lane

Feb. 3 on Netflix

Veteran actresses and former TV doctors Katherine Heigl (Grey’s Anatomy) and Sarah Chalke (Scrubs) are coming together for a new take on a decades-spanning dramedy a la This is Us for Netflix. An adaption of the bestselling novel by author Kristin Hannah, Firefly Lane finds the pair set on teaching audiences that “the greatest love story of all can be between friends.”

With a story spanning 30-years, the pair of friends experience tragedy, triumphs, love triangles, and all of the tear-jerker, life-affirming moments one can hope for. Ali Skovbye (When Calls the Heart) and Roan Curtis (The Magicians) will portray younger versions of Heigel and Chalke, respectively, and the rest of the cast is rounded out by Ben Lawson (Designated Survivor), Yael Yurman (The Man in the High Castle) and Beau Garrett (Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce). The 10-episode series hits Netflix on February 3. – NH

The Equalizer

Feb. 7 on CBS

After successful big-screen adaptations with Denzel Washington, The Equalizer is back on television this winter, this time with Queen Latifah stepping into the role as the titular protector. Latifah stars as Robyn McCall, an underground vigilante who is the crime fighter you call when you can’t dial 911.

Balancing being a mother with helping the defenseless by any means necessary, McCall must evade those that seek to harm her as well as Chris Noth’s CIA Agent William Bishop. The series also stars Lorraine Toussaint (Orange is the New Black), Tory Kittles (Colony). and Adama Goldberg (Taken, Fargo). The reimagining premieres on CBS on Feb. 7 after the Super Bowl. – NH

Black Lightning Season 4

Feb. 8 on The CW

Black Lightning’s fourth and final season will pick up where its many season three storylines left off. Jefferson Pierce and his family are still fighting to keep what’s left of Freeland safe. Following congressional approval for a boarding school for metahumans last season, expect to see Dr. Stewart working on that, and it’s hard to imagine Jefferson not being involved as well.

Nafessa Williams and China Anne McClain return as Thunder and Lightning, although we’ll be seeing a bit less of Jennifer as McClain had already decided to leave the show after this season before it was announced as the final one for the show. There’s a Painkiller spinoff in development, so expect a backdoor pilot. Crime boss Tobias Whale is still at large and Gravedigger is still out there, and Jefferson no longer has Billy Henderson to have his back, so things might get a little rough. – DH

Clarice

Feb. 11 on CBS

How do you make a show centered on Clarice Starling, author Thomas Harris’ FBI agent trainee popularized on-screen by Jodie Foster in Jonathan Demme’s Silence of the Lambs, without her most famous adversary Hannibal Lecter? Well, CBS is going to try. Rebecca Breeds stars as the titular agent in this sequel series, which finds Starling heading back to her native West Virginia to work a case while her mind is still preoccupied by her experiences hunting Buffalo Bill.

The series will also feature Starling’s FBI colleague Ardelia Mapp, played by Devyn Tyler, and kidnapping survivor Catherine Martin, played by Marnee Carpenter. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, executive producer Jenny Lumet said, “She came face to face with the worst of what we have and the worst of what we are, and lived through it. If you imagine a puzzle box of puzzle pieces all thrown up into the air – that was the experience that she had with [serial killer] Buffalo Bill.” Unfortunately due to legal reasons, the series cannot mention Lecter, which should be an interesting hurdle, but will explore the shared trauma between Martin and Starling. – NH

Tribes of Europa

Feb. 19 on Netflix

German science fiction captured Netflix viewers’ hearts with the time travel series, Dark, and now the post-apocalyptic Tribes of Europa hopes to do the same when it drops its six-episode season on February 19, 2021. The series follows warring factions in the harsh future of 2074 who discover a crashed ship containing a powerful, cube-shaped artifact.

Three siblings Kiano (Emilio Sakraya), Liv (Henriette Confurius), and Elja (David Ali Rashed) get caught in the middle of the bloody war over the cube and are forced to forge their own paths. There’s also the question of what caused the apocalypse and what might be threatening humanity’s existence while the tribes fight amongst themselves. – MA

For All Mankind Season 2

Feb. 19 on Apple TV+

As with many an ongoing Apple TV+ show, many missed the first season of this science fiction drama from Battlestar Galactica’s Ronald D. Moore. And, as with many Apple TV+ shows (obligatory Dickinson shout out), it’s time to reconsider. For All Mankind is an alternate history exploring a world in which the Soviet Union made it to the Moon first, and the global space race never ended.

Joel Kinnaman stars as astronaut Edward Baldwin, but this drama isn’t all white dudes in space. The Soviet Union’s emphasis on diversity in its space program has forced America to do the same, training women and other minorities for space exploration in a way that didn’t happen in our reality. A fascinating blend of real-life history and an imagined path, For All Mankind is a worthwhile watch for any sci-fi nerds out there and, with a Season 3 already greenlit by Apple, holds the promise of more narrative to come. – KB

The Flash Season 7

Feb. 23 on The CW

In a post-Arrow world, it’s up to The Flash to bear the standard of the Arrowverse. Err Berlantiverse. Scratch that, CWverse, apparently. And it will do that with the speedforce destroyed, Barry Allen losing his speed, and Iris trapped in the Mirrorverse. Season 7 will pick up with Team Flash at an all-time low, with Cait MIA and Mirror Mistress Eva McCulloch victorious.

