The Sternberg Report

New Television Season Things to Ponder

As the pandemic continues to wreaks havoc with life in general, television programming is no exception.  Here are a few things worth pondering (or, at least some things I’ve been thinking about) as the new primetime television season gets underway.

• Another issue with TV audience measurement
• Network promotional follies
• Why ratings don’t matter
• How network shows are dealing with COVID-19 and police brutality
• Netflix goes linear (in France)

Can Nielsen (or anyone) accurately measure TV viewing?  I’ve written many columns on various issues I have with TV audience measurement, including the absurdity of advertisers and agencies allowing Nielsen to measure “viewing” in bars and restaurants.  But there’s another issue that seldom comes up, which in today’s video landscape is more important than ever – the composition of Nielsen’s sample.

Central to a well-drawn sample, is the idea that you and your cohorts have similar viewing habits.  There are generally more than a dozen categories that Nielsen uses, which research has shown are significant factors in what and how much television people view.  These include such things as age, sex, income, education, race, language spoken at home, presence of children, etc.  Also important, is access to programming.  It has been essential that cable and satellite penetration, as well as media device ownership in the sample match the country at large.  It didn’t really matter what cable, satellite, or telco system people in the sample subscribed to.  They don’t typically have much impact in channel or program availability or usage.  Likewise, VCR and subsequently DVR ownership are important, but again, which particular type or brand is not relevant, as it has virtually no impact on which programs are time-shifted. 

Streaming, on the other hand, is a different animal entirely.  Knowing that 70% of the country has at least one streaming service and 40% have three, and constructing the sample accordingly, is not good enough.  People who have just Netflix have substantially different access to programming and have different viewing habits than folks who have just Amazon Prime Video.  Likewise, viewing habits are significantly different among those who have Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, ESPN+, and Peacock, than those who have Prime Video, HBO Max, Apple TV+, CBS All Access, and BritBox.  For any TV audience measurement service to have relevance, it needs to continually update its sample to match the universe’s subscriptions to specific streaming services (perhaps all that are in at least 10% of TV homes).  Otherwise, there’s no way for the sample to be representative of the population at large, and its reported audience data become increasingly less meaningful.

Promotional Follies:  In the era of Peak TV+, with more viewing choices available than ever before, it takes viewers longer to even become aware of a new series, much less start watching it.  Because of the pandemic, this is the first time in 30 years I haven’t seen any fall TV pilots – there isn’t the normal pre-season industry analysis of new shows.  This makes effective on-air promotion (still the best way to create awareness) more important than ever, particularly for ad-supported networks, which need viewers to start watching a new series more quickly than a subscription streaming service does.

Regular readers of The Sternberg Report know that one of my pet peeves (polite term) and frequent rants is the stubborn refusal of the broadcast networks to promote one another’s programming.  The television landscape of the 1980s and 1990s saw the broadcast networks fiercely battle for every rating point, with ad-supported cable being their only real competition.  ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX were the only places to watch original scripted primetime series, and most TV programs were watched live as they aired.  In today’s much more splintered media world, the broadcast networks should see themselves as allies against everything else (even though all broadcast nets are part of conglomerates that also own streaming services).

Ad-supported cable networks learned long ago that promoting one another’s programming is the most effective way to boost all of their ratings and attract more advertising dollars.  There are several ad-supported cable series over the years that I’ve watched regularly only because I saw them promoted on another network.  The broadcast networks still steadfastly refuse to do this, thereby not advertising to the largest chunk of available consumers of their product, who are most receptive to their message.  They should understand that whenever they develop a This is Us, The Good Doctor, Young Sheldon, or The Masked Singer, it benefits all of them, reminding both the ad industry and the press that the broadcast networks are still capable of producing the highest rated shows on the air (The Walking Dead and Yellowstone notwithstanding).  The advertising industry, which benefits from strong ad-supported programming, should be encouraging this type of cross promotion at every turn.

I was again reminded of this lunacy while I was watching this year’s Primetime Emmy Awards on ABC.  They, of course, had several promos for the host network’s programming (eight by my count).  There were also numerous ads for its competitors.  It had five ads for ad-supported cable networks (CNN, Nat Geo, TBS, and FX), two ads for premium cable (Showtime), and 16 ads for various streaming services (4 for its own Disney+, 2 for Apple TV+, 2 for Amazon Prime Video, 1 for Hulu, 2 for FX on Hulu, 3 for HBO Max, and 2 for Peacock – for some reason the network had previously banned ads for Netflix).  Conspicuously missing from this list was CBS All Access, which I suspect is simply because it has CBS in its name.  Once it officially changes its name to Paramount+, all the broadcast networks will probably happily accept ads for programs it won’t touch today.  There were, of course, no ads for CBS, NBC, FOX, or CW.  And the broadcast networks wonder why their competitors continue to siphon off their viewers, and why their own combined ratings continue to decline.

Given the pandemic delayed season, irregular start dates for both returning and new shows, and virtually no pre-season buzz for new series, cross promotion is more important than ever.  Not to do so is nothing short of promotional malpractice – and one reason initial ratings for returning series are down sharply from last year.  Just as an example, I follow television for a living, and was not aware of the season premiere date for ABC’s The Good Doctor.  I watched it a few days later on Hulu.  Had the premiere been promoted during primetime on other broadcast networks or Sunday football on CBS, FOX, or NBC, I would have known when it was returning.  The same is true for any number of season debuts for new and returning shows.

Do Ratings Matter?  Well, of course they do.  But only to the degree that they affect overall network rankings.  This has to do with an antiquated upfront buying system, where price increases have less to do with whether ratings are up or down, and more to do with the network standings.  I’ve said this before, but if you give broadcast network executives a choice between having their ratings increase by 10% and being in third place or having their ratings decline by 10% and moving into first place (because other networks declined more), every one of them would choose the latter.  This, of course, is a recipe for declining ratings.  On the ad-supported cable front, being in the top 10 matters more than anything.  I was head of research at a cable network, and I remember one year our ratings were up from the previous season, but we had slipped from 9^th place to 11^th place among adults 25-54.  It was not a happy time.  The following year, when we were back in the top 10, there was again joy in Mudville.  This, despite the fact that only about three-tenths of a rating point separated 3^rd and 30^th place among ad-supported cable networks.  Actual rating size was irrelevant, network rankings meant everything.

This is one reason NBC decided to air its Donald Trump town hall at the same time ABC had previously scheduled its Joe Biden town hall.  They expected to beat ABC significantly (which didn’t happen).  That was more important to them than getting higher ratings on a different night.  This is also one of the main reasons the broadcast networks stubbornly refuse to cross-promote one another’s programming.  Doing anything to help another network is seen as unimaginable.  Foolish short-term thinking that has resulted in long-term audience declines.

COVID-19 Storylines:  Several TV series are incorporating COVID-19 into their plots.  I was watching the season premiere of The Good Doctor, and was struck by how well they illustrated the way doctors and hospitals were dealing with the new coronavirus at the outset of the pandemic.  The season premiere of NCIS New Orleans also handled it well.  These storylines being integrated into popular TV shows might actually get some people to take the virus and mask wearing more seriously than politicians or real-life doctors ever could.

 Police Shows Get Re-Invented:  Following George Floyd’s death, and the subsequent nationwide protests against racism and police brutality, broadcast network cop shows, which typically portray the police as heroes and police brutality as a justified means of getting the bad guys to confess, have been forced to undergo much-needed changes.

Chicago P.D. has been probably the biggest example of abusing suspects to get them to reveal crimes (in virtually every episode).  And, of course, virtually every suspect they rough up is actually guilty, so the show presents it as a necessary evil.  These “hero” cops are willing to do whatever it takes to protect the public, even if it means repeatedly crossing the line.  In this season’s premiere episode, a new supervisor (a Black woman) is brought in and tells Hank Voight, the head of the intelligence unit (played by Jason Beghe) that she’s on his side, and knows he’s a good cop, but if he doesn’t change his methods he will be gone within a few months.  And when he is about to take a suspect downstairs to “the cage,” where he can rough him up to get info without anyone else seeing it or any cameras recording it, one of his Black detectives tells him “we can’t do this anymore.”  While Voight yells at him and tells him to quit if he doesn’t like it, he ends up listening to him.  It seems like most police/detective/FBI shows are undergoing changes and hiring consultants to help re-invent the genre and cover topics such as police brutality, systemic racism, and related issues more realistically.   

Netflix Goes Linear (in France):  As streaming competitors enjoy substantial subscriber growth during the pandemic, Netflix is looking for new ways to keep its subscriber base engaged, appeal to new viewers, and maintain its leadership position.

One of the main things that give streaming services an edge over linear broadcast or cable networks (aside from no advertiser-driven content restrictions) is that new programs don’t have to fit into a set schedule geared to a specific audience, or adhere to an artificial fall or mid-season.  Nor do they need to concern themselves with average ratings (reach is the more significant metric).  A series can have anywhere from 6-13 episodes per season (as opposed to 17-22 episodes for most broadcast shows), and new seasons need not debut during the same month each year.  And while a network such as CBS might have trouble scheduling a show appealing to young viewers in the middle of its older skewing lineup, Netflix series appealing to substantially different audiences, such as Ozark, Stranger Things, The Crown, GLOW, Daredevil, Grace & Frankie, Jessica Jones, Sex Education, The Umbrella Academy, The Queen’s Gambit, and The Kominsky Method can thrive side-by-side.

While continuing to have the most user-friendly interface, so many series become available every month that trying to find something new to watch often takes longer than actually watching the show.  And while Netflix’s model has worked quite well, experimenting with new options is smart.

Netflix France has announced a new web-based feature that provides subscribers with a 24-hour grid that is the same for everyone, with programming refreshed every few days.  Presumably this virtual channel would consist of whatever series are most popular in France, along with some new series and movies Netflix wants subscribers to sample.  This service is reportedly rolling out in early December.  This is a brilliantly obvious move, and if it works in France, there’s a good chance it will eventually be tried in the U.S.  Since Netflix already reaches roughly two-thirds of TV homes here, retaining subscribers is now perhaps more important than attracting new ones.  Although Netflix has been steadfast in its insistence that advertising will never be a part of its business model, this might also provide some opportunity to at least experiment in that area.

TV Shows to Stream While You Wait for Your Favorites to Return

The pandemic-delayed new TV fall season is slowly getting underway.  While you wait for your favorite series to return, here is a reminder of some of the best original scripted series available to stream.  There are many hidden gems are just waiting to be found. 

Netflix still has by far the most user-friendly interface.  It has the most comprehensive categories to search through, and by simply moving the cursor to a given series title, it plays the trailer – I can’t imagine why every streaming service doesn’t provide this basic feature.  Here, I break down some of the very best original scripted series to stream by genre.  I’ve already reviewed many of them in previous issues of The Sternberg Report.

Procedural Dramas – Perhaps the best two procedural detective dramas on television are Bosch (6 seasons, renewed for a 7^th and final season, on Amazon Prime Video) and Bordertown (3 seasons on Netflix).  They are as different from one another as two shows in the same genre can be.  Both series have compelling leads, excellent supporting casts, and tightly woven stories.  Bosch is as American as they come, set in Los Angeles, while Bordertown is set in a small Finland town near the Russian border.

Sci-Fi Dramas – There are many shows in this genre available to stream, and I’m not including the more well-known series that didn’t originate on a streaming service (The X-Files, Fringe, Battlestar Galactica, Orphan Black, Counterpart, and, of course, Dr. Who, to name just a few).

Perhaps the best supernatural (certainly the best time travel) drama I’ve ever seen is the German thriller, Dark (3 seasons on Netflix).  Others worth checking out include, the popular supernatural thriller, Stranger Things (3 seasons, renewed for a 4^th, on Netflix), the cyber-punk dystopian, Altered Carbon (2 seasons on Netflix), mystery thrillers, The OA and Sense8 (both canceled way too soon after 2 seasons on Netflix), space drama, The Expanse (which aired for 3 seasons on SyFy before being picked up by Amazon Prime Video for at least 2 additional seasons), and Star Trek parody/homage, The Orville (which aired for 2 seasons on FOX before being picked up by Hulu).  Future Man (3 seasons on Hulu) is also worth checking out.  Disney+’s The Mandalorian (2 seasons) and HBO Max’s first season of Raised by Wolves are worth a look as well.

Superheroes – The best of Netflix’s street-level hero series, all excellent, are, Daredevil (3 seasons), Jessica Jones (3 seasons), and The Punisher (2 seasons).  Luke Cage (2 seasons) is also worth a look.  Other top-notch superhero series to stream include, Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy (2 seasons, renewed for a 3^rd) and Amazon Prime Video’s The Boys (2 seasons, renewed for a 3^rd), which is definitely not for kids.

Other Dramas – The list of great original scripted dramas available to stream is too lengthy to list here.  My favorites include, Netflix’s Ozark (3 seasons, renewed for a 4^th), Peaky Blinders (5 seasons, renewed for a 6^th) and Mindhunter (2 seasons), Amazon Prime Video’s Goliath (3 seasons, renewed for a 4^th), Sneaky Pete (3 seasons), and Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan (2 seasons, renewed for a 3^rd), Hulu’s Harlots (3 seasons), and Apple TV+’s The Morning Show (1 season, renewed for a 2^nd).

Comedies – There are several high-quality original scripted comedies on the various streaming services.  My favorites are, Netflix’s Russian Doll (1 season, renewed for a 2^nd), Dead to Me (2 seasons, renewed for a 3^rd), GLOW (3 seasons), and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (4 seasons), Amazon Prime Video’s Fleabag (2 seasons), The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (3 seasons, renewed for a 4^th), and Red Oaks (3 seasons), Hulu’s Shrill (2 seasons, renewed for a 3^rd), Casual (4 seasons), and Dollface (1 season, renewed for a 2^nd), and CBS All Access’s The Good Fight (4 seasons, renewed for a 5^th).

Evil on Netflix:  Season 1 of CBS’s superb new drama, Evil, debuted on Netflix as its #3 most watched series.  Netflix is the perfect promotional vehicle for CBS.  The streamer’s typical viewer might not tend to check out a new show on the older-skewing broadcast network.  Had Evil been a Netflix original series, it would have likely been hailed a one of the best shows of 2019, and certainly would have generated Emmy nominations for its female lead, the superb Katja Herbers, and the deliciously creepy Michael Emerson.  If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s your chance.  It will be interesting to see if its Netflix run provides a ratings boost for its season 2 premiere on CBS.  We’ll likely see more of these.

Star Trek: Discovery:  Season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery on CBS All Access ended in such a way to provide endless possibilities of what happens next.  Brilliantly done and visually stunning, season 3 manages to create a fresh and exciting take on a 50+ year-old franchise – not an easy task.  It’s also smart to be simultaneously airing season 1 on CBS’s linear broadcast network (although that decision was likely a result of the pandemic).  I’ve only seen the first two episodes, but wow.

Fargo:  To get ready for season 4 of Fargo, my wife and I watched the first three season’s on Hulu (the show is among FX’s several “FX on Hulu” series, which air on Hulu following their debut on FX).  This dark-comedy crime anthology, inspired by the Coen brothers 1996 film, has different stories and characters each season operating in the same universe.  Every season has a superb cast, quirky and dangerous characters, clever plotting and pacing, crisp dialogue, and a cool soundtrack.  Each season stands on its own, but I would still recommend watching them in order (definitely watch season 1 before season 2).  Television at its best.

