Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Thursday, June 15th, 2023

Some Amazon TV shows get a theatrical release...sort of

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Thursday, June 15th, 2023.

AMAZON OFFERS THEATRICAL SNEAK PEEK OF SEVERAL ORIGINALS TO PRIME MEMBERS
I have seen a couple of these offers in the past, but they were one-offs promotions (most recently for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel). But Amazon is now offering Prime Members the chance to get a sneak theatrical preview of three upcoming Prime Video originals in the coming weeks.

A limited number of tickets will be available for the screenings, which will include three episodes of The Horror Of Delores Roach on June 28th (it premieres on Prime July 7th), the two episodes of The Summer I Turned Pretty on July 12th (it premieres on Prime July 14th) and two episodes of Good Omens on July 26th (it premieres on July 28th).

I am honestly surprised that Netflix or Apple TV+ hasn't tried to do a similar thing. Especially in the case of some of the shows that are more "theatrical" in scope and production style.

FOR TRUE CRIME FANS
There is some behavior that just seems like a bad idea. A high school principal hypnotizing his students is one of the those and that is the core of the story told in the new four-part documentary True Crime Story: Look Into My Eyes, which premieres Thursday, June 15th, 2023 on Sundance TV.

Dr. George Kenney was forced out of his job as principal at North Port High School in Florida after 10 years after the suspicious deaths of three students at this school. It turns out the three students were just some of the students Kenney had been hypnotizing as a way of helping them with a variety of mental and physical challenges. The community quickly split into camps over allegations of misconduct and unlicensed medical procedures and the series documents the many twists and turns in the story.

I had the opportunity earlier this week to speak with executive producers Ethan Goldman and Brent Hodge about the documentary and the challenges of telling a story with many more nuances than answers:

Q: You talk about having some experience shooting high school locations. So I'm curious about hearing what was the most challenging thing for you about this specific production? What was the most difficult or the thing you had to figure out in order to make it work the way you wanted? 

Brent Hodge: One thing is that I rely on humor a lot. There's just really nothing funny about this one at all. People's lives are gone and a principal's life is ruined. And I think the biggest challenge for me - and I realized it right away - is that when we went down to North Port, we started doing interviews, and a student who's now 29 or 30 years old would sit down, and they'd be fine. Everything would be great. And then about halfway through, you'd realize that they hadn't thought about this in about 10 years, and it hit them hard. For most interviews, we'd have to stop at some point for emotional reasons. They would start crying or we would bring something up and they'd say "You know, I didn't think it was going to hit me so hard today."

So that was tough. You have to make sure to handle this with care. Our job isn't to just get some facts and walk away. You have to understand that this is their life. And this is a really tough town in Florida. And I think they did put on a tough face at the time. And they finally started to realize "no, this thing that happened to us in high school was a really big deal." And learning that was probably the biggest challenge for me, sort of understanding what was going on in these interviews.

NEW YORK MAGAZINE LAUNCHES 'AND JUST LIKE THAT CLUB' NEWSLETTER
This might seem like a bit niche of a topic (especially for this newsletter), but I am a bit fascinated by this idea. 

Earlier this year, New York Magazine launched "Succession Club," a weekly pop-up newsletter devoted to weekly recaps and discussions about the HBO series Succession. It was apparently a success for the publication, given it has now launched a new pop-up newsletter "And Just Like That Club," which will provide the same coverage for the Max original series And Just Like That, the Sex And The City spin-off series which kicks off its new season tonight.

The show is certainly on brand for New York Magazine and obviously there is an audience for it. I suppose my biggest question is how big of an audience and whether this idea is seen internally as a way to add new newsletter subscribers or as a way to provide extra value to current paid digital subscribers.

I'll be interested in seeing whether any of the other bigger publications experiment with this idea. I'll be honest, it is something that I find tempting, especially if I could combine the right show with a compatible advertiser.

TWEET OF THE DAY

ODDS AND SODS
* Disney+ to debut 28 newly restored classic Disney shorts

* Season seven of Billions will premiere Friday, August 11th on Paramount+ with Showtime before making its linear TV premiere two days later on Showtime.

* Max has picked up Mindy Kaling’s animated series Velma for a second season.

* ITV has ordered a second season the detective series Ridley, starring Adrian Dunbar.

* Season four of Tacoma FD is premiering Thursday, July 20th on truTV.

WHAT'S NEW FOR FRIDAY:
* An Unforgettable Year - Winter (Um Ano Inesquecível - Inverno) (Prime Video)
* Black Clover: Sword Of The Wizard King (Netflix)
* Gold Rush: White Water Season Seven Finale (Discovery)
* Extraction 2 (Netflix)
* Hoffman Family Gold Season Premiere (Discovery)
* Lovely Little Farm (Apple TV+)
* Morimoto’s Sushi Master Series Premiere (The Roku 
* Outlander Season 7A Premiere (Starz)
* Stan Lee (Disney+)
* The Cabin Chronicles Season Premiere (Discovery+/Max)
* The Grand Tour: Eurocrash (Prime Video)
* The 50th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards (CBS)
* The Village (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.