Reviving "Final Destination"

I don't count myself a fan of the "Final Destination" movies.  I know I've watched the first two, but don't recall much about them except the odd bits of trivia.  I watched the newest installment, "Final Destination: Bloodlines," not really expecting much beyond the well-established formula of photogenic teenagers cheating death, and then being dispatched by gory Rube Goldberg-style kills, one by one.  However, I really enjoyed it.  I enjoyed it enough that I started asking myself why I had enjoyed this particular "Final Destination" movie when I hadn't much liked any of the others, or the similar "The Monkey" from earlier this year.

First, the "Final Destination" franchise operates on the macabre premise that audiences like watching people die in creative and terrible ways.  For me, however, the kills by themselves are not enough, and presented in the wrong tone, I find them too bleak and nihilistic to enjoy.  I don't want to pick on "The Monkey," because feel-bad media has its place, but that was a movie that focused too much on the mindless, arbitrary nature of death, where the sick humor got downright disturbing, and the characters weren't fun to root for.  "Final Destination" is designed to be more conventionally entertaining.  The  series has always been very consistent about clear setups and payoffs.  Most of the deaths are either shown to be a deserved comeuppance or inadvertently caused by the victim themselves in some way.  We frequently see the action from the POV of death itself, a disembodied force that is never personified, but allows us a God's eye view to follow the design of the kills as they come about from seemingly random confluences of events.  So, it's less about who is going to die as much as discovering how the deaths are going to happen.

"Final Destination" exists in the same kind of hyperreality as Coyote and Roadrunner cartoons, where cartoonishly broad characterizations and a certain amount of mental distancing from the consequences of the carnage are baked into the formula, the same way it is with older slasher films that kill off most of their casts.  What "Final Destination: Bloodlines" does a little differently  is to give the characters slightly more nuance by making them all part of the same family.  The main protagonist is Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana), who has nightmares of her grandmother Iris (Brec Bassinger in flashbacks,  Gabrielle Rose in the present) being killed in a mass casualty event in 1968.  It turns out that Iris was supposed to die, and has secretly been living in isolation to stave off her demise for decades.  Death hasn't just been killing off the intended victims of the event, but also their offspring, so this means Stefani, her brother Charlie (Teo Briones), and cousins Erik (Richard Harmon), Bobby (Owen Patrick Joyner) and Julia (Gabrielle Rose) are marked for death.  The existing relationships and family dynamics add just enough intrigue to make the traditional collection of doomed teenagers a little more compelling to follow, and it's nice to have a reason for death coming after them in a specific order.  

However, the characters are still fairly flimsy horror movie creatures who we're never intended to have much emotional investment in, except as vehicles for black humor and irony.  A subplot that absolutely does not work is the awkward attempt to have Stefani reconnect to her estranged mother Darlene (Rya Kihlstedt).  Instead, most of the film's resources are spent on those Rube Goldberg kill sequences, which are rendered with great care and attention to detail.  "Bloodlines" didn't cost that much more than any of the previous installments, but every aspect of the filmmaking feels like it's been upgraded.  The opening premonition scene with the mass casualty is thrilling stuff.  The directors, Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, do a great job of playing with their audience's expectations, deploying fake-outs and misdirections, adding big doses of humor, and really amping up the anticipation for each terrible tragedy.  They have the viewers hyperfocused on pennies, shards of glass, and even an innocent game of Jenga, trying to figure out how it's all going to go fatally wrong.  

The one person in the film who is not disposable is the coroner William Bludworth (Tony Todd), a recurring character in the franchise.  The filmmakers have treated him with great care in order to give Tony Todd a proper sendoff, which came across well, even though I didn't remember Bludworth from the previous movies at all.  Apparently there are a lot of Easter eggs and references in the film for "Final Destination" fans, but they're subtle enough that us normies wouldn't notice or feel like we're missing something.  I still have no interest in going back to watch the other "Final Destination" movies, but I'd be happy to have a look at the next one if they keep going in this vein.        

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"Severance," Year Two

Minor spoilers ahead.

