North Korean TV fans are being executed just for watching their shows
ALSO: North Korean TV fans are being imprisoned and executed for watching TV.
A report from Amnesty International details sentences issued to North Koreans caught watching South Korean TV shows. Penalties include public humiliation, years in labour camps, and public execution. The harshest penalties are said to be kept for those too poor to pay bribes.
Amnesty International conducted 25 in-depth individual interviews with North Korean escapees in 2025. The group included 11 individuals who fled North Korea between 2019 and 2020, with the most recent departure in June 2020. Most were aged between 15 and 25 at the time of their escape. Covid-19 border closures have made escapes extremely rare since 2020.
North Korea has long maintained one of the world’s most restrictive information environments. Testimonies gathered by Amnesty International describe how accessing foreign culture or information was being actively punished, including by execution, at least before 2020.
The introduction of the 2020 Anti-Reactionary Thought and Culture Act, which defines South Korean content as “rotten ideology that paralyzes the people’s revolutionary sense”, enables these severe punishments to persist. The new law mandates between five and 15 years of forced labour for watching or possessing South Korean dramas, films or music and prescribes heavy sentences including the death penalty for the distribution of “large amounts” of content or for organizing group viewings.
Despite the severe risks, interviewees described a society in which consumption of South Korean and other foreign media are widespread. Dramas and films are commonly smuggled in on USB drives from China, which young North Koreans watch on “notetels” – notebook computers with built-in televisions.
Apparently TV consumption from South Korea is widespread in North Korea and isn’t a big deal until it is.
Read more at Amnesty International
Cor blimey! A fresh new SNL cast is announced
You may have seen the plumes of smoke released from the SNL chimney in London with the new Saturday Night Live UK cast announced.
The UK version of the long-running comedy format will be much the same as the US one. Expect a different host every week, sketches, live music, and a Weekend Update segment.
It will debut March 21 with a cast that includes:
Celeste Dring (This Country), Hammed Animashaun (Black Ops), Larry Dean (Live at the Apollo), George Fouracres (Steve), Jack Shep (Big Boys), Ayoade Bamgboye (Rise and Shine with Channel 9), Al Nash (Michael McIntyre's Big Show), Paddy Young (Mitchell & Webb Are Not Helping), Ania Magliano (Taskmaster), Annabel Marlow (Six The Musical), and Emma Sidi (Taskmaster)
Every time I open up Instagram and (admittedly, far less frequently, TikTok), I am struck at how funny some of the sketches are being served to me by the algorithm. Counter that to the experience of seeing the US SNL where it feels like a slog to find an overlong sketch that delivers a couple of okay jokes.
Maybe the UK version will have a much higher comedic strike rate, but I suspect SNL is a format that is being outpaced by what a digital platform at scale can achieve.
Read more at Radio Times, which has had a website facelift.
News Desk
Joining Ray Romano in the new HBO show How To Survive Without Me is Joshua Jackson. I assume he’ll be playing Romano’s son. Read: Variety
Alfie Allen has joined the cast of MGM+ series The Institute. Read: thefutoncritic
A24 has announced it will produce a Texas Chainsaw Massacre TV series. A movie is also in early development. Read: Variety
Despite the rise of viewership on YouTube, marketing budgets are still weighted more towards a TV spend in the US. Read: WSJ
Comments by Harrison Ford suggest that he would be happy for Shrinking to be the last thing he works on. None of cinemas greats ever go out on their best work. Orson Welles (the Transformers animated movie) and Gene Hackman (Welcome To Mooseport) come to mind. Read: THR
Vince Gilligan says that Pluribus will not come out each year, but will be released in the same month as season one. So, expect the new season in November 2027 or November 2028. I already don’t remember season one clearly. Read: THR
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Trailer Park
Alan Ritchson stars in Netflix movie War Machine, which debuts March 6. This isn’t to be confused with Netflix’s 2017 movie War Machine, which starred Brad Pitt.
During the final stage of U.S. Army Ranger selection, an elite team’s training exercise turns into a fight for survival against an unimaginable threat.
Imperfect Women, starring Elisabeth Moss, Kerry Washington, and Kate Mara, debuts on Apple TV March 18.
Based on Araminta Hall's novel of the same name, "Imperfect Women" examines a crime that shatters the lives of a decades-long friendship of three women. The unconventional thriller explores guilt and retribution, love and betrayal, and the compromises we make that alter our lives irrevocably. As the investigation unfolds, so does the truth about how even the closest friendships may not be what they seem.
Widow’s Bay, which I’m very enthused about, debuts on Apple TV April 29.
A New England mayor trying to boost tourism on his island must navigate strange events suggesting it might be cursed.
Lucky debuts on Apple TV July 15.
"Lucky" is based on the New York Times bestselling novel and Reese's Book Club pick of the same name by Marissa Stapley. When a multi-million-dollar heist goes sideways, con artist Lucky (Anya Taylor-Joy) is forced to go on the run. Pursued by both the FBI and a ruthless crime boss, Lucky must fight for her life - and a way out.
From returns for season 4 on MGM+ April 19. I always forget that this show exists and I suspect I’m missing out.
Baki-Dou: The Invincible Samurai debuts on Netflix Feb 26.
Musashi Miyamoto - the ultimate symbol of strength - descends into an underground fighting arena where the use of weapons is permitted.
Knokke Off returns for the third and final season on Netflix April 3.
After a cinema release in March, Live It Up: The Mental As Anything Story will screen on Australia’s Channel Seven later this year.
That’s the newsletter for the today.
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I long for the days of Streaming series. If there was such a thing. It Anita me that the bean counters control whether a series continues or is abandoned. Also, the inability to produce a series annually. Really, really annoyed by the interval in release of final season of Stranger Things which made it almost nonsensical due to aging of the main protagonists.