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| Thanks for opening today's Inside Streaming (and Happy Presidents Day if you're in the US)! I saw a lot of negativity around this whole season of "True Detective" online, and while it wasn't my FAVORITE season of the show overall, I nonetheless thought there was a lot to like about "Night Country." The ending felt satisfying to me, wrapping up the core mystery but still leaving enough darkness and uncertainty around the edges to leave things open to interpretation. I think our primal instinct as mystery viewers/fans is to want everything explained, but a little ambiguity is the best-case scenario for a show like this. No concrete answer someone else could think up will ever be as intriguing or compelling as the combination of their vision plus your own imagination. (This was ABC's "Twin Peaks" lesson. It didn't MATTER who killed Laura Palmer. Interest in the show was fueled by that tantalizing, threatening Unknown in the woods, not the promise of whodunnit answers.) What do YOU think the spiral means? What do YOU think happened to Navarro? This is the point where "content" jumps off the screen and becomes something more personal: art. Lon
p/lon-harris | |
| 1 | | The rebranded Max streaming service hits Latin American countries later this month, on February 27. It's the first large-scale international rollout for the platform, which brings together content from HBO and Discovery's cable networks. More: - Max Latin America will offer three subscription tiers, including both monthly and annual options.
- The streamer has some new high-profile Latin and South American content in development, including a series based on Laura Esquivel's bestselling novel "Like Water for Chocolate" and a spinoff of the iconic Brazilian crime drama "City of God," set 20 years after the events of the film.
- The streamer will also add content from the Adult Swim network developed specifically for the Brazilian audience, including the popular local production "Sociedade da Virtude."
- Max also hopes to attract subscribers via live sports, including the UEFA Champions League and Mexican Lucha Libre events.
- The region's largest overall markets are Mexico and Brazil.
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| 2 | | A new report from Ampere Analysis suggests that the surge of interest among streaming platforms in licensing archive content will most benefit the Walt Disney Company. According to Ampere, "Disney trumps all the other major studios with its ownership of powerful licensable content." More: - Ampere estimates that Disney owns more than double the amount of licensable content than most of its rivals.
- Licensed content performs as well or better on streaming platforms than original shows, at a significantly lower upfront cost; 2023's overall most-streamed show was the former USA Network legal drama "Suits."
- The number of TV seasons that were "cross-licensed" to both Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery's Max platforms more than tripled in 2023.
- Ampere defined shows with "licensing power" as those that were scripted, have completed their initial runs with at least three seasons, and still maintain some level of public awareness and engagement.
- Disney holds 148 titles that Ampere considered licensable; Paramount Global followed with 72, then WBD with 54, and NBCUniversal with 47.
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| 3 | | DAILY CALENDAR MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19 AMERICAN IDOL: The ABC musical competition series returns this week for a 22nd season; new episodes air Sunday nights and hit Hulu on Mondays. Luke Bryan, Lionel Richie, and Katy Perry return as judges, for what will be Perry's final season. Ryan Seacrest hosts. [Hulu] GIANNIS: THE MARVELOUS JOURNEY: Feature documentary profile of two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, featuring interviews with the man himself along with his extended family, plus Jason Kidd, Kenny Smith, Vin Baker, Ernie Johnson, and others. "30 for 30" vet Kristen Lappas directs. [Prime Video] THANKSGIVING: 2023 slasher film directed by Eli Roth ("Hostel"), inspired by his mock trailer from the 2007 film "Grindhouse." Over Thanksgiving weekend, a killer wearing a Pilgrim costume terrorizes a small Massachusetts town. Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rey, Milo Manheim, and Gina Gershon co-star. [Netflix] LITTLE ANGEL: The animated YouTube series features nursery rhymes and sing-a-long songs for young children. A fourth collection of clips and videos heads to Netflix today. [Netflix] RHYTHM + FLOW ITALY (NUOVA SCENA): Italian spinoff of the music competition series, in which rappers Fabri Fibra, Geolier, and Rose Villain search for the next generation of musical talent in Rome, Naples, and Milan. The winner takes home a $106,000 grand prize. [Netflix] | | | |
| 4 | | The "Money Heist" spinoff series "Berlin" has been renewed by Netflix for a second season. The main cast members are all expected to return, including star Pedro Alonso, who plays the title character. More: - According to Netflix, "Berlin" was its most-watched global series during its premiere week, and hit the Top 10 in 91 countries.
- In total, the streamer reports that Season 1 was streamed for 348 million hours, receiving what it calculates as 53 million total views.
- It's currently ranked #9 among the platform's most-watched non-English language series ever.
- Production on Season 2 will begin in 2025.
- The show comes from "Money Heist" and "Sky Rojo" vets Álex Pina and Esther Martínez Lobato.