So, things are a little different on the Severed Floor since the last time we saw the Macro Data Refinement (MDR) crew. Lumon tries replacing everybody in the premiere episode except for Mark, which doesn't work because Mark realizes he has leverage and refuses to continue at Lumon without his innie friends.  Ms. Cobel has been removed - maybe given a new job, maybe fired - and Milchick is the new supervisor.  He has his own assistant too, a sinister child employee called Ms Huang (Sarah Bock).  Other Lumon employees like enforcer Mr. Drummond (Darri Olafsson) and the head of Mammalians Nuturable, Lorne (Gwendoline Christie), start popping up.  We meet more people from the main characters' outie lives too, like Dylan's wife Gretchen (Merritt Wever), Burt's husband Fields (John Noble), and Helena's father, Jame Eagan (Michael Silberry).   

There's a greater tension hanging over everybody this year, because we know that the Lumon leadership wants something out of Mark, and are willing to play nice until they get it, but neither Mark or anyone else in the MDR department  have any idea what this is.  Multiple other parties, including ex-Lumon employees like Burt and Reghabi (Karen Aldridge), are interacting with the outie characters in pursuit of their own agendas.  The innies, however, are slowly but surely discovering their own wants and needs, which increasingly come into conflict with the desires of their outie selves.  We get some really compelling character drama this year as the innie and outie worlds keep colliding in more interesting ways.  The bizarre absurdity of Lumon's corporate culture also continues to be a highlight.  This year, we're treated to a wilderness retreat, more weird animatronic figures, disturbing artwork, an industrial video with celebrity cameos, and a visit from the Choreography and Merriment department in the nail-biting finale.       

While I'm glad that the show is more popular, I don't think that the increased scrutiny of "Severance" is doing it any favors.  This is a show full of mysteries, where theorizing about the weird cult of Kier and the intentions of the Lumon leadership are part of the fun, but in the end these parts of the show feel pretty arbitrary.  "Severance" is  more concerned with its corporate nightmare vibes than with intricate plotting or unravelling conspiracies.  This season really boils down to a handful of characters with opposing interests, all trying to pursue what they want.  However, it gets complicated because some of those characters are sharing the same bodies.  I was really torn between innie Mark and outie Mark by the end of the season, and ended up rooting for Gemma.  The love triangle (or pentagram?) didn't come off as well as it could have, though, because we got so little of Helly this year.  Other characters like Irving and Cobel also felt shortchanged.  I can see a lot of the viewers being frustrated that the major revelations come so slowly - there's a reintegration subplot that doesn't seem to go anywhere, and two episodes that follow side characters late in the season, stalling some of the momentum - but the show is really good at paying things off.  There are some missteps along the way, but the highs are very high.

I suspect, however, that "Severance" can't go on for much longer at this level of quality unless it fundamentally changes its premise.  The fragile world of the Severed Floor is so fascinating because it feels so temporary and fleeting.  But beyond that, we're starting to come to some natural endpoints.  Burt and Irving's storyline, for instance, seems to have resolved itself.  There are only so many times the employees can quit and be coaxed back to maintain the status quo, and nothing happening outside the Lumon building feels very important anymore.  However, I understand why Dan Erickson and  Ben Stiller are reluctant to move too quickly.  "Severance" has a very particular mood and tone that might not withstand too much meddling with the existing formula.  Riding that thin line between absurd and sinister must be a challenge.  This set of episodes erred on the sinister side more often than not, and I admit that I liked the show better in its first season, when the stakes weren't quite so high, and the liminal strangeness was more pronounced.   

That doesn't mean that "Severance" didn't have a great year, or that I'm not very gung-ho for the next one.  I just want to acknowledge that "Severance" has changed and continues to change as a series, and I'm having to adjust my expectations along with it. The cast is fantastic through and through, with Trammell Tillman as the MVP.  Gemma's episode is one of the most beautifully directed hours of television I've seen this season.  The finale, however, is my favorite for ratcheting up the suspense to unbearable levels, and springing some delightful surprises on the audience.  There really isn't any other show out there right now that can do what "Severance" does.   

