‘The Last of Us’ is about to leave for a while. So what should you watch next?

by Therese Odell, posted in watch this

I NEED A SEA PUPPY.

@ideatimes

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Here’s A BUNCH OF TV News

The Oscars are on Sunday, if you hadn’t noticed. The producers of the show have said they will acknowledge “The Slap” briefly and humorously and then they will move on. Frankly, I don’t know how they avoid “The Slap” — it’s the biggest thing to happen to the Oscars in decades. Oh, and the red carpet isn’t going to be red for some reason. (Kimmel has joked that it’s a demonstration of how much confidence the Academy has that blood won’t be shed this year.)

The other thing happening on Sunday is the finale of The Last of Us. For those of you who are enjoying this series, but it feels like it came out of nowhere, I have a viewing recommendation for when the series is over: stream Chernobyl on HBO Max. Chernobyl is the limited series based on the Chernobyl disaster from Craig Mazin, the creator of The Last of Us. It is also one of the most terrifying shows I’ve ever seen —  it out-horrors the horror of The Last of Us while also making a powerful point about truth and politics. It also was the project that made Nick Druckmann, The Last of Us creator, want to work with Mazin on adapting the game for television.

Mazin first came on my radar as the former freshman Harvard roommate of the despicable Ted Cruz, whom he used to troll on Twitter. Mazin started as a script doctor, and for a long while the biggest credits on his resume were Scary Movie 3, Scary Movie 4, Hangover 2, and Hangover 3. Mazin nevertheless had a good reputation in the business, and famously is the one that told Benioff and Weiss that their Game of Thrones pilot was dogshit. (If only he had been brought in for the last couple of seasons … )  This New York Times profile on Mazin tells the story of how he went from script doctor of second-tier comedies to one of the most talented — and successful — showrunners on TV. Craig Mazin has made the short list of showrunners whose shows and movies I will always watch, no matter what.

While we’re on the subject of The Last of Us, this is a good list of easter eggs from the most recent episode. My favorite fact is that James, David’s right-hand man, is played by Troy Baker, the voice actor who portrayed Joel in the games. And in the next episode, Ashley Johnson, who played Ellie in the games will play “Anna,” who, spoiler alert, is Ellie’s mother. I genuinely love how the show made an effort to include the original game actors; it speaks to a respect to the actors themselves and to the game fans, and is something of a promise to keep the show loyal to the game.

E! has a list of a bunch of unlicensed The Last of Us gifts you can find on Etsy. Of course, there’s also the official HBO shop, but they are really underestimating the market with only 9 products on offer.

This is an interesting ranking of 6 of the big streaming services based on the number of their subscribers and revenue. I am surprised by the ranking in terms of subscribers of Disney and Hulu, frankly. Notably, Prime Video and Apple TV are not included on this list because they are secretive with their numbers.

The numbers in the piece above also make this discussion about Disney wanting to sell Hulu (possibly) interesting. Basically, I don’t understand why Disney would want to get out of the Hulu business when Iger himself admits that the future of linear TV is not bright. But what do I know?

Here’s a reminder that the Discovery folks who bought Warner Bros. and by extension HBO hate HBO: In merging the streaming services, HBO Max and Discovery+, they think that the “HBO” part is what will turn off potential subscribers, so they are calling it “Max.” In total, HBO Max and Discovery+ have 96.1 million subscribers, the majority of whom are using HBO Max. SO EXPLAIN TO ME LIKE I AM FIVE WHY THEY THINK “HBO” IS WHAT WILL TURN OFF SUBSCRIBERS. These people do not understand what they own and are determined to ruin it, I swear to God.

The pricing for “Max” will stay the same, despite Discovery+’s content being added to it: the ad-supported tier will be $10; ad-free premium will cost $15-$16 per month; and they are considering a $20 level that would have other features. Discovery+ will continue to exist on its own at $4.99 per month with ads and $6.99 without ads. Which it begs the question: why does Discovery+ get to stand alone, while HBO has to be lumped together with Discovery’s cheap reality programming? Why not do what Disney has done: offer a bundle where for a discount they could get both Discovery+ and HBO Max, or subscribe to each as a standalone? Why they feel the need to add Discovery+’s content to HBO will continue to baffle me.

And my question as an HBO subscriber is will I still have free access to Max? Or will I have to pay extra now that this Discovery content is being added? No one seems to be addressing this. 

