Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Monday, July 31st, 2023

We are now entering the back channel portion of the strike.

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Monday, July 31st, 2023. Today's newsletter is VERY late, but I have a teenage son. And things happen.

WHY CAN'T WE SEE THIS IN THE U.S.?
I've written before about the awkwardness of trying to cover Canadian television from the U.S. I live in the Twin Cities and Canada is closer to me than the next closest big American city. And yet, Canadian networks are loathe to provide info on shows which generally can't be viewed in the U.S. Even though Canadian readers are a not-small percentage of my readership.

But I will sometimes try and least point to a Canadian show that I think might be of interest to the rest of the world in a series called "Why Can't We See This In The U.S.?" In January 2022, I posted this brief look at the new CBC comedy Run The Burbs, which was co-created by Andrew Phung (Kim’s Convenience). 

I mention this now because the series was picked up in the U.S. by The CW and it premieres tonight. I've now had a chance to see a few episodes and if you enjoy that hard-to-define Canadian comedy style that includes Schitt's Creek and Kim’s Convenience, you will probably enjoy the show.

It's going to be interesting to see how American audiences respond to the series. The CW has struggled so far with its new schedule mix of mostly cheaply acquired international scripted series and reality programming. The network has already bailed out of three shows after just a couple of airings and I'm curious how much of that is due to the quality of the programming and how much is just that viewers don't know what to make of the new CW branding.

FWIW, the network has several real high-quality sleeper shows premiering soon. Besides tonight's Run The Burbs, the CW has also picked up the comedy Children Ruin Everything, which follows Astrid (Meaghan Rath, Being Human, Hawaii Five-0) and James (Aaron Abrams, Blindspot, Hannibal), as they raise their two young children in the city, while struggling to hold onto their pre-kid life. As well as the Peter Moffat thriller 61st Street, starring Courtney B. Vance. 

The question is whether or not the audience is willing to tune in. That is especially complicated by the fact that The CW's former branding as the home of super heroes makes the task of marketing this new lineup even more difficult. But there are a few good shows here and if audiences give them a chance, there is some upside for growth.

ODDS AND SODS
* The BBC has launched an "experimental" Mastodon server. It's a six-month trial and while you can read messages for a handful of official BBC accounts, users can't replay or post. The hesitance over replies is due to Mastodon's lack of moderation. BBC would have to provide moderation for its own server, and it is apparently not ready to make that investment quite yet.

* Edits were quietly made to Tatiana Siegel's article on Jeff Zucker amid intense backlash, but Variety's editors-in-chief say they stand by the reporting.

WE ARE NOW ENTERING THE BACK CHANNEL PORTION OF THE STRIKE
When it comes to negotiating in public, the WGA and AMPTP have roughly similar approaches. There isn't a lot of public posturing and the on-the-record statements regarding the negotiations tend to be very infrequent. That has changed somewhat this time around, in part because the anger from WGA members has spilled into the way each side talks up their take on the negotiating process.  And once you add actors to the mix, then everything becomes a lot more unpredictable.

But we're in the part of the negotiations in which all sides know that nothing is going to be resolved without heading back into talks. Both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA have argued they are willing to talk, but the studio side has so far refused. Privately, AMPTP members have disputed that. Although also strangely arguing that declining to return to negotiations right now is not the same as "refusing."

What's clear is a significant part of the holdup is both the scope of the problems and the conflicting business models from various AMPTP members. This is not 2008, when for all of the changes in the industry, the various AMPTP members had roughly the same approaches to the business. That's not the case in 2023, when the terms that matter most to a pure streamer such as Netflix are diametrically different than the needs of a linear/streamer/studio hybrid such as Warner Bros. Discovery or Paramount. Those disagreements are starting to come into public view, with some stories surfacing this week that discuss the efforts by AMPTP members to come together on a core set of proposals they are willing to negotiate on while also drawing some lines in the sand to shut down talk on other less-palatable ideas.

