Cordkillers 296 - A Mild Troll
Golden Globes, CES hardware, and, yes, of course there will be more The Mandalorian. All this and more on Cordkillers! With special guest Andrew Mayne.
This week on It's Spoilerin' Time: The Mandalorian (107-108), Star Wars: Expisode IX - The Rise of Skywalker, Mr. Robot (412-413), The Larry Sanders Show (206-207) Next week: The Good Place (410), The Larry Sanders Show (208-209). Maybe Uncut Gems.
CordKillers: 296 - A Mild Troll
Recorded: January 6 2020
Guest: Andrew Mayne
Intro Video
Cheer
Primary Target
Golden Globes recap
HBO 4
- Succession (Best Drama, Best Actor Drama)
- Chernobyl (Best limited series and Best Actor limited series)
Netflix two of 34
- Laura Dern for A Marriage Story
- Olivia Coleman for The Crown
Amazon
- Phoebe Waller-Bridge Fleabag (Best TV Series, Best Comedy Actress)
Hulu
- Best Actress Limited Series The Act (Patricia Arquete)
- Best Comedy Actor Ramy Yousef in Ramy
Showtime
- The Loudest voice - Russell Crowe Best Actor limited series
How to Watch
Amazon’s Fire TV soundbars will get Dolby Atmos, HDMI switching, and more later this year
- Amazon announced the Fire TV OS coming to TCL soundbars the Alto 8+ in the US and Canada now and the TCL TS8011 to the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain soon. And later this year soudnbars with FireTV will get a software update to support Dolby Atmos, HDMI switching, far-field microphones and device control. FireTV is also coming to setback screens in BMW and Chrysler cars. Amazon is expanding its Fire TV Edition program for certifying TVs to include operators, like cell carriers and "Certified solutions providers" like auto integrators and cable box manufacturers. Finally, Amazon announced FireTV now has 40 million users, widening its lead on Roku which last reported Q3 numbers of 32.3 million. But hey Roku's Q4 numbers are yet to come.
Amazon’s Fire TV platform now reaches over 40 million monthly active users, topping Roku
Roku TV adds brand partners plus a new ‘Roku TV Ready’ program
- Roku announced 15 brands will launch Roku TV models this year in the UK, Mexico, Canada and the US.Roku also announced a Roku TV Ready program for consumer electronics devices. These products are meant to be easy to set up with a Roku TV and include on-screen access to sound settings in the Roku OS, using one remote. Among the first partners for Roku TV ready are TCL, and Sound United-- the parent company of Denon, Polk Audio, Marantz, Definitive Technology and Classé. Denon and TCL plan to start their integration in upcoming soundbars.
LG's 2020 TVs: Massive 8K screens and the first 48-inch 4K OLED
- LG's webOS gets some updates including an Apple TV app for models going back to 2018. Sports alerts will let you get notifications when your favorite teams are about to start a game, letting you switch to the proper channel and input with one click. "Who Where What" can pull up info about people and places non screen, kind of like Amazon X-ray.
What to Watch
Jon Favreau Confirms Fall 2020 Return For ‘The Mandalorian’s Second Installment
- In entirely unsurprising news, Jon Favereau confirmed in a tweet that the Mandalorian will get a second season and return this coming autumn. He included a picture of a Gamorrean in its underwear along with the announcement.
Disney+ is now getting two big Marvel series in 2020
- In a video promoting the new shows coming to Disney+ this year, Disney announced that WandaVision, the Marvel series focusing on Scarlet Witch and Vision, will arrive this year instead of the previously announced 2021 date. The series is supposed to be referenced in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse Madness coming May 7th 2021. Other Disney+ shows still on track for their release this year include Falcon and the Winter solider, Monsters at Work, from the Mounters Inc. universe, Lamp Life, from the Toy Story world, new episodes in The Clone Wars coming Feb. 17, the return of Lizzie McGuire, the aforementioned Mandalorian of course, plus a bunch more.
Rob McElhenney and Charlie Day's "Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet" will come to Apple TV+ February 7. It's a comedy about a team developing a popular video game.
‘Killing Eve’ Renewed for Season 4, No Showrunner Set
- Killing Eve was renewed for a fourth season. Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer will of course return but no show runner has been announced. Phoebe Waller-Bridge ran season 1, Emerald Fennell season two and Suzanne Hathcote ran season 3.
Apple drops a 'Visible: Out on Television' first look video onto YouTube
- Apple's five -part documentary series "Visible: Out on Television" will arrive on Apple TV+ February 14. Apple shared a "first look" video teaser on YouTube. The series looks at how the LGBTQ movement has shaped television and how TV has affected the perception of the community as well. It's narrated by Janet Mock, Margaret Cho, Asia Kate Dillon, Neil Patrick Harris and Lena Waithe.
Patricia Arquette Joins Apple Drama Series ‘Severance’
- Patricia Arquette will join Adam Scott in the Apple TV+ drama Severance. Arquette plays Scott's boss in the show, about a company trying to take work-life balance to a new level. Severance is directed and executive produced by Ben Stiller.
Eyes On
Brian: Little Women, Uncut Gems, Parks and Rec
Tom: Crash Landing On You
Andrew: The Terror
On the Lookout: The Witcher
Front Lines
Sling TV raises its prices but adds a few more channels
- Sling raised its prices by $5, meaning the Orange and the blue packages each go up from $25 to $30 a month and the bundle of both goes from $40 to $45. Sling TV added FOX News, MSNBC and CNN's HLN (Headline News) channels to its Sling Blue lineup and all packages get up to 10 hours of Cloud DVR storage for free.