Live Bingeing Still a Thing:  While we rightly spend a lot of time analyzing how people binge TV shows on streaming services, let’s not forget the regularly scheduled off-network daily marathons on a number of cable networks.  People probably spend more time binge watching The Big Bang Theory on TBS or any number of procedural dramas/cop shows on ION (Blue Bloods, Chicago P.D., Law & Order: SVU, NCIS L.A., Criminal Minds, etc.) than most series on streaming services in a given week.

The Un-renewal:  One unfortunate consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic is that some television series that had been renewed for another season have suddenly been axed.  This has also affected some shows that were in development, but have now been canceled.

Safety measures reportedly could cost as much as a half-million dollars per episode.  For a broadcast series that produces anywhere from 17-24 episodes per season, that’s a lot of additional expenditures, particularly for a show that’s not a clear hit.  Additional production time also impacts paying the cast and crew, location costs, and other fees that can pile up, particularly if a show is not produced in-house. 

ABC’s excellent but modestly rated new series, Stumptown, had been renewed, but now will not see a second season.  One reason cited was that scheduling delays meant it would not be ready for air until April, which effectively would have delayed it until fall 2021.  Netflix’s top-notch comedy, GLOW, will not see its planned fourth season – the show is reportedly too intimate to safely shoot with its large ensemble cast during a pandemic, and delays would be costly. 

Other series that have been un-renewed and will not see a second season include,  Netflix’s two promising new series, I’m Not OK With This and The Society, as well as Showtime’s On Becoming a God in Central Florida.  TruTV’s comedy, I’m Sorry was canceled after being renewed for a third season.  HBO Max’s upcoming Americanah was scrapped after its star, Lupita Nyongo had a pandemic-related scheduling conflict.  The new Superman series, Lois & Clark, which was set to join the CW’s Arrowverse stable of DC Comics superhero series in January 2021 is off (at least for now).  Amazon Prime Video was planning a four-episode miniseries, Cortes y Moctezuma (starring Javier Bardem), which is now not proceeding.  Showtime was developing The President is Missing (based on the Bill Clinton and James Patterson book), which is also not going to happen now (David Oyelowo was set to star).  This is Us star, Milo Ventimiglia, was set to star in USA Network’s Evel Knievel miniseries, but production delays forced him to drop out so he could go back to filming the new season of his hit NBC series.  We could see more un-renewals before this is all over.

Hidden Gems to Stream

I’ve been analyzing television programming for more than 30 years.  There was a time, not too long ago, when I could list every show on TV on any given night off the top of my head.  Not today.  This is the era of Peak TV+.  In addition to broadcast television and ad-supported and premium cable, we now have several major streaming services – the first three, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video (which have only been producing original content for about seven years), were joined three years ago by CBS All Access (soon to be rebranded Paramount+), and over the past year by Disney+, Apple TV+, HBO Max, and Peacock.  There are also numerous smaller and more niche streaming services.

Being stuck at home during the past six months, I’ve been searching for new shows to binge.  I still find something new to watch almost every time I start exploring Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime Video (mostly Netflix).  There are a number of series that have been on for several years that I am only just now discovering.  I recently finished binge watching three seasons of Money Heist, for example, which is one of Netflix’s most popular international series (and which debuted in 2017).  For me, bingeing is watching two or three episodes in one sitting.

I periodically write analyses of my favorite shows, or series that I think might be flying under most people’s radar that I think are worth checking out.  Some of the best of these include:  Netflix’s Dead to Me, GLOW, The Kominsky Method, Mindhunter, Ozark, Space Force, and Marvel’s Jessica Jones, Daredevil, and The Punisher; Amazon Prime Video’s Bosch, The Boys, Fleabag, Goliath, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and Sneaky Pete; CBS All Access’s The Good Fight and Star Trek: Discovery, and Apple TV+’s The Morning Show.

I thought this time I’d recommend some hidden gems that even folks who have been streaming series for a while might not have discovered.  I’m listing them alphabetically, and noting that if you like a specific program or genre, you might also like this show. 

            If you like procedural dramas and crime-solving geniuses:        

Bordertown (Netflix): A gifted, eccentric, but socially awkward detective inspector from Helsinki, Finland, Kari Sorjonen, (played brilliantly by Ville Virtanen) takes a job leading the Serious Crimes Unit in a small town near the Russian border, so he can spend more time with his wife (Matleena Kuusniemi) and teenage daughter (Olivia Ainali).  Of course, he doesn’t have any more time for his family, as he gets pulled into investigating one disturbing crime after another.

This stylish series is more serialized than U.S. procedural dramas – each crime is solved in two-or three-episode story arcs, making the show ideal for bingeing and more detailed than the typical “crime of the week,” which has to be resolved in one episode.  Almost as much time is devoted to family dynamics as to the crime Kari’s team is focused on.  It is also interesting to see how cultural differences impact the detectives’ approach to crime and criminals, which can be substantially more nuanced than in the United States.

The snowy Nordic landscape is beautifully shot, and becomes an integral part of the series.  The show is also distinctive in its depiction of strong women in positions of authority (as a matter of course), who are not at all reliant on men, and who control their own sexuality.   

Bordertown is Finland’s most popular TV show (the premiere was watched by one-fifth of the country’s population when it debuted there in 2016).  Anu Sinisalo, Lenita Susi, and Ilkka Villi co-star, and all are excellent.  Three seasons are available on Netflix.  It is not clear whether there will be a fourth.

            If you like supernatural mysteries, time travel paradoxes, and intricate puzzles:

Dark (Netflix): In the fictional German town of Winden, with a nuclear power station at its center, two children disappear in similar fashion 33 years apart.  Secrets and hidden connections among four families and a time-travel conspiracy are slowly uncovered in this sci-fi thriller that spans four generations. 

Netflix’s first original German series is compelling, twisty, and often mesmerizing.  The background music is appropriately ominous.  It starts out in 2019, but gradually expands to include several timelines – first 1986 and 1953, then 1920, and eventually 2052, and 1888 (the show explains why time travel is only possible in 33-year increments).  It’s not always easy to follow who’s who as different characters and versions of characters at different ages and different realities interact with one another. 

I often find time travel storylines annoying, because they typically follow one of two tracks.  Either you can’t change the past because if you could, there would be no reason for you to go back and change it in the first place (and if you are able to change some detail, it inevitably leads to causing the event you wanted to prevent).  Or, if you change the past, it simply creates an alternate timeline, rather than affecting the timeline you originated from.  So I expected a familiar, unsatisfying ending, which would leave many of the complex web of mysteries unresolved.  Yet the writers somehow managed to pull it all together into a conclusion that makes perfect sense and is close to perfect. 

While debating the existence of God, and fate versus free will, one of the characters declares, “God is time, and time is not compassionate,” which describes this series as well as anything.  As does the Albert Einstein quote that appears onscreen during the first episode: “The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.” 

I’d like to say Dark is a masterpiece and the best science fiction series ever.  I’d like to say it’s what Lost could have been if its writers had figured out a satisfying payoff for any of its many mysteries.  I’d like to say it’s the most meticulously well-crafted series I’ve ever seen.  But I think I need to watch the whole thing again to make sure I really think that.  It is thrilling (and rare) to watch a television series that achieves its lofty ambitions.

The large cast, which includes, Louis Hoffman, Lisa Vicari, Maja Schone, Jordas Triebel, Oliver Masucci, Mark Waschke, Sebastian Rudolf, and Dean Lennard Liebrenz, are all spot on for their respective roles.  There are three seasons.

            If you like Japanese and British crime dramas:

Giri/Haji (Netflix): British TV crime thriller first broadcast on BBC Two in the UK in 2019.  Family duty sends a Tokyo detective (Takehiro Hira) to London to look for his supposedly deceased mob-assassin brother  (Yosuke Kubozuka) as a yakuza war threatens to break out in Tokyo. 

The dialogue switches between English and subtitled Japanese, so if you’re the type that can’t watch television without multi-tasking, this may not be for you.  But don’t let that chase you away from this original and underrated series.  This is one of those hidden gems that often slips onto Netflix without fanfare.  It joined the streamer’s lineup in January, and I knew nothing about it until I was recently exploring Netflix looking for something new to binge while stuck at home during the pandemic. 

Giri/Haji, which means Duty/Shame, melds together several different genres and subplots – Japanese gangsters, British cop procedural, family drama, gay teen coming of age, revenge saga, even an all-female road trip – into a surprisingly cohesive whole (as it cross-pollinates two very different cultures).  There are moments of violence and moments of silliness.  At eight episodes, the story is crisp and concise, with no need for the type of filler you often see in broadcast cop or detective series, which typically run 17-22 episodes per season.  The final installment has a mind-blowing sequence that comes out of nowhere. 

It was canceled after one season, but the ending wrapped things up perfectly. Kelly Macdonald, Will Sharpe, Sophia Brown, Charles Creed-Miles, Justin Long, and Aoi Okuyama co-star.

If you like kick-ass women in action spy series:       

Hanna (Amazon Prime Video): Based on the 2011 film of the same name.  The first season introduces us to 15-year-old Hanna (Esme Creed-Miles), who has been raised in the forest by her ex-spy “father” (Joel Kinnaman), who trained her to be a hunter and killer, as well as an expert in hand-to-hand combat. 

Hanna was part of a secret government experiment to create genetically superior group of female super assassins.  He rescued her when she was a baby (after the CIA killed her mother), and they went into hiding.  Now discovered, they must evade the relentless pursuit of off-the-book CIA agents (one of whom is played by Mirielle Enos, who teamed with Kinnaman in AMC’s The Killing).

Season 2 revs up the stakes and emotional content as Hanna and her one-time pursuer, now an apparent ally, try to free Hanna’s new friend Clara (Yasmin Monet Prince) from the secret boarding school known as The Meadows, which is designed to mold young women into amoral killing machines.  Dermot Mulrooney plays the new head of the unit, who will do anything to keep the operation secret.  Mirielle Enos shines in the role of Hanna’s former adversary and new mother figure/protector, as she plays a complex cat and mouse game with her former (current?) employer.

Part thriller, part coming-of-age drama, Creed-Miles and Enos give performances that elevate this beyond what could have been just another cliched action series.  It’s been renewed for a third season.

If you like period dramas mixed with sex and violence:

Harlots (Hulu):  Don’t let the title throw you.  It’s not filled with as much gratuitous sex that the title might indicate (although sex is definitely on the menu).  Samantha Morton portrays a brothel owner trying to secure a better future for her two daughters (Jessica Brown Findlay, Eloise Smyth) in 18^th century London.  When her business is attacked by a ruthless rival madam (Lesley Manville), it sets off a war over the sex trade.

This is a story of how every class of woman navigates and tries to survive and thrive in a world where wealth and social standing mean everything, one in five women works in the sex trade, and good fortune or disaster is just a deception away.  The show has a number of sex scenes (although not as much nudity as you might think – they wore so many layers of clothing back then), most of it not for pleasure, but for power or to gain some advantage.

What in lesser hands could have easily been Dynasty-style high camp, instead becomes a gritty look at the realities of 18^th century life without regard for 21^st century sensibilities.  Harlots isn’t for everyone, but if you like this sort of thing, this is top of the line.

The series is created, brilliantly written, and directed by women, and it shows.  The point of view is refreshingly from the female gaze.  All three seasons are entertaining, gritty, and insightful.  Angela Griffin, Aiden Cheng, Pippa Bennett-Warner, and Daniel Sapiani co-star.

If you like mobster comedy-drama and quirky small towns:

Lilyhammer (Netflix): Steven Van Zandt (The Sopranos) stars in Netflix’s first original scripted series (debuting on the streamer in 2012) as a New York mob underboss, Frank “The Fixer” Tagliano, who is given a new identity after testifying against the Mafia head who ordered a hit on him.  He asks to be relocated to Lillehammer, Norway, which he fell in love with while watching the 1994 Winter Olympics, and where he believe no one will look for him.  In his new life, he is a Norwegian-American immigrant known as Giovanni “Johnny” Henriksen.

As he tries to settle in to this very peaceful, rules-conscious, town, Johnny uses his mob talents to deal with bullies, bad guys, and bureaucrats alike.  He purchases a bar and simultaneously befriends and corrupts several of the town’s locals, a colorful and quirky cast of characters who come to his aid when the mob tracks him down.  It’s not easy to successfully combine comedy and violence, but it is done expertly here.  The show is also notable for the way it deals with immigration and racism. The dialogue switches back and forth between subtitled Norwegian and English (which Johnny apparently understands, but can’t speak).

When this debuted in Norway, it was watched by one-fifth of the country’s population.  Since Lilyhammer premiered well before Netflix was a major streaming force, it never received the accolades it deserves in this country.  But you can enjoy bingeing all three eight-episode seasons. The large cast includes, Trond Fausa Aurvag, Marian Saastad, Steinar Sagen, and Fridtjov Saheim.

            If you like crime families and stylish gangster dramas:

Peaky Blinders (Netflix): After World War I, returning soldiers, revolutionaries, and criminal gangs are struggling to survive in a 1919 Britain rocked by economic upheaval and shifting social mores.  Returning war hero, Thomas Shelby (Cillian Murphy) is the young, charismatic, cunning, and ambitious leader of one of the more powerful gangs of the time, the Peaky Blinders, which he runs with his family.

The series is stylish, suspenseful, moody, beautifully shot, and often violent.  At first you might have some difficulty understanding some characters’ thick British accents, and the first few episodes are a bit slow as many of the main characters are introduced.  But if you stick with it, it ramps up and keeps going full blast. 

The Peaky Blinders are different from most pop-culture-type mobsters we tend to see on TV and in the movies in the U.S., and it’s interesting to see how they react when forced to clash with a New York mafioso (played by Adrian Brody).  It has an excellent ensemble cast led by Helen McCrory, Paul Anderson, and Joe Cole, and perhaps the coolest theme song of all time.  A barely recognizable Tom Hardy has a great turn as a Jewish gang leader who is Thomas Shelby’s sometime ally and sometime adversary.  

There are currently five six-episode seasons, which are perfect for bingeing.  They are planning for seven seasons, although no date for its return has been announced.

If you like neo-noir revenge fantasies:

Reprisal (Hulu): The always good Abigail Spencer (Timeless, Rectify) is compelling as a woman who was left for dead by her ruthless brother and his gang after discovering he committed a brutal crime.  She recovers, changes her identity, and re-emerges seven years later seeking revenge.  She recruits her own crew and sets about on her task of going after everyone who betrayed her. 

Smart and taut, this relentless femme fatale goes on her dark mission getting out of one jam after another until the final showdown.  The series is pulpy, soapy, chaotic, and visually engaging.  And the soundtrack rocks.  It’s more style than substance, but it’s a fun escape from reality.  Most of the interesting characters are women – with a couple of key exceptions, most of the men are interchangeable, beer-drinking gearheads.  The story could have been told in six episodes, instead of stretching it out to 10, but it’s still a fun ride. 

