Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Thursday, March 10th, 2022

The fine line between racism and being an idiot

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Thursday, March 10th, 2022. 

CINEMABLEND PULLS CONTROVERSIAL 'TURNING RED' REVIEW
The web site CinemaBlend has pulled a review of the new Pixar movie Turning Red that was written by managing director Sean O’Connell, who argued that the film’s appeal was limited because it’s set in the Asian community of Toronto:

"I recognized the humor in the film, but connected with none of it. By rooting ‘Turning Red’ very specifically in the Asian community of Toronto, the film legitimately feels like it was made for [director] Domee Shi’s friends and immediate family members,” O’Connell wrote in the since-pulled review. “Which is fine — but also, a tad limiting in its scope.”

O’Connell doubled down on his opinion of the film in a since-deleted tweet that accompanied his review. The post read: “Some Pixar films are made for universal audiences. ‘Turning Red’ is not. The target audience for this one feels very specific and very narrow. If you are in it, this might work very well for you. I am not in it. This was exhausting.”

“Turning Red” is directed by Domee Shi, who won an Oscar for animated short film with her Pixar offering “Bao.” The film tells the story of Meilin “Mei” Lee (voiced by Rosalie Chiang), a 13-year-old girl who finds herself turning into a giant red panda anytime she is overcome with emotion.

There was a lot of social media comments that suggested O'Connell's review was racist, but it struck me more as just being massively stupid.

A bigger issue is that the points O'Connell brought up about the movie aren't exactly outliers. It seems pretty clear that Disney had similar worries about the film, even though company executives had to have been intimately aware of the film's premise as it progressed through the production process. When studio executives discuss worries about whether a movie will "open wide enough" during a theatrical release, they are essentially making the same argument as O'Connell. They are concerned that the subject matter of the film isn't broad enough to be accessible to the general public.

To be clear, I think that premise is wrong and I wish Disney hadn't apparently decided to make Pixar movies a default "straight-to-Disney+" choice. But O'Connell's review reflects a very real slice of Hollywood industry opinion and rather than reflexively calling it racist, I would have much rather seen CinemaBlend use the controversy as a way to discuss this attitude. Rather than taking the predictable move of trying to pretend the review just magically appeared on their web site:

CinemaBlend announced Tuesday that the review was pulled from its website. CinemaBlend Editor-In-Chief Mack Rawden issued the following statement: “We failed to properly edit this review, and it never should have gone up. We have unpublished it and assigned to someone else. We have also added new levels of editorial oversight. Thank you to everyone who spoke up.”

O’Connell also issued the following apology on Twitter: “I’m genuinely sorry for my ‘Turning Red’ review. Thank you to everyone who has reached out with criticism, no matter how harsh. It is clear that I didn’t engage nearly enough with the movie, nor did I explain my point of view well, at all. I really appreciate your feedback.”

I would have much preferred for CinemaBlend to keep the review live (perhaps with an editor’s note), while adding a companion review that made the contrasting argument that diversity isn't inherently a limiting factor for building a mass-market movie release. 

And there is the bigger question of how Disney is handling its Pixar properties. A recent letter attributed to "the LGBTQIA+ employees of Pixar, and their allies" claims Disney executives demanded cuts from "nearly every moment of overtly gay affection… regardless of when there is protest from both the creative teams and executive leadership at Pixar:"

We at Pixar have personally witnessed beautiful stories, full of diverse characters, come back from Disney corporate reviews shaved down to crumbs of what they once were. Nearly every moment of overtly gay affection is cut at Disney’s behest, regardless of when there is protest from both the creative teams and executive leadership at Pixar. Even if creating LGBTQIA+ content was the answer to fixing the discriminatory legislation in the world, we are being barred from creating it. Beyond the “inspiring content” that we aren’t even allowed to create, we require action.

The takeaway question from this experience is how much of this sadly common belief in the entertainment industry is driven by racism or fear of an LGBTQIA+ lifestyle and how much is simply executives not trusting their audiences?

