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My apologies for not sending out a newsletter yesterday. I have a household full of sick people, and that was my priority for the day. Nothing serious, but my entire family seems to get sick when the weather changes in the fall. And it has certainly changed here in Minnesota.
Tonight is election night, which is my Super Bowl. I have always been fascinated with politics and have a degree in political science. Which, as I always used to joke, qualifies me to manage any Arby’s in America.
As those of you who have been reading this newsletter for awhile likely realize, politically I am left of center. And while I am interested in the elections for that reason, I am also fascinated by the process and the many electoral twists and turns as the evening progresses. Although, as the map from the NY Times above illustrates, there are going to be races we won’t have a definitive answer about for days. And in the case of Alaska, perhaps weeks.
BTW, if you are a political nerd like I am, this piece from Votebeat provides a deep dive into poll closing times and how fast ballots are counted in each state.
I’ll be watching both the traditional TV and cable news coverage as well as sampling a bunch of the digital-only offerings. I’ll have some extended thoughts tomorrow.
And regardless who you support, make sure you vote today if you haven’t already.
Netflix Is Reimagining How Subscribers Find Something to Watch
There may be no more familiar streaming frustration than spending 20 minutes looking for something to watch, only to give up and turn on something you've already seen.
It's a problem every major streamer is trying to solve. The services have spent years building recommendation engines, personalizing home pages and experimenting with new ways to get viewers to press Play. Yet the complaints persist. With thousands of movies and shows competing for attention, finding something that fits the moment can feel like a job in itself.
Netflix thinks artificial intelligence might help.
The company is beginning to test a new AI-powered Discover tab on televisions, giving subscribers another way to browse its catalog. Rather than relying exclusively on familiar rows of recommended titles, the feature organizes suggestions around themes that reflect what viewers might be looking for: a particular mood, a viewing occasion, the amount of time they have available or something they've recently watched.
It's a different approach to a problem Netflix has been working on for years. And, as the company is quick to point out, it's only the beginning.
Finding something that fits the moment
Netflix already uses subscriber activity to shape its recommendations. What people add to My List, the titles they rate positively or negatively, and their viewing habits all help determine what appears on the home page.
The service also has genre-specific rows and other themed collections. But those are created by Netflix's merchandising team, with personalization determining which collections appear and when individual subscribers see them.
AI Discover adds another layer to that process. The new feature uses an intelligence system Netflix has been developing to better understand both a member's tastes and the titles available in its catalog. It then uses that information to assemble recommendations around what the company believes might matter to that viewer at the time.
The first version is organized around themes. Some are based on mood, with options such as “Something Light” or “Scare Me.” Others reflect a viewing situation, such as “Family Movie Night,” or the time available, with “Quick Watches” among the choices. There may also be themes built around recent viewing, popular titles or what's new.
Select a theme and Netflix presents a collection of matching shows and movies. From there, subscribers can explore more specific categories generated by AI. Someone who starts with a quick watch, for example, might narrow the choices to workplace comedies.
The idea is to make discovery a series of smaller decisions rather than asking viewers to navigate an enormous catalog all at once.
Netflix is also giving subscribers a more direct way to influence what appears. Alongside the familiar Play and My List options, individual titles will have a “Tune Your Recommendations” control. In the initial experience, viewers can indicate that they'd like to see more of a recommendation or that Netflix should stop suggesting it. They can also provide a reason, such as having already watched the title or simply not being interested.
Those choices carry over to future visits to Discover, allowing the recommendations to adjust as Netflix receives more feedback.
That is an important distinction. The company isn't simply using AI to produce another set of categories. It wants the system to respond to what subscribers tell it, rather than relying entirely on what it can infer from their viewing history.
A test, not a finished product
There are some limitations to the initial rollout.
AI Discover will be available to a limited number of members in the United States who use Netflix in English on supported televisions. The company plans to expand the test over the coming weeks, but it isn't disclosing how many subscribers will be included. Members won't be able to activate the feature themselves; Netflix will determine who receives it.
Those who do get the tab won't be able to remove it from their home page, although they can simply choose not to use it. It also won't appear on kids profiles.
For now, the feature is limited to television. There's no mobile version planned as part of this initial test, and Netflix isn't introducing a chat function that would let viewers type in a specific request. So, if you're hoping to ask for a Nordic crime drama with a romantic storyline, you'll have to work with the themes and recommendations Netflix provides.
The company says it is still exploring other ways subscribers might express what they want to watch. The current experience focuses on themes, but the underlying technology could eventually support other ways of organizing and exploring the catalog.
Netflix also emphasizes that the choices members make in Discover won't be used to inform the company's content decisions. The feedback is intended to improve recommendations for the individual subscriber, not determine what shows or movies Netflix should produce or acquire.
Netflix has been here before
AI Discover may be new, but Netflix's efforts to make choosing something to watch easier go back much further than the current enthusiasm for artificial intelligence.
