Too Much TV: A Look At The Week Ahead

I'm not a spoiler fanatic, but...

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Monday, April 21st, 2025:

THE WEEK AHEAD
I took two days off a couple of weeks ago to get a medical procedure done and I am getting a follow-up done tomorrow morning. This one requires a few hours in the hospital and a bit of recovery time, so there won't be a newsletter on Tuesday. Assuming things go well and that I bounce back the way I hope I will, I'll have a newsletter out Wednesday. But I likely won't be back with anything else until Thursday morning.

Once again, thanks to all of you for your patience. I am hopeful this won't go too much longer, but we shall see. In the meantime, I am working hard to keep as regular a work schedule as possible. Both for the sake of my readers and for my own sanity.

I do have a bunch of interviews/reviews done ahead of time because there are a number of great premieres this week. I won't have an advance review of Andor. Disney+ uncharacteristically not only sent critics screeners for all of season two, but also set the embargo to end days out from Tuesday's premiere. But for whatever reason, I wasn't able to get them, although I have heard a great deal about the new season from fellow critics. However, I'll have a review up once I can watch the first episodes on Tuesday.

The other title I'm anticipating even though I wasn't able to track down a screener is the movie Bullet Train Explosion, which is a reboot of the original 1975 movie The Bullet Train, which inspired the blockbuster Speed. Here is a look at the trailer and it looks like an absolute blast. It premieres Wednesday on Netflix.

I will have a review of the delightful Étoile, which comes from Amy Sherman-Palladino, Daniel Palladino, and Dhana Rivera Gilbert. It premieres Thursday on Prime Video and I'll have a review up once the embargo lifts. Also on Thursday I'll have reviews of season two of the AMC+ drama Black Snow, as well as season two of Viaplay's Ronja, The Robber’s Daughter. Season one of that series won "Best Scripted Drama Series - Nordic Countries" in last year's Global TV Awards.

Also up for a review is the season premiere on Friday of Discovery's Gold Rush: White Water. Along with History's The Curse Of Oak Island, it's one of the shows I watch when I just want to relax my brain and not think about anything too deeply. I have so many questions every time I watch an episode and I feel as if there is an entire show's worth of material producers are glossing over while putting together the show that viewers see each week.

As always, I'll link to all the reviews in the appropriate newsletters.

I'M NOT A SPOILER FANATIC, BUT....
The season finale of Tournament Of Champions aired Sunday night and while I wasn't going to write about the episode, I did have plans to watch the finale tonight with my wife.

And then I received this email early this morning from a PR person at the Food Network, with this subject line:

I don't mean to be picky, but is is necessary to put the winner's name in the subject line of an email that makes it impossible not to see who won the finale?

Compare that email to one that was sent out Monday night by Fox PR, which highlighted their finale without spoiling anything:

IN CASE YOU'RE CONCERNED THAT YOUR KIDS AREN'T COMPLETE WITHOUT THEIR OWN CRYPTOWALLET
The founders of production studio We Ghosted Media plan to launch their new animated kids show Owen Nowhere on a decentralized web platform that uses blockchain technology and a crypto wallet:

We Ghosted Media — founded by Chris Jammal, an assistant director for “Bob’s Burgers,” and Jaclynn Demas, producer of hit children’s show “Peg + Cat” — is a TV production studio abandoning traditional show release methods in favor of a decentralized approach, commonly referred to as web3.

Jammal and Demas envision “Owen Nowhere” as an immersive experience that allows fans to engage with the world and contribute their ideas for the series.

The virtual space will also include exclusive behind-the-scenes content, collectible digital assets, and online community-driven experiences like voting. The studio believes that the most attractive feature is the opportunity for viewers to make key decisions for the story, such as suggesting destinations for the family’s adventures.

“We were thinking [fans could] vote for where the Glooms can travel next. Do you want them to come to your hometown? Maybe they want to buy that souvenir that Owen picked up at the Grand Canyon [as] their own digital asset. Maybe they want to change his outfit. There are so many possibilities of how this can go,” Jammal said.

