Vee

I am v iffy on Chibnall but he's come a long way since the old days, and if anyone would benefit from a writers' room setup it's him.

Would you be my new best friends?

The hits keep coming:

Images from the new series surface as I finally crack the lid on Series 10:

Wow:

Now trending again, the Svengali of our times:

Stacy Haiduk (Patty, Y&R; allegedly soon to be DAYS) has a surprise cameo in episode 2 of HBO's excellent Sharp Objects, playing a meth-addicted cancer-ravaged hick mother. I didn't recognize her until I saw her name in the credits. She was great.

It's Iraq all over again. A lot of them still want to pretend that the Russia story is too diffuse, never enough to prove, etc. The reason is because admitting it's all real is both 1) a massive system shock which upends our democracy as we know it, indicates a massive national danger and destroys any remaining illusion of the same old political games, and 2) an indictment that they are culpable in this by way of their handling of the election and how they let ratings, Russian strategy, psy-ops and resentment of the Clintons and the Democrats shape their coverage. They had a very, very hard time admitting that on Iraq - it took years - and while some in media have said it, for many it will be harder now. But for all my anger, I am glad they are covering it and saying it. There is a huge swath of the general public for whom our deeply flawed media is still the only major outlet they have. Notably, Maggie Haberman - who spends a lot of time strenuously defending her access and the NYT on Twitter - has abruptly left it as of the other day.

Meanwhile, I don't even want to get into what Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez - whose win I was pleased about - are doing in Kansas against Sharice Davids (who's endorsed by Emily's List). So I'll let someone else do that.

@DRW50 will be disappointed I have not been able to keep up with #DoctorWhoOnTwitch's month long marathon, but I am watching stories online on dailymotion to slowly catch the ones I want but missed. Hope to watch Curse of Fenric, but I don't know which version they'll show. Paul Hanley, who did gorgeous art during Season 3 of Twin Peaks, has been doing illustrations throughout the marathon (much more on his Twitter):

Melissa Fumero and Stephanie Beatriz discuss ODAAT in an interview with Vulture:

Harvey has thoughts:

I don't know about syndicated, but I've pondered the streaming soap issue before and ultimately I think it still comes down to the Prospect Park soaps on Hulu - mismanaged by the higher-ups financially, but ahead of their time by a year or maybe just six to eight months. Soap-esque shows like Degrassi, etc., or even serial-trending sitcoms like Fuller House or One Day at a Time, succeed with arcs now on Netflix and Hulu in blocks of programming. With soaps, I would want to try to preserve at least some of the day-to-day format. It can never be what it is on network, but Netflix has experimented with releasing stuff weekly. I think that can be done with a soap - 3-5 eps a week or even day by day. I'd also try to refine what Prospect Park sort of attempted in a backwards way. They sort of fell into it because they ran out of money, but IIRC they made maybe 30-40 episodes of both AMC and OLTL. For better or worse, a pre-filmed block close to that is what I would attempt to release in segments to streaming - something people can watch over a month or two months with defined arcs and plots set against a larger ongoing canvas. Maybe their release is staggered week to week or every few weeks, something to preserve momentum and a sense of a daily world. Maybe that's impossible, but I'd try it. You get a bigger bang for your buck than the average streaming sitcom. And it can go on hiatus for months after - it's not going to run perpetually, 365 days a year anymore. That's not possible.

This didn't go the way the House GOP hoped:

It's a shame, but not particularly shocking. The Emmys love playing it safe. What really matters is the cultural perception, and that is that TP was robbed. Overwhelmingly the critics and general audience are absolutely lighting the Emmys up on social media right now about snubbing Peaks. That's good enough for me.

Sean Ringgold is in everything these days. I'm surprised Boys has apparently gotten mixed reviews. I'd assume it's media's natural knee-jerk ambivalence to the play being un-PC, to be honest, as they've had for years, but I have no idea. I am so behind on the Marvel shows.

Yeah, that guy got roasted for that piece. Meanwhile:

OLTL and Brooklyn Nine Nine's Melissa Fumero and Stephanie Beatriz are guesting: