It's been a pretty big year for movies so far. "The Super Mario Bros. Movie," "Barbie," "Guardians of the Galaxie Vol. 3" and "Oppenheimer" have all gotten film fans off of couches and back into theaters.
And there have been a number of big streaming shows this year, including several notable series finales from "Succession," "Ted Lasso" and "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel." Plus, HBO launched "The Last of Us" and we've enjoyed other streaming hits like "The Bear" and "Shrinking."
But how good of an entertainment year has 2023 been? Are Oscar races still a bit unclear? Will this year's movies and shows stand the test of time?
This week's episode is a report card of sorts as we have tipped past the midway point in the year.
About the show
Streamed & Screened is a podcast about movies and TV hosted by Bruce Miller, a longtime entertainment reporter who is now the editor of the Sioux City Journal in Iowa and Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer for Lee Enterprises based in Madison, Wisconsin.
Next week
With no end to the strikes in sight, we plan to look back at the year so far. What are the hits? What are the misses? And what will stand the test of time?
Episode transcript
Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:
Welcome everyone to another episode of Streamed & Screened, an entertainment podcast about movies and TV from Lee Enterprises, I'm Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer at Lee and co-host of the program with the incomparable Bruce Miller, editor of the Sioux City Journal and a long time entertainment reporter. Bruce, we're here then halfway through 2020. You know what it is?
It's report card time. It is. We have school buddies, report card time for entertainment because we're past the halfway mark. We should look at the things that are have already happened. Which ones are good? Which ones are bad? Which ones will stand the rest of the year? Because right about now, people start talking. Oscar. At which films would actually make it to that big time at the end of the year when they go, Oh, of course this is going to be a winner.
Last year we had Top Gun Maverick as kind of the one that was like, yeah, that's that's a done deal. That one's going to be in there. And it was. But this year, boy, I think I have three titles that will make it to the end of the year. Okay. Can you. Ah. Which will make it to the end of the year.
Yeah. That will be considered for awards at the end of the year. Well, Oppenheimer. Right, Definitely. Are we only talking movies that we've seen so far or movies that have happened since January to now? So we're going to go. Oppenheimer Oh, yeah. Barbie. Barbie Yes, I do. I really do think it'll be in there. I think it'll be in the.
Okay. Okay. One more. I'm going to just I'm going to throw this one out there. Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse man could be. Yes, Spider-Man could be. You know, they like to marginalize animated films. Yeah, I'm in the animated category, so it could be because it was very good. But I think air might have another opportunity. Oh, yes, Yes.
That's still on my list of movies to see. Yeah, because it had really good supporting performances. Matt Damon was good in that and Matt is all over the map this year. He's in everything and I don't think he has enough clout to get a nomination for Oppenheimer, even though he's in it. But I think he's like the least of the big names that are in it.
I think Robert Downey Jr has a better shot than he does. I would agree. Yeah. So ere is my third one. Asteroid city is one that could creep in there because of the west Anderson imprint. You know, I was going to throw that one. Yeah, I was going to throw that one out at you, too, if you could, because that's one I didn't get a chance to see it, but it's now available for, I think, streaming and DVD rental.
So I'm planning to check that one out very soon. And then I asked friends, I said, What would you put on the list? And now you're going to be shocked when I tell you this. Are you? If God, it's me, Margaret. Interesting. And that is not on my list at all, huh? But they thought it was really well done.
They thought it was a good adaptation of a Judy Blume novel. Well, you know. All right. And then, like you, Spider-Verse, I think, has a a shot at something. But I don't know if it could be best picture, but that's that's kind of where we're at. I don't think it goes beyond those films for Oscar consideration because have you really seen something that good that you you want to remember?
Yeah, we've talked about this on some some past episodes to where it's an effort for me personally to get out to the theater. I'm not I'm not going to just go and see every single film. If there's a lot out there, I'll see as many as I can, you know? And last year I saw two Top Gun and Avatar.
I'm up to about six now this year. Oh, my God. Right. Because there's like I know because there's been a lot that I've wanted to see this year. But even now I'm looking at what's still to come. And really, until we get to that Scorsese film killers, I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if there's a whole lot else that I want to see.
