Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Monday, November 27th, 2023.
A BRIEF PROGRAMMING NOTE
Thank your for the kind notes over the Thanksgiving break. I usually try and respond to everything, but I am really behind. My entire family was battling COVID over the past few days and while I am somewhat recovered today, I am moving slow. Today's newsletter is also a bit shorter, although describing any 1000-word newsletter as "shorter" is a bit insane.
THE WEB SITE YOU MAY OR MAY NOT BE READING
While most of you weren't here for the early months of the newsletter, in the beginning it was just designed as a way to pass along links to stories I had written for my web site AllYourScreens.com. It gets a decent amount of traffic - more than 2 million unique visitors a month - but I was hoping having a regular newsletter would make it easier for people to share stories and widen the audience.
But I started adding bits of commentary and thoughts along with the links. And then I added premiere info and TooMuchTV slowly evolved into the form you see today.
The strange thing is that the audience between the web site and newsletter seem to be two distinct audiences and as a result I don't spend a lot of time talking about AllYourScreens here - other than linking to a few stories.
But I did want to highlight that the web site has an entirely new look as well as a completely new and updated CMS. AllYourScreens (and its predecessor AllYourTV) have been around for more than 20 years. And while the look has evolved over the years, it has accumulated quirks and issues that over the years had made it nearly unusable.
So it's a new template, a snappy motto ("No Matter The Screen, It's TV) and I am in the process of manually moving over the 7,000-stories. Each one needs to be looked at, given the proper tags and images before it's published. It is not going to be finished this week. But it will be sweet when it's done. And every story will have an SEO-friendly URL. The downside is that all of the old URL's will no longer work.
The site went live overnight and I have been fixing problems all day. But I suspect by mid-week, it will be looking pretty sharp and I wanted to crow about it a bit ahead of time.
Being a one-man show has its downsides. But there are also some great moments of accomplishment.
A COUPLE OF VIEWING SUGGESTIONS
It continues to amaze me how difficult it is to get screeners for shows produced outside the U.S. before their premiere here on a streamer. Which means that I end up not getting a chance to watch and review them until days after the premiere.
Hopefully I'll have an official review up later tonight, but if you love a dark, murderous series with some genuinely huge laughs, Hulu just premiered the six-episode Irish series Obituary. Siobhan Cullen plays a vaguely unsettling newspaper obituary writer whose pay is cut and she suddenly finds herself being paid per obituary. So she decides to up her pay by killing off a few people she believes deserve it.
The description might have some kind of a Dexter vibe to it, but Obituary couldn't be further in tone from that show, The show is more Twin Peaks gets a serial killer than anything else. Wildly unpredictable and while everything is nicely tied up at the end of the season, there is definitely an opening for season two. A really unexpected treat.
A global show which I have seen (but can't review until it premieres tomorrow on Netflix) is the series Love Like A K-Drama, which like Obituary also suffers from a lackluster logline. The premise is that four Japanese actresses travel to South Korea to participate in a series of auditions for a starring role in a K-Drama. It's billed as an experiment to determine if someone can fall in love with the person they're acting with, but fans of Julia Roberts already know the answer to that one.
I can't say much yet, other than it turned out to be a lot of fun. It is a very Japanese show stylistically, but you'll know by the end of the first episode if it's for you.
CYBER MONDAY DEALS ARE MOSTLY POINTLESS. EXCEPT THIS ONE
One of the things I am going to be rolling out on the web site in the coming week or so is some TV & media-related merchandise created and sold by me.
I am using Zazzle for some of the products and they are running a Cyber Monday deal today. 50% off, which means that you can buy this fine coffee cup for $7.50 plus shipping.
ODDS AND SODS
* The adult animated comedy Hazbin Hotel will premiere Friday, January 19th on Prime Video.
* Forecast: Global SVOD subscriptions to top 1.79 billion by 2029. The biggest growth will be in the U.S., China, Brazil and India.
* The Ankler has a look at Hollywood's WhatsApp wars (subscription required). I am part of a couple of these and they are something else.
* It makes sense when you think about it, but Reality Blurred's Andy Dehnart wrote late last week that the time calls on The Great British Bake-Off are fake.
* Everyone knows Flo from Progressive. But who is Stephanie Courtney?
* The Federal Communications Commission has announced a proposal to ban all early cancellation fees for cable and satellite TV contracts. The proposed rule would require cable providers to eliminate early termination fees across the board.
* Nanalan hasn’t been on TV in years, but it’s the hottest show on TikTok.
TWEET OF THE DAY
WHAT'S NEW TODAY AND TOMORROW:
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 27TH:
* Go Dog Go (Netflix)
* Kids Baking Championship: Reindeer Games (Food)
* Steeltown Murders Series Premiere (Acorn TV)
* This Farming Life (Britbox)
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28TH:
* Comedy Royale Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Love Like A K-Drama Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Onmyoji Series Premiere (Netflix)
* South To Black Power (HBO)
* Taming Speed (Viaplay)
* Verified Series Premiere (Netflix)
Click Here to see the list of all of the upcoming premiere dates for the next few months.
SEE YOU TUESDAY!
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Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Monday, November 27th, 2023
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- By Rick Ellis