Ron Pearlman has a meaty role as a menacing mob boss.  Co-stars include, Mena Massoud, Madison Davenport, Rodrigo Santoro, Rhys Wakefield, David Dastmalchian, Craig Tate, and Lea DeLaura.  It was canceled after one season, but this should have been a limited series anyway.  Her mission completed, a new season would have been an entirely different show.

         If you’d like a darker version of Groundhog Day:     

Russian Doll (Netflix): Star, Natasha Lyonne created this comedy-drama with Amy Poehler.  She is stuck in her own “Groundhog Day” loop, as she repeatedly attends her own 36^th birthday party in New York City, dies at the end of the night, and re-awakens on the same day unharmed as though nothing had happened. 

No matter how many times she goes through slight variations of the same events and tries to alter the ultimate outcome, she reaches the same end by a variety of means (getting hit by a car, falling down a flight of stairs, etc.).  When she gets stuck in an elevator about to fall to her umpteenth death, one guy in the car (Charlie Barnett) is not panicking.  It turns out he is going through the same thing.  They team up to try and figure out what is going on and how to stop it (and how they might be connected) – but each time, they only have one day to figure it out before the cycle begins again.

Inventive, clever, and thought provoking.  The dialogue is fast-paced and witty, and provides several different and insightful views of pre-pandemic life in New York City.  A rare gem.  It’s been renewed for a second season, but no date has been announced.

 

If you like little-known (at least to White folks), inspiring stories about

successful American entrepreneurs:

Self Made (Netflix):  Four-part limited series about Sarah Breedlove, aka Madam C.J. Walker (Octavia Spencer), who started out as a washerwoman, built a haircare empire by tapping into an underserved demographic (black women) in 1908, and became America’s first self-made Black female millionaire.

Notable for telling an African-American success story without the tired trope of the “white savior,” Self-Made is propelled by crisp storytelling – which covers many aspects of racial and gender inequities of the late 1800s/early 1900s, including colorism (the relative privilege afforded light-skinned African-Americans compared to those with darker skin), which becomes one of the show’s central themes. 

Octavia Spencer is her typically powerful presence as the first of six siblings to be born free (in 1867), who rose to prominence through ingenuity and sheer will.  Few are as good at simultaneously displaying strength and vulnerability.  Carmen Eiogo gives a strong performance as her one-time (lighter-skinned) hero, who gives her an opportunity in her own hair-care business, and eventually becomes her biggest adversary.  Tiffany Haddish is excellent as her daughter Lelia, who famed poet Langston Hughes called “The Joy Goddess of Harlem,” for her role in providing a safe space for queer artists during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.  Blair Underwood plays C.J. Walker’s husband, who supports her efforts until he doesn’t.

The “inspired by” tag gives writers license to alter historical accuracy for dramatic effect, which is all too common in so-called biographies.  And a number of historians have complained about these inaccuracies, particularly elevating colorism to a main plot point, despite the fact that C.J. Walker and her real-life business rival (fictionalized for this series) had skin tones that were negligibly different.  Some historians were put off that Self Made seemed to be painting light-skinned Black privilege as the enemy, rather than the real evil, white supremacy.  That said, the series is entertaining, enjoyable, and, at four episodes, perfect for bingeing.

If you like discovering different communities and traditions:

Unorthodox (Netflix): Four-part German-American miniseries, inspired by Deborah Feldman's 2012 autobiography, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots.  The first Netflix series to be primarily in Yiddish. 

Shiri Haas gives a riveting and poignant performance as Esty, a 19-year-old Hasidic Jewish woman in Brooklyn, who flees to Berlin, where her estranged mother lives, to escape from an arranged marriage.  She starts living a more secular life outside the sheltered environment in which she was raised.  She’s falls in with a group of free-thinking musicians – until her husband (Amit Rahav) and his thuggish cousin (Jeff Wilbusch), by order of their rabbi, travel to Berlin looking for her. 

The story plays out like a spy thriller in parts, as Esty tries to fit into a modern world with which she is largely unfamiliar, while avoiding discovery.  Flashbacks show what her life was like in the Hasidic community before she decided to run away – including her passion for music in a community where women are not allowed to sing in public.  The dialogue shifts between Yiddish, English, and German.

You seldom, if ever, see the ultra-orthodox Jewish community portrayed on television with any sensitivity or authenticity, but they manage to pull it off here, while still making Esty’s decision to escape from this world that she finds so suffocating seem perfectly reasonable.  Don’t let the subject matter put you off.  The series is a remarkable achievement and well worth your binge time.  There are no plans for a sequel.

If you likes Hallmark movies:

 Virgin River (Netflix):  Romance drama based on the best-selling Robyn Carr novels.  After a personal tragedy, a midwife and nurse practitioner (Alexandra Breckinridge) from Los Angeles. seeks a fresh start.  She answers an ad to work for a doctor in the small remote California town of Virgin River, where almost everything is within walking distance and everyone knows everyone else’s business. 

Once there, she butts heads with the town’s egotistical, but good-hearted doctor (Tim Matheson), starts a relationship with the owner of the town’s central watering hole local pub, a former marine who suffers from PTSD (Martin Henderson), and continually wonders whether she made the right choice to leave the big city for small-town life, which is increasingly more complicated than she expected.  Just about every major character has some kind of secret.  Then there’s this side story about a local illegal pot farm run by some dangerous characters.

The drama is leisurely, the cast has good chemistry, and the series has charm without too much of the cheesiness of a typical Hallmark movie.  Annette O’Toole plays the busy-body town mayor.  Colin Lawrence, Jenny Cooper, and Lauren Hammersley co-star.  It’s been renewed for a second season.

How to Make the Emmys Better

My mother-in-law hasn’t watched the Emmy Awards in five or six years.  The main reason, as she puts it, “none of the shows I watch get nominated anymore.”  Now, I’m sure the networks aren’t particularly concerned about the 75+ crowd, but they do seem intent on driving away generations of people who grew up watching the Emmys without doing much to bring in younger viewers.  I also know a fair number of 45+ viewers that no longer watch the Emmys.

The Emmys continues to award TV series that most people haven’t seen, which only serves to depress ratings.  How many viewers have seen the 2019 major comedy award winners. Fleabag, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and Barry?  Not many.  In the drama category, Game of Thrones was the lone major award winner with a sizable viewing audience (and was still available in less than half of TV homes).  Despite press accounts that often predict the demise of broadcast television, the highest rated (i.e., most popular) shows on the air are still primetime broadcast network series (The Walking Dead and Yellowstone notwithstanding), few of which get nominated for major awards these days.

The Emmy telecast has alternated among the Big-Four broadcast networks over the years because of the once true notion that it’s a major promotional vehicle for all the broadcast networks. This, of course, is no longer the case.  Of the 100 major comedy and drama nominees in 2020 – best comedy, best drama, best limited series, and the acting categories in each group – nearly half were on HBO and Netflix (each with 24).  A sign that we really are in the era of Peak TV+, 44% of these nominations are for series on streaming services.  The broadcast networks account just 11 nominations combined, 3 of which are for Saturday Night Live – 4 are for NBC’s The Good Place, 2 for ABC’s Black-ish, and 1 each for NBC’s This is Us and Brooklyn Nine Nine.

Among premium cable, HBO’s nominations are split among eight series, although the majority go to just two, Succession and Watchmen, which garnered 7 apiece.  The network’s other nominees are, Insecure (3), Westworld  (2), Big Little Lies (2), Curb Your Enthusiasm (1), Euphoria (1), and I Know This Much is True (1).  Showtime managed just one nomination, for Black Monday.

Netflix’s nominees are split among 10 series, some returning favorites – Ozark (4), The Crown (3), Dead to Me (3), The Kominsky Method (3), GLOW (1), and Stranger Things (1), and some new – Hollywood (4), Unbelievable (2), Unorthodox (2), and Self Made (1).

Among the other streaming services, Amazon Prime Video’s 6 nominations are all for its perennial award winner, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel ; Hulu has 9 nominations divided among four series, The Handmaid’s Tale (4), Little Fires Everywhere (2), Ramy (2) and Normal People (1); Apple TV+ has 4 nominations, all going to The Morning Show, and Disney+ got a nomination for The Mandalorian.

On the ad-supported cable front, FX nabbed eight nominations for three series, Mrs. America (6), Pose (1), and What We Do in the Shadows (1).  Pop TV got 5 for Schitt’s Creek, AMC got 1 for Better Call Saul, and BBCA got 4 for Killing Eve.

There were a few notable snubs (although I hate that word – perhaps overlooked is better). 

• I don’t understand how Apple TV+’s The Morning Show can be nominated for best actor, actress, and supporting actor  and not be nominated for best drama (Reese Witherspoon deserved a nom for supporting actress as well).  Instead, Disney+’s The Mandalorian  scored a surprise nod.  It is essentially a space western about bounty hunters in the outer reaches of the Galaxy (taking place five years after the events in the Return of the Jedi movie).  Decent and entertaining, but hardly Emmy-worthy.  I guess voters wanted to throw Disney a bone for its new streaming service.  The Morning Show deserved this spot.

• If CBS’s wonderful new supernatural drama, Evil, was on Netflix, it might be hailed as the best new show of the year. Only the current bias against broadcast series prevented it from being nominated.  Few deserved a best actress nomination more than Evil’s  Katja Herbers, or best supporting actor more than the deliciously creepy Michael Emerson.  Likewise, ABC’s excellent new drama, Stumptown, and the always great Cobie Smulders deserved some consideration.  Among comedies, CBS’s Young Sheldon was as funny as anything nominated, and The Big Bang Theory, in its final season, deserved some love.

• Saturday Night Live should not be competing with regular original scripted comedies. It grabbed two spots in the supporting actress category and one for supporting actor that should have gone to those who were in actual series.

• I don’t see how Rhea Seehorn was overlooked for her sublime performance in Better Call Saul. Or how the great Titus Welliver never gets considered for Amazon Prime Video’s Bosch, which is only the best procedural drama on television.

• And how is CBS All Access’s The Good Fight not nominated for anything?

In 2019, None of the major acting or outstanding series awards for comedy or drama went to a broadcast network show.  In fact, a broadcast series hasn’t won for best drama since 24 got the honor in 2006.  In 2017, This is Us was the first broadcast drama even nominated in six years (it was also nominated in 2018 and 2019).  There are no broadcast series nominated for best drama in 2020  The last broadcast show to win for best comedy was Modern Family six years ago, in 2014.  In 2018, Black-ish was the only broadcast network comedy nominated, while in 2019 and 2020, NBC’s The Good Place was the only broadcast comedy to make the nomination cut (although Black-ish did get a best actress nomination and both Black-ish and The Good Place got best actor nominations).

TV series that air on different video outlets have different creative limitations based on levels of language, sex, and violence, and whether they must answer to advertisers. Having them all compete with one another is inherently unfair, and works against the more traditional broadcast networks – particularly since streaming series generally have between 8 and 13 episodes per season while the broadcast networks typically have between 17 and 24.  The obvious solution is to divide the awards into three categories – ad-supported, premium cable, and streaming services.

Had this been implemented for 2020, we might see an ad-supported drama category including, Evil, Stumptown, This is Us, Better Call Saul, Killing Eve, and Pose.  The premium cable drama group might have Westworld, Succession, Billions, Watchmen, Big Little Lies, and Vida competing against one another (get rid of limited series – there’s no difference between one season of Watchmen and Succession).  And the streaming drama category could have Ozark, Stranger Things, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Good Fight, Bosch, and The Crown.  We’d get a similarly diverse group of shows in the comedy categories.

There are so many good TV shows on the air these days that it might be a good idea to break it down to sub categories.  Instead of best drama for example, have best procedural drama, best supernatural drama, best action drama, best comedy-drama, best romantic comedy, best workplace comedy, and best family comedy. 

This would also pave the way for ending category gender divisions, so performers such as Billions star, Asia Kate Dillon, the first gender-nonbinary performer to play a nonbinary character on a major television series, won’t have to choose between “male” or “female,” neither of which identifies them.  With more nonbinary roles being cast, now is the time to do this.  With the additional sub categories, not having enough nomination spots available would no longer be a concern in ending gender distinctions (you could still have five or six nominees per category).

This way, more television series that people have actually seen would be up for major awards without negatively impacting the high-quality shows that are only available to subscribers in half the country. There’s little doubt that ratings would improve as well. Otherwise, let Netflix or HBO have the Emmys. In its current form it has become a vehicle to promote the broadcast networks’ competitors, so why not let one of them air it.  Given that the broadcast networks recently extended their rights to alternate the award show, however, now would be a good time to implement the above suggested changes.

If changes are not implemented to ensure that some of the most popular series are included, perhaps the broadcast networks should go back to the future and institute their own version of the long defunct CableACE Awards.  These were given by the National Cable Television Association to recognize excellence in American cable television between 1978 and 1997 – when the Emmys refused to recognize cable shows, and were the exclusive domain of broadcast network series (ACE stood for Award for Cable Excellence).  In the final year of the CableACE Awards, HBO’s OZ won for best drama and The Larry Sanders Show won for best comedy.

Advertisers to Waste Money on Out of Home Viewers

Nielsen recently announced that it was delaying plans to incorporate out-of-home viewing into its regular ratings reports, which had been scheduled to start with the upcoming fall TV season.  There was an immediate backlash from the broadcast networks, and Nielsen quickly reversed itself.  It is now going to include this data starting in September 2020 as originally planned.

The real headline should not be “Backlash from Networks Causes Nielsen to Reverse Itself,” but rather, “Paying for Phantom Viewers – Why is There No Backlash from Advertisers?” 

Why would cable networks such as A&E, AMC, Comedy Central, Discovery, Hallmark, ION, Lifetime, and numerous others that would not benefit at all, but would be hurt by Nielsen artificially boosting the ratings of some of their competitors, be in favor of such a move?

I’ve been in this business for more than 30 years, and for most of that time, various networks have been trying to get Nielsen to measure out-of-home viewing, and integrate the data into its standard reported ratings, which the advertising industry uses as marketplace currency.  The leading proponents (and potentially greatest beneficiaries) have been ABC/ESPN, ViacomCBS, CNBC, and Turner (now WarnerMedia).

I’m wondering what has happened to the agency research community?  Ten years ago (or so), when I was head of Audience Analysis at a major media agency, we would laugh Nielsen out of the room when they periodically would bring up including out-of-home viewing into its standard rating reports (which are used for the buying and selling of advertising).  Any junior media researcher (at least those working for more than a month or two) should know that out-of-home viewing in bars and restaurants have virtually no value to advertisers.

Traditionally the networks (sellers) have had the most influence on what types of audience data Nielsen evaluates in supplemental reports or analytical products, but agencies/advertisers (buyers) have ultimately decided what would be included in marketplace currency data.  Supplemental reports on out-of-home viewing have been produced for many years, but attempts to include them in regular rating reports have been repeatedly squashed by agency research directors who understood that this data, while interesting from a pure programming standpoint, have little relevance to advertisers.  Let’s be clear here.  Nielsen’s reason for being is not simply to measure program audiences, but rather to facilitate the buying and selling of commercial time.  Why in the world would advertisers pay for extra program viewers who largely do not see or hear their commercial message?