Like the Granturismo. I know you just saw that one. I sort of want to maybe see it, but I think that's just a wait until it comes out on streaming for me. That's a fast and furious crowd kind of picture. Yeah, I wanted it to be more Ford versus Ferrari, you know, but it's not. It's it's rocky on wheels is what you get out of that sucker.
Maestro is a big one to look forward to where Bradley Cooper plays Leonard Bernstein. And it looks like he has a real shot of beating Killian Murphy for best actor. Really? Yeah, that's. That's a big one. And then that they've done a remake of The Color Purple, the the Steven Spielberg film. But now the musical version that's getting a lot of buzz.
I'm hearing things about Saltburn, which is an emerald vinyl film. I know that image is throwing you off the track here. Alexander Payne has the holdovers. Okay, so there are ones that are out there that you probably haven't heard about but are getting early buzz as potential best picture, best actor, best actress. You know, so Napoleon, that's another one.
We don't know who's going to make it. So, you know, doing might be next year might not be this year. But best actress, when you look at that very thing this year, very thin. I mean, if I'm thinking of Margot Robbie as best actress for playing Barbie, is this really going to happen? And then you have Fantasia Barrino in The Color Purple.
That's that's almost a made for nomination role, but it's a remake of sorts. It's not you know, I mean, have you have you gotten excited about that? I'm not so sure. You look at best actor Gillian Murphy is the only one that you've been hearing about for best actor. But like I say, Bradley Cooper could be in there.
Matt Damon could be in there for air. There are some other ones, Joaquin Phenix for Napoleon, for the holdovers. So there are ones that sound a little better there. But the real strength is in the supporting actor categories. That's where you're going to see some people that you've, you know. Okay. Emily Blunt from Oppenheimer. She was the wife and she was always kind of mean and nasty.
Florence Pugh from Oppenheimer as the girlfriend. Right. Right. Then from there. Are you there? God, it's me, Margaret. Kathy Bates, Rachel McAdams, potential Scarlett Johansson from Asteroid Fever. Asteroid City, rather. Mm hmm. Potential. And then supporting actor Robert Downey Jr, I think is a must. He's in there. Ryan Gosling as can. Come on. Possibly. Yeah. I loved him.
He was great. I think they always do try to throw in one there so that you think pretty pretty possibly get this this could be it. And then then they don't give it to him. They pull it from him. But you know, potential best director Christopher Nolan, because that will absolutely right. Greta Gerwig Because she did something with Barbie that wasn't just the same old crap that we've seen before.
Wes Anderson because of, you know, they like him. Scorsese Come on, you can't be him. I think you can even say right now he's in the list. Really win it. I don't know. He's always yeah, he's always left kind of off to the side, but he's a bridesmaid all the time. So. So. So you never really know where these are going to go.
But I do think that thus far we have not had a rush of strong best picture, best actor at best actress. You know, I think it's anybody's game at this point. And they they only have to get into theaters briefly by the end of this calendar year. Correct. They've changed it so that you have to have two weeks.
And it used to be you could do kind of a one week and a thing and then you open in January and you kind of take a run with it. But they've made it a little more difficult. But I think it's a little fairer and it had to be a number. It wasn't just one market in Los Angeles or some other kinds of things.
So maybe we'll actually get these ones. You never know. But the rules are a little, little different this year. Do you think there's anything that might get screwed up, too? Because, you know, there's been a few delays here and there, the writers strike now I'm assuming most of the films that are still due to come out this year are at at worst, just in post-production right now.
Correct. I mean, there's probably nothing filming. I thought they said that there could be a problem with Dune coming out in December. Will they push it to try and get there? We'll see just how we're going to go the next year. Don't worry about that. And then there's the anticipation. So that could be affected. But most of the ones that we're seeing advertised now, they're done.
They're ready. I was watching a baseball game last night, The New York Mets, they've got a three man TV booth, but then they also have a fourth person that kind of wanders around and we'll talk to celebrities. We'll talk to, you know, family of players might, you know, retired players, that kind of thing. So he's wandering around and speaks with Steve Schirripa, who you may remember from The Sopranos is as Bobby Bakula above Bobby Bucklebury.
And they were talking to him because he's doing a podcast now, I think is with Michael Imperioli, where they're looking back at The Sopranos, and I believe they're just rewatching all the episodes and kind of talking about them. Now, he made an interesting comment, and this is one that I've always thought about this show because I watched it heavily when it first came out.
