Better Late Than Never
This one’s for my fellow Hiddlestans! Care of an Apple TV+ free weekend, I spent six episodes of The Essex Serpent (2022) making googly eyes over Tom Hiddleston as Will Ransome, a married pastor trying to resist Cora Seaborne (Claire Danes). Based on Sarah Perry’s 2016 novel of
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; while
Netflix
It's official: Netflix Italian Original The Law According to Lidia Poët will return for a third season. The drama, loosely based on the life of Italy's first female lawyer, is one part legal procedural, one part family drama, one part feminist manifesto, and one of the
Paramount+
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, RKO did
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 of
PBS
Being an Anglophile generally comes with certain realities: Your favorite British series will almost always be shorter than their American counterparts. They will typically star one of the same dozen or so actors (this is a feature, not a bug, by the way). And you'll spend a prodigious
Movies
You've probably never heard of French history's most famous Black general, who fought alongside (and later feuded with) Napoleon and inspired a literary classic. Director Ladj Ly aims to change that with his upcoming film Dumas: Black Devil. Known for his crime thriller Les Miserables, which
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 circumstances
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.'s Actor&
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
PBS
Vienna Blood is back for one more waltz! The British-Austrian production is unlike most English-language shows on PBS’s slate, thanks to its setting in mainland Europe between the Victorian and Great War periods. In some respects, it’s a classic odd couple-solves-murders show featuring an energetic, overly self-assured guy
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