Matthew Perry had a 2% chance of survival

One of the great missed opportunities on screen has been the career of Matthew Perry. He was the one Friends cast member who seemed poised to be able to make the leap from sitcom star to big screen star. And despite some hits and interesting career choices, he never quite broke through in the way that actors like, say George Clooney or Bruce Willis were able to. And even his small screen career floundered despite some interesting roles over the years.

A behind the scenes battle with addiction is one of the contributing factors to his problems. He has a new book coming out detailing his issues, with the big revelation that an opiod addiction had him in a coma four years ago. His colon had burst, leaving him in hospital for five months.

When he was first admitted to the hospital, "the doctors told my family that I had a 2 percent chance to live," he recalls. "I was put on a thing called an ECMO machine, which does all the breathing for your heart and your lungs. And that's called a Hail Mary. No one survives that."

He reports that he is sober now and in good health. Good news - I'd suggest that Perry is generally beloved and it would be good to see him back on our screens.

No, Netflix likes its binge model

There's this oddball narrative from some analysts, commentators, and viewers alike that Netflix should embrace an artificial weekly roll-out of its content to increase the buzz that a show gets. The thinking is always based around the idea that: "Hugely popular show X gets a lot of buzz each week, therefore every show will be able to achieve that." This neglects considering just how many shows with a weekly roll-out languish there quietly every week.

Metrics-focused company Netflix reckons that shows perform better on its platform because it is accessible all at once. As part of its Q3 earnings report yesterday, Netflix made this statement in its shareholder letter:

It’s hard to imagine, for example, how a Korean title like ‘Squid Game’ would have become a mega hit globally without the momentum that came from people being able to binge it ... We believe the ability for our members to immerse themselves in a story from start to finish increases their enjoyment but also their likelihood to tell their friends, which then means more people watch, join and stay with Netflix.

Netflix's gaming ambitions are straight from the cloud

Netflix has already launched a fairly successful suite of mobile games, but the company has no plans to just stop there. It also plans to invest in cloud-based gaming.

The plan is to not force customers to buy new hardware (though, maybe a controller), but to deliver the service to customers on the same platforms where they can access Netflix streaming video.

Netflix's Mike Verdu:

We’re going to approach [cloud gaming] the same way we did with mobile, which is to start small, be humble, be thoughtful, and then build out. But it is a step that we think we should take to meet members where they are, on the devices where they consume Netflix.”

She wrote more than just murders

With the recent passing of Angela Lansbury, this fun tidbit has resurfaced: Indie filmmaker John Waters 2019 autobiography recollection of seeing Lansbury visiting the New York sex club Hellfire in the 80s.

In Waters 2019 book, “Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder,” the King of Camp claims he once saw the “Murder She Wrote” star “checking out the scene” at a spot described as a “dungeon-like sex club” that catered to “gay and straight perverts alike.”

Waters is a huge fan of Lansbury, telling Page Six exclusively, “[Angela] was pure class even forty years ago when these kind of clubs were all the rage. It may have been the only night she was ever there, but just her presence made Hellfire a little more welcoming.”

eBay has “banned the sale of costumes inspired by the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in the run-up to Halloween. Read: Buzzfeed
Dean Devlin's Electric Now advertising supported streaming service will debut in Australia this Nov, followed shortly after in Canada and the UK. Read: World Screen
New CBS shows Fire Country, East New York, and So Help Me Todd have each been given full-season pick-ups. Read: TV Insider
The music video for The Police track Every Breath You Take has passed 1 billion YouTube views. Read: Variety
That salacious show mentioned in yesterday's newsletter Planet Sex with Cara Delevingne has been picked up in Australia by SBS. Read: TV Tonight