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The 2025 Update Post

There's been a lot going on in the media this year, and I'm going to use this update post to try and address some of the topics I'm not willing or able to write full posts for.  If you're unfamiliar with this feature, I address multiple posts  in the same entry because I usually don't have enough to say about each of them individually to warrant separate updates.    This time around, the issue is also that there's too much that I feel I should be addressing, but I simply don't have the bandwidth to do more than acknowledge these issues in a semi-timely fashion.  It's getting dystopian, folks.

The Misinformation Age and They Broke Google (A Rant) - Two years after ChatGPT got everyone's attention, generative AI is everywhere, and it's awful.  It's kind of impressive how quickly it got so awful.  Spurred on by Silicon Valley and the finance bros pumping money into the technology, large language model AIs have been disruptive in the worst way, impacting education, health, media, and the way the internet works most notably.  Google and Bing now insist on foisting AI-aided search results on us, which are constantly presenting nonsense AI hallucinations as facts.  ChatGPT and Grok are literally worsening people's mental health by telling them what they want to hear to dangerous extremes.  Everyone's cheating and fabricating evidence for outrageous lies, including our lawmakers, which way too many people are willing to take at face value.  Amanda Guizburg's Diabolus Ex Machina substack post scared the hell out of me.  And it's bad for the environment too!  

AI and Movies that Never Existed and Playing With AI Image Generators - I know that I'm probably in the minority, but it got very easy very quickly to spot most AI generated images.  There's so much of it in circulation now, and there's absolutely no quality control, because the people who are using AI images the most heavily are the ones who are interested in quantity over quality.  And boy is there quantity.  This is already massively impacting image search results, and it's starting to seep into videos as well.  And while we're on the subject…

The Joy of Fan-Made Trailers - What used to be a fun little editing hobby has turned into a massive problem on Youtube.  Fake trailers are inundating video sharing platforms, and it turns out that way too many people have no idea how to spot them.  I can only distinguish the real ones from the fakes because I'm a movie obsessive who is tracking upcoming movies months and years in advance, so I know which movies don't actually exist.  Even so I've been tripped up a few times, thinking someone's dropped a highly anticipated trailer a week or two early.  The studios are getting involved now because the latest wave of fake trailers are causing actual confusion, so Youtube is demonetizing some of the worst offenders.  Still, I have to admit it is fun to consider the possibilities of Tom Hiddleston as James Bond, a "Titanic" remake starring Zendaya, and Tom Hardy as Popeye the Sailor Man.  Just label these things more clearly, and we'll all be better off.   

The News is Bad - Where do we even start?  Donald Trump has launched multiple assaults on the news media, pushing FCC investigations and lawsuits against CBS and ABC, and making moves to defund PBS, VOA, and NPR.  This has created a chilling effect across nearly all the major media platforms, with "60 Minutes" producer Bill Owens resigning after CBS capitulated.  Terry Moran was fired from ABC for tweets calling out Stephen Miller.  American journalism is in a state of crisis, with misinformation running rampant, and everybody is scared to contradict the current administration.  Even Fox News gets flak for stating basic facts when Trump decides to take offense.  I'd talk about the state of Twitter and the major American newspapers, but I'm depressed enough already.  Let's move on to a topic that has nothing to do with politics.

China's Search For a Crossover Hit - "Nezha 2," at the time of writing, is currently the fifth highest grossing film of all time, the highest grossing Chinese film, and the highest grossing animated film.  China's relationship with Hollywood has cooled considerably over the last few years.  China no longer needs to make crossover hits, because they're doing just fine making blockbuster movies for Chinese audiences.  As for Hollywood, after all the effort that was put into making "Shang-Chi" China-friendly, and it was still so roundly dismissed, it felt like everyone just gave up.  That means fewer awkward Sino-American co-productions, which suits me just fine.  

Regime Change at Warner Bros. - So, Warner Bros. Discovery lost $11 billion dollars in 2024, decided to split the company into two parts, and Max is now HBO Max again.  Gee whiz.  Well, at least their box office record is pretty good this year.  

