Exit light, enter night.

by Therese Odell, posted in Uncategorized

The dog days of summer and all that.

chomping derp from AnimalsBeingDerps

Here’s A BUNCH OF TV News

The Sandman premiered on Netflix today to mixed reviews: some saying “there’s plenty to love” and “impressive” while others describe it as “excruciatingly slow and dull if not outright boring.” I haven’t watched it yet, myself, so I’m going to have to weigh in later.

In the meantime, The Ringer has a good piece on the history of Neil Gaiman’s classic comic.

Gaiman explains why he chose now to adapt The Sandman after spending the past 33 years of shutting down bad adaptations. (Basically: TV is now a viable medium to tell the story.)

The New York Times has a lovely tribute to the graphic novel, explaining why it’s such a big deal that it’s finally been adapted.

Here’s a helpful guide to Sandman’s tools which he is hunting down to regain his power.

And finally, the production designer explains the method of his madness here. From everything I’ve read, it’s gorgeous, and I look forward to watching it.

So, obviously, as soon as I hit publish on yesterday’s post, the news from Warner Bros. Discovery’s earnings call broke. The big story is that they still very much plan to somehow merge HBO Max and Discovery+ into one streaming service, though it won’t happen until sometime next summer.

As for how they are explaining the two services and how they’ll make a great … “marriage” of sorts:

As for what the streamer will be called?

If I had to guess what they’ll name it, my money is on WB+ or Warner Bros. Max … something that uses the world-famous Warner Bros. name.

But they SWEAR they respect the HBO brand and that it’s not going anywhere. And that’s great, but it’s less the name I care about as much as the content.

Warner Bros. Discovery insists that they are going to spend more on HBO and HBO Max in 2023, and that he has “locked up” most of the head of HBO, Casey Bloys’, team. 

One area they will not be spending more on, however, is kids and animated content. And, no, Stephen Colbert is not moving to CNN to save it, which is just an insane rumor. 

The new streamer will have an ad-supported tier, as well as an ad-free one when it launches. They are also reportedly looking at a separate, free ad-supported streaming service, like Pluto, which helps drive subscribers to Paramount+.

As for what happened with Batgirl, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav talked around it, emphasizing that they have a 10-year plan for the DC brand, not unlike Marvel. “Our ambition to is bring Warners back and produce great, high-quality films,” the CEO said. “We can build a long-term sustainable growth business out of DC. We’re not releasing a film before it’s ready.” He also reemphasized his focus is on theatrical releases, and his belief that making expensive movies just for streaming is a waste of money.

Meanwhile, Marvel’s head, Kevin Feige, is Team Batgirl:

Oh, and they’re still pulling things off HBO Max for some reason (tax breaks). My condolences if you were planning on watching Vinyl this summer.

As for the earnings themselves, they weren’t great, Bob. They announced disappointing Q2 numbers, lots of debt, and disappointing reveune, and share price dropped by 15% yesterday.

ANYWAY, the best thing to come out of all of this is this amazing spoof from the kids over at The Boys:

Last season of Curb Your Enthusiasm nearly ended with Larry David’s death, and honestly? It would have been perfect. I’m glad they didn’t kill him, but it would have been perfect.

IMPORTANT: Here is the magic incantation to use if you ever need to expel Meghan McCain.

How a Breaking Bad tour operator in Albuquerque helped create that scene in the most recent episode of Better Call Saul. Also, if you’re interested, Better Call Saul props and costumes will be up for auction beginning on August 18. 

This is wild: The This Is Us house that Kevin built for Rebecca is not only a real house, but it is owned (was owned) in real life by Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer? And she’s pretty savvy with the real estate, selling it for $10 million more than what she bought it for?

Still waiting for that 24 reboot? I wouldn’t be holding my breath if I were you.

The one movie on this list of “movies that would have made better TV shows” that I agree with is World War Z. Otherwise, these are all fine as movies. Not everything needs to be dragged out to 10 hours.

So, there’s this baby who looks like Woody Harrelson, and he wrote her a poem.

Renewals

In Development

Casting News

Mark Your Calendar

  • Archer returns on FXX on August 24.
  • Documentary Now! (finally) returns on IFC and AMC+ on October 9.
  • This Fool will debut on Hulu on August 12.
  • War of the Worlds will return on Epix on September 12.
  • Love in the Villa will premiere on Netflix on September 1.

R.I.P.

Neil Castles, NASCAR driver, stuntman and actor

John Steiner, British actor in many films in the 1960s and ’70s

WATCH THIS

FRIDAY

The Sandman: After being released from capture, the Sandman, an Eternal creature in charge of our dreams, must try to fix the chaos his 100-year absence caused. Series premiere. Netflix

They/Them: Kevin Bacon stars in this slasher film set at a “pray away the gay” camp. Premiere. Peacock

Killer Camp: Speaking of killer camps, this weird reality show is back. Season premiere. 8 p.m., The CW

SATURDAY

Belfast: A family finds themselves in the middle of the Troubles in 1969 Belfast in this Oscar-winning film from Kenneth Branagh starring Judi Dench and Ciarán Hinds. 7 p.m., HBO

Reservoir Dogs: I’ll never hear “Stuck in the Middle With You” the same way again. 6:20 p.m., More Max

SUNDAY

My Life as a Rolling Stone:  This four-part series focuses each episode on one member of the iconic band and its profound cultural impact. Series premiere. 8 p.m., Epix

Talking Dead: The Walking Dead Universe Preview 2022: They are going to milk this last season of The Walking Dead for all it’s worth, guys. 8 p.m., AMC

 

FRI. 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC The Fatal Flaw
(new)		 20/20
CBS Secret Celebrity Renovation
(new)		 Blue Bloods
(repeat)		 Blue Bloods
(repeat)
CW Killer Camp
(repeat)		 Dynasty
(new)		 Local
FOX Friday Night Smackdown Local
NBC American Ninja Warrior
(repeat)		 Dateline

—

SAT. 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30
ABC Claim to Fame
(repeat)		 Claim to Fame
(repeat)		 Claim to Fame
(repeat)		 News/Local
CBS NCIS: Los Angeles
(repeat)		 NCIS: Los Angeles
(repeat)		 48 Hours News/Local
CW Whose Line Is It Anyway?
(repeat)		 Would I Lie to You?
(new)		 Masters of Illusion
(new)		 Masters of Illusion
(repeat)		 Local
FOX MLB Baseball
(live)		 News/Local
NBC The Wall
(new)		 Dateline
(new)		 News/
Local		 Saturday Night Live
(repeat)

—

SUN. 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC America’s Funniest Home Videos
(new)		 Celebrity Family Feud
(new)		 The $100,000 Pyramid
(new)		 The Final Straw
(new)
CBS 60 Minutes Big Brother
(new)		 The Equalizer
(repeat)		 NCIS: Los Angeles
(repeat)
The CW Local World’s Funniest Animals
(repeat)		 World’s Funniest Animals
(repeat)		 Penn & Teller: Fool Us
(repeat)		 Local
FOX Beat Shazam
(repeat)		 The Simp-sons
(repeat)		 The Great North
(repeat)		 Bob’s Burgers
(repeat)		 Family Guy
(repeat)		 Local/News
NBC Who Do You Think You Are?
(new)		 Family Game Fight!
(new)		 America’s Got Talent
(repeat)

One thought on “Exit light, enter night.”

  1. I binged How We Roll over the past few days and it’s a bummer things are getting cancelled so quickly. It wasn’t the best sitcom ever to be on TV but it was cute adn Pete Holmes can’t catch a break.

    Reply

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