As a TV series, Thunderbolts* would have been great. As a movie...
With a "who's that guy" cast of Marvel favourites, the film doesn't quite nail its mission.
Last night I got along to the latest Marvel effort, Thunderbolts*. It is one of the better Marvel films of recent years (faint praise). The 88% on Rotten Tomatoes is unquestionably too high for it, but it’s a decent enough three star picture.
What I couldn’t work past while watching it is how much the film felt more like a Disney+ series production than it did a film.
(I’ll keep this chat light on spoilers as it hasn’t seen release yet for general audiences.)
Thunderbolts* apparently had a $180m budget before marketing expenses, but it’s difficult seeing where that money is on the screen. When Julia Louis-Dreyfus is the biggest name star in the film, it’s not like that cash was spent on a pricey cast. There’s limited set pieces in the film and they’re all generally confined to action taking place within single room settings.
And then there’s the final act, which has been done in a great number of TV shows over the years - notably in the 90s Marvel TV movie Generation X.
The DNA of the final act feels like it can be tracked back to 2019 Prime Video series Undone, which was a really fantastic rotoscoped animated drama about a woman who shifts in and out of dream logic as she explores her past trauma. While created by Kate Purdy and Raphael Bob-Waksberg, the first season writing team included Thunderbolts* co-writer Joanna Calo (best known now for producing The Bear, along with work on Beef and Hacks).
Why wasn’t Thunderbolts*, with its ensemble of barely, if at all, remembered Marvel characters, given the TV treatment? It’s really not much of a film.
The Falcon & The Winter Soldier TV show every episode had more elaborately staged action set pieces across its six-episode run than this had in two hours.
At the end, there’s a plot element introduced which explains the asterisk in the Thunderbolts* film title, which is expanded on in a fairly impactful end-of-credits sequence that was far more compelling than most of the film was. It leaves the audience wanting more - maybe not a full movie more, but it certainly feels like a plot element that would have been warmly welcomed in episode five of an eight episode TV show.
I regularly complain about TV shows that feel like a movie premise stretched out to fit a TV episode order. Thunderbolts* has the exact opposite problem. It would have played much better as a TV show.
Daily Show on Binge
Back in early April Australian streamer BINGE announced it was set to stream The Daily Show. But it also announced that episodes would be streaming around 24 hours after they were going to be available locally on YouTube.
Not good for a topical news show.
It appears that BINGE has come to its senses. Last night I was able to watch the latest episode on the same day as US broadcast. I don’t know how many hours delay there is between US transmission / YouTube upload and the BINGE availability (I was watching it at about 9pm). But, good news generally.
In related news, yesterday BINGE announced its May highlights. In there was the sponsored '“docuseries” Gen Well, hosted by Ali Daddo (formerly known as Alison Brahe). I think it’s all okay to broadcast/stream shows produced with corporate sponsorship (in this case, it is a wellness show made with Amcal Pharmacy), but it’s pretty embarrassing when one’s highlights are so light on that this is worthy of inclusion.
Coming in luke-warm.
As an aside of interest to nobody but me… Back in 1992 Alison Brahe hosted an afternoon kids game show called Guess What? alongside cartoonist Andrew Fyfe (he was best known for the cartoons on Hey Hey It’s Saturday, but I knew him for drawing a great Steve Vizard in the Australian version of Mad Magazine). Before the show went to air, a pre-teen Dan Barrett auditioned to get on the show, but wasn’t selected. A true Sliding Doors moment for all involved.
“People were looking for cop shows”
When you log onto Netflix, you’ll often see images representing shows that don’t feature the star of the show, or are really different from other promotional images. The reason is because Netflix is A-B testing photos (though it’s not an A choice or a B choice - they use a large pool of images) and whittle down options based on user behaviour until it settles on images that attract users who share a similar viewing profile.