The Flash TV Episode We Almost Saw

By Mike Cecchini

The Flash Season 7: Jay Garrick Will Return

By Mike Cecchini

Of course one person won’t be returning. Hartley Sawyer, who plays Ralph Dibny AKA Elongated Man, was fired for his racist and sexist tweets back in August, what feels like a solid five years ago. Joe West’s story arc will be inspired by, “the societal changes happening in today’s world,” which sounds like a euphemism for systemic racism, white supremacy, and police brutality, a weightier topic that veteran actor Jesse L. Martin would do an excellent job handling. – DH

Superman & Lois

Feb. 23 on The CW

The CWverse is at a real crossroads. With Arrow done, The Flash past its prime, and Supergirl and Black Lightning nearing their ends, DC TV’s hold over small screen storytelling is loosening. Superman & Lois, as well as a new-hero-driven second season of Batwoman, are looking to change the direction of that momentum. The former is betting on a different screen adaptation of Superman than we’ve seen in recent years: Superman as a parent.

Superman & Lois is looking to tell a small town story, one led by title characters who are firmly into adulthood and have some very relatable problems—namely, the complicated pressures of raising their two teenage sons while also working. In a time when many parents are feeling the immense weight of childrearing more than ever, Superman & Lois may just end up being one of the most cathartic shows of 2021. – KB

The Walking Dead Season 10B

Feb. 28 on AMC

Wait a minute, didn’t The Walking Dead season 10 finale already premiere a few months ago? Indeed it did. The Walking Dead concluded its 10th and now penultimate season with “A Certain Doom” on Oct. 4, 2020. Due to a major delay in airing said episode because of the coronavirus pandemic, however, AMC decided to go ahead and reward loyal viewers with some extra season 10 episodes.

The Walking Dead season “10B” will consist of six loosely-connected installments that each follow different characters and will help bridge the gap to the show’s 11th and final season. In order, the episodes will be “Home Sweet Home” (Maggie-centric), “Find Me” (Daryl and Carol), “One More” (Gabriel and Aaron), “Splinter” (Eugene, Ezekiel, Yumiko, and Princess), “Diverged” (Daryl and Carol again), and “Here’s Negan” (Guess who). While this extra half-season clearly exists in part to milk AMC’s zombie cash cow as it nears the end of its life, the storytelling possibilities under capable showrunner Angela Kang are undeniably intriguing. – AB

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

March 19 on Disney+

One of several Marvel TV offerings coming to Disney+ this winter is The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which got pushed from its original August 2020 release date to March 19, 2021. The miniseries picks up after the events of Avengers: Endgame as Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) team up for a global adventure that will apparently test their abilities and their patience.

Daniel Bruhl will reprise his role as Helmut Zemo, the Sokovian citizen turned terrorist mastermind who, in Captain America: Civil War, engineered the rift between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. Emily Van Camp also jumps from that film to The Falcon and the Winter Soldier as SHIELD Agent Sharon Carter, grandniece of SHIELD founder Peggy Carter. Wyatt Russell will play John Walker, better known to Marvel fans as USAgent. – MA

Solar Opposites Season 2

March 26 on Hulu

Through four seasons Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon’s Rick and Morty has proven itself to be one of the most exciting and narratively complex animated series around. So folks could be forgiven for assuming that Roiland’s next animated effort, alongside Rick and Morty writer Mike McMahan, would be all but an equally brainy carbon copy. But while Solar Opposites has the same animation style and intergalactic environs as Rick and Morty, season 1 proved that this was a hilarious beast all its own.

Solar Opposites Season 3 Confirmed

By Alec Bojalad

Solar Opposites Character Guide

By Joe Matar

Solar Opposites is essentially Roiland’s version of a wacky neighborhood sitcom. The neighbors at the show’s center just happen to be outer space aliens technically charged with overtaking the citizens of Earth (they swear they’ll get around to it eventually but don’t seem too motivated). Season 2, which was ordered at the same time as season 1, will continue the Earthbound adventures of Terry (Roiland), Korvo (Thomas Middleditch), and their two “replicants” Yumyulack (Sean Giambrone) and Jesse (Mary Mack). Solar Opposites was not afraid of some serialized storytelling in its first season, and who’s to say we won’t get another background story as epic as The Wall saga. – AB

Shadow and Bone

April on Netflix

Netflix has experienced quite a bit of success when it comes to bringing fantasy adaptations to its servers. Shows like The Witcher, Cursed, and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina have all found success (to differing extents) on the service. It’s no mystery then why the streamer would go out and snag the rights to Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha trilogy.

The first novel in the trilogy, Shadow and Bone, lends its name to this live-action adaptation. Shadow and Bone is set in a world that’s divided in two by a massive barrier of perpetual darkness. When orphan Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li) discovers she harnesses a particular power, she gets to work trying to unite her country. The Grisha trilogy is well-known for its effective Russian-influenced imagery and is sure to be a production designer’s delight when it premieres in April. – AB

Loki

May on Disney+

The month of May is a bit late to be considered part of “winter” TV season, but depending on where you live in the world, it will probably still be snowing anyway. And plus, it’s not like we can turn down an opportunity to include the third, and in many ways, most intriguing, Marvel Disney+ series.

Doctor Doom Could be Mystery Villain in Loki Series

By Kirsten Howard

Owen Wilson’s Loki Character is Based on a Beloved Marvel Writer

By Gavin Jasper

By the time Loki rolls out in May, viewers will already have gotten a good idea of what Marvel’s Disney+ offerings are all about thanks to WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Still, it seems as though Loki (like its titular character) will have plenty of tricks up its sleeve. Based on the bonkers first trailer, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is primed to jump from the events of Avengers: Endgame right to the offices of the Time Variance Authority where he travels through events in human history…and also somehow becomes D.B. Cooper? Yeah, this is going to be wild. – AB

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