TV of 2025

[therewillbeblus]

Yes, an affront to Wong and the importance of that track to Chungking Express. I should probably rephrase my criticism of Hacks to say that the show regularly uses “unearned” needle drops.

I thought that sequence was funny because it was clearly aping Lost in Translation (directly in one bit) without using the shoegaze, and instead took an entirely different kind of mood piece to fit it

[The Curious Sofa]

Yes, an affront to Wong and the importance of that track to Chungking Express. I should probably rephrase my criticism of Hacks to say that the show regularly uses “unearned” needle drops.

I'm generally not a big fan of needle drops in TV shows to generate sentiment (there have been some that worked). Hacks is a show I've been wondering whether check out as it's been one of the best reviewed shows over the last few years - and who doesn't like Jean Smart - but it's probably also not quite my thing.

[brundlefly]

and who doesn't like Jean Smart

Well she's no Jean Dumb.

[therewillbeblus]

Hacks is inconsistent but I like it - especially the second half of season one and all of season two is just wonderful. I generally like the show better when the leads are getting along, and grow tired when they're not for extended periods of time, but that's kinda.. what the show is! For what it's worth, this is Jean Smart's show through and through. Any fan of her's should check it out - much like Late Night was for Deborah, I can't imagine Smart landing a part like this again, and that makes me sad. The series should've come to an end this season, but I'm glad we have another few hours of Smart's wit coming down the pike

[Zot!]

There is an army of "music advisors" who have been programming these prestige shows for ages, especially the end credit needle drop. What made this de rigueur? the Sopranos? Funnily enough In The Air Tonight was very prominently used by Risky Business before it became synonymous with Miami Vice. Tarantino just straight up takes music from other movies and uses them in his (Cat People, "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" etc...etc...) I don't mind the practice in theory, but its pretty lazy at this point. Anyway Dreams can't be killed..."cinematic" as the kids like to say.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9jOaggGPKQ

Hacks is not for me.

[Altair]

Really this can be traced back to 1960s New Hollywood cinema, such as Easy Rider, using pop music of the day on their soundtracks, which was then filtered through Scorsese's Mean Streets. No doubt it was part of The Sopranos cinematic gambit to import these tactics which have now become commonplace. In other words, for nearly 70 years (in essence, half of the entire life of cinema itself).

[Matt]

I attended a live Q&A with Scorsese and Roger Ebert in March 1997, and Scorsese said his use of pop music in his films is directly attributable to Kenneth Anger's Scorpio Rising (1963). But the use of pop music in movies aside, I would say that Miami Vice was definitely the trendsetter for the use of pop music in television soundtracks. Week after week it featured contemporary music and there were even soundtrack albums released that combined the original score with pop songs used on the show.

At the time, it was de rigeur for movies to be accompanied by a soundtrack album (e.g. Footloose, Flashdance, Top Gun, John Hughes movies), but not TV shows. Other shows from the 1980s, such as Thirtysomething and Moonlighting, and in the 1990s My So-Called Life, often featured older and newer pop songs, but not quite to the extent of Miami Vice. The Sopranos, for which David Chase personally chose all the music, definitely set a new standard for shows of a certain quality.

Anyway, to get back to 2025, I find Hacks' use of needle drops particularly grating as there are maybe 5-7 per episode, many of them baffling, distracting choices. There seems to be great effort put into the show to demonstrate how big the budget is—location filming (in Singapore, even), enormous sets, scores of extras, wigs galore, guest stars, many many many aerial establishing shots—when the show is essentially (and at its best) about the relationship between two funny people.

[domino harvey]

One of the reasons Ed never got released to DVD and has shamefully all but disappeared despite a majority of the cast still being recognizable today is because every episode has a musical montage set to music that was only licensed for broadcast

[hearthesilence]

Surprised no one has brought up WKRP, which even licensed the Beatles back in the day.

[Zot!]

Surprised no one has brought up WKRP, which even licensed the Beatles back in the day.

I only ever saw this in re-runs, and can't remember if I heard the licensed music, or if it had been removed by then....I feel like I remember both. Though now the theme is stuck in my head. Wikipedia revealed this fun fact:

WKRP was videotaped rather than filmed because at the time, music-licensing fees were lower for videotaped programs, a loophole that was intended to accommodate variety shows.

[Never Cursed]

Apple TV series The Savant, starring Jessica Chastain, postponed indefinitely in the wake of "current circumstances". It was supposed to premiere in three days, and now is completely off their release schedule. (Earlier today I saw ads for it plastered all around my neighborhood and in the subway, so someone might wanna tell them to take those down). Apparently the series dealt with right-wing domestic extremism and featured a sequence involving a sniper trying to assassinate someone, so the current wave of chickening-out continues apace.

[domino harvey]

Apple TV’s eight viewers are going to be disappointed

[dx23]

One of the reasons Ed never got released to DVD and has shamefully all but disappeared despite a majority of the cast still being recognizable today is because every episode has a musical montage set to music that was only licensed for broadcast

Creator Rob Burnett recently mentioned that not only are the music rights impeding a DVD or streaming release but the fact that the show is own by two different competing studios (NBC & CBS/Viacom/Skydance) makes it even harder to ever get it out there again. It's very similar to all the Marvel cartoons that are owned by Disney (due to their purchase of Marvel) and WB/Discovery (due to their purchase of Hanna Barbera) that haven't seen the light of day on DVD or streaming over the past 30 years.

[domino harvey]

So sad to know that this show was robbed of a legacy it would have found in the age of streaming

[thirtyframesasecond]

Smoke (created by Dennis Lehane, starring Taron Egerton) wasn't as good as the excellent Black Bird, but still reasonably entertaining - it's about arson investigators on the hunt for two serial arsonists.

[Matt]

If you like glossy, star-driven trash like "Big Little Lies," allow me to direct your attention to the Peacock series "All Her Fault." It hits all the same notes with one dramatic revelation after another, all leading up to the "shocking" conclusion. It does slightly run out of steam before it runs out of episodes, but Sarah Snook's performance sells it all the way to the end. And unlike "Big Little Lies," which had pretensions to prestige, this show knows it's a silly thriller and keeps piling up twist upon twist like a stack of Jenga blocks until it very nearly teeters over. My husband summed it up really well when we hit the fourth or fifth episode of our binge watch: "I kinda hate this show but I need to find out how it ends."

[brundlefly]

I don't see that it got mention here, and hopefully that doesn't mean it has slipped through the cracks at large, but Raphael Bob-Waksberg's Long Story Short is a treasure. Ten rich time-scattered episodes about a modern Jewish family's relationships with each other, their religion, and time. Unlike his BoJack Horseman, it knows what it's doing right from the get, and the mix of tones is presented in a way that every note lands. (The opening episode has a fine Holocaust joke.) Hilarious, sad, warm, lived-in. If I have a criticism it's that Max Greenfield's Yoshi is too much Todd from BoJack, but then there's nothing wrong with more Todd from BoJack.

Too good, too few episodes, yet I'm wary of the second season Netflix has ordered. It's the kind of piece that benefits from the gaps it leaves, even as it satisfactorily fills in others. Worry is contagious, trust is hard-earned.

[Matt]

Please don't let the fandom, the hockey, or the "romance" tag put you off watching "Heated Rivalry." It's extremely well made, the lead actors are phenomenal, and it moves briskly through its six episodes.

[domino harvey]

My wife is completely obsessed with it, I think she’s on her fourth watch-through already