The Twilight Zone
US TV

Preview: The Twilight Zone 1×1 (US: CBS All Access)

In the US: Thursdays, CBS All Access
In the UK: Not yet acquired

Why is Jordan Peele determined to prove me wrong? A while ago, I suggested that the old-school anthology show, with a different story and cast every week, no longer worked as a format, given the nature of modern television scheduling. Instead, the season-long anthology show has the best of both worlds, with both a regular cast and the ability to tell closed stories, all rolled into one:

With an audience who likes serial drama but who wants eventual conclusions to their stories that haven’t been drawn out too long, what could be better than a season-long story with a beginning, middle and an end, the next season then telling a completely new story in the same vein? With a bit of cleverness, you can even appease fans of the shows’ stars by having the cast come back to play different characters if they want – or just let them go off to the next job if they’d rather, just like in the old days, since that way you can get big names with limited availability to come in for just a season.

There have been attempts to return to the original, episodic formula, such as The Guest Book and Room 104, but these exceptions have somewhat proved my hypothesis that the format no longer works. How? Because no one watches them.

So I ask again: why is Jordan Peele is so determined to prove me wrong? I mean first he creates a feelgood, episodic anthology show for YouTube, Weird City, and now he’s resurrected possibly the most famous anthology show of them all, The Twilight Zone.

Why does the lauded writer-director of Get Out and Us think he knows better than me, hey?

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Fresh Eggs
Streaming TV

What have you been watching? Including Fresh Eggs

It’s “What have you been watching?”, your chance to recommend to fellow TMINE readers anything you’ve been watching this week

Turns out, my knowledge of the TV schedules is even weaker than I feared. “Move WHYBW to Tuesday because there’s less on”? That was a stupid idea. Turns out, Thursday’s still best for WHYBW.

Michael Cena in Weird City

This week’s reviews

It has, of course, been stupidly busy for the past week. So busy I didn’t have time to watch any movies, but fingers crossed, Orange Wednesday will be back next week. In terms of tele, though, TMINE has reviewed:

Which is pretty good, I reckon.

Ms Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries

New shows

Coming up in the next week, there’s a whole bunch of new shows, most of them antipodean. I’ll be reviewing Fresh Eggs (New Zealand: TVNZ 2) after the jump, and coming later in the week, I’ll cast my eye over Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries (Australia: Seven) and The Heights (Australia: ABC). But there’s bound to be a few other things, too. After all, what do I know about schedules, hey?

Counterpart

The regulars

Season two of Ófærð (Trapped) started on Saturday, but I’ve not had time to digest more than about 20 minutes of the first episode, I’m afraid, so fingers-crossed, I’ll be onto that before the weekend. That means that after the jump, we’ll be talking about: Cavendish, Corporate, The Magicians, Magnum P.I., Miracle Workers, The Orville, The Passage and Star Trek: Discovery, as well as the season and probably series finale of Counterpart.

Continue reading “What have you been watching? Including Fresh Eggs”

Weird City
Streaming TV

Review: Weird City 1×1 (YouTube)

Available on YouTube

The Oscar-winning Jordan Peele seems to have ambitions to be the new Rod Serling. This might not be an obvious career choice for a long-time member of the cast of Mad TV, the co-star of Comedy Central’s eponymous Key & Peele and the co-creator of The Last OG, but the evidence is mounting up.

There was, of course, his directorial debut Get Out, which had a touch of the Ira Levins to it. Coming soon we have the most literal evidence – Peele is the creator and host of CBS All Access’ forthcoming The Twilight Zone reboot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29WPXC2y4CQ

But first we have YouTube sci-fi anthology show Weird City. It’s set in the city of the near sci-fi future with a slightly odd set-up that it explains very early on:

Weird City

Sci-fi anthologies aren’t especially new, even on streaming services, where we have Netflix’s Black Mirror. Class divides aren’t that new in sci-fi either – it’s the entire foundation of the future society of The Time Machine, for example.

But Weird City is a little bit different from its predecessors in one main regard – it’s not dystopian. In fact, it’s actually quite nice and sunny.

Continue reading “Review: Weird City 1×1 (YouTube)”

Time Traveling Bong
US TV

What have you been watching? Including Time Traveling Bong

It’s “What have you been watching?”, your chance to recommend to fellow TMINE readers anything you’ve been watching this week

The schedules are a shifting and new shows are arriving. Now, there’s not much on Mondays but lots on Wednesdays, meaning that for a second time, while I’ve watched Corporate, I’ve not had a chance to watch this week’s Magicians. Therefore, WHYBW might well be moving to Tuesday next week. Let’s see how it goes, though.

Close (2019)
Sophie Nélisse and Noomi Rapace in Close (2019)

This week’s reviews

I dedicated much of the weekend to watching this week’s Orange Wednesday movies Close (2019) and What We Do In The Shadows (2014), as well as the first five episodes of Das Boot.

Miracle Workers
Daniel Radcliffe and Steve Buscemi in TBS (US)’s Miracle Workers

New shows

Coming up in the next week, there’s a lot. YouTube launched Weird City last night, so I’ll be watching that, and TBS has also given us Miracle Workers, so I’ll be tuning in for that, too. However, there’s much more than that on the way, including some Australian programming, so expect quite a few reviews over the next week.

On top of that, Comedy Central (US)’s three-part mini-series Time Traveling Bong will be airing in the UK from Sunday, so I gave that a view. Well, some of it. I’ll take about that after the jump.

Mark Little in Cavendish
Mark Little in Cavendish

The regulars

Magnum P.I., DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and The Orville were all on a break last week, so after the jump, we’ll be talking about: Cavendish, Corporate, Counterpart, The Passage and Star Trek: Discovery, as well as the final three episodes of Das Boot. See you in a mo!

Continue reading “What have you been watching? Including Time Traveling Bong”

Russian Doll
News

Bite Club acquired; Weird City, Russian Doll trailers; + more

Every weekday, TMINE brings you the latest TV news from around the world

UK TV acquisitions

Internet TV

  • Trailer for Netflix’s Russian Doll
  • Trailer for YouTube Premium’s Weird City

French TV

  • JoeyStarr, Marina Hands and Myriam Boyer to guest on France 3’s Capitaine Marleau

US TV show casting

New US TV shows

New US TV show casting