Stranger Things debuts its final season trailer... I can't watch

Also: 30 years of The Soup Nazi

The big news story of today is that Netflix has today released the trailer for the fifth and final season of Stranger Things.

It returns Nov 26 on Netflix, meaning if you are planning a full series rewatch ahead of the finale, you can blitz through the 36 episodes of the show with 1-2 episodes a night over the next few weeks and comfortably be ready for te series return.

It will be split into three releases, with ‘volume 2’ on Christmas and volume 3 on New Years Day. Those days are all US 5pm pacific time, so here in Australia it’ll be Boxing Day and Jan 2. A shame they couldn’t just release them at a standard 2am, so we would have them on Christmas & Boxing Day too.

And because the trailer is a pretty big deal, I’m flipping the newsletter today to begin with the trailers.

Trailer Park

Baramulla debuts on Netflix Nov 7.

A dark secret comes to light. If you saw the truth, would you believe it?

Spartacus: House of Ushur debuts on Starz Dec 5.

In this reimagined world, where power, passion and destiny unite in an unforgettable new story, viewers are thrust back into the brutality of Ancient Rome with the shocking resurrection of the once-defeated Ashur, played by Nick E. Tarabay (”Spartacus,” “The Expanse”), who now returns as “Dominus,” the master of his own House. Fueled by vengeance and cunning ambition, Ashur rises from betrayal and bloodshed to seize power, gouging out a place for the House of Ashur in a new arena full of violence, desire and twisted loyalty.

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You’re schmoopie

In one of those factoids published just to make us all feel incredibly old, this Sunday on Nov 2 is the 30-year anniversary of the Seinfeld episode The Soup Nazi.

Jim Halterman at the Television Academy interviewed episode writer Spike Feresten about the episode that still has viewers talking 30 years on.

It was my very first pitch session, and I was pitching 10 shreds of stories. And when you pitch stories on Seinfeld, it was really just telling stories from your life. Like, “Here’s what happened to me and I think it could work as a Kramer story,” or “I think it could work as [an] Elaine [story].” I had been told that if I’m telling these stories and Jerry — and, more importantly, Larry — starts laughing out loud, then you’re doing okay. That’s going to turn into an episode.

I pitched these stories and I didn’t hear [them laugh]. Towards story [idea] nine or ten, I was getting the flop sweats. I was nervous, and there was this little lull. And Larry said, “Well, what else is happening in New York?” So I just launched into this story and I said, “There’s this weird guy we call the Soup Nazi, where we all get lunch.” And [Larry] started laughing and he went, “The Soup Nazi? Why do they call him that?” So I told him: “If you don’t order your soup properly, he gives your money back and doesn’t give you the soup. Either you fall into line with the group or you don’t. And if you don’t, everybody turns away. Nobody acknowledges what happened to you or the rudeness you had just received.” He said, “There you go. That’s your episode.”

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News Desk

• King of The Hill has been picked up by Hulu for another 2 seasons (seasons 16 + 17), with an order for 10 episodes each. Read: Variety

• Hulu has ordered a TV series based on comic Southern Bastards. Read: Deadline

• Netflix’s Charlie & the Chocolate Factory-themed competition series The Golden Ticket has begun filming at Village Roadshow Studios on Queensland’s Gold Coast. As Australia’s answer to Mike Teavee, I’m obviously devastated that I am not taking part. Read: TV Tonight

• FX has renewed Adults for a second season… they took their time on that one… Read: thefutoncritic

• Earlier in the week it was reported that Amazon was canning the MMOs in development at Amazon Games. Apparently that includes the upcoming Lord of the Rings MMO. Read: The Verge

• If Japan’s Nippon Television sticks to its ambitious target, expect to see a whole lot more Japanese TV (and Japanese formats) on your screens over the coming five years. It has laid out plans to increase international revenues by 5x over the next eight years. That’s a goal of ¥100bn (roughly US$650m) annually by 2033, compared to around ¥20bn in fiscal 2024. Read: C21

• Why did Disney can the Doctor Who deal with BBC? Lack of enthusiasm, low ratings, a failure to move beyond the established audience, and the shows progressive politics. Read: Deadline

• Peacock only lost $217m this quarter compared with $436 million in Q3 last year. That sounds good in theory, but imagine coming home to your spouse and telling them that you only lost $217m at the track this time… Read: THR

  

• Is there anyone in Australia watching 10 News+ who isn’t an employee of 10 or a writer paid to write about it for a weekly Media column? If they exist, they will discover next year that the show has been trimmed to 30 minutes. Read: TV Tonight

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That’s the newsletter for today.

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