Some subscribers may remember Netflix Max, an interactive recommendation feature introduced in 2013, primarily for PlayStation 3 users. Developed with Jellyvision, the company behind You Don't Know Jack, Max presented itself as a quirky virtual host who could guide viewers through the catalog.
The idea was to make finding something to watch more entertaining, turning the process into an interaction with a virtual assistant rather than another round of scrolling.
Max didn't last. Netflix quietly phased it out in May 2015. One of the challenges was that the feature required viewers to actively participate in the experience, which apparently made finding a show feel like more work than simply browsing.
That history is worth remembering as Netflix introduces another attempt to address the same basic problem. A recommendation system can be clever, responsive and personalized, but viewers still have to find the experience useful enough to bother with it.
AI Discover is also an experiment. Netflix says the version being tested represents only part of what its new intelligence layer can eventually do. The company expects to learn from how subscribers use the feature and will continue adjusting the experience. Not everyone who receives the tab will necessarily see the same themes or explorations as Netflix tests different approaches.
There's certainly room to expand the idea. A system that can organize recommendations around mood, viewing time and personal taste could eventually offer other ways to explore movies and television, whether by genre, actors or other connections between titles. But those are possibilities, not features Netflix has announced.
For now, the test is much more straightforward: Can Netflix help people find something they actually want to watch without making them work so hard to find it?
That's a question the streaming industry has been trying to answer for years. Adding AI to the process may give Netflix another way to approach it. Whether it finally makes the endless search for something to watch feel less endless is something subscribers will have to decide.
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Television Critics Association Q3 ‘TCA Approved’ Choices
One of the newer features that has been rolled out by the TCA over the past year has been a quarterly series of five TV shows that were nominated and voted on by members as being “TCA Approved.” These are shows that premiered or streamed a season during the quarter and are programs that TCA members believe deserve special attention.
Here are the brief videos for the shows just announced as the third quarter 2026 choices. FWIW, a pull quote from one of my reviews was one of the ones used for Sterling Point.
Adults: https://youtube.com/shorts/z6tl_NGJcJE?feature=share
Furious: https://youtube.com/shorts/krjvgPmXAzA?feature=share
Lanterns: https://youtube.com/shorts/uEVYY-owii8?feature=share
Slow Horses: https://youtube.com/shorts/moDN6VCy4Po?feature=share
Sterling Point: https://youtube.com/shorts/NPy5G7jhvaw?feature=share
Odds & Sods
This is information about Candy Corn that I honestly didn’t need to learn. Spoiler: bug goo.
The filmmakers behind Free Solo know the risks their subjects are taking. With Everest: The Other Side, they had to live with the consequences.
The movie The Hunchback, Soul Of Paris premieres Friday, November 27th on Netflix. Here is a first look at the trailer. And here is the official logline: “In 1830 Paris, torn apart by cholera and revolution, a hunchbacked stonemason (Vincent Cassel) hunted by the police risks everything to save the dancer he has fallen for, inspiring Victor Hugo’s most legendary character.”
Here is a look at the sixth-worst McDonald’s in America.
Secret Service premieres Sunday, November 22nd on MGM+. Here is a first look at the trailer. And here is the official logline: “Adapted from Tom Bradby's bestselling novel, Secret Service follows senior MI6 officer Kate Henderson (Gemma Arterton), whose covert investigation uncovers evidence that a high-ranking UK politician may be working as a Russian asset. With trust shattered and her career on the line, Kate must navigate the shifting sands of political loyalty, international threat, and personal sacrifice as she races to uncover their identity before it's too late.”
The incredibly joyful short film One Last Order premieres Tuesday, November 24th on Netflix. Here is a first look at the trailer. And here is the official logline: “After 37 years of turning drive-thru orders into personal connections, Sighle Williams expects a quiet farewell from a Florida burger joint—but her town has other plans.”
An Interview With The Team Behind ‘The Dropout’
Steve Baker's Crimina newsletter has an interview with Rebecca Jarvis, Victoria Thompson, and Taylor Dunn - the team behind ABC News' hit podcast, The Dropout. It chronicled the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes and her company, Theranos. Their reporting was adapted into the scripted series that ran on Hulu starring Amanda Seyfried as Holmes.
Here is a bit of what to expect:
Steve: I want to go back to The Dropout, the Hulu series. What was it like working on that? How much did you advise them?