There is no question that major sports – NFL Football (CBS. Fox, NBC, ESPN, NFL Network), College Football (ABC, Fox, ESPN, regional sports nets), NCAA Basketball Tournament (CBS, Turner), Major League Baseball (ESPN, TBS, Fox, FS1, local stations, regional sports nets, MLB Network), NBA Basketball (ABC, ESPN, TNT, NBA TV, regional sports nets), NHL Hockey (NBC, NBCSN, ESPN, local stations, NHL Network), and Soccer (Fox, FS1, FS2, ESPN, Univision, Telemundo, ABC, CBS, beIN) will benefit most.  When Nielsen measured in-home program ratings, I could understand the argument that out-of-home program ratings should be included (I disagreed, but I understood the argument).  But in a C3 and C7 world, where the goal is to get as close to commercial minute ratings as possible, including bar and restaurant viewing makes no sense.

Anyone who has ever watched sports in a bar or restaurant knows the sound is either off or impossible to hear and understand, and when the commercial comes on you turn your attention away from the TV.  In short, the opportunity to see and hear a commercial message is far less than in an in-home setting (and in many cases, nonexistent).  And let’s not forget that if an advertiser buys a commercial and the station or network loses the audio feed, the advertiser will typically get some sort of make-good, either in the form a free ad time or cash back. 

Proximity to a turned on set is not the same as viewing, and is not the definition that applies to in-home viewing.  Right now, for example, my wife is watching TV in the same room where I am writing this report.  Were we a Nielsen household, she would be counted as a viewer while I would not.  I am not paying any attention to the TV.  But if we were outside, the portable device would include me as watching the program.  In addition to these obvious drawbacks, when you are in a sports bar, there are multiple screens that have commercials at different intervals.  I could be the same distance from three or four different screens, even though I might be watching only one or two of them.  Would I be counted as watching all four screens?  The whole idea of measuring commercial minute viewing in a sports bar is ridiculous.

There are some out-of-home venues where viewing should be measured by Nielsen and counted by advertisers.  Data from college campuses has been available for several years.  Viewing in hotel rooms would certainly be valuable to advertisers, as would the increasingly popular mobile viewing on smartphones and tablets.  I’m not sure how I feel about TV viewing being measured at work – I often had the TV tuned to CNN or CNBC with the sound off.  But bars and restaurants?  Measure them in supplemental reports, and let networks try to sell it as added value.  It doesn’t belong as part of currency ratings.  I simply don’t understand why any advertiser would accept this, particularly those who buy a lot of sports.  And I certainly don’t understand why media agencies are not up in arms. 

When the Big Lie Meets the Big Truth - Why TV is No Longer Trump's Friend

The concept of “the big lie” is essentially that if you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it people will eventually believe it.  Since most people tell small lies themselves in their everyday lives, while they would never tell colossal lies (so have trouble believing someone else would), they are more likely to fall for the big lie than the small lie.

 

President Trump has not only been a master media manipulator, he has also been a master of the big lie - simple statements that strike an emotional chord, require no additional explanation, can be repeated loudly and often, and are amplified by the conservative media/social media echo chamber.  Recent examples of President Trump’s big lies include, the Russia hoax, CNN and The New York Times are fake news, and mainstream media is the enemy of the people.

The regular (i.e., mainstream) news outlets have neither the time nor inclination to continually dispute every claim.  The other side is never given ample time to refute these lies, since that takes longer explanations that don’t fit neatly into today’s headline news culture – so occasional (even frequent) fact-checks are not nearly enough to drown out the big lie.  And while much is made of the President’s Twitter feed, it was television that gave it coverage beyond the 20% or so of the country that actively uses that social media site. 

When he was a candidate for president, Donald Trump was willing to be interviewed everywhere, often calling in by phone (at the time very unusual for any politician).  And even the most liberal news networks, such as MSNBC, were salivating to get him on air and give him a virtually uncontested platform.  After he became president, he didn’t have to spend any time answering tough questions for non-conservative outlets, he could just tweet something and he knew CNN, MSNBC and the broadcast networks would give it extensive coverage.  He reserved most of his in-person interviews for the friendly Fox News hosts.  TV was Trump’s friend and he knew how to use it.

The big lie can only be maintained, however, as long as you can shield people from reality.  President Trump and his surrogates have run head-first into something that has stopped them in their tracks – “the big truth” (something so obviously true that no amount of lying and no misinformation campaign can make you disbelieve it for long). 

The first big truth, of course, is the global COVID-19 pandemic.  This is different from virtually every other tragedy or catastrophe in our lifetime.  While it is a national and worldwide event, it is also occurring in every city and every local community across the country.

Initially, the epicenter of the virus was the New York metropolitan area, with much of the country being relatively unaffected.  The big lie that the virus was under control, it was really just a northeast problem, and the rest of the country could open for business was continually repeated by the President, Vice President, most Republican governors, Fox News, and other conservative media and websites.  Despite virtual unanimity  among the medical and scientific community that this was not the case, this message was able to resonate with Trump’s base and beyond.

Then came Memorial Day, when people throughout the country congregated and attended large gatherings – at about the same time that states with Trump-following governors, such as Texas, Florida, Arizona, and Georgia, started reopening non-essential businesses without strictly following the CDC recommendations for multi-phased openings.  Needless to say, new coronavirus cases spiked sharply in many southern and western states.

People tend to be more familiar with their favorite local newscasters, like them, and find them more credible when reporting local disasters than they do national correspondents.  They also tend to trust their local politicians more than national representatives.  Some Republican governors can continually deny, dismiss, and downplay the virus, and move to quickly reopen a state, and many of their constituents will believe them – until it hits their town.  Then it’s on the local news every day and people start to have friends and family members who are personally affected.

 Eventually even most GOP  governors and mayors started to realize a pandemic is not something with which you can play politics for too long.  Republican senators have started to come out publicly in favor of social distancing and wearing face masks, leaving the President virtually alone on an island of denial (along with a few remaining sycophantic governors).  The big lie almost always succumbs to the big truth.  Even the Republican Governor of Texas, a strong Trump ally, who had previously forbidden any local counties from mandating people wear face masks, finally relented and issued an executive order requiring face masks in public.

With President Trump and Vice President Pence continuing to act as if the virus is under control and will “soon disappear,” they are increasing seeming out of touch – even among many of their supporters.  Turn on the news today and you’re likely to see President Trump flouting not wearing a mask and saying there’s too much testing, followed by medical experts from his own administration wearing masks and saying more testing is essential to stop the spread of the virus (even Vice President Pence has finally started wearing a mask in public).  Trump and Pence are both on TV saying the worst is over and they don’t expect any second wave.  The next scene shows charts of how much U.S. cases are increasing, with government officials saying they’re preparing for a second wave.  Trump and Pence tout how well they are handling the virus.  The next segment talks about the EU banning travel from the U.S. because of how poorly we are handling the virus. 

The President and Vice President continue to encourage large rallies, with no social distancing and masks optional.  There’s actually video of Trump campaign workers removing social distancing stickers from seating at one of his rallies.  At the same time, their own medical experts are saying people should stay away from large gatherings, and if they need to go somewhere, social distance and wear masks.  For some reason the Trump campaign was surprised that their Tulsa rally was less than one-third filled.  Even many Trump supporters can see the big truth, with many, particularly older folks, fearing large gatherings.  President Trump’s national bully pulpit is not powerful enough to overcome the consistent local messaging of the big truth. 

Another example of the big truth was when an unarmed African-American man, George Floyd, was killed by a White police officer.  Unlike virtually every other well-documented instance of police abuse, there were no excuses for the racists, the police-supporters at any cost, the heads-in-the-sanders, the status-quo-ers, or the if-only-ers.  You couldn’t say “he’d be alive if only he didn’t attack the cops, if only he didn’t grab the gun, if only he didn’t just rob a convenience store, if only he didn’t resist, if only he got out of the car faster, if only he hadn’t been drinking, if only he wasn’t selling loose cigarettes, if only he didn’t look like that other Black guy who really committed a crime…” 

When Rayshard Brooks was shot in the back by police, for example, as most people were righteously outraged, Fox News brought on several people, day after day, to opine that the shooting was justified because Mr. Brooks had resisted arrest, grabbed a police taser and was running away (another “if only he…”), with virtually no pushback from the various Fox hosts.  Many conservative media outlets took the same stance.

This was not the case with George Floyd.  There were simply no excuses possible.  There was an 8-minute video showing a White cop put his knee on a handcuffed and unresisting Black man’s neck until he died, with three other cops standing by and letting it happen.  Callous, nonchalant, and disgusting, it immediately outraged a nation and led to months-long protests for racial justice and police reform across the country.  Even Fox News anchors and opinion hosts had to admit this was revolting and unjustified.  This seemed to be a wake-up call to White people across the country that this type of thing happens all the time, and African-Americans have a different and justifiably more fearful view of the police than they do. 

After a short period of sympathy (although not empathy) President Trump, Fox News, and other conservative media and online outlets have tried to shift the discussion away from George Floyd and toward rioting/looting, liberal calls to defund the police, attacks on cops, and the idea that there are only a few bad apples and no systemic racism among law enforcement (and, of course, the toppling of Confederate statues).  These have been largely overshadowed by diverse racial justice protests, swiftly shifting attitudes, and action – such as NASCAR banning the confederate flag, the NFL saying it previously made a mistake not backing player protests against police violence, cities voting to remove Confederate monuments, advertisers boycotting Facebook until it more strongly addresses hate speech, long-running brands dispensing with racist imagery and icons, Mississippi voting to remove the Confederate symbol from its state flag, nationwide calls for police reform, and even the Washington Redskins finally agreeing to change its “racist” name (the Cleveland Indians are also considering changing its nickname).

While we don’t yet know the extent of real change that will leap forth from this moment, it does seem that a large number of White people are willing to come to terms with some of the more racist aspects of American history, re-examine their own feelings (or at least learn more and acknowledge its existence), and are willing to actually do something about it.

The real world is starting to overshadow, overpower, and overwrite Trump’s scripted reality show.  Trump supporters are starting to have friends and relatives get sick or die.  Trump campaign workers and Secret Service agents are testing positive for COVID-19.  Even Fox news is forced to report these facts (its primetime opinion hosts notwithstanding).  Protests for racial justice continue throughout the country, as more and more cases where unarmed African-Americans have died in police custody are being publicly reexamined.  Even President Trump can’t tweet or get on TV often or long enough to counteract the ongoing daily narratives (and his surrogates seem less and less willing to go anywhere outside the friendly confines of Fox News).  President Trump’s recent speech on July 3^rd at Mount Rushmore, where he mentioned the coronavirus once and George Floyd not at all, and defended Confederate monuments, might have been red meat for his base, but it made a lot of other people, including Republican politicians who are up for re-election, cringe.  TV is no longer Trump’s friend.

Netflix is Still the Best Thing Ever

In 2011, I wrote my first report on streaming, titled, Netflix is the Best Thing Ever.  This was a year before its first original scripted series, Lilyhammer, and two years before the streaming service debuted its first major hit, House of Cards.

We had just subscribed to Netflix, and I thought it had a potentially brilliant model for success and was poised to enjoy tremendous growth.  I ended my article with the following:

“So far Netflix hasn't had any impact on our regular television viewing, but it has cut sharply into our pay-per-view movie and DVD viewing.  I think it's the first thing that's actually cut into my son's videogame playing.  We like the basic platform so much, however, that if and when Netflix does strike more content deals for top TV shows and movies, it will probably have a much bigger impact on our TV viewing -- especially in the summer.  The company has the right model, and seems to have hit that rare chord with kids, teens, and their parents.”   

There were some initial drawbacks, of course.  A lot of the stuff we wanted to watch, the best movies and most current TV shows, were not available.  My then 12-year-old son said at the time, “I like Netflix, but it kind of sucks.”  I thought this was actually a profound comment that indicated why Netflix had so much potential.  If we liked it when it sucked, how would we feel when it no longer sucks?

In 2017, I wrote another article titled, Netflix Still Rules.  My then 18-year-old son told me to “tell them it no longer sucks.”  By then there were numerous original scripted series my wife, son, and I watched, some together, some by ourselves.  Here’s part of what I wrote in that report:

“One reason Netflix continues to grow and thrive, aside from spending a significant amount on programming, is that it does not have the same constraints as ad-supported networks. It does not care about artificially constructed age groups such as adults 18-49 or 25-54. A 60-year-old woman has just as much value to Netflix as a 25-year-old man.  Netflix wants Longmire and Grace and Frankie to appeal to different viewers from Orange is the New Black, Daredevil, or Black Mirror.  Reach matters much more to Netflix than average ratings.  It also doesn’t need to worry about audience flow from one hour to the next or whether a given show fits into a nightly lineup.  Another thing that separates Netflix from ad-supported networks is that it doesn’t need to have one season come right after another – it can take its time.  For example, Jessica Jones debuted in 2015, and its highly anticipated second season is slated for March 2018.

While both Amazon Prime Video and Hulu do have a few major successful series, neither has anywhere near the volume of high-quality programming as Netflix.  Netflix has reportedly spent a remarkable $7 billion for content in 2017 and expects to spend $8 billion in 2018 (with the reported goal of increasing its annual original content from the current 25% to 50% by 2020).  Amazon Prime and Hulu are reportedly spending $4.5 billion, and $2.5 billion on content, respectively.  It should also be noted that more than 40% of the country does not have any subscription video on demand (SVOD).  There is still plenty of room for CBS All Access, the upcoming Disney streaming service, and others, but they won’t have much impact on Netflix for the foreseeable future.  They could have a major impact on cable however, as subscriptions to several of these streaming services will give many viewers everything they want to watch (at a lower overall cost).”

As I write this, it has been roughly 80 days since my family has been self-quarantined in our Hoboken, New Jersey apartment.  And it has become clearer than ever that Netflix is still the best thing ever.

It’s hard to believe that it was just seven years ago, in February 2013, that Netflix released the first streaming hit, House of Cards (Its first original series, Lilyhammer, debuted a year earlier).  It was the first streaming series to receive major Emmy nominations (56 over its six-year run).  Since then, Netflix has dropped a string of successful new series every year on its way to drawing more than 180 million subscribers worldwide (roughly 70 million in the U.S.).  Being first out of the gate with spending levels that rose from about $3 billion to more than $15 billion per year helped give Netflix a lead in the streaming wars it may never relinquish.  During the first three months of 2020, as COVID-19 started to cause people around the world to stay home, Netflix added a record 15.7 million subscribers. 

Some of Netflix’s more notable original scripted series include, House of Cards (2013);  Orange is the New Black, BoJack Horseman, Peaky Blinders (2014); The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Grace & Frankie, Narcos, Bloodline, Marvel’s Daredevil and Jessica Jones, Sense8, Master of None (2015); Fuller House, The Ranch, Stranger Things, Black Mirror, The Crown, The OA (2016); Dear White People, GLOW, Ozark, Mindhunter, 13 Reasons Why, Marvel’s The Punisher, Money Heist (2017); Altered Carbon, Lost in Space, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Narcos: Mexico (2018); The Umbrella Academy, Russian Doll, Dead to Me, Sex Education, When They See Us, The Politician, Unbelievable, You, The Witcher (2019);  Never Have I Ever, Gentefied, The Stranger, Unorthodox, Locke & Key, Self Made, The English Game, Hollywood, Space Force (2020). 