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| 5 | | Netflix released a new trailer for "Shirley," a political biopic starring Regina King as trailblazing Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm. King also produced the film along with her sister, Reina King. More: - In 1968, Chisholm became the first Black woman ever elected to the US Congress, representing New York's 12th district.
- The film will depict a various key moments from Chisholm's life, including her election to Congress and her "boundary-breaking 1972 presidential campaign."
- The film comes from Oscar-winning "12 Years a Slave" screenwriter John Ridley, who both wrote and directed.
- The King sisters have spent 15 years working on and developing this project.
- "Shirley" makes its Netflix debut on March 22.
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| 6 | | Disney announced a new line-up of Korean shows hitting Disney+ in 2024. The streamer had a significant 2023 hit with the Korean superhero thriller "Moving," and according to The Hollywood Reporter, hopes to build on that success this year. More: - In all, Disney+ has seven high-profile Korean shows scheduled to debut in 2024.
- "Moving" creator Kang Full returns with an adaptation of the internet comic series "Light Shop"; it centers on a group of strangers, each carrying an emotional burden, who find themselves all drawn to the same mysterious store.
- "Parasite" actor Song Kang-ho co-stars in the period political drama "Uncle Samsik," and the tenuous partnership between an idealistic politician and a mysterious "fixer" in the 1960s.
- "Unmasked" follows a team of investigative journalists who must crack a 20-year-old cold case to salvage their careers.
- "Kingdom" and "Moving" vets Ju Jihoon and Han Hyojoo co-star in "Blood Free," about a former bodyguard recruited to protect the CEO of a controversial lab-grown meat company.
- Netflix also renewed the variety series "The Zone: Survival Mission" for a third season.
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| 7 | | Though there are currently no plans to revive the unscripted British car enthusiast series "Top Gear," co-star Richard Hammond suggests the show could still return one day. Hammond told the Radio Times that he doubts the current hiatus will last forever, adding "it'll come back one day, although in what shape I don't know." More: - Production on Season 34 of "Top Gear" was canceled after co-star Freddie Flintoff was injured on set; the show was put on indefinite hiatus.
- Though Hammond's other series, "The Grand Tour," is also scheduled to wrap up its run with two final specials this year, he suggested that might also continue at some point.
- Hammond said "it'll continue in different forms, modified to suit its time."
- Hammond's "Grand Tour" co-star Jeremy Clarkson recently told The Times that he was forced to exit the physically demanding series, due to being "unfit and fat and old."
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| 8 | | QUICK HITS MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19 - Netflix posted the Oscar-nominated animated feature "Nimona" to YouTube in its entirety.
- Apple's sci-fi drama series "Foundation" will restart production on its third season on March 3; work was set to begin in February, but was delayed due to both production and budgetary concerns.
- The musical docuseries "Hope on the Street" -- profiling J-Hope of the K-pop supergroup BTS, with a focus on his life-long love of dance -- will stream on Amazon Prime worldwide; the six-part series debuts on March 28.
- "Dune" filmmaker Denis Villeneuve exited the HBO miniseries "The Son," based on the novel by Norwegian author Jo Nesbo and set to star his frequent collaborator, Jake Gyllenhaal.
- Amazon greenlit a feature documentary about tennis great Roger Federer, with a focus on the final 12 days of his professional career; the film features home video footage that was not originally intended for public release, along with interviews from Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray.
- CW President of Entertainment Brad Schwartz confirmed that Warner Bros. canceled "Superman & Lois" over concerns about "competing Superman product in the marketplace"; the studio will restart its DC Comics movie franchise with "Superman: Legacy," hitting theaters in 2025.
- Netflix released some behind-the-scenes images from "The Night Agent" Season 2, currently in production in New York and Washington DC.
- "Reservation Dogs" vet Dallas Goldtooth joined the cast of the Apple drama series "The Last Frontier"; Jason Clarke stars as the Marshal of a quiet Alaska town who's under siege after a plane full of violent inmates crashes nearby.
- Director Johan Renck spoke with Variety about his upcoming sci-fi drama "Spaceman," and his decision to cast Adam Sandler against type as a lonely, homesick astronaut; the film hits Netflix on March 1.
- A new study from Digital TV Research suggests that, by 2029, Netflix will no longer be the most popular streaming service in the Arabic-speaking world; the streamer faces increasing competition from local streaming platforms, including MBC Group's Shahid VIP.
- The 7th and final season of CBS' "Young Sheldon" got off to a strong start last week, with its largest first-night viewership in several years; follow-up "Ghosts" also enjoyed its largest premiere night audience ever.
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 | Writer | | 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." | | This newsletter was edited by Lon Harris | |
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