And then there's just the emotions involved in the discussion. Multiple sources have told me that several of the media CEO's are "furious" they have been depicted in press coverage as over-paid executives whose large salaries and bonuses are essentially taking money out of the pockets of striking workers. CEO-friendly sources have been making the pitch to me that the CEOs didn't trick anyone into paying them that impressive benefits package. They are paid based on their expertise and experience. And investors are willing to offer impressive compensation if that translates into a healthy bottom line.

One of the fascinating developments in recent days are the increasing appearance of stories that were sparked at least in part by sources on the studio side. In recent days, I've read several pieces arguing that greater transparency from streamers will mostly reveal that a lot of shows aren't as popular as people think they are based on their buzz. That one is clearly coming from studio sources, because I have been pitched that very story by studio-adjacent sources. It feels like an effort to push the transparency discussion in a new direction. But I am not getting a sense from anyone that it's working.

TWEET OF THE DAY

THE BEST ACTION MOVIE YOU DIDN'T STREAM THIS WEEK
I create a lot of very specific Spotify playlists. I am almost always listening to music as I work and I get bored easily. So now "Dance Hits of the 80s" pre-curated playlists for me. Today I was listening to my playlist entitled "R&B Covers Of The Beatles," which even I will admit is a very niche approach. But what is important in this context is the section at the bottom of the playlist called "Recommended." These songs are ones that Spotify's technology believes might be a good fit for your playlist. Some of the suggestions are driven by similar sounds to the ones already your playlists as well as tunes that other users who created similar playlists might have suggested.

And I've found the suggestions are about 80% helpful. Many of the songs are a good fit, and some are more obscure tracks I hadn't considered. But the other 20% are off for some pretty definable reason. The song is by an artist on my playlist, but the song itself is wrong. Or its a song written by someone who has a couple of other songs already on my playlist. It's a noble effort, but technology isn't at the point yet where it can judge that still human trait of taste. The chemistry that comes from someone who can aggregate a list of content titles based primarily on some visceral feel for what works.

The various SVOD's depend on some level of technology to provide curation and I don't have to tell any of you that so far, the efforts have a long way to go. It's not just that the machine-driven recommendation engines fail to let you know when a new episode of your favorite show has premiered after 18 months. It's that so many of the seemingly random curation suggestions users receive are based on marketing priorities, business partnerships or just random fiddling. 

I was looking around for a new action movie that my son and I could watch together and while on Peacock, I spotted the South Korean thriller AshFall, which is just an amazing ride. It's got that crazy "If Jerry Bruckheimer was from South Korea" vibe to it and the film was a blast to watch.

As I spent some time looking for other similar titles suggested by Peacock, I realized the service has a nice selection of recent-ish South Korean and Chinese action films in several different genres. What I've watched so far have been impressively crazy and I've loved them. The sad things is that I wouldn't know about those films unless I had stumbled across them. And I can't help thinking streamers should be making more of an effort to surface their catalog titles in new ways.

I don't know about you. But if I signed onto Peacock tomorrow and one of the teases in the promo window was titled "If Jerry Bruckheimer was from South Korea," I would dive right in without hesitation.

Technology can't create that type of curation. It can't find the perfect mix of seemingly random titles that all make sense when put together in one package. Only humans can do that - at least right now. And every major streamer needs someone on staff expert at compiling those perfect curations of content you probably wouldn't have noticed without help.

WHAT'S NEW TODAY AND TOMORROW:

MONDAY, JULY 31ST:
* American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes (Peacock)
* Bastard: Heavy Metal, Dark Fantasy Season Two Premiere (Netflix)
* Breeders Season Premiere (FX)
* Bump Season Premiere (The CW)
* Cruel Summer Season Two Finale (Freeform)
* Mother, May I Murder? (Investigation Discovery)
* Rewind The 90s (NatGeo)
* Run The Burbs Series Premiere (The CW)

TUESDAY, AUGUST 1ST:
* Granite Harbour (Britbox)
* Mixtape (Paramount+)
* Untold (Netflix)

Click Here to see the list of all of the upcoming premiere dates for the next few months.

SEE YOU FRIDAY!

If you have any feedback, send it along to Rick@AllYourScreens.com and follow me on Twitter @aysrick.