The end of Hawaii Five-0 meant, for a brief moment, that Daniel Dae Kim was available for a new show. But that window has closed. He’s joining New Amsterdam as Dr Shin, the new head of Trauma.
Source: TV Line
Margaret Sullivan at the Washington Post writes on yesterday’s on-air resignation of MSNBC host Chris Matthews. She says that Matthews was shown the door not because of comments he made to women off-air over the years or the last couple of weeks with high profile on-air gaffes. Rather, she contends that this is all related to his on-air presentation style that emphasised combativeness over valuable substance.
For many years, he had the power to sway public opinion on the crucial topics of the day. Not infrequently, he failed the main test of someone in that role. He was ready to offer his own views, but not prepared to hear those of his guests or to bring deep knowledge to the conversation.
Source: Washington Post
The actual on-air resignation was compelling viewing. First of all, no one knew this was coming. Here is video of Matthews resigning:
The show then cut to a commercial and came back to an unprepared Steve Kornacki:
Good news/bad news for Neighbours fans. The good news - Australia Post is releasing a set of stamps to celebrate the iconic TV series’ 35th anniversary. The bad news - you can’t really lick the back of the Neighbours stamps. They’ve had that sticky stuff on it for some time.
Source: TV Tonight
The Magicians will come to an end on Syfy with its currently-airing fifth season.
Source: TV Guide
Talk about stepping outside of your brand: Pornhub is releasing its first non-adult film on its site.
“Shakedown” is a stream-of-consciousness, nonfiction narrative about the queer women and men who populated the lesbian strip club scene in Los Angeles in the early aughts. It is culled from neatly 15 years of footage shot by Weinraub over her adult life, and offers a humorous, sensual and informative look at a vibrant subculture.
It’s an upmarket documentary. So… why?
“There’s a cool opportunity right now to present films in the art space, there’s more openness to diversity and content, and a different sort of storytelling,” Weinraub said, adding she’s specifically hoping to engage Pornhub’s female users. While the company would not comment specifically on the gender composition, their 2019 user data is staggering, and includes figures like: 115 million visits per day, 39 billion unique searches for the year and 1.36 million hours of new content uploaded. That translates, Pornhub noted, to 169 years worth of content to watch.
Source: Variety
One of the best shows on television is one you’ve likely skipped past while trawling Netflix. It is a murder mystery show called Babylon Berlin.
I love it.
You’ve seen shows set in the post-WWI 1920s before with flappers out having a great time dancing and listening to high energy jazz music. What you haven’t seen is this same culture through the lens of post WW1 Germany where the same trends are emerging in a country which has been economically destroyed. Add to this a murder mystery that involves an underground porn ring and a train rigged with an explosive heading straight for Berlin.
It’s a big, bold, incredible TV show. The third season is now on Netflix.
Vulture’s Kathryn VanArendonk:
It’s beautiful and stylish and grim and dynamic. There’s an early sequence in the first episode where the show’s other main protagonist, a young woman named Lotte, gets ready for a day of work. She lives in a filthy, crowded, much-too-small apartment with her extended family. Everything is gray and brown, no one has enough food, and the clothes she puts on are just as grimy as everything else. As she walks out of her building, she pulls a grass-green cloche hat onto her head, by far the most colorful object in the whole scene. She ties a pair of hose around her neck like a scarf. Lotte is transformed, suddenly visible in the world. When she walks across a public plaza and rides a street car, her bright-green hat is a confident beacon, letting her pass in any context: a club, a police station, a professional office, a fancy shop, a pub.
Maybe just watch the trailer:
TV in hotel rooms suck. Making it suck considerably less is this deal announced by Tubi to put the streaming service into 20,000 hotel rooms.
Source: Variety
The Elvis Presley estate is looking to rejuvenate the brand image of Elvis. With falling revenue and younger generations unfamiliar with Elvis, there’s an imperative to get the King back into the public consciousness.
You can read about the efforts here: Rolling Stone
Here’s where I think the efforts are going wrong. Everything mentioned in the article talks about the iconography of Elvis. Growing up, the thing that resonated the most about Elvis with me was the real life guy who was lost in all of the costuming of the superstar performer.
Why not bring him back for a modern audience the same way that they revived his career initially - find a way to bring relevance to the 1968 Elvis comeback special. It’s a stripped down Elvis at his most charming, most magnetic.
Every Wednesday morning when compiling the daily ABW newsletter I am interrupted. My day on Wednesday starts a bit earlier than usual, so I generally rush to the train when I’d usually start doing the ABW newsletter. On the train I get about half of it written and then I stop by the ABC building in Ultimo - adjacent to the Sydney CBD. There I record a pre-recorded segment for ABC Gold Coast Mornings (which I’ve been doing for maybe 7-8 years now… wow, that’s a really long time). I talk about TV into a microphone for about 5-8 minutes, then find somewhere quiet to finish writing up the newsletter. Right now, as I type these words, I’m on a train.
After I finish the newsletter I go off to work, which is conveniently not that far from Ultimo. The reason I can continue to do the segment is because of its proximity to work. It’s always been either near my work or is on the way to my job.
This from the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday:
Federal Communications Minister Paul Fletcher "strongly encouraged" the public broadcaster to explore a sale of its inner-city premises as it grapples with a funding freeze projected to shave up to $84 million off its annual budget.
The idea would be for the ABC to move out to Parramatta, a suburb that is out in the Western suburbs of Sydney. About half an hour from the CBD by train and longer if going by car - Sydney traffic.
And I understand the thinking. But, I think there’s a huge issue for the ABC moving out there. Every day that organisation with its 24/7 news channel and 24/7 radio services rely on people like myself who go in and offer their expertise/thoughts/time for free. The only reason so many unpaid contributors are able to do this is because there’s a certain degree of ease and accessibility.
There’s also business reasons why a large organisation needs to be centrally located. But from a practicality standpoint, I cannot see how organisations like the ABC can function effectively if it is cut off from a CBD.
Regardless, it’s an interesting conversation and I’ll be curious to see what comes from it.
Source: SMH
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