"Top Gear" canceled / "You" renewed for S5 / Rogen & Byrne in "Platonic" / "Power Book II" sets Starz record

Plus the weekend calendar, "Pokémon" moves on without Ash, Amazon's first African original film, and more

Inside.com Part of   Network March 24, 2023

Flintoff The BBC halted production indefinitely on the 34th season of "Top Gear" following an on-set accident that injured co-host Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff. The 21-year-old show will undergo a complete health and safety review before potentially resuming production. More: Flintoff, a former English cricket captain, was hospitalized following a crash at the Dunsfold Aerodrome track in Surrey this week. He has co-hosted "Top Gear" since 2019. It's not the first crash in "Top Gear" history; in 2019, Flintoff crashed a car into a market stall in Nottinghamshire, while former co-host Richard Hammond suffered serious head injuries and spent two weeks in a coma in 2006 after a Vampire jet car wreck. CNN

Netflix renewed the romantic thriller series "You" for a fifth and final season. Showrunner Sera Gamble, who originally developed the series for Lifetime and led the writing team for four seasons, will exit at the end of this year; executive producers Michael Foley and Justin W. Lo will take over for Season 5. More: No further details about Season 5 plans have been made available. Penn Badgely stars in the series as Joe, a charming and prolific serial killer. "You" debuted on Lifetime in 2018 and was canceled after a single season; the show became a massive global hit after streaming on Netflix, which brought it back for additional seasons. VARIETY

WEEKEND CALENDAR FRIDAY, MARCH 24 YELLOWJACKETS: The thriller series centers on a group of teens whose plane crashed in the wilderness in 1996, leaving them stranded for 19 months; the action cuts between their ordeal and its lingering impact on their adult lives in the present day. Melanie Lynskey, Sophie Nélisse, Tawny Cypress, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Christina Ricci, Sammi Hanratty, Juliette Lewis, Sophie Thatcher, Liv Hewson, and Courtney Eaton co-star; Lauren Ambrose and Simone Kessell join the cast this year for Season 2. New episodes debut Friday on streaming and Sunday on cable. [Showtime] KNOCK AT THE CABIN: The latest psychological thriller from writer/director M. Night Shyamalan centers on a family vacationing in a rural Pennsylvania cabin who receive a troubling visit from four strangers with an apocalyptic message. It's based on a book by Paul G. Tremblay. Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge, Nikki Amuka-Bird, and Rupert Grint co-star. [Peacock] UP HERE: Debut musical romantic comedy series from Broadway vets Steven Levenson ("Dear Evan Hansen"), Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez ("Book of Mormon"). Mae Whitman and Carlos Valdes co-star as a new couple falling in love in late '90s New York amid the non-stop chatter of their "inner voices." [Hulu] THE ESTATE: 2022 dark comedy feature from writer/director Dean Craig ("Death at a Funeral"), starring Toni Collette and Anna Faris as sisters attempting to win back the love of their ailing, estranged aunt (Kathleen Turner) in the hopes of inheriting her vast fortune. David Duchovny, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Ron Livingston co-star. [Hulu] MY KIND OF COUNTRY: Debut musical competition series in which "scouts" Jimmie Allen, Mickey Guyton, and Orville Peck search the globe for country's next superstar, then bring their recruits back to Nashville for a face-to-face showdown. Reese Witherspoon and Kacey Musgraves produced and also make appearances. [Apple TV+] LOVE IS BLIND: The reality dating series centers on couples getting to know one another and falling in love without ever seeing one another face-to-face. It's back for a fourth season; the show has already been renewed through Season 5. [Netflix] I AM GEORGINA (SOY GEORGINA): The Spanish-language reality series chronicles the life of Georgina Rodríguez, a busy mom, influencer, businesswoman, and the partner of international soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo. It's back for a second season. [Netflix] CHOR NIKAL KE BHAGA: Hindi-language crime thriller film from India, starring Yami Gautam and Sunny Kaushal as a couple whose plan to steal a briefcase full of diamonds during an international flight goes horribly awry. Ajay Singh ("Looose Control") directed. [Netflix] REGGIE: Feature documentary chronicling the career and legacy of Major League Baseball Hall of Famer and political activist Reggie Jackson. The film features Jackson in conversation with fellow sports icons Julies "Dr. J" Erving, Hank Aaron, Derek Jeter and others about the state of sports in America, and their visions for the future. Alex Stapleton ("Shut Up and Dribble") directed. [Amazon] TOP GUN: MAVERICK: The 2022 action drama, a sequel to 1986's "Top Gun," stars Tom Cruise as naval aviator Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, who returns to the Top Gun Academy to train a new generation of fighter pilots. Val Kilmer, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, and Glen Powell co-star. The film was nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture, an won one, for Best Sound. [Amazon] SATURDAY, MARCH 25 SATURDAYS: Debut live-action coming-of-age comedy series from Disney Channel, starring Danielle Jalade as a Chicago teen whose life revolves around her local roller skating rink, Saturdays. Omar Gooding, Daria Johns, and Jermaine Harris co-star. The first six episodes hit Disney+ this weekend. [Disney+] SECRETS OF SULPHUR SPRINGS: The Disney Channel live-action supernatural mystery series returns this week to both cable and Disney+ for a third season. It follows a group of friends investigating the bizarre secrets of their Louisiana hometown, with help from a strange portal that allows them to travel through time. [Disney+] SUNDAY, MARCH 26 SUCCESSION: The Emmy favorite comedy-drama series -- about the members of the wealthy Roy family and their internal struggle for control of patriarch Logan's (Brian Cox) media empire -- returns this weekend for a fourth and final season. Jeremy Strong, Kieran Culkin, Sarah Snook, Nicholas Braun, Matthew Macfadyen, Alan Ruck, and J. Smith-Cameron co-star. [HBO Max] RABBIT HOLE: Debut spy thriller series from "WeCrashed" and "This is Us" vets John Requa and Glenn Ficarra, starring Kiefer Sutherland as a corporate espionage expert who finds himself framed for murder. Rob Yang, Charles Dance, and Meta Golding co-star. [Paramount+] GREAT EXPECTATIONS: Limited period drama series from FX, based on the iconic 19th Century novel by Charles Dickens, about the coming-of-age and prospering of an orphan boy named Pip (Fionn Whitehead). Olivia Colman, Ashley Thomas, Johnny Harris, Shalom Brune-Franklin, and Matt Berry co-star. "Peaky Blinders" vet Steven Knight, who produced an adaptation of Dickens' "Christmas Carol" for FX in 2019, wrote the scripts. [Hulu] A PICTURE OF HER: Debut romantic comedy-drama film from Hallmark starring Rhiannon Fish as a woman whose picture becomes an award-winning magazine cover, prompting her to track down the elusive photographer (Tyler Hynes) who originally snapped the shot. [Peacock]

