Benjamonster's TV

Welcome to my Monday newsletter! As you can see, there's a new look for this blog and also a new format for the newsletter. Hope you enjoy!! WHAT'S NEW THE STUDIO Apple TV+'s The Studio premiered with two episodes this past week and the series is definitely a show for those who are either in the industry or follow the industry closely. I fall into the latter camp and really enjoyed the first two episodes. The idea of a movie studio trying to greenlight a Kool Aid movie in today's IP obsessed world was a pretty predictable topic for a show like that. But the execution of the episode, complete with a very funny appearance by Martin Scorsese really worked for me. The second episode, which was a meta take on filming a oner (the episode itself was a oner) almost didn't work for me considering how artfully the oner take was just used on Adolescence on Netflix. But it ultimately did work thanks to all the humor in the episode. Seth Rogen is terrific in this show and it...

Welcome to a fairly short newsletter as it's been a busy week. Here are some thoughts on the new season of The Righteous Gemstones plus the latest episodes of The White Lotus, Paradise, The Pitt and Severance ! "THE RIGHTEOUS GEMSTONES" SEASON 4 The Righteous Gemstones made a very unusual decision for its fourth and final season premiere. The series did an origin story of the Gemstones set in 1862 and featuring none of the regular cast members. It instead starred Bradley Cooper as the first Gemstone preacher, a Civil War-era criminal who pretended to be a minister (yes, the Gemstones were scammers way back then). This was certainly a big swing for the series. The series has done "prequel" episodes before but it's always been directly related to the main characters. Some of those break-from-form episodes have been the best of the series. This was probably the biggest swing and it didn't totally work for me. I think it's rough to do for a season premie...

Welcome to my Monday newsletter! This week, I am giving a brief Oscars recap plus thoughts on Running Point, The White Lotus, Toxic Town, Paradise, Grosse Pointe Garden Society and Severance ! OSCARS RECAP The Oscars were on Sunday night and it was a huge night for Anora , which won five awards including Best Picture and an upset win for Best Actress for Mikey Madison (shout out Better Things !). I thought Anora was a deserving Best Picture winner of the five nominees I saw, and, as much as it would have been a great moment for Demi Moore to win Best Actress, that award was well-deserved by Madison. I'm also over the Adrian Brody acceptance speeches but sad there won't be anymore from Kieran Culkin for a bit. And I'm happy that Emilia Perez   is out of our lives (it went from what seemed like a lock for International Film to losing to I'm Still Here even though it still won two awards).  As for the telecast itself, I thought Conan O'Brien was a game host but there w...