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"The Ugly Stepsister" Has Her Day

I'm so glad that body horror movies are coming back into vogue, and that we're getting some really interesting female body horror movies specifically.  "The Ugly Stepsister," the first film from Norwegian writer/director Emilie Blichfeldt, is everything I want from this kind of movie.  It's a subversion of a familiar fairy tale narrative that takes the opportunity to aim a few blows at terrible female beauty standards, toxic family dynamics, and false idols.  Also, the performances are very effective and the gore is really gross.  

"The Ugly Stepsisters" is built around one very good idea: "Cinderella" from the point of view of the stepsisters is a horror story.  Blichfeldt uses the original Brothers Grimm version of "Cinderella," with all the gruesome bits about how to get a foot to fit into a tiny glass shoe, as her starting point.  Plain Elvira (Lea Myren) is the older daughter of the ambitious Rebekka (Ane Dahl Torp), who marries a man named Otto (Ralph Carlsson) for his money.  Alas, Otto drops dead almost immediately, leaving Rebekka with debts instead of riches, and a new stepdaughter, the beautiful Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss).  After learning that the local prince (Isac Calmroth) wants a bride, Elvira and Agnes become rivals for his attention.

Watching Elvira destroy herself in the pursuit of beauty and the false hope of a happy ending is like watching a magnificently orchestrated car crash.  The physical horrors of the barbaric beauty treatments that Rebekka pushes on her are bad enough, but the real damage is caused by Elvira's growing resentment toward the effortless physical perfection of Agnes and an increasingly anxious fixation on besting her.  While the original "Cinderella" story plays out it full over the course of the film, here it's on the margins of Elvira's miserable tale of endless suffering and disappointment.  Its perfect fairy-tale moments linger just out of her grasp as a half-hallucinatory ideal that she desperately wants to attain.  Instead, she has to contend with months of starving herself, a beautician that wields a chisel and hammer, and dancing instruction that doubles as ritual humiliation.  And the film makes it clear that through her choices, she brings much of her misfortune on herself.  

Some interesting shadings are also added to the other characters for some additional nuance.  Agnes is neither pure nor good - she doesn't love the prince and only wants him to get herself out of a bad situation.  She antagonizes Rebekka and Elvira as much as they antagonize her.  Elvira's younger sister Alma (Flo Fagerli) is too young for marriage, and she has no interest in the prince or her mother's machinations.  She's a lone voice of reason in the film that Elvira chooses to ignore.  Rebekka is the terrible stepmother we all expect, but more self-interested than malicious.  Her choices are few and she has to be pragmatic.  Then there's the prince, who Elvira has fallen in love with via a volume of his published poems.  A chance encounter with him early in the film reveals that he's a venal boor, but Elvira is so lovesick that this doesn't dissuade her at all.     

For lovers of body horror, there are several impressive sequences of squirm-inducing nastiness.  One involves self-mutilation.  Another involves tapeworms.  The worst for me, however, was a brutal cosmetic surgery procedure that went from zero to off the charts terrifying in seconds.  Due to the themes and the genre, there are some similarities to last year's "The Substance," but "The Ugly Stepsister" is playing with different tropes and ideas.  I found the production very impressive.  The film  was made on a modest budget, but it never feels like any corners are being cut due to skillful filmmaking.  The performers also deserve no small amount of credit.  Lea Myren does much of the heavy lifting in Elvira's transformations from unfortunate frump to rising ingenue to damaged monster.

I've always had a fondness for dark fairy tale films, and this is definitely one of the darkest and most satisfying.  It reminds me of something I might have stumbled across in the '80s, especially the way the gore is so stylized and achieved mostly with practical effects work.  They manage to make eyelashes in this movie sinister, and it's fantastic.  In short, horror fans, this is not one to miss.

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And What Didn't Make My Top Ten Episodes of 2024-2025

Minor spoilers ahead.

Last year's edition of this post got really out of hand, which is understandable considering that it was my first attempt.  This time around I'm going to focus on spotlighting some of the other highlights of my TV watching year instead of trying to be comprehensive.

Okay, so what were the most buzzed about episodes that didn't make the list?  "Through the Valley" was a major turning point for "The Last of Us," but it didn't strike me as a particularly strong episode in and of itself.  "The Price" was more interesting, giving Pedro Pascal a chance to go out on a high note, but not quite high enough to make the final list.  The third season of "The Bear" had several good installments, especially "Napkins" and "Ice Chips," but weren't as good as what I knew the series was capable of.  