Netflix has also started to air some popular original reality and documentary series, such as Love is Blind, The Circle, Dating Around, Ultimate Beastmaster, Nailed It, American Factory (the first series from Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company), and the mega hit, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness. 

All of these represent just a small sampling of Netflix’s original programming.

 

In addition to its high volume of original scripted series, Netflix plans to release around 90 original movies per year (it had 50 in 2017).  That’s an extraordinary number – more than three times as many original movies released in theaters by the top two box-office leaders, Disney and Warner Bros., combined.  Six original movies ranked among Netflix’s most popular shows of 2019 – Murder Mystery, 6 Underground, The Irishman, Triple Frontier, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, and The Highwayman.  Two 2020 movies have already become two of its most popular programs of the year.  Both are actioners – Extraction (starring Chris Hemsworth) and Spenser Confidential (with Mark Wahlberg).  Many more are on the way.

While many of Netflix’s movies are not top tier, some are of the highest quality, as the streamer makes periodic pushes for Oscar gold.  Roma debuted in 2018 in theaters for two weeks before airing on Netflix, and was nominated for an Academy Award for best picture.  It didn’t win, partly because this practice is controversial and goes against what many theater owners and Academy members think of as traditional theatrical movies eligible for awards (and partly because a black & white subtitled movie isn’t about to win an Oscar unless it’s for Best International Feature Film, which it did win).  Theater owners want minimum three-month theatrical windows.  Netflix led the way last year with more than 20 Oscar nominations.  

Netflix’s 2019 original movie, Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci, was nominated for several Academy Awards – even though many theaters in the U.S., Canada, and Europe refused to run it in the short window Netflix insists upon.  Another well-received movie in 2019, Marriage Story (starring Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson), was also nominated for numerous awards.  Both were nominated for Best Picture.  Because of COVID-19, the 2020 Academy Awards will reportedly allow streaming movies that otherwise would have had theatrical runs to be eligible for an Oscar.

Netflix has been gradually raising its prices over the past few years – a necessity since the streamer spends significantly more than its competitors on original content and steadfastly refuses to accept advertising.  It currently has three pricing plans: Basic ($8.99 per month – you can only use one screen at a time and resolution is limited to SD, equivalent to pre-HDTV); Standard ($12.99 per month – you can use two screens at a time in HD); Premium ($15.99 per month – you can use four screens at once in HD or 4K Ultra HD if available). 

While Netflix’s growth in the U.S. has slowed, due primarily to increased competition in the streaming wars, it continues to see strong growth internationally.  From 2017-2019, Netflix’s subscribers grew from 58.4 million to 67.1 million in the U.S. and Canada (+15%).  During the same period, it increased from 26 to 47.4 million in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (+82%), from 19.7 to 29.4 million in Latin America (+49%), and from 6.5 to 14.5 million in the Asia Pacific region (+123%).

During the first quarter of 2020 Netflix grew to 182.8 million subscribers worldwide, 69.97 million in the U.S. and Canada.  Of the 15.7 million added in Q1, 2.3 million (15%) were in the U.S. and Canada while 13.5 million (85%) were international.  A survey conducted by Morning Consult and The Hollywood Reporter showed 35% of respondents said Netflix was the streaming service they watched most since health expert guidance recommended staying away from public gatherings.  No other streaming service broke 10%.  According to ComScore, Netflix’s OTT app share of streaming hours went from 25.2% the week of February 3^rd to 26.7% the week of May 11^th.  This compares to a change from 9.9% to 11.4% for Amazon, 17.6% to 14.7% for Hulu, 4.3% to 4.8% for Disney+, 21.7%  to 21.6% for Youtube, and 21.3% to 20.8% for “all other.”

Here are some things that will continue to benefit Netflix going forward:

• Netflix has more original scripted series (both current and canceled but still available) than Amazon Prime, Hulu, CBS All Access, and Disney+ combined.

• Netflix says they have a strong pipeline of new original content, and doesn’t expect COVID-19 to adversely affect its 2020 release schedule. Depending on the length of various lockdowns, production might be impacted in 2021.

• The coronavirus’s impact on the economy will negatively impact advertising revenue more than subscriber revenue.

• Netflix has by far the best user interface of any streaming service.

• Netflix is the only streaming service that focuses only on streaming. It is not worried about linear broadcast or cable TV, theme parks, live sports, or theatrical movie releases. Of course, it remains to be seen how much of an advantage this is after the lockdowns are lifted – but I have no reason to believe Netflix will give back most of the gains it is making now.

• Currently more than three-quarters of TV homes subscribe to at least one streaming service. According to Hub Entertainment Research, 63% of U.S. households subscribe to Netflix, 42% to Amazon Prime Video, 31% to Disney+ (which surged during the pandemic, particularly among homes with kids), 28% to Hulu, and 6% to Apple TV+.  CBS All Access + Showtime, which will soon be expanded to include all of the merged Viacom CBS company, is currently in about 11% of TV homes. 

Advertisers Don't Need the Upfront Anymore

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic tossed any idea of a normal fall TV season to the backburner, the value of the upfront marketplace, where upward of $20 billion in annual national TV advertising is placed over a few frenzied weeks in June, was being questioned. 

Under normal circumstances, we would now be in the middle of pilot season, when the broadcast networks prepare their mid-May upfront presentations to the advertising industry.  These have traditionally been big, expensive events, at venues such as Radio City, Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall, where the broadcast networks unveil their new programming for the following fall, talk about how powerful a marketing brand they are, discuss their strategy for the next broadcast year, and trot out a number of stars from their various shows.

Cable networks have generally had smaller presentations, which took place before the bigger and glitzier broadcast network affairs.  That was starting to change, however, as these large conglomerates are realizing it makes sense to combine their broadcast and cable properties into a single event.  For the past few years, NBCUniversal has included NBC, Bravo, E!, MSNBC, Oxygen, USA, and Telemundo in its annual presentation at Radio City, which traditionally leads off the broadcast upfront week.  Disney hosted its first combined upfront presentation last year, with ABC, Freeform, and ESPN (which previously had its own upfront event), being joined by FX and National Geographic, which Disney acquired in its $71.3 billion acquisition of Fox assets.  CBS has long held its event at Carnegie Hall.  Last year was Fox’s first presentation as an independent broadcast network.  Turner (TBS, TNT, Tru, CNN, Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, HLN, Boomerang, and Turner Sports), which always tried to play with the big boys, with its presentation mixed in with the broadcast networks, is now even bigger as part of WarnerMedia.  Discovery (now merged with Scripps), A&E Networks, and MTV have often had bigger events (although before the broadcast upfront week).  And now all of the broadcast networks’ parent companies (except FOX) have their own streaming services. 

 Of course, the very idea of a fall TV season in today’s video world seems old fashioned.  The broadcast networks might still adhere to fall and mid-season schedules for debuting new shows, but their competitors do not.  In a television landscape of 10-episode cable series, and streaming services where you can binge-watch entire seasons, viewers don’t necessarily think in terms of TV seasons anymore.  Nevertheless, the broadcast networks still hold onto a schedule that starts in the fall.  In light of the current pandemic, this might finally start to change.

Ad-supported cable networks premiere many new series when the broadcast nets are airing repeats and some limited-run series (mostly non-sweeps months and the summer).  Premium cable networks, such as HBO, Showtime, and Starz, air new shows throughout the year.  Streaming services, such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, release full seasons of new series whenever they happen to be ready.  CBS All Access does as well, although it releases new episodes on a weekly schedule, rather than all at once.  Disney+ and Apple TV+ recently added to the mix, and are about to be joined by Peacock and HBO Max. 

Because of all the new competitors emerging over the past few seasons, developing and sustaining successful scripted broadcast series (without NCIS or Chicago in the title) is more difficult than ever.  Unless a show clicks right off the bat these days, it’s hard to build it into a hit.  We are not likely to ever see another Cheers, which began as the lowest rated show of the week and ended its 11-year run in the top 10.  Or Seinfeld, a little-watched, mid-season sitcom that took three seasons to find an audience.  Or even The Big Bang Theory, which finished its first season in 68^th place and last year completed its 12^th and final season as the longest running multi-camera comedy in television history.

It will be interesting to see what the networks do if there is no original new product to air come fall.  It would make sense to air content from their own streaming services.  CBS could certainly air CBS All Access’s The Good Fight, The Twilight Zone, Star Trek: Discovery, and Star Trek: Picard on its linear network.  It would serve to provide free content and also to promote its streaming service.  ABC could do the same with The Mandalorian from Disney+ or any number of Hulu series – they might need to renegotiate some profit-sharing elements, but that would be more than offset by not having to pay additional production costs.  A broadcast network could also cut a deal with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, or even Apple TV+ to air a season or two of one of their shows (which would also serve as good promotion for the streamer).  The first couple of seasons of Bosch, for example, would fit in well with either the CBS or NBC procedural drama audience.  The show has six 10-episode seasons on Prime Video, and this could be great cross-promotion.  The broadcast networks accept advertising for streaming services, so the argument against promoting a competitor doesn’t fly.

Is the traditional pilot season in danger?  Spending tons of money on new programming remains a risky proposition – only about 20% of all the new series that debuted during the past five years were still on the air this season.  Producing pilots for shows that never make it to air is also quite costly.  Will this pandemic-delayed season be the impetus to end the antiquated upfront system and do away with pilots altogether?

Here are some reasons why advertisers used to benefit from the upfront buying season but no longer do, and why the broadcast networks (mostly) still like the process:

• Advertisers no longer need the upfront. There was a time, in the era of “Must See TV,” when certain shows and network nights were so far above the rest of the pack both in ratings and critical acclaim (NBC Thursday, ABC Tuesday, CBS Monday), that media agencies would scramble to ensure their advertisers got the limited inventory in those shows.  The bigger advertisers and agencies would invariably move the upfront marketplace to ensure they got first dibs.

Today, there aren’t really any broadcast series so head and shoulders above the rest that advertisers feel they need to be in them.  There are no Friends’, M*A*S*H’s, or Roseanne’s on the air anymore.  Young Sheldon might be popular, but it’s not The Big Bang Theory.  Grey’s Anatomy and The Good Doctor get solid ratings, but they are not E.R. 

• Broadcast networks like the upfront. Even though there is no question that linear TV is losing ground to other screens and streaming services, people of all ages (yes, even Millennials) still spend significantly more time with traditional television on an in-home TV set than with any other video source.  Both the consumer and trade press cover these events, and it enables the networks to push back against the regular press narrative shouting about the demise of linear TV.  Of course, as the upfronts have transitioned to mega-conglomerate events, this message about broadcast network strength has been diluted.  It is no longer the broadcast branding event it once was.

• The upfront still benefits broadcast networks but not advertisers. Only an upfront system enables networks to continually raise prices for declining ratings.  By having a broadcast upfront followed by a cable upfront, the broadcast networks have traditionally created an artificial demand for what is essentially an unlimited supply of commercial rating points.  Then, based off the increases the broadcast networks achieve, it sets the increases the cable networks can get (despite their own declining ratings).

Thirty years ago, the average broadcast network rating was more than 10 times the average of the top 10 cable networks.  Twenty years ago, it was 6 or 7 times larger.  Today it’s only 3 or 4 times larger.  The rating and reach advantage broadcast once had over cable is not nearly what it used to be.

• The upfront actually contributes to declining ratings. The upfront causes rankings to be more important than rating size.  In other words, if you gave network executives a choice between having their ratings increase by 10% but falling from first to third place in the standings, or declining by 10% but moving from third to first place, they would all take the latter.  This results in hurting the other guy being more important than improving your own ratings.  At a time when the broadcast networks should see themselves as allies, they stubbornly hold onto the antiquated notion that they are their only competitors.

The same is true for cable networks.  Despite the fact that only a few tenths of a rating point separate 30 or so networks, being in the top 10 is still ridiculously more important than getting higher ratings.

• Audience guarantees, still make the process seem worthwhile for advertisers. But as ratings continue to decline, both average network performance and individual program ratings become easier to predict.  It is far more likely that you will under-estimate a show’s performance than over-estimate it.  Guarantees only have value if a significant number of series perform below expectations.  This type of safety net is no longer necessary.  I’d rather buy commercial time on a quarter-to-quarter scatter basis than upfront – it would provide a greater degree budget flexibility and more certainty as to whether the programming I buy will actually air as scheduled.

• The upfronts allow the networks’ corporate owners to provide Wall Street with the confidence that they are financially healthy. It’s like a futures market.  It also gives the networks a more structured control over their inventory, and removes a level of uncertainty that would exist if they didn’t sell 70-80% of their commercial load at one time.

Upfront presentations and events will continue to evolve, and may not happen at all this year, but they are not likely to completely disappear anytime soon.  As long as the networks believe the process benefits them they will resist change.  And it’s much easier for the few sellers to get on the same page than the many buyers.  But if the question is whether or not advertisers need the upfront anymore, the answer is no.

COVID-19 and the Resurgence of Local News - Why it Might be Bad News for President Trump

Former Speaker of the House, Tip O’Neil was famously quoted as saying, “All politics is local.”  While all news is not local, it is certainly true that all catastrophes are local.  Whenever there is a major event or tragedy that strikes a local community, whether it be a mass shooting, a hurricane, or an earthquake, people in the affected city often turn to their local news station for updates and information. 

Local news reporters live in and are intimately familiar with the community, and people in the community are familiar with them and generally see them as on their side.  They are experiencing the same events at the same time, and there is an emotional connection.  I remember in the days following 9/11, while much of the country was tuned into national news, I tended to watch my favorite local news channel for updates.  They were more familiar with New York, I was more familiar with them, and we were all going through the same thing.

The COVID-19 pandemic is different from virtually every other tragedy or catastrophe in my lifetime.  While it is a national and worldwide event, it is also occurring in every city and every local community across the country.

As more people are forced to stay home, more people are watching television, and more people are watching local news.  Throughout much of March and early April, cable and local news have seen a spike in ratings, and not just among its regular older audience, but among younger folks as well (including kids and teens who are home from school as their parents tune to more local news to keep informed).

Local news viewership has risen most in regions of the country where the most COVID-19 cases have been reported.  The West Coast was hit earlier than other regions, and according to Nielsen, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Seattle had the most significant increases in local news viewing.  Then the New York metro area became the virus epicenter, and local news ratings climbed.

This might be bad news for President Trump and Republicans in general.

Ardent Trump supporters get much of their information about political and world events from Fox News or even more conservative outlets.  It often seems as though the President and his staff also live in this conservative news bubble, and tend to be surprised when exposed to a broader viewpoint.  They consider more liberal news entities, such as MSNBC and CNN, and much of the national broadcast network news to be fake.  Ordinarily, local news does not get heavily involved in fact-checking President Trump or his administration.  They often just report what he says and move on to other stories.  Most viewers, including Trump supporters see their favorite local news team more as family (or at least part of their routine) and tend to trust them more than they do mainstream national news outlets.  Numerous studies and surveys bear this out.

People are home and are heavily tuning in to their local news to see daily updates from their governors and mayors on how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting their communities.  What they are hearing often conflicts with the national press conferences given by the President.  At the same time, viewers (including Trump supporters) are seeing their local emergency room doctors and nurses in dire situations begging the administration for more supplies and protective gear (as the administration is saying they don’t really need that much and look what a good job we are doing). 

