Widow's Bay. Believe the hype.
Also: Is YouTube targeting our kids? And: The Danger 5 team are back.
The embargo has lifted and today you will find a whole lot of reviews raving about new Apple TV horror comedy Widow’s Bay. There’s a reason both Variety and Indiewire have labelled this as their “Critics pick”… it’s really very good.
The show is best described as Jaws meets Twin Peaks meets Parks & Recreation.
Set in the modern day, but with a 70s Spielberg aesthetic, the show is about a mayor on a remote island off the coast of New England that has a few hundred years worth of horrific supernaturally-tinged incidents (witch burnings, cannibals, killers dressed as clowns… you can learn all about it at the town’s historical society from the kindly older lady who runs it… she’s also highly pro-witch burning). He’s interested in kickstarting the economy by turning it into a tourist hotspot… by hiding its horrors and pitching it as a bed & breakfast weekend getaway.
The show is from Kate Dippold, a writer who has produced a bunch of comedy feature films I haven’t liked in the past (The Heat, Snatched, Ghostbusters), but I really like what she has crafted here. Not working with Paul Feig is clearly a plus. Her past experience working on Parks & Recreation as a staff writer is a very direct influence on this show too.
Also on board the show is director Hiro Murai, a TV director responsible for several of your favourite shows: Atlanta, Barry, and Station Eleven. He’s also an EP on The Bear. It’s a partnership that works here, with Murai really carefully balancing the light horror of the show with what is also slight comedy. Watch in the third episode a scene with the Mayor in his home freaked out that a cute tourist he has met may also have nefarious intent. It’s a scene that balances the horror, comedy, along with a really personal moment that speaks to the emotional pain of the Mayor. None of it is pitched too high that it balances out every other element in the scene. It’s really incredible in how under-stated it all is.
What I haven’t mentioned is that the show stars the fantastic Matthew Rhys (The Americans) with a supporting cast that includes a bunch of weirdo character actors and/or comedians you have seen in other shows. Kate O’Flynn is there, sporting a look that is clearly from the Shelley Duvall catalogue. And then you have Stephen Root, Toby Huss (Halt & Catch Fire), K Callan, Kevin Carroll, Connor Ratliff, Dale Dickey, and Jeff Hiller. If you don’t know them by name, I absolutely believe you know each and every one of them by face.. “from something… gosh, what was it…”
It’s your new favourite show. I promise.
Also:
Debuting in Australian cinemas today is a new feature documentary It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley.
It has already played in the US in cinemas and on HBO, but we’re only getting it locally here this week. It’ll debut on Netflix in Australia soon as well.
My first exposure to Jeff Buckley (I think) was the news of his death. I remember sitting in my dads car and hearing a radio announcer talking about Buckley going missing in the Mississippi River. But since then, Buckley’s sole album Grace has served as the soundtrack to many quiet nights. It’s a fantastic 11pm album for when the rest of the world has gone to sleep.
I am not alone with Grace continuing to have an active presence in my life 30+ years since its release. And this documentary is very much for these fans.
I’ll admit to not knowing that much about Buckley the man until watching this documentary. And, to be honest, afterwards I still feel like I only got a brief glimpse of him. Much of it is talking heads, mostly through the perspective of the women in his life (his mother and some ex-girlfriends). One got the sense that many of the talking heads have been trading off stories about their connection to Buckley for their entire lives.
I’d have rather seen a documentary focused on those who worked with Buckley to produce Grace than this effort to try to understand Buckley through his family and romantic relationships. I suspect the way into understanding who he was is more through the music he created and the relationships he had with technicians and artists.
We get a sense of that through the too-short section dealing with the production of the album, and again later on with Ben Harper talking about attending a festival with Buckley. And it is always welcome seeing Aimee Mann on my screen – she’s a favourite of mine.
Uh, BINGE…
I get that Aussie streamer BINGE doesn’t have the Warner Bros / HBO deal anymore, but I didn’t realise it was so aggressively chasing after Tubi…
At least two of these titles sound like weak 30 Rock jokes.
The screens are getting bigger down under
Australian cinema chain Hoyts says that size matters. Overnight it announced ten new IMAX screens for the Australian market. This expands its IMAX footprint to 14 screens across Australia by 2028. IMAX is an increasingly popular format and has been embraced by Australian audiences in droves – the Sydney CBD IMAX is the fourth best-performing IMAX location globally.
Fingers crossed that the new Hoyts IMAX screens offer the same reclining seats at most other HOYTS locations – the seating at the Sydney IMAX doesn’t let this ol’ tired newsletter writer put his feet up.
