It was expected, but The Office is being pulled from US Netflix in 2021. NBCUniversal have purchased it for its own upcoming streaming service, which will be launching in 2020.
Fans seem upset about this, not realising that 2021 is some time away.
It’s worth keeping in mind that Netflix launched its originals years ago knowing that the time would come when large content providers launched their own streaming services and would stop on-selling valued content to Netflix. This is exactly what is happening now.
What I wonder though is we’ve seen reports on Friends and The Office being the most-watched shows on Netflix. Why then does Netflix commission Originals that stray so far from the form and structure of traditional TV? Why aren’t sitcoms 22 minutes and dramas 42 minutes? Why don’t episodes thread continuing storylines through what are otherwise stand-alone episodes?
Source: Variety
Frankly, it’s surprising that it hasn’t happened already, but A Moody Christmas is being adapted to the US. It was a smart, charming show that has a format that is easily adaptable to other cultures. Each episode of the show takes place over a successive Christmas with son Dan Moody visiting from his new home in the UK.
“Over the course of a year we would visit with this family for two to three six-episode cycles,” Thorn said. “Christmas would be a standing family event (every year) like it is for many families.”
The episodes will be standalone but there also will be an overarching story each season. “It’s truly a serialized comedy event in our mind where it has a beginning middle and end,” Thorn said.
The potential anthology franchise is expected to have a series regular cast consisting of the core Moody family members who would appear in every installment, joined by recurring guest stars for the individual seasons.
Source: Deadline
Brian Lowry’s review of The Loudest Voice is mixed. The Roger Ailes bio-series debuts this Sunday and is good, but it will have viewers missing some key moments:
The main flaws are structural, to the extent that "The Loudest Voice" is too episodic, skipping over significant interludes such as the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky story -- a significant oversight, since that coverage, along with Sept. 11, helped propel Fox to the ratings perch that left Ailes' corporate clout virtually unassailable.
Source: CNN
The NRA has shut down production on its subscription streaming propaganda service NRATV.
Despite the noise surrounding the service, viewership was minimal with just 49,000 visitors to NRATV in January. There was concern within the NRA that the TV channel was more interested in furthering right-wing ideology wars than in sticking to the advocacy work the NRA does in supporting US gun rights.
Source: New York Times
Fans of anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion are a passionate bunch and many have expressed displeasure at Netflix’s restoration of the series with key music left out and now what some fans are calling ‘queer erasure’.
Dan Kanemitsu is one of the people who worked on the translation for Netflix who insists that any of the work he conducted was in line with the original text:
I don’t know much about the anime series (it’s one of the many shows on ‘the list’ that I plan to get to someday, but what I suspect has happened here is that the 90s translation took some liberties and created an extra layer of text that a lot of viewers deeply connected to. In being faithful to the original, viewers are understandably upset that the show they thought they were watching wasn’t being presented.
The problem is that the subtext was stronger than the new translation offers, plus there are other supporting material, such as the companion manga book series that makes it more overt.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Netflix announces that it will update it over the coming weeks.
Source: Vox
And finally…
In a great editorial achievement, Vulture takes a deep dive into the creation of the classic Mad Men moment in which Pete Campbell is asked how he is going.
Source: Vulture
