Too Much TV: Will Audiences Believe A TV Show Where Federal Agents Work To 'Save' Los Angeles?
Sometimes current events can catch up with a TV show in the worst possible way
Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Monday, June 23rd 2025:
SCRIPTED TELEVISION REFLECTS THE WORLD WE LIVED IN...A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO
Because of the amount of time it takes for a scripted television show to be produced and then hit your TV screen, you should always be wary of reporting that argues a TV show is somehow the reflection of the moment we are living in right now. The television production process isn't set up to be that nimble.
So when you see someone argue that the Disney+ series Andor somehow resonates with an audience who is watching it during the Trump Administration, that might well be the case. Perhaps the producers sensed in some way this was the direction America was headed in. But the tone of the show wasn't set three months ago. It was just a happy coincidence.
On the other hand, sometimes producers will roll out a show that in normal times would seem mainstream and not at all controversial. But in the time between production and the premiere, current events intrude. Suddenly that timely premise for the show doesn't resonate quite the way you wanted it to.
This is the challenge faced by the producers of the Prime Video series Countdown, which premieres on Wednesday. Created by One Chicago and FBI International's Derek Haas, the premise is part 24 and part every cop procedural currently airing on CBS. Except much less so.
But the quality of the show aside, I am curious to see what audiences make of a premise that likely seemed a lot more palatable before the recent DHS and ICE crackdowns in Los Angeles.
Following the murder of a Department of Homeland Security customs and border patrol agent, Nathan Blythe (Eric Dane) assembles a special task force to figure out who’s behind the crime. The team includes members of the LAPD, DHS, FBI, and Secret Service and they are brought together to prevent an upcoming terrorist event. However, there doesn't initially seem to be any concrete indication that this is indeed going to happen. Aside from Blythe's "feeling" something is coming. And while TV's Copaganda industrial complex is often heavy-handed, the reaction seems to be over-the-top for the killing of one agent.
But the core problem of the show is that the overarching premise is that law enforcement should be able to "do whatever is necessary" to get the bad guys. From breaking what feels like every law on the books to helping out a Mexican street gang in order to get information, the task force tears its way through Southern California with righteous indignation. And for me, that was the last thing I needed to see in a show set in Los Angeles.
To enjoy the series, you have to get past some very clunky moments. But more importantly, you have to be able to believe that DHS, FBI, and Secret Service agents are by default going to do what's right. That LAPD officers aren't going to target the wrong people in their search for justice.
And honestly, after the real-life events of the past couple weeks, I'm not sure that's something I'm willing to accept on faith.
BTW, if you are looking for some television that might provide a bit of a mental palate cleanser, I wrote this piece over the weekend, which offers up Five TV Shows To Ease Your Soul In Troubled Times.
HOW DO YOU FINANCE A YOUTUBE SHOW?
I speak regularly with people who have traditional Hollywood careers, but who are also exploring the idea of doing something small and original on YouTube. But there are so many challenges, including the ever-popular question "How am I going to finance it?"
Ben Odell at the
One show alone won’t replace your studio deal. It’s the bridge — the test case that proves you can work in this sandbox and keep your shirt on.
Think like Corridor Digital: they didn’t just drop one polished short and pray for virality. They piloted smartly, cheaply, but with enough craft to stand out. Then they built a repeatable format around it — a system that turns out videos consistently, hits multiple revenue lines, and owns the audience directly.
You’re here to build the scaffolding around the hit — the format you can rinse and repeat, the sponsor-friendly segments, the behind-the-scenes spin-offs, the community Discord that keeps fans sticky, the newsletter that converts followers into paying members.
A single YouTube show is a proof of concept; the second proves it wasn’t a fluke, the third proves you can translate your skills from legacy to new media consistently and bob’s your uncle. You can build to scale.
And if anyone reading this has made a move into the digital content world, I'd love to talk to you about your experience. Email me at rick@allyourscreens.com
SHARK WEEK IS COMING
My sense is that Discovery's annual Shark Week celebration does okay in the ratings. But it also feels like a relic of another time. With more linear TV viewing happening on demand and on streaming, Shark Week remains a recognizable brand. However, it's just not an event anymore. Which to be honest, is just another reflection of a simpler time for the industry.