Meanwhile, over in Perth this week Hoyts has announced a new “APEX” cinema screen at its Karrinyup location. It promises the world’s largest LED cinema screen at nearly 25 metres in width and powered by more than 24 million pixels.
Unlike traditional projection, HOYTS APEX uses direct-view LED technology to deliver significantly higher brightness, deeper blacks and exceptional contrast, resulting in more vivid, lifelike images across every scene.
I haven’t experienced an APEX screen before, but Hoyts operates a similar LED “Onyx” screen in Sydney. It is ultimately like going to the cinema to watch a really, really big TV screen. You’d think that I, a guy that writes a lot about TV would be into that, but there’s something about the experience of it not being projected that loses a little bit of magic. It’s like how the shift in cinemas to digital projection from film made the experience different (poorer, I’d say).
YouTube concerns in the classroom
The Wall Street Journal today reports about how the proliferation of Google in US classrooms has deepened students engagement with YouTube.
Granular data provided by parents highlight the scale: A second-grader in New York watched more than 700 videos in two months during school hours, including one featuring pole dancing. A tenth-grader in Oregon scrolled through more than 200 between 9 and 11:40 a.m. on March 6.
The concern about YouTube arrives during a crisis in education. American math and reading scores have slid to their lowest point in decades. Many educators, families and learning scientists say they can no longer blame pandemic learning loss; the decline has coincided with a dramatic increase in school screen time, turbocharged by the embrace of 1:1 devices by more than 88% of public schools, according to government survey data. YouTube and Meta recently lost a landmark social-media addiction trial, with a jury finding the companies negligent for operating products that harmed children. YouTube said it’s appealing the ruling.
Chromebooks—primed for Google software and YouTube—have about 60% of the K-12 mobile device market, according to Futuresource Consulting. Apple iPads are also a popular school device. YouTube is a top-viewed website on school devices, sometimes accounting for half of student traffic, according to administrators and web-filtering companies.
Pre-smart TV, hardware device owners would seek to control HDMI 1 – the belief being that if your device was plugged into viewers first HDMI port, they were more likely to use your product more regularly. Post smart TV, it is about getting placement on the top row, or early in the row of apps.
Are classrooms the new HDMI 1? The platforms that control the classroom, onboarding new users, securing their success…
Commence sensible chuckle
Netflix has today announced a new adult animated series: Dad’s House. It caught my interest for two reasons. The first is that it is an Australian commission. The second is… actually, lets just look at what the show is about first…
In small-town suburban Australia, thirteen year old child of divorce, Sean, spends every second weekend with his laidback, but well meaning dad, Ian. Cramming quality dad-time into a single weekend is already a tall order - but Ian has a remarkable gift for making it so much harder than it needs to be.
That sounds… fine, I guess. Obviously it will be execution dependent. So, what is it that caught my interest…
The creators. The big name is Australian animator Michael Cusack who just became a notable name from his work on the buzzy Smiling Friends. But what has my ears pricked is his co-creators: Dario Russo and David Ashby. They’re the talent behind oddball cult comedy Danger 5, which had a stellar first season and an… uh… interesting second.
News Desk
Claire Danes will star in new Netflix series Lovesick from producer Sarah Treem (In Treatment, The Affair). Read: THR
RIP Roger Sweet. The creator of the He-Man action figure died at the age of 91. Read: TMZ
Letterboxd is up for sale. Read: Semafor
Former Get This co-host Ed Kavalee has made a movie. It’ll debut on Australia’s 10 later this year, with a release on Paramount+ soon after. Read: iF
Why has HBO pulled the trailer for its upcoming Lanterns TV show? Read: Dark Horizons
Netflix is developing a live-action Casper series. The hilarious move would be casting actor Jake Brennan as the voice of the ghost. Brennan was the teen actor who starred in Netflix’s Richie Rich TV series. Read: Deadline
Trailer Park
The Five Star Weekend debuts on Peacock July 9. The cast includes Jennifer Garner, D'Arcy Carden, Regina Hall, Chloë Sevigny, and Timothy Olyphant.
A beloved food influencer grapples with loss and hosts four friends from different chapters of her life for a weekend in Nantucket.
Lukkhe debuts on Prime Video May 8.
"Lukkhe" is an adrenaline filled, musical drama set in the beating heart of Punjab.
Murder Mindfully returns for season 2 on Netflix May 28.
That’s the newsletter for the today.
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