Friday, November 19, 2021

THE FRIDAY FIVE: Top 5 TV News Stories of the Week Ending 11/19/21

Here's a look at the Top 5 TV News Stories of the Week! A couple of these are from last Friday after the blog post went up, which was a busy news day. After this post, I will be taking a one week break due to Thanksgiving and blog posts will resume November 29!

#1 - DISNEY+ DAY
Disney+ offered up its annual "Disney Day" last Friday and the news was fast and furious about things coming to the streamer. There were also lots of first looks and trailers but no specific premiere dates though we did get some premiere months. Here's a few of the most notable announcements from the day: There will be a WandaVision spinoff series focused on Kathryn Hahn's breakout character called Agatha: House of Harkness. As someone who's not a Marvel fan but liked WandaVision and especially Hahn, consider me intrigued. There will also be a spinoff of the upcoming Hawkeye series called Echo. There will also be an animated series titled Spider-Man: Freshman Year, a different look at the legendary superhero. Finally, the news that was perhaps most exciting to fanboys and fangirls was X-Men '97, a series that will be a follow-up to the iconic 90s series.

#2 - NBC'S MIDSEASON PLANS
NBC was the last of the broadcast networks to announces its midseason plans. There's a whole lot more comedy back on the schedule. Back to back episodes of Kenan will air on Mondays in January while two new sitcoms - American Auto and Grand Crew - will air on Tuesdays leading into the final season of This is Us. When their seasons are done, Young Rock and Mr. Mayor will air in the same slot starting in mid-March. The return of Law & Order will begin on February 24 to finally complete the full Law & Order night. New drama The Endgame will premiere February 21 after the new unscripted series American Song Contest (there is no spring edition of The Voice this year). Finally, the limited series The Truth About Pam starring Renee Zellweger will take the place of New Amsterdam for six weeks starting March 8.

#3 - LEVAR BURTON TO HOST "TRIVIAL PURSUIT"
After his fan-driven attempt to become the permanent host of Jeopardy, LeVar Burton is moving to a different quiz show as he will host a version of Trivial Pursuit, which is currently in development. Amidst all the ridiculous Jeopardy news over the summer, many fans clamored for Burton but I'm convinced those fans didn't watch his episode. While Burton is beloved for his work on Reading Rainbow and in life, he was not a fit for the Jeopardy host by any stretch of the imagination and I thought it was disingenuous to act lie he wasn't one of the absolute worst guest hosts in terms of being able to manage the gameplay and naturally do the job. I hope this series will cater much more to his strengths.

#4 - "BLOCKBUSTER" SHOW COMING TO NETFLIX
This isn't really one of the top five TV news stories but it's a story I'm interested in. Netflix has ordered to series a comedy starring Randall Park set at the last Blockbuster Video store. I've always been fascinated by the rise and fall of Blockbuster and I think this sounds like a funny premise for a show. I hope it matches my expectations!

#5 - SCRIPTED PREMIERES THIS WEEK
Here's a look at this week's scripted premieres!

Today: Amazon has the heavily hyped The Wheel of Time debuting. One of their attempts at creating their own Game of Thrones, Wheel is based on the popular book series and has been getting lots of buzz in the fanboy and fangirl corner of the internet though there seems to be a lot of trepidation that it could be a disaster with reviews decidedly mix. Along those same lines is the Netflix premiere of Cowboy Bebop, based on the anime series and catering to a similar demographic though there seems to be even more trepidation about this one as reviews have been mostly negative. Hulu has the second season premiere of The Great, which received decent amounts of critical acclaim for its first season.

Sunday: Starz has the season premiere of Power Book II: Ghost as Starz continues to be mostly in the Power business.

Wednesday: On the day before Thanksgiving, Disney+ premieres its heavily hyped Christmas-themed Hawkeye series. Early buzz has been good for the fourth Marvel show on Disney+. Netflix has the limited series True Story, starring Kevin Hart and Wesley Snipes and it is a more serious role for Hart. Peacock drops the second season of Saved by the Bell while Amazon releases the third and final season of Hanna.

Thursday: On Thanksgiving Day, Netflix releases the fifth and final season of animated comedy F is for Family

My pick for the week: I will go with The Great. I watched the first season fairly recently and liked, but didn't love, it. I am excited for the second season though and where the show is heading. I am also somewhat intrigued by Hawkeye even though I'm very mixed on the Marvel shows and Marvel in general. I'm not at all interested in the other fanboy shows like The Wheel of Time or Cowboy Bebop or really anything else premiering.

Check back November 29 for a new week of blog posts!

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