I am unapologetically a fan of Shawn Ryan. I’ve had the privilage of working with him at two companies, FX and Sony, where has demonstrated his talent and value for more than two decades as a showrunner, producer and visionary. While THE SHIELD was far and away his signature series to date, literally putting FX … Read more
This Sunday, the first of spring 2023, is a particularly seminal one in the wars of what we used to call pay television that nowadays involves subsets of far larger and still morphing multiplatform efforts. While the final season of SUCCESSION launches on what for now is called HBO MAX, its longtime rival, recently rebranded … Read more
I rarely get rooked into the anticipation and buildup for a new season of premium TV. These days, publicity tours and media blitzes for such priorities are downright overwhelming. Between TV, podcasts and websites, along with a few strategically placed print stories, the degree of desperate hype to get people to be aware that something … Read more
A good friend, one who keeps similar hours and passions to mine, forwarded me a recent provocative piece from Leticia Moranda of Bloomberg entitled We’re Drowning In Opinions. His timing was optimal, as I had recently just let my subscription to Bloomberg lapse. My Bloomberg subscription, while it was a relatively minimal $35/year, overlapped with … Read more
As the countdown to what will undoubtedly be one of the most crucial and contentious upfront negotiating seasons ever continues, there is an impressive collaborative effort being led by several media conglomerates with linear and streaming platforms, including NBC Universal, Televisa Univision, Paramount Global and Warner Brothers Discovery, to stimulate the sharing and availability of … Read more
So I finally gave into the latest craze of 2023,. Thanks to the newly available Microsoft Bing Chat update that was released earlier this week, now I can afford to join the millions who already paid $50 or so for the likes of Chat GPT. So far, I haven’t been asked for a penny, so … Read more
Lately, there has been a lot of failure in media news, particularly in the subset of streaming platforms. Not a day goes by when something negative about overly ambitious subscription goals not being met, ambitious series not achieving enough traction to warrant being produced beyond one or two seasons, or the pious belief that a … Read more
The news was not unexpected. Anyone who has followed sports, media or business knew about this Ides of March was going to be a hallmark day in the history of how and where fans see their favorite teams’ games. Still, the news that reverberated through all of these industries’ publications yesterday was still dramatic, such … Read more
Sometimes, I don’t jump on bandwagons as quickly as I should. Some would assert at my age I shouldn’t even be thinking of bandwagons, or even the act of jumping. Curmudgeonly, smug, entitled attitudes seem to fester with age, and as you can tell my dander is kicked up at the very thought of settling … Read more
After the tabloid-incindiery antics of last year’s Academy Awards presentation, anything that didn’t produce a potentially incarceratable incident that would eventually ban a nominee from the next decade’s worth of ceremonies would have been considered a step in the right direction, Thankfully, last night’s event took more than a few steps toward redeeming and even … Read more