And then a few years ago, I actually rewatched the entire series start to finish. And we're talking, you know, a solid eight, eight or nine years after it went off the air. And one thing that he mentioned, which I've always felt strongly about, is that it's a show that will stand the test of time, because other than the cars that they're driving or maybe the technology that they're using, like those old flip phones, or they would still make some phone calls on a payphone every once in a while, which those things don't exist anymore.
But other than those things, the show still holds up. I mean, it's just a show about relationships. Are there any movies this year that you see that are going to stand the test of time? I mean, like in Oppenheimer? Sure, because it's a period piece. So, you know, there's no reason that wouldn't. But are there movies that we're seeing this year that we're going to be watching 50 years from now?
I think we're going to see a lot of Barbies. I've said this before. I think they're going to be trying to milk that one for every dime they can get out of it. And so I would not be surprised to see Barbie two, three, four or five. It's like Rocky. You saw Rocky and you said, oh, my God, this was so good.
And then all of a sudden we're up to Rocky six. And then they're doing Creed as a subset of all of this. So yeah, I think some of those ones that are very populist, they feel that they are no lose. You can't lose with these things because there's a built in audience for it. And even if it's bad, they'll come.
This is a bad year because we haven't had a lot of variety in terms of the kinds of films that we're seeing. In fact, I, you know, when you see these last few covered years, you look and you think, do they really need ten nominees for some of those? You know, four for best picture? Because, man, some of those shouldn't be on those lists, to be honest.
Do you think they'll ever pare that back to the. It was traditionally it was five right up until whenever you know what studios are behind that and they'll make a lot of money if their show can say it was a best picture nominee. And so are they going to give up the opportunity to advertise that? No way. But I really wish they would go back to five because they were easier to get your hands around.
And then they had to have really something. It had to have it to be able to make it into the final five. Yeah. And I always feel, too, that it's like the Disney Pixar thing where one of the whatever movie they do is almost guaranteed to be an automatic in that ten and if you get a 20 right now, right.
You're going to tell me right now that Elemental is the best picture nominee. No, I think in that case, I if they're are going to put an animated one in, that's where Spider-Verse gets in their mind, because that was far better than sorry, Elemental. Yeah, I tolerated it. It was okay. But I preferred Super Mario Brothers, to be honest with you, over Elemental.
I didn't like the look of it. I thought it really cheap and it looked like something they totally wouldn't do. Like, could you see any of that? It was designed to look like an amusement park, but I couldn't imagine doing a ride where we going around and all of a sudden we're on fire. And then the next thing you know, we're in wet.
And I mean, it's like a ride. So I don't know. That's maybe they could do it as it's a water park ride where you ride through the wet part first and then you dry off, semi dries you off with a blowtorch. That's right. You know, can I just sidebar here? I'll tell you a story. Sure. There was a home show here in town way back when.
Like this is like so far back is like, was it a home or are there things that are still home worthy? And they had a thing called the environment. And you go in there and it goes through four seasons. Well, you're in the thing. So it's basically a shower, right? Because it rains on you and then it has like a cool breeze.
It goes through so winter and then there's a warming breeze summer, and then there's kind of like a wind and that's fall. And you got all of the Four Seasons in the course of the thing I did it and I thought, this is something I will never have in my house is, you know, now we all have them in our homes.
So there we are. But yeah, and that's kind of what Elemental is, is just a way to get the elements together and make it look like we're doing more than we are. But no, I, I think that has no shot. Okay. What about TV? What do you think is worthy of the TV things? Yeah. So, you know, we've talked about how it's tough to get me out to theater and this is really good, but when it comes to TV, it's easy to get me right because it's the end of the night.
Kids get to bed, you know, even if it's just 45 minutes before my wife nods off, We can we can usually sneak in something in a lot of the shows that are nominated for primetime Emmys, which have been pushed back now to early next year. Yeah, they were supposed to be in September, but there's a lot of shows that made the nominations list, which came out in 2023.
I mean, we're starting with one that that I think could clean up The Last of US from HBO. Oh, all right. Okay. You know, that was to me, HBO has been putting out some really good kind of doomsday ish programing for a number of years now. And it always feels like it's like a, you know, end of the year or beginning of the year type of thing.
