Cordkillers 381 - Self-Coddling (w/ Hammond Chamberlain)
What's the difference between casting news and a spoiler? We discuss plus HBO lost customers (in a good way?) and Netflix's Cowboy Bebop trailer isn't universally loved. All that and more on Cordkillers! With special guest Hammond Chamberlain ( http://jhammondc.com/ ).
This week on It's Spoilerin' Time: Miami Vice (101), Squid Game (101), What We Do in the Shadows (309)
Next week: Squid Game (102), What We Do in the Shadows (309), Miami Vice (102)
CordKillers: 381 - Self-Coddling
Recorded: October 25 2021
Guest: Hammond Chamberlain
Intro Video
Red Notice
Primary Target
Spoiler Warning
Marvel Fans Are Very, Very Upset A Critic Spoiled A Post-credits Detail In 'Eternals'
- Simple question for today's primary target. When is reporting like a journalist a spoiler and when is that not OK?
- Here's the scoop. Last week, Variety reports Matt Donnelly tweeted a detail about which actor appeared in a post-credit scene for The Eternals.
- We will not be giving you any details on that in this show. And Donnelly didn't give any details other than who it was and what character they played.
- Variety considers it casting news, not a spoiler. It does not violate the NDA because it does not reveal plot or story information.
- But that doesn't mean people didn't get VERY angry about it.
- It's news. Casting news is frequently released ahead of movies. But... It's also a detail about post-credits scenes which frequently are a fun surprise.
- What do we think? Variety was within their rights to do it. But should they have?
How to Watch
HBO Max, HBO Gain 1.9 Million Subscribers in Q3 as International Offsets U.S. Drop
HBO Max and HBO’s US subscriptions dip following Amazon exit
Danish Drama Series ‘Kamikaze’ Kickstarts HBO Max’s Plan To Launch International Originals Day-And-Date In U.S. & Around The World
- Warner Media reported it lost 1.8 million HBO and HBO Max customers in the US in Q3 after it let its carriage deal with Amazon expire. That's the one where you could add HBO to your Amazon Prime Video subscription. That service ended and viewers were given credits for HBO max's standalone service but it looks like about 2 million of the 5 million of them didn't take advantage of it yet. Perhaps they're waiting for the end of the season of Succession to come back and binge it all.
- Overall HBO Max gained subscribers worldwide, up 1.9 million to 69.4 million.
- AT&T, which still owns Warner Media while they finish up the details of its merger with Discovery, says it expects most of HBO's growth to come from worldwide subscriptions as it launches versions of HBO Max. It's already launched in 39 Latin American and Caribbean markets, as well as 6 European countries this week with Central and Eastern Europe as well as Portugal launching next year.
- And the company committed to launching international shows ont he same day in all markets. Danish drama series Kamikaze will be the first HBO Max commissioned and produced out of Europe and will launch on all HBO Max versions on November 14.
What to Watch
Netflix’s latest live-action Cowboy Bebop teaser makes bounty hunting look easy
- Netflix showed off a retro-style teaser for Cowboy Bebop. It's not from the series itself but a stylized look at Spike Spiegel (John Cho), Jet Black (Mustafa Shakir), and Faye Valentine (Daniella Pineda) competing for a bounty. The show launches November 19.
Hayden Christensen Joins Rosario Dawson In ‘Star Wars’ Spinoff Ahsoka
- So... Hayden Christensen has been cast in the Ahsoka series starring Rosario Dawson. If you don't already know, Christensen has played Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader in Star Wars Episodes 2 and 3 and Ahsoka is Anakin's apprentice in the Clone Wars series. And Ahsoka is a spin off of the Mandalorian which takes place after Return of the Jedi. And Christensen was also cast in ObiWan which takes place after Episode 3.
Uncharted’s first movie trailer is full of very familiar action
- A trailer for the movie version of the game Uncharted is out starring Tom Holland as a youngish Nathan Drake. Uncharted is scheduled to arrive in theaters February 18th
‘Being the Ricardos’ Trailer: Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem Transform Into Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz
- And Amazon released a trailer for the Aaron Sorkin film "Being the Ricardos" starring Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem as Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. The movie follows one week of shooting an episode of I Love Lucy.
Apple renewed Mythic Quest for a third and fourth season with season 3 coming sometime in 2022 before Ted Lasso season 3.
‘Dr. Brain’: Korean Thriller From Apple TV+ Gets Premiere Date & Trailer
- And Apple announced its first Korean series, Dr. Brain about a doctor who tries to sync his brain with dead people to recover their memories and find out what happened to his wife and son.
Eyes On
Hammond: Squid Game, What Happened to Brittany Murphy.
Brian: Dune
Tom: Dune
On the Lookout: The Way of the House Husband, The Ingenuity of the House Husband
Front Lines
Roku Could Lose YouTube App in December as It Remains at Odds With Google Over Distribution Terms
- Roku's deal to carry YouTube TV expired in April and Google moved some YouTube TV functionality into its YouTube app while Roku and Google continued to negotiate. Now Google says its deal for YouTube proper will end December 9. Roku says it doesn't want more money just for Google to drop a requirement that it give YouTube its own search results bar and keep non-YouTube content away from YouTube content in. Search results.
Comcast Launches XClass TV, Its First TV Sets in the U.S., Taking Streaming Platform Direct-to-Consumer
- After previously announcing TVs for its Sky division, Comcast announces the X Class TV for US customers. X Class TVs will be built by Hisense, start at 43 inches for $298 and include a year of Peacock Premium with ads. The TVs will come with apps for YouTube TV, Hulu with Live TV and Sling TV as well as the usuals like Netflix, HBO Max, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Tubi, IMDBTV, Pluto, and Xumo. And if you're in an area that offers the service you'll eventually be able to get streaming versions of both Comcast's Xfinity and Charter's Spectrum.