Former HBO Topper Richard Plepler Closes 5-Year Exclusive Deal At Apple TV+
- Apple announced that former HBO CEO Richard Plepler's production company Eden Productions has a five-year deal to develop original content exclusively for Apple TV+. Plepler left HBO in February 2019 following AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner.
TiVo merges with technology licensor Xperi in $3 billion deal
- TiVo update. Instead of splitting into two, as previously planned, it has now decided to merge with technology licensing company Xperi. Each company's IP licensing and product businesses will be merged into each other, run as separate businesses, with the eventual plan to sell off one of the units later.
Movies are already disappearing from Disney+
- Polygon reports that content from Disney+ has been removed from the service at the start of 2020. According to sources, this is likely due to legacy content deals, and that titles may permanently rejoin the service once those expire. Unlike Netflix and HBO, Disney does not publish what content is leaivng its platform, but Polygon confirmed that Dr. Dolittle, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Home Alone and Home Alone 2, and The Sandlot are no longer available on Disney+. Bloomberg reported last year that Disney's current content deals with Netflix will see some Marvel content go back to Netflix in 2026.
The next Star Wars film saga to be set during the High Republic era!
- This is pretty flimsy since it's just a rumor, but its from Making Star Wars, which has got some scoops right in the past and it's fun to think about anyway. Making Star Wars sources say the next few Star Wars movies will be set in the High Republic, 400 years before the events of the Skywalker saga. Supposedly it will be set right after Darth Bane established the Sith rule of two and will feature a middle-aged Yoda. They will be interconnected stories but not sequels or prequels to each other.
Streaming Video Consumer Spending to Jump 29% in 2020 to $24 Billion, CTA Forecasts
- US consumer spending on streaming media is expected to rise 29% in 2020, according to the CTA, reaching a total of $24.1 billion. The growth will be driven by the entry of new streaming services like HBO Max and the Cock, according to the CTA.
Dispatches from the Front
Here are some phrases that could make more sense as far as the production of a program:
Greenlit/Renewed: Approved
Begins Production: People start working on it
Cancelled: Ending despite originally planning to last longer
Revived: A new season of an ended series is greenlit
Reboot: A new incarnation of an ended series is greenlit, typically breaking continuity with the original content.
Picked up: A channel decides to air or stream a program.
- Amar
Hey Gang,
It was so much fun to hear you all talking about how the term "renewal" just doesn't fit when a streaming service does it for a show that hasn't even aired yet. We've been talking about this exact same
topic on our Tuning In To Scifi TV podcast for the past couple of episodes! We've come to the conclusion that going forward we're going
to refer to it as a streaming servicing "announcing" a second season for a show.
One of your bosses,
- Kevin
I think the best thing to say when a streaming service orders a 2nd season is that the show was “picked up.” It is like when networks used to pick up the back 9 of a season of a show.
- Mike
Apologies for another long email about this topic but I think this is a very very deep subject with lots of possibilities that these companies have not caught on to yet. One silver lining in this has been the success of Pluto TV. I think the combination of it and people canceling cable as much as they have has started making these companies try to think outside the box instead of simply trying to copy the Netflix model. "
- Torrent
I strongly disagree with the ""start in the middle"" thing.
If I wanted to do that, I would've stuck with paying too much for cable, not paying LESS MONEY to get what I WANT, on-demand (from the beginning). But, that's just me.
- Michael
I can usually understand what you guys are getting at, but in this case I just do not understand the appeal. From a young age in the 90s, I was actively begging for tapes, and in the early 2000s I was pirating (I was young and the internet was a different place!) DVDs of shows and movies so that I could avoid appointment viewing as much as I could. I don't understand how you can have a nostalgia for an objectively bad thing. You are not going to enjoy a piece of media as much if you jump into the middle, there's build up, there's story, there's tension. Jumping into the middle and then having to slog my way to the premature information I've been given sounds like torture. If it helps I'm 30."
- Willy
Cordkillers,
I enjoyed the discussion in episode 294 about Brian’s wish for an algorithm that would offer up content somewhere in the middle of the program. As an over 30 person who agrees with you, I still had to share my favorite such channel surfing experience.
About fifteen years ago my sister and I were watching a movie on the DVR. When the film was over we flipped it back to live tv. The scene that appeared was a common interview shot of a formal office with filled bookshelves. The forty-something man was directing his remarks to an unseen person to the side of the camera. The first thing we hear from the man, as we pop into this unknown show is, “So, I am confident her breast implants saved her life.”
My sister and I turned and looked at each other with perplexed expressions. Since the DVR was buffering the prior thirty minutes of the show while we were watching the movie, we HAD to run back and see how the show got to that point. The show was a collection of unusual survival stories that we would never have normally watched. The DVR wasn’t even recording it as an algorithm pick. It was just the channel that was on.
- Paul
Hey Killers!
I’ve been a listener and supporter since ye olde Frame Rate days so I’ve spent a lot of time hearing the various iterations of Brian’s idea for a decision-making AI. Artificial intelligence is my day job and it’s fun to think about how it might apply to this space, but so far, the proposed ideas are solving problems I don’t have. The amount of quality content is growing rapidly and the amount of time I spend watching TV is not. Because my available TV time is so limited, I’m very intentional with the things I watch. I already know exactly what I want to watch next and I don’t have time to let an AI guess. I think that maybe instead of this being an age thing (fyi, I’m in your age bracket), it might be more related to the amount of time people spend watching TV. I wonder if those of us who spend less time watching TV are less inclined to want an AI solution?
Happy holidays!
- Ben
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