The "Oner" episode of "The Studio" was impressive as a technical feat, but the show as a whole was too cringe-based for me to really enjoy, and I abandoned it after five episodes.  I've always had some trouble with comedies - I tracked down the "Pilot's Code" episode of "The Rehearsal" after seeing some of the rapturous response.  I never even cracked a smile, which tells you how out of whack my sense of humor is.  My favorite new comedy of the year was "Nobody Wants This," the Kristen Bell and Adam Brody rom-com.

So, let's move on to some genre shows.  Probably the best surprise I had last year was the latest Shondaland series, "The Residence," a whodunnit starring Uzo Aduba.  I couldn't single out any episode for praise, and the ending was too long, but this was exactly the kind of breezy, lighthearted, big ensemble burst of pure entertainment that I needed at exactly the right time.  Other new shows I really appreciated were "The Day of The Jackal" and "Black Doves," two spy series with very different approaches.  "Jackal" was the more polished, more action-oriented show that was fantastic whenever it was focused on Eddie Redmayne, but came apart whenever he wasn't on screen.  "Black Doves" was more about character, about feelings, and about vibes, with a great cast.  Tons of fun, but not remotely believable as any kind of espionage show.    

Returning shows offered some strong hours.  "House of the Dragon" had a very rough second season, but it still had some highlights, including "The Red Sowing" with the test for dragon riders.  My favorite "Black Mirror" installment of the excellent 2025 batch of episodes was "Common People," which saw the show target the horrors of profit-driven healthcare and subscription creep.  "Doctor Who," had a much stronger year than the last, with "Lux" and "Lucky Day" being my favorites.  The new companion, Belinda Chandra, is a great addition.  However, the most improved series was definitely "Rings of Power," as Sauron became a main character and a fantastic focal point for the show.  "Doomed to Die" and "Shadow and Flame" are both great, though the show is still leaning awfully hard on its audience's nostalgia for the movie trilogy.

I watched a lot of superhero media last year.  "Invincible" had a great third season, and "All I Can Say Is I'm Sorry" with the introduction of Powerplex stood out as an especially disturbing high point.  "Agatha All Along" is an MCU show, so it belongs in this category.  After a bumpy start, the second half of the series was all bangers, and the finale "Mother, Maiden, Crone" delivered a twist ending I didn't see coming.  "Penguin" got a lot of good press, but wasn't my kind of show.  However, I suspect that I have its success to thank for a "Daredevil: Born Again" that didn't pull its punches.  Ironically, the "Daredevil" episode I liked best was the bank heist - a remnant of a much lighter, kid friendlier version of the show.

The episode that came closest to making the list, but which I couldn't justify, was the "Night" episode of "The Acolyte."  As far as action goes, this is one of the best "Star Wars" TV offerings bar none.  However, "The Acolyte" is such a mess of a show when it comes to the writing and character dynamics.  I loved it and really wanted more of it, but I just had to let it go.

Speaking of cancellations, I'm bidding a fond farewell to "The Conners," "Star Trek: Lower Decks," "Arcane," "Wolf Hall," and "The Serpent Queen," which all delivered good endings.  "Kaos," "My Lady Jane," "Our Flag Means Death," "Laid," and "Time Bandits" were cancelled before their time, but I think they were worth the watch regardless.  "Interior: Chinatown" hasn't technically been cancelled, but feels more like a miniseries than an ongoing show to me.

Congratulations to John Mulaney for keeping "Everybody's Live With John Mulaney" as weird as it is.  And to Conan O'Brien for a thoroughly watchable Oscars telecast.  

And that's my 2024-2025 in television.

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My Top Ten Episodes of 2024-2025

This has been a very interesting year in television, with a lot of shows shortened or delayed due to the strikes.  A quick reminder before we start that I watch a lot of genre television, I'm notoriously bad with comedies, and I have a neverending "To Watch" list.  I use the Emmy rules for cutoff dates, which means that this list covers everything from the start of June, 2024 to the end of May, 2025.   Entries below are unranked, and I'm limiting myself to one episode per show or miniseries.