Netflix Rides ‘Squid Game’ to Q3 Subscriber Beat, Adding 4.4 Million Worldwide
Maid to dethrone The Queen's Gambit as Netflix's most watched miniseries
- Netflix beat expectations for subscriber growth in Q3 gaining 4.38 million subscribers to reach 213.6 million worldwide. Netflix expected to add 3.5 million. Netflix expected to add 8.5 million subscribers in Q4, about the same as Q4 last year. Part of the unexpected surge is attributable to the popularity of Squid Game which Netflix said had been viewed by 142 million households. It has been the #1 program in 94 Netflix countries. And a series called Maid, starring Margaret Qualley, is about to pass The Queen's Gambit as Netflix's most-watched "limited" series with 67 million accounts watching.
Online ad breaks are terrible. A former Verizon exec wants to change that.
- In Protocol's Next Up newsletter, Janko Roettgers mentions a startup called Spotz.ai that uses computer vision and machine learning to solve the problem of random ads showing up on ad-supported streaming services like Tubi and IMDB.TV. Right now most big companies hire people to mark where the ads should go. That's expensive and humans make mistakes. They're not watching the movie or show, they're looking for black frames, but sometimes those frames aren't actually a sensible spot for an ad. Spotz uses an algorithm to look at more than just whether there's a black frame, including changes in audio levels and other indicators to determine if its an actual break in the action. The service is available as an API that analyzes videos 20-40 times faster than regular viewing speed. Customers can tell the service how many ad breaks to look for or more complex rules like lower number of breaks in the first episode to get a viewer hooked.
Dispatches from the Front
Greetings Cordkillers,
The downside of listening to podcasts in the car is that all these thoughts I want to send in, never stick in my brain long enough for me to get home and actually send an email, but last week's comment about how you didn't get any feedback finally motivated me to follow through! So, here are 3 unrelated thoughts...
I meant to send this so many times last winter because I feel like it's exactly the anecdote Brian was looking for... For years, my father-in-law has taken the entire family out to see the latest blockbuster on Thanksgiving and Christmas or thereabouts. This would be between 6 and 12 people, and with some concessions, this often would cost him a couple hundred dollars each time and it didn't seem to matter what the movie was - as long as it was the new release blockbuster, we went to see it.
Last year, of course, theaters were mostly closed, but we had the option to watch Wonder Woman on HBO Max for a fraction of the price... and he had absolutely no interest in watching a movie that day. I thought that really drove home to me how much the setting matters more than the movie to some people.
Thanks for the show!
- D Canfield
Hi, guys (and guest?). I was going to email you about how I cancelled Netflix this month after being a subscriber since 2004, but instead, I want to tell you about how impossible it is to watch baseball in Iowa.
Iowa does not have a major league team, but we do have SIX "blacked out" teams: "the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago White Sox, Minnesota Twins, Kansas City Royals and Milwaukee Brewers. Those teams are not available to watch with an MLB.tv subscription or when they are often aired on national broadcasts. Some of those clubs are not available on Iowa’s main cable packages either." (Source.)
My dad has been a Chicago Cubs fan for many decades. His house is 342 miles (5 hours, 20 minutes) from Wrigley Field, and he cannot watch the Cubs home games on TV, despite having a top-tier satellite subscription. He would use MLB.tv, but that's blacked out, too.
(Are you a Dodgers fan? Well, I hope they're not playing at KC or STL.)
Meanwhile, my mom is an Indycar fan. Any races that aren't airing on NBC, she can watch via the Indycar app. Before the pandemic, she would travel to see at least one major race per year, and she had season passes for the Iowa Speedway. Increased video access didn't make her less passionate. It made her more eager to see things in person when possible.
It's been well over a decade since I've needed to go to (ehem) "Tortuga" to get content for myself, but if I knew of a sneaky way to get access to good ol' American baseball for my 69 year old dad, I'd do it!
- Ulrike
Dear Valued Employees,
One of your many bosses here who is proud of the work you have been doing over this last year plus. I have an assignment for you that is not part of your normal duties but in these unprecedented times we all need to be flexible.
Getting serious I am a big fan of the show and appreciate all the work you do every week. Plex has been mentioned before on your show but I wanted to share my experience using it specifically for music in case anyone else found it helpful. Not directly related to the show but I would say adjacent to it.
I was a big Google Play Music user until they moved it over to YouTube and made the experience much worse if you were looking to use it as a music locker for your own music. This experience got me to move over to Plex full time and upgrade to a lifetime subscription of Plex Pass. So far it has been great! No more constant pop up asking you to sign up for YouTube whenever you want to listen to a song. All the normal things Plex does for TV and Movies it also does for music. Organize everything, find album artwork, reviews, bios even live lyrics while listening(with Pass). It ties in really nicely with Sonos as well.
The main thing that got me to sign up for Plex Pass was being able to get Plexamp. Which is a very good dedicated app just for music playback and includes things like offline listening, airplay and chromecast support. It is available on every platform but works best on mobile. The windows and Mac apps are just copies of the mobile versions so a little more clunky but work well enough and are nice to have instead of just a webplayer.
Apologies that this got a bit long but hopefully some of your listeners find it helpful. It is nice to be able to listen to what you want, when you want, however you want.
Keep up the great work.
- Tristan
Links
patreon.com/cordkillers
doghousesystems.com/v/rogue
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