We begin today with the morning after the finale of HBOs buzzy and almost borderline good drama The Undoing.
Undoing The Undoing
- Judy Berman at Time suggests that the finale of The Undoing was “Insulting”. She’s right.
The Undoing simply underestimated its audience. We were sophisticated enough, in the end, to….
Ok - no spoilers. Read: Time
- Ratings for The Undoing in the UK are higher than the debut of Game of Thrones. The Undoing won’t run for as long as Thrones, but it made up for its short-run by creating an ending far more disappointing than anything GoT conjured up. Read: Deadline
- Director Susannie Bier talks about filming the series. Read: Collider
[SPOILER WARNING - SCROLL DOWN TO BELOW THIS PHOTO IF YOU HAVE PLANS TO WATCH THE SHOW]
My thoughts on the finale: I’m all for a TV show legitimately giving us something that I have never before seen on a TV show, but the revelation that Hugh Grant’s Dr Jonathan Fraser was in fact the murderer felt like a cheat. The show didn’t subvert the genre with this pivot at the end. It was a very surface-level murder-mystery and to pivot at the end by showing us that the murderer was the very person pinned for the crime from the first episode - all it does is lets all of the air out of the balloon.
Critics have argued for the show saying that the series was ultimately challenging the viewers relationship with power, class, and screen stars, along with trust in safe narratives. But the problem with that argument is that the show was simply never that meaty. It’s a dirty trick to pull at the end of a show that was so featherweight to suddenly tell the audience that they’ve all along been watching a show of genuine substance.
It felt false.
Super Nintendo World
Osaka’s new Nintendo-themed park Super Nintendo World opens in Osaka on Feb 4. Journalists have taken their first look at the park, which is reportedly small. But awesome-looking.
TeeVee Snacks
- US streamer Pluto TV is launching a 24/7 channel streaming nothing but 80s episodes of The Price is Right. Read: Broadway World
- The recent reboot of UK drama All Creatures Great and Small has been greenlit for a second season. Read: Deadline
When Lipa sings, the world watches
Singer-songwriter Dua Lipa recently held a paid ticketed livestream Studio 2054. The show featured guests like Elton John, Kylie Minogue, and Miley Cyrus. How many people watched the stream? Oh, just about 5 million people.
That number is actually a conservative figure as they wait for a number of third-party ticketing outlets to report final figures.
Incredible.
Read: Variety
Aye Caramba!
I’m a big fan of voice artists and am often impressed by the versatility of professional voice performers (and not just celebrity actors hired because they’re a name actor to put on a poster). So it was fun to see this appear in my Twitter feed:
Star Wars: Detours leak
Before George Lucas sold Star Wars to Disney, LucasFilm had commissioned an animated Star Wars comedy from the Robot Chicken team. It’s a sketch comedy show exploring the hilarious far reaches of the Star Wars universe.
The series was never released.
A sketch from the series has been leaked via Reddit. In it Andy Richter and Weird Al Yankovic play two bounty hunters holding up Dex’s diner from Episode 2: Attack of The Clones.
I appreciate that comedy is subjective. But f*** me - it’s really terrible.
Watch: Reddit
NOTE: The video has since been pulled from Reddit, but there are links to a downloadable video in the comments.
Inside last week’s Mando
Speaking of Star Wars, if you’re a fan of The Mandalorian, an absolute must read is a feature interview by Vanity Fair with Dave Filoni and Rosario Dawson. The two discuss Dawson’s casting following an extensive fan campaign and the origins of THAT NAME.
Part of the conversation has Dawson talking about her previous connection with Star Wars actor Hayden Christensen.
We ended up doing this movie together years later called Shattered Glass, and I always just thought it was really cool that I knew someone who was not just in Star Wars but played Anakin Skywalker. Ahsoka was his Padawan, so when the fan-casting came out, I just thought it was pretty wild that I visually connected to this character from being this teenager who met this actor who ended up being this great character. I don’t know, it just felt like the Force was at play.
Read: VF
Holey Moley Downunder
We’ve got our first look at the Australian version of Holey Moley. I have almost zero interest in every Australian cast for this show, but I love so much that they are using old-school Seven commentary team jackets.
What’s next?