I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, but please watch your step.

Interview With the Vampire, "Don't Be Afraid, Just Start the Tape" - Let's start with the flashback episode of "Interview" where Louis and Daniel finally compare notes on their last, incredibly messy encounter in 1970s San Francisco, and realize that Armand has been hiding a few things from both of them.  We get to see very different versions of the characters - Louis at a low point, and Daniel pre cynicism - and get new insights on everyone's behavior.  I love a good unreliable narrator story, and you can't be sure anybody's memories are accurate here.

The Diplomat, "Dreadnought" - It was really close between this episode and the immediately preceding one, "Our Lady of Immaculate Deception," because that's where we get Rory Kinnear finally losing his temper and resorting to violence, and more of the ensemble is involved.  However, Allison Janney as the evil vice-president is the undeniable highlight of this season.  Her geopolitics lecture makes for such good television.  Then there's the season ending cliffhanger ending, which is executed so perfectly, I wasn't even mad it was a cliffhanger.  

Adolescence, "Episode 3" - A psychologist played by Erin Doherty interviews a 13 year-old played by Owen Cooper in juvenile detention, and it's one of the most chilling hours of television I've ever seen.  Cooper's performance is riveting, as he shifts from people-pleasing to rageful and destructive, constantly testing, provoking, and finally threatening his interviewer.  Doherty's reactions, and the single-shot construction of the episode also do a lot to sell the intensity here.  The whole of "Adolescence" is excellent, but this episode will haunt me.

Say Nothing, "Do No Harm" - Covers the Price sisters' experiences while incarcerated, with special attention on their participation in hunger strikes in the 1980s.  Lola Petticrew and Hazel Doupe's performances are front and center the whole way through, as the harrowing particulars of their ordeal are dramatized with unflinching candidness.  There's never any doubt that the sisters deserve to be in prison for their crimes, but the struggle to be there on their own terms, and use their status to continue their fight is highly compelling.

Poker Face, "Sloppy Joseph" - This one made it in just under the wire, but I knew instantly the assassination of Joseph Gerbils had to be here.  Charlie Cale's latest job is being a lunch lady at a fancy prep school, and she finds herself up against the second pint-sized psycho on this list.  This one is eight years old and much funnier.  Eva Jade Halford's gold-star-obsessed Stephanie may be the most memorable villain the show's come up with so far, and I love that she's defeated by the very thing that makes her special - she doesn't think like a child. 

Paradise, "The Day" - Post-apocalyptic media doesn't usually show much of the apocalypse itself, as they tend to be very expensive to realize onscreen.  Well, "Paradise" gave us an excellent version of the end of the world, devoting a whole episode to showing the step-by-step progression of a major environmental disaster spinning out of control, from the POV of characters working at the White House.  And when the time comes to make the hard choices and the impossible calls, it's the performances rather than the CGI that leave an impression. 

The Pitt, "6:00 P.M." - I'm choosing the preparation for the mass casualty event rather than the more intense episodes dealing with it later in the timeline, because this episode is such a marvel of efficiency.  The triage rules are changed, a new patient categorization system is put in place, and the night shift starts work so half a dozen new characters are introduced on top of it all.  We get a ton of information very quickly, but it's all very clear and easy to follow, and it also does a great job of building anticipation for the oncoming storm.

Severance, "Cold Harbor" - It was wonderful to discover how conflicted my feelings were toward Innie and Outie Mark, as it became clear that these two were not going to get along.  The finale caper offers all kinds of excitement, from the appearance of the Choreography and Merriment department, to the fight with Milchick, to the nail-biting reunion sequences with Gemma.  I still don't know which Mark I want to win, but at this point I just need the Eagans to lose, and lose badly.  Extra points for the use of the Michel Legrande track in the closer.

Dark Matter, "Jupiter" - By now we've all seen plenty of multiverse media, but the nightmarish scenario that is presented in "Dark Matter" is one I haven't seen anyone try before, at least not in a live-action thriller series like this one.  That's what gave this episode that extra push to land a spot on this list over some other good genre stories.  Showing me something novel is going to get you higher marks, even if "Dark Matter" as a whole was very hit-or-miss.  The payoff was very much the wait for the payoff though, and pure sci-fi geekery.