And I think they went off, you know, splendidly with Last of US. I mean, that is just it. I got roped in from the beginning and it was a zombie show. I'm not a big horror person, so I'm not going to I don't want to watch gory things. And it had its moments of kind of grossness, but it was more of like the humans story of what happens to people who are put in very difficult situations.
And it's a show that's based off of a video game and they made it work. It was tremendous. I loved it. So you think it's going to stand the test of time? Do you think it'll have five years from now? People will be talking about it. I think it's the type of show that possibly they could be. Now we'll see what happens when season two comes.
You know, will they be able to continue that magic that they found in season one? We'll see. We'll see. I thought that the bear I loved in the first season and I adored it in the second season, I thought they were able to avoid a sophomore slump and make it even better because we knew the characters. So I had one.
I don't know what a three third season would be like. Maybe they fall apart and covidiots and they have no business. I don't know. I love that show. I think that was the real keeper. Yeah, I'm only about halfway through the season two of the bear, but other than I thought it was a little bit, I thought that first episode was a little sluggish, but I like how they've kind of developed the characters and given each character kind of that moment to shine, where, you know, we're looking at a sushi chef and what she's doing, and then they send the pastry chef overseas and give him a moment to shine.
So I think it's really been a good season for character development. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, and I think those stand alone episodes are good. I like that where you maybe give the other people kind of a week off and then you focus on one. I think that's a great idea that should be copied by others. There's another show that I just started as well, so I'm kind of bouncing back and forth now between between the Bear, which I just watched by myself.
And then my wife and I just started this because I still have the Apple TV plus going right now, but shrinking, which came out in January with Jason Segel, Harrison Ford, Jessica Williams. And I think that picked up a couple of nominations for it for for actor and actress. Have you seen that one at all? Yeah, and I couldn't get into it, really, one that I really cared about and you see what I mean?
Yeah, It was one where I can usually sense for my wife right away if she's going to like it or not. In comedies, it's, it can be a tough sell, but I think it has the type of humor that she likes. And it's it was co-created not just Jason Segel, but Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein from Ted Lasso were part of that.
So I think that kind of darker humor that you see in Ted Lasso carries over into this show. And it's one I think, you know, we're going to keep watching it for sure. And I'm already looking forward to what will season two bring. I don't know if it will stand the test of time, but but I am enjoying it as a show so far.
Would Ted Lasso stand the test of time? Yes, in less. Here's the caveat to that. If soccer finally gets so huge in America like they've been talking for the last 40 years, I remember as a kid, my parents signed me up for soccer and they're like, it's going to be the next big sport in the U.S. And 40 years later, it's doing a lot better now than it was 40 years ago.
But but man, oh man, it just cannot top baseball or football or, you know, and isn't that weird how parents get their kids into soccer? I mean, it's like manic. And every Saturday they're gone somewhere. And you think this has got to grow. It must be the kids get sick of it. And then they say, and I following it anymore, and I'm done not to take away from the accomplished.
It's because it is. I mean, you look at women's soccer in America and it's huge. I mean, it's obviously where where it's really excelled is it's become other than this current world Cup where the U.S. got bounced early on on the men's side, it just has not quite evolved to where it is. But they are still you know, MLS has been around now for 20 plus years.
It's doing well. It's you know, stadiums are getting larger, the crowds are, but it's just it's still not where the NFL is. But as long as soccer remains kind of, you know, on the periphery, then it makes sense. But but as soon as, you know, soccer becomes mainstream in the U.S. like it is in Europe or anywhere else in the world, then the humor that you get out of this, you know, American football coach, it just wouldn't make sense in here.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, how are you? Where do you stand on succession? I don't know if that one is going to stand the test of time. And I'll tell you why. Politics are very cyclical and they are taking a page out of current politics and the current state of Fox News to do that show. I think that show will will definitely hang on as being kind of an in the moment type of thing.
And and maybe a decade out, people will still be talking about succession. But if the landscape changes drastically, but also not only just at the political landscape but the technology cycle, because part of what makes that show is they were talking about, you know, how will the Waystar royco get involved in other technologies, other forms of media? And as soon as the media changes into some other format, that just doesn't make sense that we can't understand anymore, or it just seems too old.