While initial virus epicenters have been primarily in blue states (NY, Cal), red and purple states are starting to get hit hard (Louisiana, Michigan, Colorado, Texas, Florida…).  Even most Republican governors, who can no longer ignore what all their constituents can see with their own eyes, are walking a fine line between disagreeing and criticizing the Trump administration.  But the effect is the same – don’t believe what you hear from the administration, here’s the truth.  This dichotomy is certainly having an effect on potential Trump voters – and could soon start to impact even his strongest fans.

You can only convince your true believers that a pandemic is a hoax until it strikes their community and affects them or someone they know.  During this type of crisis, people turn to more than just their go-to source of political agreement echo chamber (whether conservative or liberal) for information.  To be sure, there are many people who see Fox News as a purveyor of the real truth, an important counterbalance to what they have long believed to be liberal bias among traditional media outlets.  So, when Fox primetime hosts, such as Sean Hannity and Laura Ingram, imply or claim outright that the coronavirus is a hoax, they believe them.  When a loyal Fox News viewer or one of their family members follows their lead and doesn’t take the pandemic seriously, what happens when they or someone they love actually gets the virus, and then hears Fox News hosts claim they never said it was a hoax in the first place?  Will their trust in Fox News and President Trump start to fade?  This remains to be seen, but I suspect the answer is yes at least for a chunk of them.   

This could also impact some Republican Governors, who delayed (or still refuse) implementing social distancing or stay-at-home policies for no other reason than to avoid annoying Donald Trump.  This type of sycophantic behavior might serve them well under normal circumstances, when a Trump tweet could make or break their political career.  But not when it negatively affects the health and safety of their constituents.  It will be hard for them to get away with denying they did this come election time.

Princeton University psychologist and public opinion researcher, Hadley Cantril, many years ago developed several “laws of public opinion.”  Here’s one that has always stuck with me.  “Events of unusual magnitude are likely to swing public opinion from one extreme to another.  Opinion does not become stabilized until the implications of events are seen with some perspective.”  A good example of this is the Iraq war.  After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, people across the country wanted a strong U.S. response, and were more likely to believe whatever “evidence” the government provided to support invading Iraq.  Several years later, with the perspective of time, most of those same people saw the invasion as a mistake.

There is also something known as the “rally around the flag effect.”  In times of crisis, Presidential approval ratings tend to be elevated, regardless of how low they were before the crisis or their political party.  Some examples – George W. Bush had an all-time high approval rating of 90% after 9/11, Harry Truman’s approval ratings rose to 87% at the end of WWII, George H.W. Bush had an approval rating of 86% during the first Gulf War, FDR’s was 83% after Pearl Harbor, Barack Obama’s approval rating was at his highest (in the 60s) during the financial crisis in 2009, and even Jimmy Carter had his approval rating jump from a dismal 29% to 58% at the start of the Iran hostage crisis.  President Trump’s approval rose from 44% to 49% from the beginning to the end of March.

So, while President Trump, his surrogates, and his media allies are touting the fact that his approval ratings are at an all-time high, it remains startlingly low at under 50% during a time of national crisis that is unlike anything we’ve ever seen.  This should be reason for panic rather than celebration.

The longer this pandemic lasts, and the more television markets that continue to see local news viewership surge, the greater the challenge will be for President Trump to maintain his defense against the public perception that his administration did not act fast enough and is not doing enough to help the people now.

TV Shows to Binge When You Have to Stay the F**K Home

As many of us are working from home, and stuck at home, with no bars or restaurants to go to, no clubs or concerts to attend, and no live sports to watch, it’s somewhat comforting to know we live in the era of Peak TV+.  OK, not really, but there is more good stuff to watch on TV than ever before. 

And now that almost everything is available to stream somewhere, this is the perfect time to catch up on some great premium cable and streaming series you may not have seen – such as HBO’s The Sopranos, The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, Deadwood, Game of Thrones, and Veep, Showtimes’ The L Word, Weeds, Shameless, Ray Donovan, and Homeland, Starz’ Spartacus, Black Sails, Power, Counterpart, American Gods, and Outlander, Cinemax’s Banshee, The Knick, and Strike Back, Netflix’s House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, BoJack Horseman, Stranger Things, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Sense8, Narcos, and The Crown, Amazon Prime Video’s Transparent, The Man in the High Castle, and Mozart in the Jungle, Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Casual, and Marvel’s Runaways.  And, of course, nine seasons of The Office are still available on Netflix before switching to Peacock in 2021, while 11 seasons of Friends are moving to HBO Max in May.

Here’s my list of some of the most binge-worthy scripted series, from a variety of sources, that might be flying under your radar.  They are definitely worth checking out, and should keep you busy for several weeks if need be.  Note that new season premiere dates listed here are subject to change due to the Coronavirus.

Altered Carbon (Netflix): In a dystopian future 300 years from now, new technology has transformed society by making human bodies interchangeable (if you can afford it), and death no longer necessarily permanent (your consciousness can be put into a new human “sleeve”). 

Joel Kinnaman portrays the lone survivor of a group of elite warriors who were defeated in an uprising.  His mind was imprisoned for years until a wealthy businessman gives him a chance to live again if he solves the murder of the man’s previous “sleeve.”  The second season dropped last month and has a new cast, with Anthony Mackie taking over for Kinnaman (the same character in a new human sleeve).  Season 2 is good, but it’s hard to top great first season.

Bad Blood (Netflix): Canadian mob drama based on a true story about a Montreal-based Italian crime family. They consolidate various mob factions – Haitians, bikers, the Irish – to completely control Montreal, the entry point for much of the drug trade going to the Northeast United States.  Things run smoothly until other gangsters try to muscle in on their turf. 

Anthony LaPaglia and Paul Sorvino bring their “gangster cred” as heads of the Rizzuto crime family, as does the always interesting Enrico Colantoni as the family’s consigliere.  Kim Coates (Sons of Anarchy) shines as their ambitious and often brutal right-hand man.  Two seasons are available.  No word yet on a potential third season. 

Barry (HBO):  Seamlessly moving between light comedy and dark drama (not easy to do), Bill Hader is superb as a disillusioned and depressed midwestern hitman.  In season 1, he follows one of his targets to an acting class, where he becomes drawn to this community of students, falling in love with one of them (Sarah Goldberg).  He remains there to take acting lessons and pursue a more normal life.  But changing is not so easy, as gangsters he’s worked for and against come to town. 

Henry Winkler is great as Barry’s pompous acting teacher, as is Anthony Carrigan as wacky mobster, Noho Hank.  Stephen Root also shines as Barry’s “handler.”  On paper, this high concept show shouldn’t work.  On television, with these stellar performances, it somehow creates magic.  It’s been renewed for a third season.

Better Call Saul (AMC): See how Breaking Bad’s lawyer, Jimmy McGill (the excellent Bob Odenkirk) takes the long slide down the slippery slope that ends when he re-invents himself as sleazy mob lawyer, Saul Goodman. Other Breaking Bad regulars, Mike (Jonathan Banks), the one-time cop turned criminal “cleaner,” and drug kingpin Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito), have prominent roles.  Rhea Seehorn gives an award-worthy performance as Jimmy’s girlfriend Kim, a hotshot lawyer in her own right, who is thrilled by his con-man side but gradually starts to believe that she is being conned as well. 

The fourth season starts to move closer to the Breaking Bad universe (that show aired from 2008-2013 and led to the BCS spinoff).  Bob Odenkirk’s performance is so good that the viewer (who knows what he becomes in Breaking Bad) can still be unsure of his motives and moral compass.  Currently airing season 5, it’s been renewed for a sixth and final season.  Seasons 1-4 are available on Netflix.

Billions (Showtime): A master class in casting and acting.  Set in New York, a shrewd, brilliant, and ruthless U.S. Attorney, Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti), who’s never lost an insider trading case faces off in a high-stakes battle with Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis), a shrewd, brilliant, and ruthless multi-billionaire hedge-fund king.  Who’s the predator and who’s the prey shifts throughout, as each uses all his power and influence to outmaneuver the other, as well as fight the many power players that get in their way.  

Maggie Siff is excellent as Rhoades’ wife Wendy, who also has a high-profile job at Axelrod’s firm.  Asia Kate Dillon is a revelation as brilliant non-binary Axelrod mentee, Taylor Mason, who goes off on their own and becomes his adversary.  Everyone in the supporting cast, both in regular and recurring roles (which include John Malkovich, Eric Bogosian, Nina Arianda, and Rob Morrow), is great.  Four seasons (48 episodes) are available to binge before season 5 debuts in May.

Bodyguard (Netflix): British television hit centering around a special forces war veteran with PTSD (Richard Madden), who is now a police sergeant in London.  After thwarting a terrorist attack, he is assigned to protect the home secretary, a controversial politician and major proponent of the conflict he fought in. 

You’ll be hooked after the first 15 minutes or so as the intensity of the opening continues unabated for the entire six-episode run.  Complicated, taut, absorbing, violent, and perfectly paced.  It will hold you and keep you guessing from start to finish.  They’re still discussing a potential second season which probably wouldn’t happen until 2021.

Bosch (Amazon Prime Video): Titus Willever is the smart, tough as nails, and haunted detective Harry Bosch.  He’s been brilliant in many supporting roles over the years, and it’s great to see him in the lead.  He melts into the role (as he does with virtually everything he touches).  The ensemble cast of regulars, including Jamie Hector, Madison Lintz, Lance Reddick, Amy Aquino, Troy Evans, and Gregory Scott Cummins, are spot on for their respective roles.  The guest stars have been a string of superb character actors who you will immediately recognize (if you’re over 40) and wonder where you’ve seen them before.

Each season focuses on one main crime that Bosch and crew need to solve, along with one or two related (or not-so-related) crimes.  Solving the crimes focuses on the everyday routine police work that the show somehow manages to continually make interesting.  This is not only the best procedural drama currently on television, it might be the best procedural drama ever on television.  If you haven’t discovered Bosch yet, you’ll have the joy of being able to binge 50 episodes.  Season 6 is scheduled to drop this April.

The Boys (Amazon Prime Video): What would happen in a world where superheroes are real, unaccountable, and can basically do whatever they want (such as accidentally kill ordinary citizens)?  And what if they work for a multibillion-dollar conglomerate that licenses their images and covers up their crimes?  Perhaps a vigilante group would be formed to try and expose the rogue “heroes.”  In this dark comedy-drama, based on the comic book series, such a world exists, as members of a Justice League-type superhero group known as The Seven wreak havoc as they sometimes do and sometimes only pretend to do great deeds, often leaving destruction and death in their wake.

Just because this show centers around superheroes, however, does not mean it’s for kids.  Scenes of graphic and implied violence and sex are prevalent throughout.  But for adults, this is a surprisingly thoughtful take on the power of giant, faceless corporations in our society, and how they can shape the news and public opinion – and sometimes can only be brought down by whistleblowers and vigilant activists.  It has been renewed for a second season, probably in summer 2020.

Castle Rock (Hulu): Castle Rock, Maine, the fictional location familiar to Stephen King fans, is the setting for this psychological horror anthology series that delves into worlds and themes that unite King’s canon.  Sissy Spacek, Bill Skarsgard (who starred in King’s Carrie and It, respectively), Jane Levy, and Scott Glenn are among the first season stars. 

Season 2, which focuses on the early pre-Misery days of Annie Wilkes (Lizzy Caplan), has a completely new cast, including, Paul Sparks, Barkhad Abdi, Elsie Fisher, and Tim Robbins.  There are really three audiences for Castle Rock – hardcore King fans, non-fans, and casual fans (who might be aware of Shawshank and Misery, but are not intimately familiar with the Stephen King multiverse).  As the latter, I liked the season 2 better.  No details yet on a third season.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Netflix): A darker re-imagining of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, with the excellent Kiernan Shipka in the title role as Sabrina Spellman, who has to deal with her dual nature (half witch, half mortal), while fighting evil forces that threaten her family and the human race. 

The writers and actors, which include Lucy Davis, Miranda Otto, Michelle Gomez, Tati Gabrielle, and Richard Boyle provide just the right combination of thrills and camp.  As the characters become more comfortable in their roles, each season is better than the last.  There are currently three seasons and there will be a fourth.

Dark (Netflix): In a fictional German town, children start disappearing.  Secrets and hidden connections among four estranged families and a time-travel conspiracy are slowly uncovered in this sci-fi thriller that spans four generations. 

Netflix’s first original German series is compelling and twisty, and often mesmerizing.  There are currently two seasons available.  A third and final season has been ordered.

Dead to Me (Netflix): Christina Applegate gives a career performance in this dark comedy as a woman whose husband was recently killed in a hit-and-run crash.  She becomes friends with a woman (Linda Cardellini) she meets at a grief-support group.  Her new friend, however. may not be all she seems.  

The show seamlessly moves from comedy to crime mystery and back.  There are numerous twists and turns, many of which happen in the first few episodes.  Produced by Adam McCay and Will Ferrel (the team that brought us Anchorman).  This is definitely worth a look.  It has been renewed for a second season, which will probably drop in mid-2020.

Elite (Netflix): I’ve heard this enormously entertaining Spanish language teen drama (watch the subtitled version) described as a combination of The O.C., Riverdale, Veronica Mars, and Big Little Lies.  When three outsider scholarship students (Itzan Escamillia, Miguel Harran, and Mina El Hammani) arrive at an elite Spanish private school, class warfare ensues.  Wealth, sex, and power are all social currency here, to go along with several juicy subplots, a love triangle, and a central murder mystery. 

On paper, many of these characters and plots seem like typical teen soap clichés, but the storytelling rises above them – especially in its portrayal of class, privilege, prejudice, and sexuality.  Season 3 dropped this March, and there will reportedly be a fourth and fifth season with a completely new cast.

Fleabag (Amazon Prime Video): The immensely talented Phoebe Waller-Bridge writes and stars in this comedy-drama as a depressed, dysfunctional, yet strangely confident single woman with a voracious sexual appetite, navigating the streets of London and dealing with her equally dysfunctional family (and a “hot priest”).

She regularly breaks the fourth wall with her side-eyed glances and talking directly to the camera as the show provides insights into the ongoing themes of love, grief, faith, and using sex to fill a void in your life.  The sex scenes (of which there are many) are sometimes hilarious and sometimes squirm-inducing, so Fleabag is not for everyone.  You seldom, if ever, see an aggressive, independent, and sexually autonomous woman like Fleabag on television (even in the age of more creative freedom offered by advertiser-less programming).  A uniquely inventive gem. Fans had to wait three years between the two six-episode seasons, but it was worth it.  Phoebe Waller-Bridge has indicated there probably won’t be a third season.

Future Man (Hulu):  Josh Hutcherson plays a janitor who spends most of his free time playing a video game that is so hard to win that most people have given up on it.  After he finally beats the game, warriors from the future appear to tell him the game was a test to find a champion who can save the Earth from extraterrestrial invasion.  Seth Rogan is one of the executive producers.  Two seasons are currently available, and it has been renewed for a third season.

