Ani Bundel has been blogging professionally since 2010. This is her second major independent site launch. A DC native and Keyboard Khaleesi, she spends all her non-writing time photographing her cats. Regular bylines also found on MSNOW.
Disney/Hulu
When it was initially announced that Steven Knight's newest series, A Thousand Blows (at Disney+ and Hulu, though not via FX), was about Victorian-era boxing, it seemed an odd turn for the hitmaker. Sports dramas are their own particular niche fandom that rarely overlaps with historical fiction;
Paramount+/Showtime
Paramount stopped being a going concern in the streaming wars sometime in mid-2023 when the attempt to go big or go bust wound up busting the century-old studio. One of the original Hollywood heavyweights, Paramount Studios survived the transition to television in the 1940s and 1950s (hey, listen,
Amazon Studios/Prime Video
The Wheel of Time may turn on both the page and the screen, but while the small screen adaptation technically tells the same story as the novels, it takes a different route than Robert Jordan's fourteen doorstopper-sized tomes did. From the start, the series streamlined the introduction
Movies
When reporting on projects that have not started filming, it's always best to wait for the official press release if you need confirmation on casting. While some trust IMDb, it's too easy for bad actors to edit the cast lists randomly; there are also last-minute
Netflix
Netflix initially announced Toxic Town in August 2023, during the height of the dual writers-actors strike in America. A U.K.-based series focusing on the real-life Corby Toxic Waste Case, it could technically go into production right away since it would be under the U.K.'
Movies
Every few years, separate projects accidentally align in Hollywood in what is known in the industry as "twinning." Recent examples include 2022's pair of Pinocchio films, one from Disney and one from Netflix, and 2023's two TV series about Alexander Litvinenko, one with Benedict
BritBox
With the financial backing of the BBC and Robert Schildhouse as its new CEO, BritBox has a new lease on life for 2025. The U.K.-centric streamer, initially a joint project between the BBC and ITV to prevent international piracy of iPlayer and ITV's streaming service, was
Safe Harbor
The streaming wars have frustrated many consumers, creating too many streaming services that cost too much, and cratering longstanding production studios who didn’t move savvily enough when the time to shift came. However, there are real tangible benefits to overturning the status quo, and the diversification of voices given
BritBox
David Mitchell’s latest project, Ludwig, is a genre mashup series that technically falls under the category of a police procedural but is more a little bit of everything, considering that the lead is a well-known comedian. Referred to by the BBC as a “case-of-the-week mystery-
PBS
PBS introduced Funny Woman to the American public a year ago, in January 2024. The somewhat awkwardly titled series (based on the Nick Hornby book Funny Girl, necessitating alterations) stars Gemma Arterton (The Critic) as Barabra Parker, 1960s Blackpool Beauty Queen, who has plans to take her success on the
Now Stream This
It's January 2025, which means the third decade of the 21st century is officially halfway over. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the platform launch that arguably kicked off the streaming revolution: YouTube. Yes, YouTube; the streaming platform was the initial way pirating TV series commercial-free
BritBox
As it has since 1996, Silent Witness will return to the BBC along with the brand new year. (Though the series has shifted around the calendar over the three decades since it launched, it tends to favor debuts in January/February, with the bulk of the seasons debuting in the