Regardless, Discovery announced its Shark Week 2025 lineup today and here is a rundown of what to expect:
Sunday, July 20th:
Dancing With Sharks
Hosted by Emmy Award-winning television personality Tom Bergeron, Dancing with Sharks is a competition show unlike any other. For the first time ever, five divers compete to put together an amazing underwater routine with their toothy partners. From hammerheads to tigers and nurse sharks, each shark has its own signature dance moves. At the end of the show, a winner is crowned – if all the competitors make it that far.
Air Jaws: The Hunt For Colossus
A 20-foot great white breaches in New Zealand, sparking a hunt for Colossus – the legendary flying shark who went missing 10 years ago from South Africa’s waters. Could he still be alive and lead researchers to a secret colony of lost great whites?
Great White Assassins
Shark expert Alison Towner teams up with Shark Week legend Dickie Chivell to decode how killer whales take down great whites with ease. To get answers, the team travels to New Zealand and goes to the extreme, sending Dickie underwater posed as an orca to see how the great whites react.
Monday, July 21st:
Great White Sex Battle
In a Shark Week first, male and female great white sharks compete in a series of challenges to determine which sex is the superior predator in the waters off the coast of New Zealand.
Jaws vs Mega Croc
Using data gathered in new experiments, Tristan Guttridge, Rosie Moore and Dr. Sora Kim construct a CGI fight to the death between two of the biggest and baddest apex predators in the water – the Great White Shark and Nile Crocodile.
In The Eye Of The Storm: Shark Storm
In the summer of 2024, dozens of cameras capture a rare outbreak of shark attacks along America’s gulf coast. Told exclusively through first-hand accounts of victims and eyewitnesses, nobody has seen all these perspectives unfold in real time until now.
Tuesday, July 22nd:
Great White Northern Invasion
Great white sharks have found a new home off the shores of Nova Scotia, Canada. With the waters now frothing with great whites, interactions with humans are on the rise. A team of scientists tracks down and tags the biggest sharks to uncover the sharkiest locations before there’s a fatal attack.
How to Survive A Shark Attack
Shark attack survivor Paul de Gelder attempts the unthinkable – getting attacked by a shark, again. Under the supervision of experts, Paul provokes sharks to attack him in multiple scenarios, where they bite and tear off prosthetic limbs to teach life-saving tactics for surviving an encounter with nature’s deadliest predators.
Black Mako Of The Abyss
When Shark Tagger Keith Poe saw the shark for the first time, he knew it was different. It was aggressive, 13-feet long and had very dark skin. Now, a group of experts lure the beast up from the abyss to determine if the creature is a mako, or mutant, or possibly, a mako and great white hybrid.
Wednesday, July 23rd:
Expedition Unknown: Shark Files
Global adventurer Josh Gates solves some of the strangest and most disturbing shark mysteries of all-time, including the real-life bloody inspiration for the movie Jaws and the gruesome case of the Tiger Shark who vomited an arm while living in captivity and ultimately helped police solve a murder mystery.
Expedition X: Malpelo Monster Shark
Josh Gates sends Phil Torres and Heather Amaro on their most perilous mission yet – tracking a legendary monster shark that lurks in the eerie waters of Malpelo Island, 300 miles off Colombia’s coast. After terrifying footage of this monster is brought to Josh, he sends his fearless team deep into the ocean to unmask the true identity of this 20-foot-long predator.
Alien Sharks: Death Down Under
Wildlife biologist Forrest Galante injects himself with shark venom after diving down under into Australia’s dangerous waters, home to some of the weirdest, alien-like and deadly sharks. He hopes this risky and potentially lethal experiment will bypass years of red tape to finally discover the potency of the venomous Port Jackson Shark and Ghost Shark.
Thursday, July 24th:
Surviving Jaws
Fifty years ago, Jaws changed the beachgoing experience forever – striking fear into millions of Americans who vowed to never go in the water again. Now, marine biologist Tom “Blowfish” Hird and predator ecologist Michelle Jewell re-examine the movie and dive with Great Whites to separate fact from fiction, answering questions like: does skinny dipping really attract great white sharks? Could a monster shark chew through a boat’s hull?
Caught! Sharks Strike Back
This year has set a record for shark encounters captured on camera, from a hilarious moment when a shark slaps a fisherman in the face to the intense 10-minutes a great white stalked a kayaker… these are craziest moments of when sharks strike back.
