Hulu/Disney+ trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBSqPDxmNZs This is why the streamers' lunch is being eaten by YouTube. So it's Friday night, I've had a busy week, not that I'm complaining, and I come home from an evening hike to finish my favorite new show, "Furious." There are two episodes left and just enough time to watch them. BUT THEY'RE UNAVAILABLE! Chalk this up to the old guard still being in control. It's not only Congress, it's in every walk of life. The Boomers still rule and think they know better, to the detriment of the companies they own. They somehow think that by dripping shows out week by week they're building momentum, via water cooler moments...the only problem is there are no water coolers and no one wants to go to the office anyway. Hell, you consume water from your own bottle, everything is personalized, one to one, but the anti-internet oldsters still want to cram you into a paradigm that expired years ago. We want it all and we want it now. NOW! The record business is the canary in the coal mine when it comes to digital disruption. Remember when the companies were pissed about pre-release date leaks? How they messed with their marketing set-up? How quaint. The issue now is getting ANY attention. If you don't make it easy...there are just too many other options in the marketplace. Certainly when it comes to visual entertainment. There's a reason Netflix rules. It's run by veritable youngsters. Who know that to be inured to the old ways is a recipe for death. All of Hollywood is up in arms over the Paramount/Warner Bros. Discovery merger when in truth, those are both also-ran companies combining to survive. Makes me crazy, the wealthy only thought those who worked with their hands could lose their jobs with impunity. These two entities are merging because they missed the moment, and are trying to survive. We live in a capitalist society, with no guaranteed employment. But when it comes to the denizens of Hollywood... No wonder so many have contempt for the entertainment industry, it's out of touch. But it does connect occasionally. Now in truth, the best television is made overseas. Israel/Denmark/Korea. That's the trifecta. But then there's "Ethos" from Turkey... Now if you're on the social media the Boomers abhor, you'll encounter self-described experts telling you what to watch on television. And I know who to ignore by the fact that they never mention a foreign series. Then Friday, I encountered Max & Tyler: https://www.tiktok.com/@ohhelloentertainment/video/7676917961592016141 I was stunned because they got it right. And I'd seen every show they listed in this clip, stunned that they mentioned "Spiral" and "The Bureau," other than "Time," and I pulled that up when the last two episodes of "Furious" were unavailable. Some lessons are immutable. We learned this in record retail. If the album is not available when the customer walks in to buy it, chances are they'll purchase something else, or walk out without buying anything, and the odds of them returning for the original disc are extremely low. I wouldn't have watched "Time" if "Furious" was available. And if "Furious" wasn't so damn good, I wouldn't go back to it. But "Furious" is GREAT! I found it via research. I ask everybody what they're watching. And when they come up with the usual suspects, my eyes roll into the back of my head and I shut up, because nothing I say will resonate with them, because they haven't seen anything I have. And not one single person has contacted me about "Furious." Never has a show so good generated so little scuttlebutt. Now what we've got in "Furious" is a serial killer. (I'm not going to cough up much here, but if you want to go in completely fresh, you can stop reading now.) The main character in that half of the show is Lola Petticrew." An Irish actor you will recognize from "Say Nothing," a series about the Troubles that is a must-see. But Petticrew plays a different role, a different character here, she's got range, like too many of the pretty faces we see in American productions. But this is an American production. And on the other half of the series, the cop side... We've got Emmy Rossum. Whose name I know but could not pick out of a lineup. Emmy as Alice Black has left her job with the NYPD to work for the FBI. She's trying to get away from her abusive boyfriend. Emmy/Alice wants to jump straight in, but is constantly held back. The NYPD clears cases, the FBI investigates. And when Emmy/Alice is stunned by the wisdom of Quincy Tyler Bernstine as Nora, who heads the FBI's sex crimes unit, Nora responds: "I'm not a former cop. I went to a fancy school, and I'm very smart." This is so brilliant, so right. Too many people judge others by the color of their skin. Alice thinks she's equal to Nora, but in truth, Nora is not only intelligent, but educated. Yup, she went to a highfalutin' school, even though she's Black and working in the basement. Petticrew and Bernstine are the highlights of the show. Petticrew is a tiny little thing who uses her feminine wiles to her advantage. Bernstine is world-weary, but is willing to do the right thing, even at a cost to herself. Watching them alone makes the show. But Emmy/Alice is three-dimensional. Not only with flashbacks and fears from the physical abuse of her cop boyfriend, but a need for rough sex and... Her ex is Jake Lacy, the beefy silent type who normally has no backbone, but here...he's a grenade ready to explode. All the while trying to get Emmy/Alice to change her story so he can advance up the ladder. You know Rob Delaney from "Catastrophe," or maybe another show, he's been in many. He always plays a light type, yet here he's a He-Man of the Universe who thinks he can always bend things to his advantage, but can he? And then there's Scoot McNairy, who was so good playing Walt Breslin in "Narcos: Mexico." The cast is first rate. But the plotting is too. Predictability is kept to a minimum. You're on the edge of your seat, wondering what is next. They say that "Furious" is loosely inspired by the 1987 film "Black Widow." You remember that one, right? The Bob Rafelson film featuring Theresa Russell, Debra Winger and Dennis Hopper? This was still when we went to the theatre, what was exhibited there could not be found on TV. And what intrigued us was the auteurs, the holdovers from the sixties and seventies like Rafelson. Before the industry flipped to summer blockbusters like "Jaws" and "Star Wars" and evolved into extravaganzas like the Marvel movies. As for Theresa Russell... She hasn't been seen in years. And all you really have to know about her, in terms of her magnetism and desirability, is that Pete Townshend hit on her and when he was rejected wrote "Athena" about her. Yup. But now we follow series instead of flicks. There's great stuff there if you know how to dig, if you skip over the low hanging fruit. This is not the television of yesteryear. And, in truth, "Furious" is better than "Black Widow," more fleshed-out, grittier and a bit more believable. I highly recommend it. But know if you get hooked, the final episode won't air until August 31st. So either you get started now and binge, which is what will happen, because you'll be entranced, and get frustrated that you can't finish. Or wait until it's complete before you start... But by that time there will be something new to watch. And you may never go back. That's the truth. -- Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/ -- Listen to the podcast: -iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj -Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp -- http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz -- If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter, http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1 If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25 To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