LARRY DAVID TROLLS BILL MAHER WITH THIS EPIC NY TIMES OP-ED
HBO's Bill Maher recently had a meeting with Donald Trump at the White House and afterwards talked in interviews about how friendly and charming the President was. He argued that Trump came off nothing like the way he is portrayed in the political press.

The NY Times published an opinion piece written by Larry David and while he doesn't directly reference Maher, it's pretty clear that My Dinner With Adolf (guest link) is a sharply written, often hilarious takedown of the often arrogant HBO host:

Two weeks later, I found myself on the front steps of the Old Chancellery and was led into an opulent living room, where a few of the Führer’s most vocal supporters had gathered: Himmler, Göring, Leni Riefenstahl and the Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII. We talked about some of the beautiful art on the walls that had been taken from the homes of Jews. But our conversation ended abruptly when we heard loud footsteps coming down the hallway. Everyone stiffened as Hitler entered the room.

He was wearing a tan suit with a swastika armband and gave me an enthusiastic greeting that caught me off guard. Frankly, it was a warmer greeting than I normally get from my parents, and it was accompanied by a slap on my back. I found the whole thing quite disarming. I joked that I was surprised to see him in a tan suit because if he wore that out, it would be perceived as un-Führer-like. That amused him to no end, and I realized I’d never seen him laugh before. Suddenly he seemed so human. Here I was, prepared to meet Hitler, the one I’d seen and heard — the public Hitler. But this private Hitler was a completely different animal. And oddly enough, this one seemed more authentic, like this was the real Hitler. The whole thing had my head spinning.

TWEET OF THE DAY

ODDS AND SODS
* The series Bet is set to premiere Thursday, May 15th on Netflix. Here is the official logline: "At a private school where gambling determines social status, a mysterious new student with a tragic past is shaking things up - and betting on revenge." Betting on revenge. Get it? BTW, here's a look at the trailer and while I can't talk about the show yet, you might want to keep it on your radar.

* Disney+ has renewed the South Korean drama A Shop For Killers for a second season. The series will stream on Hulu in the United States and on Disney+ in the rest of the world. I really loved season one and am looking forward to seeing this. FWIW, here's the trailer for season one.

* While I don't know that I agree with the overall premise, this piece from Ana Marie Cox entitled How The Radical Right Captured The Culture is incredibly thought-provoking.

* The 37th annual PGA Awards will take place on February 28th, 2026

* Netflix has ordered a three-part documentary series about the Tylenol murders, which saw at least seven people die in the early 1980s in Chicago as a result of ingesting cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules. Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders will be produced by Joe Berlinger, who has produced several other docuseries for the streamer. His most recent Netflix project was last year's Who Killed JonBenet Ramsay and here is an interview I did with him ahead of that premiere.

* Juliens Auctions is doing a two day auction of television memorabilia, and it is a treasure trove of rare one-of-a-kind items.

WHAT'S NEW TONIGHT AND TOMORROW

MONDAY, APRIL 21ST:
America's Most Wanted Season Three Premiere (Fox)
Brokenwood Mysteries Season Premiere (Acorn TV)
Dr. Pimple Popper: Breaking Out Series Premiere (TLC)
Extracted Season One Finale (Fox)
Pangolin: Kulu's Journey (Netflix)
The Making Of 'The Americas' (Peacock)
This Farming Life (BritBox)

TUESDAY, APRIL 22ND, 2025:
Andor Season Two (Disney+)
Guardians Of The Galapagos (Disney+)
Race For The Crown Series Premiere (Netflix)
Sea Lions Of The Galapagos (Disney+)
Simon Schama: The Holocaust, 80 Years On (PBS)

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23RD:
A Tragedy Foretold: Flight 3054 (Netflix)
Battle Camp Series Premiere (Netflix)
Bullet Train Explosion (Netflix) - (first look video)
Carlos Alcaraz: My Way (Netflix)
Life Or Death: The Negotiators Series Premiere (NatGeo)
Mysteries Of The Abandoned: Hidden America (Discovery)
The Children Of October 7 (Paramount+)
The Cleaner (BritBox)
The Quincy Avery Effect (Hulu)

SEE YOU ON WEDNESDAY!