I think it might go away, but it's a great show. I love it. Yeah, I think it's one of those ones that the hype was bigger than the actual execution. It didn't have one of those kind of creators to it. At least not that I can pin who this was. His driving project. This was his life. This is what he is putting out there.
It seemed very much like Law and order always is ripped from the headlines when you find something on it that you say, okay, let's go with it and let's go as outrageous as we possibly can, and we'll do an audience. But I don't think it's one of those ones where you go, Oh my Lord, they really came up with something here.
I want to watch All in the Family is kind of that, you know, that was obviously a comedy, but it was so groundbreaking for the time. But today you just wouldn't even think twice about that type of humor. It might not even work. I don't think about air. I don't think because they'd say, Oh, no, we can't. We're going to offend somebody here, right?
We cannot do this. It's not getting on. So I don't think it would. And that actually came from Great Britain and we adapted it and look at how well that worked out. That was a good thing. And those you know, they would do maybe six episodes and be done with it. And in the United States in those days, you had to be 20 to 30 episodes of a show to have a season.
And that's, you know, that's an interesting look at where they are. But, you know, I really I struggle a because a lot of the shows that we're watching on network TV aren't good numbers, right? And then on streaming, it's such an abbreviated season that you don't get enough time to dig in and kind of embrace it. So I don't know if I mean, you look at White Lotus, that was a big thing last year and White Lotus got a lot of attention.
But season two, okay, it's okay, but it isn't one of those ones. You go, Oh my God, White Lotus changed the landscape. It didn't. No, I think I think you're right. With the episode length, the structure of every series. I mean, I'm thinking about one what was one of the network TV shows that got a lot of buzz this year?
And it was night court because it actually did well. And I am shocked when people go, oh one, the best TV shows ever, Abbott Elementary, It's borrowing the office. It's borrowing from a lot of I mean, it's it's a fine show. I enjoy watching it now they don't have Modern Family to watch on Wednesday nights. It's my my anchor.
But it is not as groundbreaking as they want it to be, I think, because there are certain things that need to. When they did lean in to the plight of teachers today, that's where they were going. Right. But when it starts getting to be a principal who's running a side business at the office, I don't care. I really do.
Yeah. The the thing that I found interesting with with Night Court, there is a piece I read in the New York Times that talked about how they kind of followed the model of the original series, which was to not necessarily pull headlines out and make it a little bit more timeless. Right? You can, you can watch an episode of Night Court from the late eighties today, and it wouldn't you just watch and be like, Yeah, yeah, exactly.
But here's the problem with night court. Even the modern version of it, who goes back and watches old episodes of night court? I'll watch old episodes of Cheers or Seinfeld all day long. I love Night Court when it first came out years and years ago, but it's not a show that I go back to, you know, maybe if it popped on, if I was flipping through a channel nice, I was like, Oh, there's night court, Maybe I'll maybe I'll watch 20 more minutes of rent and then move on.
But I think that's the problem with that show is, is the reason why it's kind of resonating. The new version, the rebooted version is, sure, it's kind of timeless and, and it doesn't really matter and it's not right. And it's just kind of that basic comedy sitcom humor, but it's not above and beyond anything we've seen before. It's just it's a pleasant 22 minutes to kind of me I don't have to turn the channel kind of show.
Yep. You know. All right, I'll sit through it because I got to finish out the hour and then we'll see what happens at the end. 8:00. You know, it's just it's that kind of a concept. But yeah, this was not a year to remember it, even though we're going to hear a lot of. Oh, my God, this is just the best series.
This is the best whatever. I don't think so. And I think the more we get away from it, like Jan, to reward these people, the less we are going to remember about what it was that made them so great. Marvelous. Mrs. Maisel. Well, that one stand the test of time. No, not at all. Yeah, I liked it. I like I do, too.
You know, I marveled at the idea that they were spending so much money on that show. I mean, the costumes, the sets, the. And it was purely a vanity product. You know, they went to this couple and they said, what would you like to do? And they said, you know what we'd like to do? Here's what we'd like to do, but it's going to cost us some money.
