A weekend of wires and lights
There was something really odd that kept happening during the press tour for Prime Video Étoile - when the show was announced it was with a two-season order from Prime Video, but everytime season 2 was mentioned in interviews, co-showrunners Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino would skirt the question with a “we’ll see how season one does” kind of response.
Well, it became clear what that was about this past weekend with Prime Video announcing its cancellation after just the one season. With so many of the bigger US shows on Prime released as weekly, the full-season drop for Étoile felt like the show was being dumped.
I quite liked the season we got of the show. It was a bit tonally clunky at first, much like most Sherman-Palladino shows are, but by the end of the first season it was hitting its stride. I loved the cast. And those opening and closing title sequences were beyond grand.
But… I get why the show was cancelled. Buzz for the show felt muted, it was a difficult premise to get people en masse excited about, and the budget on the show must have been extraordinary (two international locations, large sets, and a sizeable ensemble cast with a whole lot of extras).
The cancellation hurts. But not like the final episode of their previous effort at a ballet show, Bunheads. The final scene of that show was a major gut punch that, over 12 years later, I still haven’t gotten over.
Hopefully Amy and Dan get up and onto the next show soon. I always worry with those guys that they’ll just give up TV and spend their years running a retro junk store somewhere.
Sunday’s wires and lights in a box
George Clooney’s 2005 film (as director and supporting actor) Good Night and Good Luck is one of my favourite films. It’s just a magnificent picture which suggested Clooney would go on to an amazing career as a director. But, I sense he used it all up on that film and none of his subsequent films ever quite lived up to their promise (though, I did rather like The Midnight Sky).
I was very interested to see the live broadcast of the broadway show, which aired globally on CNN/CNN International. Obviously, I would have liked to have seen it in person. But living a world away, this was the only way it was going to happen.
Filmed stage plays always fail to quite capture the energy of the stage show and quite often make for fairly dull TV. But, this production worked really well.
There’s no word just yet on where the recorded show will live on - nothing has been announced yet. I suspect that was largely so that Clooney (who has demonstrated a very strong interest in live TV productions with multiple live episodes of ER and TV movie Fail Safe under his belt) could ensure all eyeballs were on the live transmission of the show. I’d expect to hear of a permanent streaming home sometime in the next week or so.
I’ll happily watch the stage show a few more times, but it’s hard to justify watching it over the original film.
But… there is one thing the stage show did that the 20 year-old film couldn’t - it captured the last 20 years of news media where everything Murrow cited concern about came into reality full-throatedly. The final scene on the stage has Clooney as Murrow deliver the ‘wires and lights in a box’ speech, concluding with a projected video montage behind him showing the decline in the values Murrow warned us of. And yes, Fox News featured A LOT in that montage.
Magnificent TV - all involved should be very proud.
News Desk
Alert: Missing Person’s Unit and The Cleaning Lady have both been canned by Fox. Read: Deadline
David E Kelley says everyone is very committed to a third season of Big Little Lies. Kelley didn’t ask me… Read: TV Insider
Hulu has picked up a college comedy movie about a bad drug trip starring Stranger Things actor Gaten Matarazzo and Sean Giambrone from The Goldbergs. I just know Gaten will be part of our cultural lives for the next 60+ years. He’s like our generations Mickey Dolenz. Read: THR
After 38 years (since it launched), The Bold & The Beautiful is moving from it’s Television City studios to the nearby Sunset Las Palmas Studios. The lease was up and the Television City studios are about to undergo a major reconstruction. Read: Deadline
Ryan Murphy’s upcoming American Love Story is setting its cast. Grace Gummer will star as Caroline Kennedy, with Sydney Lemmon (as Lauren Bessette), and Alessandro Nivola (as Calvin Klein) in supporting roles. Read: Deadline
Ben Stiller is reportedly working on a single-story Twilight Zone film. Read: Dark Horizons
Mads Mikkelsen’s Casino Royale villain Le Chiffre will return for a few weeks in video game Hitman: World of Assassination. Read: Radio Times
Trailer Park
Season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds debuts July 17 on Paramount+.
The Lost Bus debuts later this year on Apple TV+. Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera star in the film, from director Paul Greengrass.
That’s the newsletter for today.
Consider becoming a paid supporter of Always Be Watching.
Connect with Dan on Bluesky. Connect with Dan on Letterboxd. Connect with Dan on Linkedin. Email Dan @ alwaysbewatching.com or just reply to this email.