There are learnings to be found in this. Here’s AMC Networks CEO Kristin Dolan on what she was told by Netflix when they licensed the show Dark Winds to them. As per Deadline:
“One of our big learnings from Dark Winds,” she said, was the way Netflix promoted the drama series. With its third season recently concluded and a fourth in production, the mystery has wowed critics and boasts a rich literary heritage and eye-catching locations on a Navajo reservation in New Mexico. Yet Netflix staffers offered very pragmatic advice to AMC Networks, which Dolan recalled as, “It’s a cop show. People don’t care that it’s the ’70s, they don’t care that there’s a beautiful woman who’s a police officer. It’s a cop show. Show the uniform.” When the tile art was adjusted to reflect that guidance, Dolan said, “you could see in the algorithm that it drove more viewership because people were looking for cop shows.”
News Desk
RIP Priscilla Pointer. The actress, who appeared in 44 episodes of 80s primetime soap Dallas, died at age 100. Read: Deadline
Sam Elliott is joining the season 2 cast of Paramount+ Taylor Sheridan drama Landman. Read: thefutoncritic
Paramount and lawyers for Donald Trump are entering mediation on Wednesday over the nonsense lawsuit related to 60 Minutes editing a promo for an interview with Kamala Harris. It is believed that Paramount is entering the talks to make a deal (thereby setting the stage to close the purchase of the business by Skydance). Read: NYT
If Frasier 2.0 was picked up by another network/streamer (it was cancelled after two seasons at Paramount+), Ted Danson says he’d come on for a guest spot as Sam Malone. Read: New York Post
Poker Face star Natasha Lyonne will direct Uncanny Valley, a sci-fi film that will feature elements of generative AI. Lyonne co-wrote it with The OA’s Brit Marling. It’ll be interesting to see how Hollywood grapples with this move from two popular creators (it would be received very differently if it were, say, Brett Ratner). Read: The Verge
Ayo Edebiri, Tyler James Williams, Jason Bateman, and Rhea Seehorn talk with Indiewire about their initial efforts to direct TV.
Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry was not involved in pitch for an announced reimagining of the show, to be titled Wisteria Lane for Disney Onyx Collective label. Read: Deadline
Popular video game controller company 8BitDo is suspending shipments from its Chinese warehouse to United States-based customers. Read: Polygon
CBS has set a record by having the highest total viewers across 17 consecutive seasons. Read: THR
Martin Short will [blank] a revival for The Match Game on the US ABC. Read: Variety
Netflix is investing in US$1 billion in Mexican original series. Gael García Bernal and Paulina Dávila have been announced as the stars of the upcoming Santita - one of four new shows announced. Read: Deadline
The UK’s Sky has confirmed the 20th season of sports comedy panel show A League of Their Own will be its last. Read: C21
A ten-episode cinema experience Peppa Pig Meets The Baby debuts in multiple territories (including Australia) on May 30. I guess I’m off to the cinema… Read: Peppa Pig Cinema Experience
Nine Entertainment has appointed Matt James as chief sales officer.
Why is K-2SO not in Andor until the back-half of season 2? Story reasons, says showrunner Tony Gilroy. Read: THR
Speaking of Andor and Tony Gilroy, fans might want to check out The Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith podcast where Gilroy is interviewed about the writing process for the first three episodes. It’s remarkably informative about the process.
Trailer Park
Nine Perfect Strangers returns for a second season. It’s on Hulu May 21 in the US and Prime Video internationally.
The new cast includes Nicole Kidman, Henry Golding, Lena Olin, Annie Murphy, Christine Baranski, Lucas Englander, King Princess, Murray Bartlett, Dolly de Leon, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Mark Strong, and Aras Aydin.
It had me at Baranski.
Star Wars: Tales From The Underground will debut on Fortnite May 2, two days ahead of its debut on Disney+.
Dexter: Resurrection debuts July 11 on Paramount+.
Fear Street: Prom Queen debuts on Netflix May 23.
That’s the newsletter for today.
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Haven't seen Thunderbolts yet. But for the life of me, I do not understand what methodology was used to determine what becomes a movie, and what becomes a show. Captain America 4 somehow looked LESS cinematic than The Falcon And The Winter Soldier. Two hours on the big screen of Oscar Isaac as Moon Knight gets a HELL YES for me, but the anodyne theology of "Eternals" was destined for streaming. "Shang Chi" introduced a whole new world -- I don't know why they didn't do a movie and show simultaneously, maybe a Mandarin prequel show or something on Ta Lo.
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