And they did it. And I love that. I think that's a great thing. But there are episodes where you go, Jeez, this could have been 30 minutes. It didn't need to be 45, right? Yes, I agree. And I also think that with Mrs. Maisel, it's a little bit like Seinfeld, where it's very geographic. So for me, as somebody who grew up in the New York metropolitan area, it resonates with me.
And there's a lot of people across the country that certainly love Seinfeld, certainly love Mrs. May's all. But if if you're turned off by such a regional program like that, it's not going to sit with you. You know, with that show, I was constantly fact checking because he would bring out something that wasn't in that year. I know that wasn't in that year.
And then I'd have to go back and try and find what year this was. And the MFA wasn't right. They did the fact checking, so props to them. And like I say, I love watching it, but I don't know that that's one that I'd say I'm putting it in a box and I'm going to pull it out five years from now and I'm going to watch it and I'm going to be just ripped.
I told you earlier this during the COVID thing, I watched all of Mary Tyler Moore over again, and I loved every minute of that. It was it was like a warm hug from the past. And I was able to remember things about that era. And I laughed every every time I left. And I you know, people are big Golden Girls fans, too.
And you see them. And what I look at that right away is and I say, God, that the screen format is so small and it's kind of fuzzy. And, you know, those are the things that tripped me up. And so I don't know that I could watch some of those shows, but if they did it like Lucy, Lucy is going to last forever.
And it's because it was well-written, well-produced and well-performed. It doesn't matter when it was, but it's that stands the test of time. There's one other show that we did an episode about, you know, because we had it was like the big four that went off the air right around the same time. Barry That's another one, which it would get nominated every year.
But I always felt I like Barry, I enjoyed Barry, but I always thought that it was maybe a little overhyped. I think it had a good in it, and they're all good the first year. The first year is great. We have a vision, but then they kind of veer. And I think with Barry, he got time off Bill Hader to kind of rethink things.
And I think that rethinking maybe didn't do it any big favors. It's still well done. Yeah, but I don't yeah I don't know it once you know the kind of the ending. Yeah. I don't know that you want to watch through the other parts. Yeah. That you're a better call Saul fan right. Mhm. See that's another one I couldn't get into.
I Breaking Bad was too big for me to want to worry about another character I really liked. Better Call Saul. I thought I just saw that last season I did not love it. I didn't love the ending. That's, you know they say are they going to reward them for their last year? Yeah, I think the answer is no.
Yeah, I agree. You know, it's interesting with both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul is I. I crushed through both series kind of in short periods of time. I didn't watch Breaking Bad when it came out. There was a covered show for me and I watched everything and I loved it. It was a good, good series. And then better call Saul.
I didn't. I knew it was out. Obviously, when I was watching Breaking Bad, but I chose to kind of wait on that one too, until the last season was done. So late last year, I watched all of the first whatever, five seasons of Better Call Saul. And then the last season finally hit Netflix at the beginning of this year or middle of this year, whenever it was.
And I slam through that one super quick. So I didn't it wasn't a show that you pulled me in or a series. It didn't pull me in for a decade because that's pretty much how long it took to get through both series. It's just I watched them within a two year period, more or less, but I felt like that one just kind of tailed off at the end and I would not have been happy if I invested six years of my life in that one, I guess is a good way to put it.
You know, one of the greatest things about being a critic is that you often get to see all of it before anybody else does. Sure. So you don't have these outside influences and you also we did binging a lot sooner than anybody else did. And I think once we threw that out there to the public, the public want they want that.
They want to be able to plow through a show in a weekend if they have to. Yeah. And I think that has affected the movie business because if you have your choice between seeing a show that you've really been waiting for or going to a marginal movie, you're going to take that show and sit at home. And let's face it, our home setups are probably just as good as a film theater, you know?
I mean, you got the big screen, you got a comfy chair, you got food nearby, you can stop at to go to the bathroom. Does it get any better than that? It does not. And so I think that's the uphill battle that that the movie business faces is they've got to try and combat that. And how do they do that?
And it's not by making the movies longer, you know, that I'm I'm on that. It's not that they want 3 hours of something. It's that maybe you've got to make that content so compelling that they have to go see it. There's one show that Season two came out this year. It recently aired. It came out in April. It's a show that I don't think it's really any buzz.