This is a long piece overthinking the use of the Blue’s Traveler song “Hook” in Poker Face‘s finale episode that arrives at a gratifying conclusion.

NBC is promising to resolve the SNL post-production editors’ issues. Good. They better.

The nerds at Jeopardy! messed up and the nerds that watch were pissed.

This is worse than not knowing “lox.”

 

Renewals

  • Shrinking has been renewed for a second season on Apple TV+.
  • Our Man In … has been renewed for a third season on Prime Video, and will head to India.

In Development

Casting News

Mark Your Calendar

  • The Last Thing He Told Me premieres on Apple TV+ on April 14.
  • The Night Agent will premiere on Netflix on March 23.
  • Good Trouble will return on Freeform on March 16.
  • My Kind of Country will debut on Apple TV+ on April 24.
  • Slip debuts on Roku on April 21.
  • Making The Last of Us will air after the season finale on March 12 on HBO.

  • Reggie will debut on Prime Video on March 24.
  • Tom Jones will debut on PBS on April 30.
  • Eva the Owlet premieres on Apple TV+ on March 31.
  • Hunger will premiere on Netflix on April 8.

R.I.P.

Robert Blake, Emmy-winning actor and controversial figure

Denise Russo, Former star of VH1’s The X-Life

WATCH THIS

FRIDAY

Unprisoned: A perfectionist single mom, played by Kerry Washington, has her life turned upside down when her dad (Delroy Lindo) is released from prison in this new comedy. Series premiere. Hulu

Luther: The Fallen Sun: Luther breaks out of prison to stop a serial killer in this one-off film. Premiere. Netflix

Sin Eater: The Crimes of Anthony Pellicano: This is a two-part documentary from The New York Times about Pellicano, Hollywood’s dirtiest P.I., employed to hide the “sins” and crimes of celebrities and their lawyers. Premiere. 9 p.m., FX & Hulu

SATURDAY

Saturday Night Live: Jenna Ortega & The 1975 10:30 p.m., NBC

Ocean’s Eleven marathon: Look, the first one is a lot of fun, you have to admit. 4:30 p.m., MTV

SUNDAY

The Oscars: Jimmy Kimmel hosts, and everyone is waiting with bated breath to see who gets slapped this year. 7 p.m., ABC

The Last of Us: Season finale. 8 p.m., HBO

Oscars Red Carpet: All the pretty dresses. 12 p.m. & 5:30 p.m., ABC; 2 p.m., E!

American Idol: Because who doesn’t want to stay up past 11 to watch a 20+-year-old signing competition? 11 p.m., ABC

 

Late Night:

  • Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (Friday): Lucy Liu, Damson Idris, Bizarrap & Shakira

FRI. 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC Shark Tank
(new)		 20/20
CBS S.W.A.T.
(new)		 Fire Country
(new)		 Blue Bloods
(new)
CW Penn & Teller: Fool Us
(repeat)		 Whose Line Is It Anyway?
(new)		 Whose Line Is It Anyway?
(repeat)		 Local
FOX Friday Night Smackdown Local
NBC Lopez vs. Lopez
(new)		 Grand Crew
(new)		 Dateline

—

SAT. 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30
ABC NBA Basketball
(live)		 News/Local
CBS NCIS: Los Angeles
(repeat)		 S.W.A.T. 48 Hours News/Local
CW Masters of Illusion
(new)		 Masters of Illusion
(repeat)		 World’s Funniest Animals
(new)		 World’s Funniest Animals
(repeat)		 Local
FOX College Basketball World Baseball Classic
NBC The Wall Weakest Link Saturday Night Live
(repeat)		 News/
Local		 Saturday Night Live
(Jenna Ortega & The 1975)

—

SUN. 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC Countdown to the Oscars
(new)		 The 95th Annual Academy Awards
(live)
CBS 60 Minutes The Equalizer
(new)		 East New York
(repeat)		 NCIS: Los Angeles
(repeat)
The CW Local World’s Funniest Animals
(repeat)		 World’s Funniest Animals
(repeat)		 Whose Line Is It Anyway?
(repeat)		 Whose Line Is It Anyway?
(repeat)		 Local
FOX The Simpsons
(repeat)		 Bob’s Burgers
(repeat)		 The Simpsons
(new)		 The Great North
(new)		 Bob’s Burgers
(new)		 Family Guy
(new)		 Local/News
NBC Dateline Magnum P.I.
(new)		 The Blacklist
(new)

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