It's easy to beat some critic up on social media, even if he deserves it. But it's also a distraction from the important issues. Critics of CinemaBlend prefer to highlight this review as some sort of random example of racism. Rather than the less-comfortable truth that this attitude is a common one among the entertainment industry executive class. Executives who would never think of doing or saying anything that feels remotely racist. But they also don't trust their audiences to respond the same way. 

PEACOCK SHIFTS MSNBC STREAMING STRATEGY
MSNBC announced Thursday that it will expand its programming, specials, and documentaries within a new dedicated hub on the premium tier of NBCU’s streaming service Peacock:

Starting in early spring, an MSNBC “hub” on Peacock will offer episodes of “Morning Joe,” “Deadline: White House,” “The Beat with Ari Melber,” “The ReidOut,” “All In with Chris Hayes” and MSNBC’s opinion programs on-demand the day after they air on cable. Specials with top hosts including Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace, Chris Hayes, Trymaine Lee and others will premiere later this year, streaming exclusively on Peacock. The new MSNBC hub is available for a Peacock Premium subscription of $4.99 per month.

“We are reimagining the MSNBC experience by adding the core of our perspective programming to Peacock and reaching audiences wherever they are and however they choose to consume content,” said Rashida Jones, president of MSNBC, in a prepared statement. “As MSNBC has the most loyal viewers on cable news, our streaming expansion will further strengthen our portfolio 24 hours a day, seven days a week on all platforms.”

Others have tested these waters. Last year, Fox News Channel began making  its lineup of primetime opinion programs available on its Fox Nation streaming-video service, just one day after they air on cable.

Some of MSNBC's primetime programming is already available on a next-day basis on the NBC News AVOD channel. But this effort is more inclusive and high-profile. It's taken longer than it should have to make the move, it's ultimately a smart one.

A FEW THOUGHTS ABOUT CHURN
I've talked a lot about churn in the past, but I wanted to highlight this data:

It’s a reflection of how inadequate the Apple TV+ library continues to be that it has a 10+ percentage churn rate given the efforts the company makes to keep customers inside its ecosystem. I also wonder how much of that churn is attributable to people canceling after their free year of Apple TV+.

As for Peacock, that churn rate is one reason why it’s aggressively adding content and beefing up its news offering.

TWEET OF THE DAY

ODDS AND SODS
* Dick Wolf's crime TV empire is expanding to Oxygen with the true crime series Final Moments, which premieres on Sunday, April 3rd. According to the network, the series "tracks a different investigation in which law enforcement’s efforts to solve a case hinge on dissecting the victim’s final moments, using their last interactions with family and friends, surveillance footage, text messages and social media posts to build a timeline."

* HBO Max has announced that the Kenneth Branagh movie Death On The Nile will be premiering on the service March 29th. It will also be premiering on Hulu the same day and will debut on Disney+ in select international markets and on Star+ in Latin America.

* IMDb TV is premiering the sequel series Bosch: Legacy on May 6th.

* The daytime talk show Nick Cannon has been canceled after its first season.

WHAT'S NEW FOR THURSDAY
Here's a quick rundown of all the new stuff premiering today on TV and streaming:

Bust Down Series Premiere (Peacock)
Desus & Mero Season Premiere (Showtime)
Fix My Flip Season Premiere (HGTV)
Ghost Adventures Season Premiere (Discovery+)
Harina (Prime Video)
Sandy (Juanpa) + Chef Series Premiere (HBO Max)
Karma's World Series Premiere (Netflix)
Kotaro Lives Alone Series Premiere (Netflix)
Last Exit: Space (Discovery+)
Love, Life & Everything In Between Series Premiere (Netflix)
Ruthless Season Premiere (BET+)
Siesta Key Season Premiere (MTV)
That Dirty Black Book Series Premiere (AMC+)
The Seed (Shudder)
Theodosia (HBO Max)
The Orville: New Horizons (Hulu)

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.