Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Wednesday, February 10th, 2021

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Tuesday, February 9th, 2021. I'm writing this from the Twin Cities suburbs, where AllYourScreens HQ is powered by lots and lots of coffee.

BTW, my apologies for the sloppy editing in yesterday's newsletter. I was rushing to get to a doctor's appointment and didn't pay as close of attention as I should have to the text before I sent it out. And of course, I noticed the problems about five minutes after the newsletter hit everyone's inbox. It's very embarrassing.

NETFLIX'S 'CHOOSE YOUR ADVENTURE' EPISODES ARE GREAT TECH IN SEARCH OF THE RIGHT SHOWCASE
Netflix has invested a significant amount of money in their efforts to develop a viable "choose your adventure" type genre of streaming television. They've developed technology that seems to work very well (although it's not flawless). And they have created special "choose your adventure" episodes of shows ranging from Black Mirror to Captain Underpants. But for the most part, the efforts have been been interesting to watch, but not all that entertaining.

And watching the upcoming Bear Grylls special Animals On The Loose: A You Vs. Wild Movie, I realized what the big problem has been with all of these efforts. The best thing about the paperback books that inspired this idea is that some of your choices ended up going spectacularly badly. Your character would die or you would end up stranded alone on some desert planet. There were actual unpredictable consequences to your choices and that just isn't the case with most of these specials. 

For instance, the worst case scenario in the Bear Grylls "choose your adventure" special is that you end up trapped and are forced to call in the park rangers. After playing through the various choices a few times, the deadliest consequence I could find was one in which Grylls fires a flare after he is unable to extract himself from the grip of a boa constrictor. As he fires the flare, he is gasping that he can't breath. Which would seem like a fatal choice, except that you're returned to the beginning of the chapter and asked if you want to try it again.

Sure, it would be fun if you could pretend to kill off Bear Grylls, but that isn't going to happen for a variety of reasons. And in the end, that's the biggest problem with these "choose your adventure" episodes. Because they utilize existing IP, the choices available to the subscribers are constrained by what the IP owners will allow. Sure, it would be fun to have an adventure in which Carmen Sandiego makes the choice to become a villain. But that is never going to happen.

Which makes me think that the future of interactive programming is with new characters. I'd love to see Netflix do one of these episodes with original animated characters. Give viewers choices that have unpredictable consequences and unexpected twists. That's the real future of "choose your adventure" streaming shows. I'm just not sure how long it will take to get there.

I DON'T MEAN TO BE THE UI POLICE
I know, I know. I complain about streaming service user interfaces a lot. But that is because the UI is literally the face of any service and it is one of those things that can have a huge impact on the way subscribers think about the service.

I've been using the Discovery+ app a great deal at home and it has become the go-to choice for me when watching Discovery Inc. networks. I pay for the ad-free edition and that has had a huge impact on my viewing habits. And while the app does a good job of juggling its many networks and massive amounts of programming, I am frustrated by how hard it can be to find the newest Discovery+ originals.

There are basically two types of originals. Some of them are merely linear programs that now are only available on Discovery+. For instance, the most recent season of Property Brothers: Forever Home is only available on the service and is billed as an "original." Even though the episodes originally aired on HGTV. Another example is the new season of The Food Networks Chopped Sweets, which premiered exclusively on the streaming service after the first two seasons had premiered on the Food Network.

But then there are the specials and programs that are created specifically for Discovery+ and it is frustrating how difficult it can be to find them. Sometimes they are highlighted in the header box of the particular genre category that fits the program. Sometimes they only show up in some "trending" section. And sometimes they don't show up at all. I was trying to find a new Bigfoot special that was premiering this week and I ended up having to run a search for it. If I didn't already know it existed, I might not have ever found it.

Discovery+ is devoting a great deal of resources to creating original programming. And it should really create more intuitive ways for viewers to easily find them.

TODAY'S PREMIERES

1) Crime Scene: The Vanishing At The Cecil Hotel (Netflix)
For nearly a century the Cecil Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles has been linked to some of the city’s most notorious activity, from untimely deaths to housing serial killers. In 2013 college student Elisa Lam was staying at the Cecil when she vanished, igniting a media frenzy and mobilizing a global community of internet sleuths eager to solve the case. Lam’s disappearance, the latest chapter in the hotel’s complex history, offers a chilling and captivating lens into one of LA’s most nefarious settings.

2) Nature: Big Bend - The Wild Frontier Of Texas (PBS)
This special takes viewers on an exciting tour deep into the most remote corner of the Rio Grande River in the borderland known as Big Bend, a vast, unspoiled wonderland of serene beauty and home to some of America’s most iconic animals, including black bears, rattlesnakes and scorpions.

3) OnlyFans: Selling Sexy (Hulu)
A new documentary by that takes a deep dive into the salacious social media network OnlyFans.

4) The Misadventures Of Hedi And Cokeman (Netflix)
In Paris, two dysfunctional dealers use family ties to try to boost their small drug business in this crass comedy based on the webseries.

5) Tough As Nails Season Two Premiere (CBS)
The 12 new contenders who are everyday heroes take on their first job - making concrete - with the first two to complete the individual task named crew bosses who get to select their own crews for the team competitions.

This newsletter is called "Too Much TV" because....well, it's hard to keep track of all the new television premiering everyday. To help you prioritize your viewing, click here to see our list of more than 400 upcoming television premieres, movies and finales. You'll find listings from more than 70 networks, as well as streaming services and web shows.

If you'd like to get this daily feature as an email, subscribe to our free daily "Too Much TV" newsletter here.

I'll be back with another one tomorrow. If you have any feedback, send it along to Rick@AllYourScreens.com and follow me on Twitter @aysrick.