Timothy Busfield ep of Law & Order: SVU dumped, Paramount sues for Warner Bros finance info, and Letterman slams CBS
ALSO: Watch the trailer for the South African The Office adaptation
Switching things up today with the News Desk kicking off today’s newsletter.
News Desk
Paramount Skydance has entered the lawsuit phase of its efforts to win Warner Bros Discovery, filing to get greater financial disclosure of the Netflix deal. The David Ellison-led company insists it has a better deal on the table than Netflix is offering. Read: THR
Paramount will also nominate directors for the WBD board at its June AGM who will work to derail the deal with Netflix. Read: The Guardian
Timothy Busfield was to appear as a guest star on Law & Order: SVU this Thursday (appearing as a Judge whose life is being threatened). The episode has been pulled after an arrest warrant was issued for him. Read: Deadline
Apple’s Eddy Cue reports that in December Apple TV saw a new monthly record set with total hours viewed up 36 percent over the previous year. He says Pluribus is its biggest series to date. The launch of F1 on the platform would also have contributed to viewership. Read: THR
With a greater focus on AI, Meta will axe around 10% of its Reality Labs employees. The cuts will largely be from those working on the metaverse unit. Read: NYT
Podcasts have now launched on Netflix and The Streamable has a list of when individual shows will debut on the streamer.
PBS News Weekend signed off for good on Sunday after federal budget cuts forced the broadcaster to rework its staffing and programming.
Identity and Industry
When buzzy TV shows return, there’s usually a bunch of articles across the trade sites with the showrunners, actors, and producers previewing the season ahead. As a rule of thumb, these articles are never revelatory or all that interesting. But, I was drawn to this part of a conversation at THR with co-showrunner Mickey Day (his co-showrunner Konrad Key is also being interviewed).
He’s talking about the introduction of new character Whitney Halberstram (played by Max Minghella) and there’s this really insightful discussion about the role of class in the show:
One element of backstory we do get is the fact that he grew up poor; given how Industry plays with class politics in the U.K., I imagine that was extremely intentional.
DOWN He talks to Jonah [Kal Penn] in the first episode about how in America, your story starts whenever you begin telling it. That’s anathema to how the U.K. works, which is that your story begins the day you were born, in the place you were born, with the people you were born to, and it’s quite difficult to break away from that. Even people who were born into lower socioeconomic backgrounds who make a lot of money are constantly reminded of the fact that they’re working class. Whitney pushes up against the rigid class hierarchy. He’s also constantly holding back his true opinions about some of the people he interacts with, like Henry [Kit Harrington], who was born into every kind of entitlement and is allowed to fail continuously. In episode two, Henry is going through his CV with Whitney and is like, “I was a cabinet minister, I ran a public utility, yet you’re still offering me this job.”
How does Tender, the company that was introduced this season, fit into that idea?
DOWN Whitney’s identity is a soluble as Tender’s, and the company is a metaphor for his psyche. It’s on a knife edge of being a resounding success or an epic failure, which I think is true of most companies — maybe not with the outright criminal element. Also, it’s worth noting that everyone apart from Harper is incentivized to see Tender succeed. Analysts want the stock to go up because their people and institutions are invested in it. The government wants to be seen as an incubator for FinTech companies like this. People are completely blind to things that are clearly fraudulent. You’re not a criminal if you succeed; you’re an entrepreneur. If a company outgrows its original sin and becomes a success, people forget about the original sin.
Golden Globes talk
Great to see a win for One Battle After Another in the Best Motion Picture Comedy or Musical category. I haven’t laughed so hard at a comedy since The Bear.
Quote of the day
David Letterman commenting on his former network home CBS via his YouTube channel:
“CBS News is a wreck – it’s just gone. CBS News, for decades, going back to [the second world war], before [it], Ed Murrow would be broadcasting the blitz of London from the rooftop of buildings in London for CBS Radio, and it was that mentality that drove the integrity of CBS News, that has been trampled on, pissed on, and eviscerated by these idiots that have taken it over.
“And I’m at a point now where it really is hurting my feelings, because I’m sick and tired of people saying: ‘Oh, wait until those midterms.’ Kids, we’re far downstream of the midterms having any effect on this.”
Trailer Park
Die Kantoor is an Afrikaans-language adaptation The Office. In a shock pivot, this version is not focused on an office distributing paper goods - it’s a meat distribution company selling polony (which I understand is a highly processed sausage).
It debuts Jan 18 on DStv, with a double episode Jan 20 on Showmax.
One Piece is back for season 2 on Netflix March 10.
The Bluff debuts on Prime Video Feb 25. It stars Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Karl Urban.
As her tranquil life is shattered by the return of her vengeful former captain, a skilled ex-pirate must confront her bloody past to save her family.
That’s the newsletter for the 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.
