Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Wednesday, August 27th, 2025:
WHY THE NEXT UPDATE OF YOUR SVOD SERVICE WILL PROBABLY STILL SUCK
More than a decade into the streaming television business, you might think that the various subscription TV services might have a firm grasp on what interface might work best for their customers. Subscribers don't ask for much. They just want to be able to log on, find what they're looking for and maybe get a few relevant suggestions for new things to watch.
Instead, the past ten years has brought a wave after wave of "new versions" of your favorite streamer, each slicker than the previous version while somehow also being less useful. They tout "Hey, we have buttons for TV AND for movies." While what you're really looking for is a service that will remember where you stopped watching that episode of your favorite show and not force you to start from the beginning EVERY SINGLE TIME.
It's only gotten worse as various platforms have become not just subscription video platforms, but places to rent and purchase titles, watch live events and negotiate your next home mortgage. Okay, I'm joking about that last one, although if Amazon announced "Prime Home Mortgages" tomorrow, I wouldn't be shocked.
As I have mentioned before, I have subscribed to Hulu Live TV since it launched and I remain astounded at how slapdash it still feels after all this years. Sometimes it remembers I was watching a show, sometimes it doesn't. It suggests live shows for me to watch, 90 percent of which I have never watched once the entire time I've been a subscriber.
It will offer up suggestions under the category "Because you watched Alien: Earth" and more than one of the suggestions will include the Property Brothers. The service's DVR refuses to stop randomly recording shows I asked it to record once five years ago. The home page has one promo window at the top and more often than not, it's promoting some obscure 2016 series that aired for one season on Discovery or the History Channel. And I could go on and on.
While Hulu's interface isn't as bad as Amazon Prime's, that is faint praise. And it's a reminder that every major SVOD has features that range from passive-aggressively useless to the worst in marketing-driven crap. Even Netflix's vaunted state-of-the-industry interface recently underwent a reboot which was obviously designed to be useful to some subscriber. I'm just pretty sure that subscriber isn't me.
I know from speaking to people at the streamers that millions of dollars are spent on testing these features as they are being rolled out. Which makes their lack of usefulness even more perplexing.
TWEET OF THE DAY
READER FEEDBACK
My interview in yesterday's newsletter with the streaming development executive who blamed audiences for many of the current problems with diversity in the industry sparked a large number of comments. Here are just some of them and I tried to pick a wide range of opinions:
"I think the problem comes down to fear. Everyone is just so scared now. Not just by today's politics, but by the way Hollywood has changed so quickly. People are afraid of losing their jobs for making the wrong decision. Afraid of losing their job for not making a decision at all. There are endless numbers of meetings rehashing things that don't really matter. When someone tells you that a person can greenlight a project, more often than not they mean they can start the year-along greenlight project before the show might end up being canceled before production even starts."
"The development executives who understand how to make great shows with a POV that ignite audience conversation are the ones who were laid off (that’s a bit of an oversimplification but I’m consistently surprised by the choices made during these layoffs as to who gets power and who doesn’t), the development execs who remain twist themselves in knots trying to thread a needle that doesn’t exist...I personally think this is why some of the most dynamic storytelling is coming from outside the US. It's not because we don’t have great, passionate writers and creators here - we have some of the best… it's because we’ve destroyed the system that allowed them to thrive by gutting out the folks who and processes that allowed great shows to be developed."
"I supported the strikes and I think we got some good stuff in the final contract. But thinking back now, a lot of the stuff we were worried about just seems almost quaint. In 2025, minirooms are the least of our problems."
"Development has never been an easy job because in a way you're trying to not just find a great project, but find one that audiences will care about in a year or two. I'm on the streaming side now and that is especially an issue because the production cycle is so drawn out that sometimes a marginal show keeps going because it's too expensive to retool it in mid-flight."
"I'm not sure why, but I find myself watching TV shows from Spain or Poland or Korea and thinking 'this is so distinctive and new, I can't imagine it being made in Hollywood.' Which is a really sad thing to say out loud."
ODDS AND SODS
* Season three of Monster premieres Friday, October 3rd on Netflix. Here is the logline for the season, entitled Monster: The Ed Gein Story: "Serial killer. Grave robber. Psycho. In the frozen fields of 1950s rural Wisconsin, a friendly, mild-mannered recluse named Eddie Gein lived quietly on a decaying farm – hiding a house of horrors so gruesome it would redefine the American nightmare. Driven by isolation, psychosis, and an all-consuming obsession with his mother, Gein’s perverse crimes birthed a new kind of monster that would haunt Hollywood for decades. From Psycho to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to The Silence of the Lambs, Gein’s macabre legacy gave birth to fictional monsters born in his image and ignited a cultural obsession with the criminally deviant. Ed Gein didn’t just influence a genre -- he became the blueprint for modern horror."
* The rom-com movie All Of You premieres Friday, September 26th on Apple TV+. Here is a first video look at the film. And here is the official logline: "Best friends since college, Simon (Brett Goldstein) and Laura (Imogen Poots) drift apart when she takes a test that finds her soulmate despite years of unspoken feelings between them. Over the years, as their paths cross and diverge, neither can deny the feeling that they’ve missed out on a life together. Faced with the uncertainty of changing the course of their lives, are Simon and Laura willing to risk everything to experience the love that had been between them all along, or should they accept their fate? “All of You” explores whether one person can ever be your everything in this humorous and heart-wrenching romantic drama."
* The comedy special Andrew Santino: White Noise premieres Friday, September 12th on Hulu.
* Harlan Coben’s Lazarus, starring Sam Claflin and Bill Nighy, premieres Wednesday, October 22nd on Prime Video.
* Directed by Kate Winslet, the movie Goodbye June premieres Wednesday, December 24th on Netflix. Here is the official logline: "It’s nearly Christmas when an unexpected turn in their mother’s health thrusts four adult siblings, and their exasperating father, into chaos as they navigate messy family dynamics in the face of potential loss. But their quick-witted mother, June, orchestrates her decline on her own terms - with biting humor, blunt honesty, and a lot of love."
* Season ten of Below Deck Mediterranean will premiere Monday, September 29th on Bravo.
WHAT'S COMING TOMORROW
THURSDAY, AUGUST 28TH:
* Barbie Mysteries (Netflix)
* Family Lockup Series Premiere (A&E)
* Imported (Hulu)
* Kidnapped: The Chloe Ayling Story (AMC+)
* Millionaire (Netflix)
* My Life With the Walter Boys Season Premiere (Netflix)
* The Thursday Murder Club (Netflix)
* Trust Her If You Dare (LMN)
FRIDAY, AUGUST 29TH:
* A Beach Red Murder (LMN)
* Hurricane Katrina: 20 Years After The Storm With Robin Roberts (ABC)
* KPopped Series Premiere (Apple TV+)
* Love Untangled (Netflix)
* Shape Island Season Premiere (Apple TV+)
* Two Graves Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Unknown Number: The High School Catfish (Netflix)
SEE YOU ON THURSDAY NIGHT!