I don't think it had any Emmy nominations, but it's one that I have kind of come to enjoy because I find it to be a little quirky and it's another one out at HBO. Somebody somewhere, Have you seen that one at all? Somebody, somewhere. Help me out. Who's in it? Bridget Everett, the comedian. It takes place in Kansas.
She's a late 40, early, 50 ish single woman, somebody most unlikely star of a TV show. Right. Right. And it's an interesting program. Yeah. And it touches on a lot of topics that seem a little almost taboo because it's in Kansas, which is obviously a very conservative state. So it's kind of touches on just a lot of different things.
But I also find it to be just a sweet show. You know, it's like I watch it and I think, oh, that was a very pleasant 30 minutes I just had. Yeah, that just shows us that they're opening the doors to other voices, which is, which is good because if you were a on network TV, you'd have to have some kind of a profile or you'd have to have some like I would assume if we didn't have all these other things, it would be tick hours.
We could be bombarded by tick tock people on network television because they able to bring a crowd with them. Whereas with this, I don't know. Does she have a following? If she does, I'm sorry that I haven't paid attention. The only reason I even heard of her is because she appeared on an episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee with Jerry Seinfeld.
I had never heard of her before. I had never seen her standup act, which is a crazy act where she sings and it's like a burlesque show almost.
And it's wild. You know, how she ever came to get into this HBO program? I have no idea. But it's it's done very well. And I think it's just it's a little bit of an under the radar program where it the episodes aren't very long. There's not it's like eight or ten for a season. It's at the bare minimum to qualify, but it's gotten some, you know, a decent following.
The average tomatometer 100% from critics. Audience score 93%. So people like it. It's just not a lot of people are watching it, right? Yeah, You don't have the numbers attached to that is how many does that represent? Well, there you go. Back in the old days, somebody like Margaret Cho, who they loved and thought she was a great comedian and she had just something there that we have to put on television.
And then they got her a show and they changed everything that made it about her. It was like they were trying to shoehorn her into Cinderella's slipper and it didn't work. And that's what I'm afraid they would try to do with people today. Thank God there are areas like HBO where they can find that talent, put their talent on.
I think though too often they want to have something quickly. They want to have a success right out of the chute. They don't you know, you hear that a lot of times with people who are our musicians, that we had an opportunity to fail through two or three albums. And then, you know, maybe one would hit. But now with music, if you don't have a hit, they don't give you an album.
You've got to get that one shot, you know, mega hit, and then you'll get maybe a chance for a second one. And if there's enough of them for an EP, then they'll do that. And then if you sell enough money, you know, if you got to sell enough copies and you make a lot of money, then you might get a real album now.
And if you get enough, enough money, you're like Taylor Swift and you can do whatever you want. Yeah, you know, that's where that's where I almost think to an extent, Network TV is almost dead in a sense with programing because you can at least go on to you can go on to Netflix because they don't nobody releases any of their their data.
It's you don't have Nielsen ratings in the same way. So a show if they're willing to finance it and their internal numbers show that there's some sort of audience and they're not losing money off of it, it's almost like they're willing to give you an opportunity. And maybe that is where someone like a Bridget Everett can do it, somebody somewhere, because it's on HBO and it's not on NBC or CBS or Fox, and they probably would have canceled the show after three episodes.
It would be interesting to know how much they will give you to do a show. You know, is it you're getting like pennies and then you've got to try and make something out of that with pennies? Or do they throw a lot of money at you? And then if it's not good, you're out, right? All right. It's I yeah, it's a fascinating thank God we're not in that world.
We're only observing from the outside. I think it's harder to, you know, Bo Burnham I don't know if that name rings a bell with you, but he did a great, great, great COVID era special where it was just in his house. It was just him in his house singing songs that he had written marvelous. It's like really something so creative and you know that they're not going to give him anything.
They'll give him another special. That's it. But they're not going to say, Let's do the weekly Bo Burnham Show, because that's not going to happen. So it is very interesting, but I don't think this year I'm a bottom line is I don't think there's any big story to be told about the TV things that we are watching every I think that we haven't yet seen all of the the movie things, but it's pretty slim pickings at this point.
And until we see what comes in November and December, the year hasn't been written, I would agree. All right, Bruce. Well, on that note, I think we'll wrap things up and we will be back again next week with another episode of Streamed & Screened.