Giri/Haji (Duty/Shame) (Netflix): British TV series first broadcast on BBC Two in the UK in October 2019.  Family duty sends a Tokyo detective to London to look for his mob-assassin brother as a yakuza war threatens to engulf Tokyo.  The dialogue switches between English and Japanese.  Don’t let that chase you away from this excellent and underrated crime thriller.  Takehiro Hira, Kelly Macdonald, and Will Sharpe star.  No word yet on a second season.

Glow (Netflix): A behind-the-scenes fictionalized look at the 1980s syndicated TV show, the low-budget Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.  Alison Brie, as an unemployed actress who becomes a GLOW star (as evil Russian, “Zoya the Destroyer”) and Betty Gilpin as a former soap star (now spandex-laden wrestling All-American, “Liberty Belle”), are standouts, as is comedian Marc Maron as a washed up “B” movie director who leads the ladies to fame.  Along with a winning and diverse ensemble cast of misfits, they make this way more fun than it has any right to be. 

Geena Davis joins the cast in season 3, which brings some shocking real-life 1980s events into the forefront, and deals with more serious topics (racism, gender inequality, and homophobia, among others).  It manages to walk the tightrope between pathos and genuinely entertaining comedy.  The writing and acting in the latest season raise GLOW to another level.  One of the best original series on Netflix (or anywhere).  It has been renewed for a fourth and final season.

Goliath (Amazon Prime Video): Billy McBride (Billy Bob Thornton), once a high-powered lawyer ln Los Angeles, has become a burned out and washed-up ambulance chaser, who spends more time in bars than in a courtroom.  But he’s still got the skills.  Thornton’s naturalistic, laid back style is well suited as a former Goliath, now a David, beaten down but still confident in his ability to take down new Goliaths each season.  In season 1 he reluctantly agrees to take on a wrongful death lawsuit against the biggest (and extremely dangerous) client of the giant law firm he helped create (William Hurt plays his former partner, now biggest adversary).  He puts together a ragtag team that helps him uncover a big and deadly conspiracy.  Season 2 has a harder edge, as it becomes more difficult for David to slay all the Goliaths.  Randy Quaid, Amy Brenneman, Beau Bridges, Griffin Dunne, and Sherilyn Fenn, join the season 3 cast. 

Created and written by David E. Kelley and Jonathan Shapiro.  Each season is substantially different from the previous one, so I can understand only liking one or two of them – I liked season 1 the most, and season 3 the least.  It’s been renewed for a fourth season. 

The Good Fight (CBS All Access): The wonderful Christine Baransky stars, along with Cush Jumbo and Rose Leslie in this female-driven legal drama spinoff of CBS’s The Good Wife.  They make a diverse team that is as much in (or out of) control professionally as they are in their relationships.  Audra McDonald and Delroy Lindo also star.  Sexual harassment, racism, and income inequality have been dealt with here in a more thought-provoking way than is typically seen on television.  The first season is uneven with its Madoff-like plot, but as it developed its main characters, the second season hit its stride and found its voice.  There remains a clear anti-Trump tone, particularly with the over-the-top animated shorts that appear in each episode during the third season (which are often hilarious if you agree with the politics). 

Just the right mix of drama and humor, along with the excellent cast and superb writing, make this great television – although returning to more courtroom drama and less anti-Trump rhetoric would not be a bad thing (but not likely as election season looms).  The fourth season starts this April.

The Good Place (NBC): The afterlife has a good place and a bad place in this sharp-witted, original comedy that’s hard to describe without providing spoilers.  Suffice it to say that this is a show about humanity and hope.  There’s a point system to get into the good place, and life on Earth has become so complex, that it’s virtually impossible for anyone to get in under the current system.  So how did Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell), who was a terrible person when alive, wind up there?  Michael (Ted Danson), the architect of her heavenly neighborhood, seems to have the answer.  The group of misfits that might also be in the wrong place include William Jackson, Jameela Jamil, Manny Jacinto, D’Arcy Carden, who are all excellent here.  Maya Rudolph has a recurring role as the judge, which she plays to hilarious effect. 

The surprise ending to season 1 changed the game for everything that came after, and elevated this unique comedy into something greater than it was.  The show has surprisingly insightful conversations about the nature of goodness – does it matter if you’re a bad person, do people have a natural tendency to better themselves, is it possible for people to be ethical when surrounded by unethical systems.  These heavy topics are sprinkled in with fart jokes and demons from the bad place discussing particularly gross ways of torturing people.  The fourth and final season just ended.  Head and shoulders above any other comedy on the broadcast networks (and among the top anywhere).

Hanna (Amazon Prime Video): Based on the 2011 film of the same name, 15-year-old Hanna (Esme Creed-Miles) has been raised in the forest by her ex-spy “father” (Joel Kinnaman) to be a hunter and killer, as they evade the relentless pursuit of off-the-book CIA agents (one of whom is played by Mirielle Enos, who teamed with Kinnaman in AMC’s The Killing).  Part thriller, part coming-of-age drama, Creed-Miles and Kinnaman give performances over eight episodes that elevate this beyond just another action series.  Season 2 will air sometime in 2020.

Harlots (Hulu):  Samantha Morton portrays a brothel owner trying to secure a better future for her two daughters (Jessica Brown Findlay, Eloise Smyth) in 18^th century London.  When her business is attacked by a ruthless rival madam (Lesley Manville), it sets off a war over the sex trade.

This is a story of how every class of woman navigates and tries to survive and thrive in a world where wealth and social standing mean everything, one in five women works in the sex trade, and good fortune or disaster is just a deception away.  The show is full of sex (although not as much nudity as you might think – they wore so many layers of clothing back then), most of it not for pleasure, but for power or to gain some advantage.  The series is created, written, and directed by women, and it shows, as the point of view is refreshingly from the female perspective.  Enjoyable, entertaining, and insightful.  No word yet on whether there will be a fourth season.

High Fidelity (Hulu): A female record store owner (Zoe Kravitz) in Crown Heights Brooklyn, revisits past relationships through music and pop culture, as she tries to get over her one true love.  This is a gender-swapped remake of the popular 2000 movie starring John Cusack.  No word yet on season 2.

Killing Eve (BBCA): Sandra Oh has justifiably received critical acclaim and awards for her role as the title character, a bored, but ambitious and insightful mid-level MI5 security officer.  But Jodie Comer (who just won an Emmy for her performance) is the real revelation as a mercurial and brutal female assassin. 

In season 1, Eve is tasked with hunting down the sociopathic killer.  As they become equally obsessed with one another (admiration, fear, love?), a fierce game of cat and mouse ensues.  Men are the peripheral characters here, and most of the victims.  The second season lacks some of the magic of the first, no doubt because the great Phoebe Waller-Bridge is no longer the head writer, as the two women become even more obsessed with and attracted to one another.  It’s still a great show, however.  Season 3 premieres this April, two weeks earlier than originally planned.

The Kominsky Method (Netflix): Created by comedy master, Chuck Lorre, and starring Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin as an iconic aging acting coach, Sandy Kominnsky and his long-time agent and friend, Norman.  Life is constantly throwing them curveballs as they navigate their later years in Los Angeles, a city that places more value on youth and beauty.

The inspired pairing of Douglas and Arkin, combined with brilliant writing, make for a hilarious and often poignant first season.  Danny DeVito has an extremely funny recurring role as Kominsky’s urologist.   If you’re over 50 (or 60), this will resonate, if you’re under 50, this is what you can look forward to (or not).  In season 2, Paul Reiser joins the cast as Sandy’s daughter’s new boyfriend (who is uncomfortably close to Sandy’s age), and Jane Seymour guest stars as Norman’s former flame (and they renew their relationship after 50 years).  Kathleen Turner, who worked with Michael Douglas during the 1980s (Romancing the Stone, The War of the Roses) also joined the cast as Sandy’s ex-wife.   Another winning season.  No word yet on whether there will be a third season.

Hunters (Amazon Prime Video): Inspired by true events, this drama follows a diverse squad of vigilante Nazi hunters in 1977 New York City, who discover that hundreds of escaped Nazis are living in America and conspiring to create a Fourth Reich in the U.S.  The cast includes Al Pacino, Kate Mulvany, Carol Kane, Saul Rubinek, Logan Lerman, Tiffany Boone, Dylan Baker, and Lena Olin.  Over the top and not always easy to watch, but worth a look.  No details yet on season 2, but I’d be surprised if it didn’t happen.

Little America (Apple TV+):  This eight-episode anthology series tells eight different stories that go beyond the headlines to look at the lives of immigrants in America.  It was renewed for a second season prior to its premiere.

Little Fires Everywhere (Hulu): Based on Celeste NG’s 2017 novel, this drama is set in Cleveland’s planned neighborhood of Shaker Heights in 1997.  Elena Richardson (Reese Witherspoon) is a pillar of the community with a seemingly perfect husband (Joshua Jackson), four smart children, and an impeccable home.  Into her life comes newcomer, African-American Mia Warren (Kerry Washington), who moves to Shaker Heights with her teenage daughter (Lexi Underwood), with a fair amount of emotional baggage.  Their families become intertwined, lifestyles collide, and “it has a ripple effect that will forever change {the town’s residents} in both good and very tragic ways.”

Locke & Key (Netflix): Based on the comic book series of the same name, this series revolves around three siblings (Jackson Robert Scott, Connor Jessup, Emilia Jones), who, after the murder of their father, move into their ancestral home in Massachusetts.  They find the house has magical keys that give them a vast array of powers and abilities.  They don’t know yet that a devious demon will stop at nothing to get those keys.  No word yet on whether there will be another season.

The Mandalorian (Disney+): Its first original drama, a live-action Star Wars spinoff, created by Jon Favreau, has been well received by fans and critics alike.  It is essentially a space western about bounty hunters in the outer reaches of the Galaxy (taking place five years after the events in the Return of the Jedi movie).  The bounty hunter mythology has long been extremely popular among hard-core Star Wars fans.  Pedro Pascal stars in the title role.  There will be a second season.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon Prime Video): In the late 1950s, Miriam “Midge” Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan), has a husband, two kids, and an elegant upper West Side apartment in New York.  When she discovers she has a talent and love for stand-up comedy, her journey takes her from her comfortable life through the gritty Greenwich Village comedy scene.  Alex Borstein as her agent, and Tony Shalhoub as her father are standouts, as is Luke Farrel Kirby as Lenny Bruce and Jane Lynch as a rival comedian.  Top notch across the board.  Season 3 became available this past December, and it’s been renewed for a fourth season.

Marvel’s Jessica Jones (Netflix): Krysten Ritter shines as Jessica Jones, a reluctant hero, haunted by her past (she was given super strength in a medical experiment that saved her life after a car crash killed her family).  Darker than other Marvel series.  Jessica swears, drinks too much, has meaningless sex, and thinks nothing of breaking the rules if it suits her idea of the greater good – the type of woman you virtually never see on television (or in the Marvel universe).  Traditional female roles – sidekicks and “the girlfriend” – are the male characters in this world. 

The first two seasons were strong social commentaries on male/female relationships and the abuse of privilege and power, focusing on topics such as addiction, sexual harassment, rape, retaliation, and redemption – subjects seldom dealt with on television, and never in the Marvel universe at large.  Season 3 is a fitting end to Jessica’s journey as she not only has to fight a serial killer, but her sister/best friend as well, as she struggles with what it means to be a hero.  This was the last of Netflix’s Marvel series about street-level heroes to be officially canceled, as Disney ramped up its Disney+ streaming service and took full control of Hulu.  The others were, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and The Punisher (all worth checking out).

Mindhunter (Netflix): In the late 1970s, FBI hostage negotiator Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and veteran agent Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) pioneer behavioral profiling of a new type of murderer – the serial killer.  Anna Torv also stars as a psychology professor who helps them categorize the killers and predict future behavior.

Their interviews with imprisoned serial killers can be tense and chilling, as they and the viewer start to realize how many multiple killers are out there, and how far behind the curve law enforcement was at the time.  Rises way above a typical procedural.  Smart, compelling, and cinematic.  If you enjoy series such as Criminal Minds, Hannibal, and Prodigal Son, you’ll probably like this too – but keep in mind there’s no murder of the week that conveniently get solved by the end of each hour.  This aims much higher, and, for the most part, hits the mark.  Season 2 has more urgency and gets darker, as the series focuses on events such as the Atlanta child murders, which uncovers flaws in the FBI’s methods, and raises doubts into how effective they are.  No word yet on a potential third season. 

The Morning Show (Apple TV+): The first original show on Apple’s new streaming service, inspired by Brian Stelter’s 2013 book, Top of the Morning, is a winner.  Jennifer Aniston is great as half of an iconic morning show couple, who is stunned when her partner of 15 years (Steve Carell) is fired for sexual misconduct (shades of Matt Lauer and the Today Show).

As she learns how to exert her power against the many male executives who want to push her out, she forces them to team her with an abrasive correspondent her smarmy new boss (Billy Crudup) brings in – an aggressive female reporter from a conservative leaning local station (Reese Witherspoon, who is excellent here).  The episode 3 scene between Steve Carell and his director friend (Martin Short), who are commiserating about being caught up in the #MeToo movement, which they see as discriminating against men who have done nothing wrong (or at least nothing that men in power haven’t always done), is one of the best couple of minutes of television I’ve seen in years – as Steve Carell’s character slowly starts to realize his friend is a sexual predator (and maybe he is too).  The second season will premiere in late 2020 or early 2021.

Mr Inbetween (FX): A half-hour Australian dark comedy/drama about Ray Shoesmith (the magnetic Scott Ryan, who also created and writes the show).  Ray seems to have a relatively normal life.  He’s juggling raising a pre-teen daughter with his ex-wife, a relationship with a new girlfriend, and caring for a sick brother.  He also has a day (and night) job collecting debts from deadbeats, and occasionally as a hitman.

The series is lean and taut, sharply written with no bloat or wasted content.  It seamlessly jumps from humorous to violent moments.  That we like and root for Ray despite his casual brutality is a tribute to Scott Ryan’s talents.  It also fits the mold of many FX dramas, where you root for bad or flawed people with some redeeming qualities who go up against even badder people with no (or at least fewer) redeeming qualities.  It’s now available on Hulu, No word yet on a potential third season.

Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet (Apple TV+): A workplace comedy about the team behind the biggest multiplayer videogame of all time. Rob McElhenney, Charlotte Nicdao, and F. Murray Abraham star.  Funny and surprisingly insightful.  Already renewed for a second season.

The OA (Netflix): An adopted blind woman who disappeared seven years earlier resurfaces and now calls herself “The OA” (Original Angel).  She has scars on her back and her eyesight has been restored.  She refuses to tell her parents or the FBI where she has been.  She recruits a team of four local high-school students and a teacher, to whom she reveals everything, and gets them to help her try to rescue other missing people by opening a portal to another dimension.  Two seasons are available.

One Day At A Time (Netflix/Pop):  Based loosely on the 1975 Norman Lear sitcom, this excellent series, which you can watch with the whole family, now centers around a Cuban-American single mom and her family living in Los Angeles.  The ensemble cast includes, Justina Machado, Rita Moreno, Isabella Gomez, Marcel Ruiz, and Todd Grinnel.  The first three seasons aired on Netflix.  The fourth season was picked up by Pop TV, and is currently airing.  This is the first series to move from a streaming service to a linear network.

