The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance - cancelled by Netflix
The radio silence regarding a renewal should have been enough to suggest this, but after its Emmy win for outstanding children’s program, Netflix confirmed that there would not be a second season of the show.
The show was gorgeous to look at and technically brilliant, but I found it incredibly dull (much like the film). I do hope we’ll see more productions from the Jim Henson Company on Netflix, even if this one didn’t excite me (and, less importantly, the rest of Netflix’s subscriber base).
Source: TVLine
Emmy Awards wrap-up
The 2020 Emmy Awards were the lowest rated Emmys on record with 6.1 million viewers watching (a 1.2 rating among adults 18-49).
Read: Deadline
From a technical standpoint, the awards were a triumph. Nothing significant collapsed. The awards were all handed out with live crosses to all of the winners. And the in-studio/theatre business all went off pretty well.
BUT…
Creatively the show was a bit of a dud. Outside of a fun appearance by Dave Letterman, the show didn’t do a lot to surprise or delight. Host Jimmy Kimmel came out and did a monologue with audience laughter edited in from previous Emmy Awards before revealing that the theatre was empty. That bit just went on too long with an obvious reveal taking too long to get to.
I don’t get why the show didn’t play around with the novelty of the situation more. Get Kimmel off the stage and introduce segments from the empty seating. Have him present from an empty red carpet outside. There were a lot of opportunities to mix it up on what is a strange year. Why not go for it instead of just replicating the standard experience?
And then the awards…
This was a show of three sections. Comedy. Limited drama. Outstanding drama. It didn’t help the show that Schitt’s Creek won everything in the comedy section, Watchmen took out all of the middle awards, and then Succession cleaned up for the rest of the night. It made the whole experience fairly monotonous.
The only surprises of the night were seeing Billy Crudup win for his role on The Morning Show, and the beyond delightful Zendaya breaking a record as the youngest winner of the Best Lead Actress award for HBO’s Euphoria.
Read the full list of winners: Deadline
Three names I noticed missing from the In Memoriam section: Legendary sitcom writer-producer Earl Pomerantz, actor Orson Bean, and Wings star David Schramm.
An interesting moment from the awards took place off-screen. The trophies were delivered to remote locations by people in weird HAZMAT suits. Comedian Ramy Youssef tweeted out this video of him losing in his category:
WarnerMedia cuts distribution deal w/ Village Roadshow
After 40-something years, Warner Bros has terminated its distribution deal in Australia with Village Roadshow Ltd. Movies will instead be distributed by Universal. The license deal between WarnerMedia and VRL for the Movie World theme park remains intact.
Read: Variety
The Lord of The Rings TV show - it’s pretty big…
Just how big is the new Amazon show based on Lord of The Rings? Here’s actress Morfydd Clark who plays a young Galadriel:
The amount of [people working] on this show is continually mind-blowing. One guy’s job consists just of seeing how dust reacts to footsteps and breath! That would never have even crossed my mind before. Other than something like Marvel, I don’t think things could get much bigger than this.”
Source: NME
TeeVee Snacks
- Ellen returned yesterday, but was her opening monologue convincing? Variety is critical. Source: Variety
- Stranger Things 4 is set to resume production next week. Source: Dread Central
Quibi ready to sell?
Short-form video streaming service Quibi is exploring its next strategic movie, which may involve either raising more money (seriously… what investment firm would put more money into this?) or selling.
I know your first immediate thought on this. It’s pretty soon after launch to consider selling Quibi. Just how many Quibis has it been?
It’s okay - some wag online has done the math for you:
Where I’ve settled on Quibi: the platform and the idea of a short form video app is fine and actually engaging, but the content selection and promotion/user engagement has been shockingly ill-executed.
Maybe a sale could benefit somebody. But also… has the horse already bolted?
Read: Wall St Journal
Ratched 1.5
If you started and finished watching Netflix’s Ratched over the weekend, you might be looking for more hot new Ratched content. Watching One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is an obvious go-to, but have you considered the 7-season show Once Upon a Time which apparently featured Nurse Ratched as a recurring character?
Read more: Polygon
Trailer Park
Fresh out of the oven is this trailer for the next season of The Great British Baking Show, which drops on Netflix later today apparently.
Debuting during the Emmy Awards yesterday, Disney+ debuted the trailer for the upcoming Marvel show WandaVision. It certainly looks more creatively bold than one might have expected from a Marvel TV show.
Screencrush has a breakdown of hidden easter eggs in the trailer.
Also during the Emmys: Three previews for the upcoming ABC show by David E Kelley: Big Sky.
Another David E Kelley drama, Mr Mercedes, moves to Peacock from Oct 15.
Three-part FX/BBC drama Black Narcissus debuts in late November. It’s a remake of a 1947 film and set in Mopu in the Himalayas in 1934. The show is about a group of nuns trying to establish a mission in a remote clifftop place. Mysteries and hidden desires are awoken…
What’s next?