Andor, "Who Are You?" - Finally, Syril and Dedra were my favorite part of the last season of "Andor," and the end of their relationship came in the midst of the show's biggest action episode to date - the Ghorman Massacre.  The action setpieces are plenty impressive on their own, but watching Syril finally come to some important realizations and make the choices that he was always going to make are absolutely riveting to see play out.  

Honorable Mention 

Conan O'Brien: The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor - I couldn't quite figure out how to include this, as it's great TV but not really an episode of anything, so I'm putting it here.  Conan's acceptance speech in particular cemented this for me as a worthy, timely, and much needed win.  

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Late Night in Peril

I'm writing this post at the end of July, 2025, a few days after the announcement that CBS has decided to cancel "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert."  I don't know when or even if this is going to be posted to the blog.  I try not to post too immediately about big events in the entertainment world, because stories tend to evolve over time as we get more information, and I don't feel comfortable speculating when so much is up in the air.  However, I feel I have to say something.  

No matter how you frame it, this is bad.  Stephen Colbert will be fine, but "The Late Show" will not be going on without him, and the entire late night television ecosystem appears to be in imminent peril.  If you believe what CBS claims (I don't) and "The Late Show" is being canned for purely economic reasons, it means that all of the late night shows aren't making enough money.  Colbert has consistently had the highest late night talk show ratings since 2017.  There were a few signs that this decision was coming, however.  A few months ago CBS also canceled "After Midnight" with Taylor Tomlinson, opting to no longer program the 12:30AM slot.  It's been widely speculated that Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" is next on the chopping block despite Jon Stewart's return bringing their highest ratings in years.  It's been clear that the economics for late night television - really, all network television - haven't been good in a while, and I've been hearing persistent gossip that all the major players are considering similar moves to downsize their schedules.

However, the timing here is clearly being influenced by outside forces.  CBS and Comedy Central are both owned by Paramount Global.  And so we come to the proposed  Paramount Global and Skydance Media merger, an estimated $8 billion deal, which needed federal approval in order to go through.  After multiple delays, it finally got that approval by the FCC six days after "The Late Show" was cancelled.  Paramount has had to stay on the right side of the Trump administration, which has proven to be very vindictive and litigious toward the legacy media companies, pulling funding from NPR and PBS, and bullying ABC into ponying up $15 million over a bogus defamation lawsuit.  Paramount has also paid $16 million over supposedly misleading editing in a "60 Minutes" piece, and forced out executive producer Bill Owens.  Stephen Colbert called this a "big fat bribe" on "The Late Show," three days before the cancellation of his show was announced.  The Trump administration has since decided to sue Rupert Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal for libel.    

Stephen Colbert leaving the airwaves - at least temporarily - seems to be a big win for Donald Trump at first glance.  Nearly all of the late night show hosts have been vocally critical of the Trump administration, and haven't been shy about using their platforms to shine a light on their wrongdoings.  While the traditional news media has been depressingly quick to play nice with Trump, and back down from any confrontations, Colbert, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel, John Oliver, and Jon Stewart have not hesitated to call Trump out at every step.  While their television audiences have shrunk, all of these shows have Youtube channels with millions of subscribers.  Colbert averages two million viewers a night on CBS, and two million more watch his monologue on Youtube.  And from the reaction from the industry and the viewers so far, nobody is happy with this decision.  And Colbert's fellow late show hosts aren't rattled.  They're mad.  And Colbert's former Comedy Central compadres over at "South Park"?  Really mad.                      

There's already speculation about where Stephen Colbert is going to go after "The Late Show."  Will Netflix or Apple TV+ offer him a deal?  Will he start a podcast or his own Youtube channel?  Will he retire the way that his "Late Show" predecessor David Letterman did?  Would he consider a political career?  Because of the impending cancellation, Colbert is getting more attention and goodwill than ever, and the ratings for his final shows are going to be through the roof.  He's got ten months left on the air, and I for one do not intend to stop watching now.    

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