Frankenshark
Shark expert Tristan Guttridge and his team use CGI to create the ultimate apex predator. Pulling from a variety of shark species, they build the deadliest, weirdest shark on the planet and put it to the test in a high-stakes showdown against a killer orca.
Friday, July 25th:
Great White Reign Of Terror
In South Africa, two people are killed by great whites near the eastern cape, an area that hasn’t seen an attack in decades. Scientists worry it could be the start of a seriesof attacks eerily similar to Black December in 1957, when six people lost their lives. Ryan Johnson, Gibbs Kuguru and Andy Casagrande head out to investigate the cause behind the spike in attacks before there’s another fatality.
Florida's Death Beach
The numbers are in, and once again, Florida – specifically New Smyrna Beach – has earned the title of "The Shark Attack Capital of the World," accounting for 30% of global shark attacks. But why has the popular spring break, party beach become so deadly? Forrest Galante and his team investigate before even more blood ends up in the water.
Bull Shark Showdown
The most vicious and insane populations of bull sharks from Australia and America faceoff in a no-holds-barred showdown beneath the water. Bull Shark-attack survivor Paul de Gelder contends that his Aussie sharks are the toughest, while American shark biologist Dr. Craig O’Connell attempts to find the meanest sharks Florida has to offer to take the crown.
Saturday, July 26th:
Attack Of The Devil Shark
A rogue Tiger Shark attacks and kills a person in St. Martin. Weeks later, it strikes again. Locals fear it could be the work of the legendary Devil Shark – a massive and ruthless tiger shark who’s haunted their shores for decades. When a team sets out to track down the shark responsible for the attacks, they uncover a seismic force that may be triggering aggression in sharks.
Battle For Shark Mountain
Off Mozambique’s coast, sharks swarm a hidden peak, hunting Giant Trevally in a once-a-year feeding frenzy. But when 5,000 Trevally fight back, the hunters become the hunted in one of the ocean’s wildest showdowns.
ODDS AND SODS
* Diego Luna was the first guest host of the summer Jimmy Kimmel Live and in Monday's monologue he talked about how much Los Angeles meant to him, the very important immigration issues happening in Los Angeles and across the United States right now, the authoritarian policies of Donald Trump, his son being born in LA, finding community here, the importance of immigrants and the amazing things they bring to America, how unfair it is that they are living in fear, the violence and separating of families being unacceptable, and he encourages everyone to call their representatives and let them know how they feel about it, and support organizations like Public Counsel and Kids in Need of Defense. Watch the entire video here, it is quite well compelling.
* We all know that TikTok users can make the strangest things viral. Which is why I suppose I wasn't incredibly shocked to learn that one of the hottest subjects right now on #DesignTok is the late 1990s HGTV series Decorating Cents.
* I'm not saying this is the dumbest idea you'll hear this week. But it's certainly going to be in the top two: Five Democratic senators will host an invitation-only Pride concert at the Kennedy Center Monday as a protest against President Donald Trump’s takeover of the Washington D.C. arts institution. Because nothing says "resist" like a private, invitation-only concert designed primarily to make people feel good about themselves.
* Outlander: Blood of My Blood will premiere Friday, August 8th on Starz. And today, the network announced it was already renewing the series for a second season.
* The comedy special Marc Maron: Panicked will premiere Friday, August 1st on HBO.
* Paramount+ has ordered a second season of MobLand, starring Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren.
TWEET OF THE DAY
WHAT'S NEW TONIGHT AND TOMORROW
TUESDAY, JUNE 24TH, 2025:
Caregiving (PBS)
Enigma (HBO)
Ironheart Series Premiere (Disney+)
Parent Wars Season One Finale (A&E)
Rehab Addict Season Ten Premiere (HGTV)
Steph Tolev: Filth Queen (Netflix)
Trainwreck: Poop Cruise (Netflix)
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25TH, 2025:
Countdown Series Premiere (Prime Video)
Human Footprint Season Two Premiere (PBS)
Mr. Loverman Season One Finale (BritBox)
Raid The Cage Season Two Finale (CBS)
The Bear Season Four Premiere (Hulu)
The Ultimatum: Queer Love Season Two Premiere (Netflix)
SEE YOU ON TUESDAY!