Ozark (Netflix): Jason Bateman (in his best and most nuanced performance) is Marty Byrde, a Chicago financial advisor whose partner is killed after stealing money from a drug lord.  Marty is forced to move to a summer resort community in the Missouri Ozarks with his wife Wendy (Laura Linney, who is also excellent here) and two kids, to launder money for the drug cartel.  When they get there they also have to deal with local gangsters.  Quirky, gritty, and dangerous characters and situations abound. 

Julia Garner is a revelation as Ruth, the teenager who lives in a trailer with her dysfunctional and often violent family.  After initially clashing with Marty, she winds up working for him.  Laura Linney’s shift from reluctant tag-along wife to take-charge protector of her family is fascinating to watch.  Season 3 dropped this March.

Peaky Blinders (Netflix): In the aftermath of World War I, returning soldiers, revolutionaries, and criminal gangs are struggling to survive in a 1919 Britain rocked by economic upheaval and shifting social mores.  Returning war hero, Thomas Shelby (Cillian Murphy) is the young, charismatic, cunning, and ambitious leader of one of the more powerful gangs of the time, the Peaky Blinders, which he runs with his family.

The series is stylish, suspenseful, moody, beautifully shot, and often violent.  The Peaky Blinders are different from most pop-culture-type mobsters we tend to see on TV and in the movies, and it’s interesting to see how they react when forced to clash with a New York mafioso (played by Adrian Brody).  It has an excellent ensemble cast (Helen McCrory, Paul Anderson, Joe Cole), and perhaps the coolest theme song of all time.  There are five six-episode seasons, which are perfect for bingeing.  We probably won’t see season 6 until sometime in 2021.

Queen of the South (USA): This crime drama’s uneven first season got better and hit overdrive in seasons 2, and 3, as Camila Vargas (Veronica Falcon) and her former protégé, Teresa Mendoza (Alice Braga), battle for supremacy of a drug cartel.  Both are seductive and conniving, occasionally vicious, and always captivating.  Hemky Madera is wonderfully menacing as Teresa’a loyal lieutenant.  Season 4 sees Teresa and her allies move to New Orleans and try to expand her fledgling empire, while facing a whole new level of threats and enemies.  No awards or brilliant writing here.  Just a gritty and entertaining guilty pleasure.  It has been renewed for a fifth season.

Ramy (Hulu): Comedy-drama created by and starring Ramy Yousef.  He plays the son of Egyptian immigrants who is on a spiritual journey in his New Jersey neighborhood – caught between a traditional Muslim community and his own American millennial generation.  It’s been renewed for a second season.

Rick and Morty (Adult Swim): My 20-year-old son got me hooked on this Adult Swim animated piece of brilliance several years ago.  It follows super-genius (and boozy) scientist, Rick, as he drags his not-so-bright grandson, Morty, on wild adventures through other worlds and alternate dimensions.  While other great animated series, The Simpsons and Family Guy, are grounded in reality and have some absurd situations, Rick and Morty is grounded in absurdity.  It’s at once high- and low-brow, clever and silly, but always hilarious.  You’ll either love it or say “huh?”  After making fans wait more than two years, Season 4 came out this November.  It’s better than ever.  Seasons 1-3 are available on Hulu.

Reprisal (Hulu): Abigail Spencer (Timeless) was left for dead by her ruthless brother and his gang of gear heads.  She recovers, changes her identity, and re-emerges seven years later seeking revenge (and acquiring her own crew).  Ron Pearlman has a meaty role as a menacing mob boss.  Smart and taut, as this relentless femme fatale goes on her dark mission getting out of one jam after another until the final showdown.  No word yet on season 2.  

Russian Doll (Netflix): Star, Natasha Lyonne created this comedy-drama with Amy Poehler.  She is stuck in her own “Groundhog Day” loop, as she repeatedly attends her own 36^th birthday party in New York City, dies at the end of the night, and re-awakens on the same day unharmed as though nothing had happened.  No matter how many times she goes through slight variations of the same events and tries to alter the ultimate outcome, she reaches the same end by a variety of means (getting hit by a car, falling down a flight of stairs, etc.).  When she gets stuck in an elevator about to fall to her umpteenth death, she meets a guy (Charlie Barnett) who is going through the same thing.  They team up to try and figure out what is going on and how to stop it (and how they might be connected) – but each time, they only have a day to figure it out before the cycle begins again.

Inventive, clever, and thought provoking.  The dialogue is fast-paced and witty, and provides several different and insightful views of life in New York City.  A rare gem.  There will be a second season, but it probably won’t be until summer 2020 at the earliest.

Sex Education (Netflix): A comedy drama about a socially awkward high school student (Asa Butterfield), whose mom (Gillian Anderson) is a sex therapist.  He and his friend (Emma Mackey) use his expertise to open a school sex therapy clinic.  Season 2 debuted in January 2020, and it’s already been renewed for a third season.

Shrill (Hulu):  Aidy Bryant (SNL) stars in this dramedy about a full-figured woman who wants to change her life (but not her body).  She’s trying to make it as a journalist while dealing with bad boyfriends, sick parents, a perfectionist boss, and a world that favors thin over “fat.”  A second season has been ordered.

Sneaky Pete (Amazon Prime Video): Con man and ex-con (Giovanni Ribisi), on the run from some very bad people, assumes the identity of his still imprisoned cellmate Pete, and tries to hide out with Pete’s family (who hasn’t seen him for 20 years).  They have a bail bonds business in Connecticut and their own set of problems and sinister characters to deal with, so it takes a while before any of them questions his story.  All three seasons have multiple cons and obstacles to solve that are handled in a crisp, keep-you-guessing manner.  There are short cons, long cons, and double crosses, as “Pete” cleverly navigates the new world he finds himself in, while trying to avoid the old, as certain family members become increasingly suspicious.  

The excellent cast includes Margo Martindale and Peter Gerety as Pete’s grandparents, and Marin Ireland, Shane McRae, and Libby Barer as his cousins.  Bryan Cranston is executive producer, and has a role as a gangster who is after Pete in season 1.  Intelligent, gritty, and a good mix of drama and humor.  Unfortunately, season 3 was the last for this fine series.  Definitely worth a look.

Star Trek Discovery (CBS All Access): Taking place a decade before Captain Kirk and crew’s original five-year mission, the series follows the exploits of the U.S.S. Discovery as it seeks out new worlds and new civilizations (and battles Klingons and other alien forces along the way).

Sonequa Martin-Green is excellent as science officer Michael Burnham, a human who was raised on Vulcan by Spock’s parents.  Michelle Yeoh is also excellent as Captain Philippa Georgiou.  Season 2 has several nods to the original series, introducing us to a young Spock and Captain Christopher Pike (James T. Kirk’s predecessor on the U.S.S. Enterprise), but you need not be familiar with Star Trek canon to like this series.  Season 2’s ending propels Star Trek Discovery into new terrain to make season 3 a completely new entity with endless possibilities.

Star Trek: Picard (CBS All Access): The latest series in the Star Trek franchise centers on Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), now a retired Admiral, and is set 20 years after the events in the 2002 movie, Star Trek: Nemesis.  Picard forms a crew as he embarks on a dangerous rogue mission.  Isa Briones, Alison Pill, Santiago Cabrera, Michael Hurd, Harry Treadway, and Evan Evagora also star.  Some returning cast members include, Brent Spiner (Data), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), Jonathan Frakes (William Ryker), and Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi).  A second season has already been ordered.

The Stranger (Netflix): Eight-part British psychological thriller based on the Harlan Coben book of the same name.  A mysterious stranger (Hannah John-Kamen) tells a man (Richard Armitage) a secret that has a devastating effect on his perfect life.

Succession (HBO): One of the buzziest shows in the past couple of seasons actually lives up to the hype.  When Logan Roy (Brian Cox), an aging Rupert Murdoch style media tycoon has a stroke, his four adult children (Jeremy Strong, Kieran Culkin, Alan Ruck, Sarah Snook) start jockeying for control of the family’s international media and entertainment empire.  When he recovers and lets them know he has no intention of stepping down anytime soon, all types of power plays, backstabbing schemes, and elaborate infighting ensue, as ambitions collide with family loyalties.

One might think a series about unlikeable and privileged one-percenters is not the recipe for broad success, but the sharp writing, fierce acting, acid wit, and effortless shifts between comedy, tragedy, and family drama, make this compelling viewing.  Season 1 started out slowly, but built into something great as the season progressed.  Season 2 is near perfection, with strong guest starring roles for Cherry Jones and Holly Hunter.  Season 3 will probably debut in summer 2020.

The Tick (Amazon Prime Video): Bizarre six-foot-four blue superhero, The Tick, teams up with Arthur, an unassuming accountant, to battle evildoers.  Based on the comic book characters of the same name.  It was canceled after two seasons.

Tin Star (Amazon Prime Video): Tim Roth and Christina Hendricks star – he’s a former London detective who moves with his family to become Chief of Police in a small town in the Canadian Rockies (to escape his violent past, which, of course, catches up with him).  It has been renewed for a third and final season.

Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan (Amazon Prime Video): John Krasinski is the fifth actor to portray Jack Ryan, a CIA analyst first introduced in a series of best-selling Tom Clancy novels in the 1980s.  This is the character’s first incarnation on the small screen, and one of the best.  It covers his early years in the CIA, as he’s just starting to make a name for himself (updated to take place in present day).  The supporting cast is excellent.  Part of the character’s appeal is that Jack Ryan is no Jason Bourne-type superspy.  He’s a regular guy (although smarter than most) who works in an office, who, as a former marine, can defend himself if he has to.  It’s first two seasons are excellent – there will be a third season, although no date has been announced.

Travelers (Netflix): Hundreds of years in the future, the last remnants of humans discover how to send their consciousnesses back through time, into people of the 21^st century.  These “travelers” work in teams to save humanity from its horrible future.  Eric McCormack stars in this sci-fi thriller that was canceled after three seasons.

The Umbrella Academy (Netflix): Based on the comic of the same name.  In 1989, 43 infants are inexplicably born to random women who showed no signs of pregnancy.  Seven are adopted by a billionaire industrialist who creates the Umbrella Academy, and prepare his “children” to save the world.  But first they have to solve his mysterious death.  The ensemble cast includes, Ellen Page, Tom Hopper, David Casteneda, Cameron Britton, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher, and Mary J. Blige.  One of Netflix’s 10 most popular shows of 2019, it has been renewed for a second season.

Vida (Starz): Two vastly different and estranged Mexican-American sisters Lynn (Melissa Barrera) and Emma (Mishel Prada) – both perfectly cast – are forced to come together to deal with the death of their mother (nicknamed Vida) and the discovery that she had a secret wife, Eddy (Ser Anzoategui).  They also have to deal with the apartment building and bar Vida owned in her East L.A. neighborhood, which is in the process of undergoing gentrification.  Emma is a buttoned-down Chicago lawyer (and closeted lesbian), while Lyn is more fun loving, hopping from one job and sexual partner to another.  They are both insiders and outsiders, having left the neighborhood, but still intimately familiar with the life on these streets.  Their friend and anti-gentrification activist, Marisol (Chelsea Rendon), calls them “chipsters,” Chicana hipsters who traded their Mexican roots for more snobbish and stereotypically white personas.

This half-hour dramedy has all Latinx writers (a first).  LGBTQ characters fill the writer’s room and supporting cast as well, and queer communities are dealt with in a casual matter-of-fact way you never see on television.  The sex scenes, of which there are many, are shown from a female perspective – they are often graphic, but treated with a certain gentleness and care.  There’s nothing else like Vida on television.  Its upcoming third season, which premieres this April, will be its last.

Watchmen (HBO): Those of us familiar with Alan Moore’s 1986 graphic novel of the same name will either love Watchmen or hate it.  Those unfamiliar with the mythology involved will either love Watchmen or hate it.

Rather than remake the original (which has been done in a less-than-successful 2009 theatrical release), writer-producer Damon Lindelof (Lost, The Leftovers) decided to set this tale of an alternate reality 30 years later, moving the main action from New York City to Tulsa, Oklahoma, the site of the real-life race massacre committed upon Tulsa’s black population, known as Black Wall Street, in 1921, which was virtually erased from history books, and figures prominently in the story. 

In this version of the United States, Richard Nixon remained President well into the 1980s, the U.S. won the Vietnam war (with the help of Dr. Manhattan, a blue, omnipotent “superhero,” now living on Mars), Vietnam becomes our 51^st state, there are no internet or smartphones, and an interdimensional psychic giant squid appeared in Manhattan, killing 3 million people 30 years ago, in 1985.  In 2019 an unseen Robert Redford is President, and a white supremacist group called the Seventh Kavalry is at war with the police (who wear masks to protect their identities after several cops and their families are murdered).

Numerous mysteries abound, and whether or not you are familiar with Watchmen canon, you will likely be confused at several points in the first few episodes.  Episode 6 will either thrill or outrage hard-core fans of the comic.  The stellar cast is led by Regina King (as a detective and masked vigilante known as Sister Night), Jean Smart (as FBI agent and former costumed “hero,” Silk Spectre), Jeremy Irons (as the mysteriously exiled “smartest man in the world.” Adrian Veidt), Lou Gossett Jr (as the mysterious Will Reeves), and Don Johnson (as the Tulsa Police Chief).  Watchmen is strange, complex, ambitious, and exhilarating.

Westworld (HBO): Rich vacationers can live out their fantasies without consequences in a futuristic amusement park, where human-like robotic “hosts” are continually abused and rebooted – until they start to become “conscious.”  The excellent ensemble cast is led by Evan Rachel Wood, Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Ed Harris, Tessa Thompson, and Anthony Hopkins.  Aaron Paul joined the cast in season 3.

You (Netflix): A New York bookstore manager and stalker (Penn Badgley) becomes obsessed with a customer and aspiring writer (Elizabeth Lail) and will do anything to insert himself into her life, including killing anyone who gets in his way. The first season aired on Lifetime.  It was canceled and picked up by Netflix, where it became a hit.  The second season moves from New York to L.A., where he meets a new object of his affection (Victoria Pedretti).  It’s been renewed for a third season.

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There are also many top-notch series recently or still on ad-supported cable, many of which are available to stream, such as AMC’s The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead, and Into the Badlands, FX’s The Americans, American Horror Story, Atlanta, Legion, Snowfall, and Pose, TNT’s Rizzoli & Isles, Major Crimes, The Last Ship, Claws, and Animal Kingdom, USA’s Suits, Mr. Robot, and The Sinner, , Freeform’s Pretty Little Liars and Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger, OWN’s Greenleaf and Queen Sugar, Paramount’s Yellowstone and 68 Whiskey, among others.

And let’s not forget you can always live-binge repeats of network favorites on TBS (The Big Bang Theory, Family Guy, Family Matters, Friends, Seinfeld, 2 Broke Girls), TNT (Law & Order, Bones, Charmed, Supernatural, NCIS New Orleans, Arrow), USA (Law & Order: SVU, NCIS, CSI, NCIS: L.A., Modern Family, Chicago P.D., New Amsterdam), ION (Criminal Minds, Blue Bloods, NCIS: L.A., Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Leverage), Nick-at-Nite (Full House, Friends, George Lopez, Mom), TV Land (Everybody Loves Raymond, King of Queens, Two-and-a-Half Men, The Goldbergs, Roseanne, The Golden Girls), and several other cable networks.