I have to start today with two acknowledgements. First, the passing of Bob Newhart, who is such an iconic figure across television and film. his main sitcoms were technically a little before my time, but thanks to syndication, reruns, and Nick At Nite, I have caught episodes before.However, for me, he holds a very special place in my heart for his work on the 2003 Christmas classic Elf. RIP, Bob. Maybe this is all just one big dream we will wake up from.

The second, is that Paramount Plus is poor. In case you have missed the news about them seeking to be acquired by everyone from Skydance to WBD, they don’t have money anymore. They have decided to cancel Halo after two seasons, one of their more high profile series, and I’m betting they’re most expensive. It is a lot easier to lean on procedurals, sitcoms, and easily produced shows than a massive science fiction effort like Halo, with a VFX tag. I’m optimistic another streamer will pick up the show. I don’t think this had anything to do with ratings, and more to do with the fact that they can make five NCIS spinoffs for the price of one Halo. If you look at their current output,they rely heavily on their franchises established now. With spinoffs from NCIS coming to both CBS and Paramount Plus in the coming year, a Matlock revival, Elsabeth being the second spinoff from The Good Wife, the upcoming Fire Country spinoff, the Dexter prequel series, and so much more, its easy to double down on procedural franchises that come in house. Even some of their future projects are just reboots or revivals of shows like Everybody Hates Chris (in development at Comedy Central) or the newest form of the Ninja turtles dropping next month.

I finished The Boys (Amazon) for the season, and there’s certainly a lot of spoiler filled stuff I could get into, but I just want you to enjoy it for yourself. I liked it, I’m surprised there were very few deaths, and mostly people who are toward the bottom of the casting pole. I thought a major character might get killed off, since there’s only one season left, but while the deaths are significant, they pale to last seasons death of Maeve.

Evil (Paramount Plus) has our gang interacting with the world’s creepiest AI chat bot. Meanwhile, Leland is trying to justify his usefulness to the manager. I don’t know why they just didn’t turn the computer off. It’s a chat bot. Even a demonically possessed chat bot theoretically needs power.

I also watched the first of the two episode drop of Kite Man Hell yeah (MAX), which recasted Lex Luther? To Lance Reddick? Did Giancarlo Esposito turn it down? This is such a weird voice cast swap, because I’m still amazed at how much stuff Reddick had in the can before he passed, and also that Harley Quinn uses Giancarlo Esposito to voice Lex Luther. The rest of the Harley Quinn voice cast is the same. Some of the characters make brief appearances, including Bane, who is the one who should have his own show. However, it is a spinoff from the same team, and it is still very very funny.

I’m also three episodes into the new Peacock sprawling drama Those About To Die, which is begging for that Game Of Thrones audience. Roland Emmerich is behind this, it feels like a huge show, and I’m surprised it hasn’t been promoted more. It is a cast of virtual unknowns, and takes place in Ancient Rome. Anthony Hopkins is technically in this, but he won’t be in the full season. Based on whence last I saw him, he’s gonna need flashbacks if he’s in all 10 episodes. The ensemble cast at first felt like a lot, but it is rather well assembled, and after the initial dump of a bunch of people, their stories are so woven perfectly together that I had no problem following them. The audio description here, which is William Michael Redman and Deluxe, is very good. Lots of period sets and costumes, a big cast, animals, fights, deaths, gore, sex, all being thrown at you. I don’t know if this is historically accurate at all, but I’d say if you like these sprawling fantasy epics, this feels like if Game Of Thrones and Gladiator had a baby.