"Platonic," a new Apple TV+ comedy series co-starring Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne, debuts on May 24. The series reunites the duo with their collaborator from the "Neighbors" films, director Nicholas Stoller. More: Stoller co-created and co-wrote the series with his wife, Francesca Delbanco ("Friends from College"), and directs all the episodes. Rogen and Byrne co-star as estranged former best friends who reconnect at middle-age and become inseparable. Luke Macfarlane, Tre Hale, Carla Gallo, and Andrew Lopez co-star. Byrne also stars in another Apple TV+ comedy series, "Physical," which is set to return for a third season later this year. DEADLINE

The Season 3 premiere of "Power Book II: Ghost" set a new viewership record for Starz. The episode was viewed by 5.8 million viewers across all platforms in the first three days following its March 17 debut, the network's biggest premiere weekend in history. More: Of those 5.8 million viewers, just 362,000 viewed the episode during its premiere cable telecast. Viewership was up about 30% over the show's Season 2 premiere in November of 2021. Starz has already renewed the show for a fourth season; it's currently in production in New York. DEADLINE

The next animated Pokémon series, "Pokémon Horizons," will be the franchise's first without main character Ash Ketchum. The new series teams Pikachu with new trainers Liko and Roy, who travel around the world in an airship. More: Ash's final "Pokémon" episodes premiered this past week. "Pokémon Horizons" makes its Japanese debut on April 14; no US release date has yet been set, but the show will ultimately stream on Netflix. Director Kunihiko Yuyama has suggested that Ash will return to the franchise in some capacity in the future. TV LINE

Amazon's first original film from Africa, "Gangs of Lagos," hits Prime Video internationally on April 7. The Nigerian crime thriller centers on a group of childhood friends navigating the tough streets of Lagos' Isale Eko neighborhood together. More: Tobi Bakare, Adesua Etomi-Wellington, Chike Osebuka, Chioma Chukwuka, and Iyabo Ojo co-star; Jáde Osiberu ("Sugar Rush") wrote the script and directed. A few Nigerian series already stream on Prime Video, including a local remake of the streamer's "LOL: Last One Laughing" comedy game show franchise, scheduled to debut later this year. Netflix has also released multiple Nigerian projects in the past, and has an overall deal with the Nigerian production company Ebonylife Studios. HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

QUICK HITS Take your Google Cloud knowledge to the next level with The GCP Cookbook! Discover self-contained recipes for seamless cloud computing.* Amazon announced a new docuseries chronicling the Newcastle United soccer club; the series will not be part of Amazon's ongoing "All or Nothing" franchise. Netflix's "Luther" spinoff film, "The Fallen Sun," was viewed by 3 million TV viewers in the UK according to audience research group Barb; that makes it the country's sixth most-popular Netflix film since Barb started taking measurements in November 2021. Fox renewed first-year drama series "Accused" and "Alert: Missing Persons Unit" for second seasons; the fates of a number of the network's shows, including the "9-1-1" franchise, "The Resident," "Fantasy Island," "Animal Control," and "Call Me Kat," remain uncertain. Apple dropped a trailer for "Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker," a two-part docuseries from filmmaker Alex Gibney profiling the controversial tennis legend. The UK documentary "Handle With Care" -- in which "Bel-Air" actor Jimmy Akingbola relates the story of his own adoption and upbringing, and meets others with experience in the British care system -- will stream on Peacock in the US. Major League Wrestling signed a new international distribution deal with the Premier Streaming Network (PSN); the PSN service is available over the Web, on iOS and Android devices, or as an app on Chromecast, Android TV, Fire TV, Apple TV, and Roku devices. ABC set season finale dates for its primetime line-up; the final episodes of "The Goldbergs" and "A Million Little Things" will both air on Wednesday, May 3. Wind River Learning Subscription: Get an in-depth embedded software education for $3,600.* *This is sponsored content

Lon Harris is the writer and editor of Inside Streaming and was the very first person to ever write an Inside newsletter. He lives in Los Angeles, California, and also writes about TV and film for Fandom, Screen Junkies, Rotten Tomatoes, Gamma Ray and others. Plus he has a Game of Thrones podcast called "Casterly Talk" and competes on The Movie Trivia Schmoedown as "The Professor." Editor Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is the author of "Things You Can Do," an illustrated book about climate action. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade.

767 Bryant St. #203, San Francisco, CA 94107 Copyright © 2023 Inside.com

Did someone forward this email to you? Head over to inside.com to get your very own free subscription! You received this email because you subscribed to Inside Streaming. Click here to unsubscribe from Inside Streaming list or manage your subscriptions.