Rebecca: It was an incredible experience. We worked very closely with Liz Meriwether (creator and showrunner of Hulu’s The Dropout) and in the early days sat down and had lots of long, deep conversations about our reporting. There were a lot of questions along the way. I mean, Liz Meriwether and Amanda Seyfried really did their work. They went deep and they researched and read and talked to loads of people, including our sources, as they were developing the storyline. We had this moment where we went and visited the site of the Hulu series when they were filming and I will never forget walking in– Amanda had her back turned to me– and I walk in, and it was just the most eerie thing to see the embodiment of Elizabeth, but it’s not actually her, but it feels so close to what I have experienced in my own reporting. Even just watching Amanda walk into a room…They were filming the scene with the room full of employees where the secrets have now spilled out into the Wall Street Journal and beyond. And she gives this meeting in front of all of her employees, and it’s basically like, ‘fight. They’re wrong, we’re right.’ And just seeing her walk into that room and do this scene and have this moment was... It was very much a wow moment for me because it felt so close to this thing that we had witnessed and that I had spent so many years of my life dedicated to.
You can read the entire interview here.
And for a bit more on You Can See Everything, check out this piece from journalist Amy Chozick, who provides a slightly different take on Elizabeth Holmes:
I howled laughing at the uncomfortable weirdness of the depictions of the couple that Mr. Fielder and Mr. Oppenheim constructed. Ms. Holmes and Mr. Evans appeared to have let the filmmakers see everything, even showing Mr. Evans taking a shower. But when I saw the film, I kept thinking: Where is the nanny?
She was nowhere to be seen. Without her, the couple comes off as harried multitasking parents, Ms. Holmes literally rocking the baby with one foot.
I met Vanessa, the Salvadoran woman who was sometimes on hand to help care for their toddler and newborn, because I also spent several days inside the couple’s canary-yellow rental home in Del Mar, Calif. My article was published on May 7, 2023, 23 days before Ms. Holmes went to prison after being found guilty of fraud at her once-hot blood-testing-device company.
We went to the zoo and for tacos and smoothies. They even offered to let me stay with them. I declined. And by the looks of the bed they dusted off for Mr. Fielder, I think I made the right call.
I left in March. Mr. Fielder and his crew arrived in April. I was struck by the film’s opening text that said Ms. Holmes hadn’t spoken publicly in seven years, since my profile was published shortly after Mr. Fielder and his crew arrived.
The piece entitled "I Have Autism. Why the Elizabeth Holmes Documentary Was Uncomfortable to Watch," by the Wall Street Journal's Ben Fritz offers a unique take on watching the documentary:
The numerous extreme close-ups that linger on Fielder, Holmes, and her partner Billy Evans for an awkward few seconds after they finish speaking were almost profound in the way they captured difficult conversations the way I experience them.
Like Fielder’s subjects in “The Rehearsal,” I sometimes prepare for complex social situations, because I don’t improvise well when I’m overwhelmed. His farewell to Holmes in the movie before she heads off to prison, which starts with a greeting card joke that falls flat and ends with the world’s most awkward hug, rang painfully true because it’s exactly the kind of atypical situation you can’t learn in advance how to handle.
ICYMI: Just Posted On TooMuchTV And Forbes
Here is a rundown of other stories recently posted on TooMuchTV.com and Forbes:
Somewhere in the steaming, over-lit kitchens of Korean television, a producer has apparently decided that what the world desperately needs is another tortured genius chef, another struggling restaurant, another beautiful person staring at a plate of food as though it contains the lost secrets of the universe. Enter Final Table, Prime Video’s latest attempt to turn cooking into high drama, romantic combat, and a full-contact sport for people who look fabulous while suffering.
Capitalism has finally found a way to make the workplace horror movie redundant. Why bother inventing monsters when millions of people already spend their waking hours terrified of rent, debt collectors, and an email from management that begins, “Just circling back”? Netflix’s Dead-End Job understands this cosmic joke and decides to rub our noses in it by adding actual monsters. At last, a workplace comedy for people who have fantasized about setting fire to the office microwave.
Collision Course is a smart, fitfully gripping Spanish crime thriller that gets more mileage out of its narrative ingenuity than its characters or politics.
As well as photo galleries for the upcoming Netflix drama Alicia’s Law
The Kennedy Center announced its 2026 Honors recipients, recognizing Paul Anka, David Foster, Andy Garcia, David Mamet, and Barbara Mandrell. The 49th annual ceremony will take place on December 7 at Capital One Arena in downtown Washington.
Versant Media Group reported lower revenue and profits for the third quarter as growth in its digital platforms failed to offset continued pressure on its traditional television business, underscoring the challenge facing the newly independent media company as it seeks to diversify beyond cable.
What’s Coming Tonight And Tomorrow
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3RD, 2026:
Bass x Machina Series Premiere (Netflix)
Curfew Series Premiere (MHz Choice)
Mike Tyson: Return Of The Mike (Netflix)
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4TH, 2026:
A Dog’s Perfect Christmas (Netflix)
All’s Fair Season Two Premiere (Hulu)
Church Wives Series Premiere (BET)
Harry Potter: Wizards Of Baking Season Premiere (Food Network)
Secrets Of The Dead: Saving Tangier Island (PBS)
Stick Season Two Premiere (Apple TV)
The Greatest (Prime Video)
The Remarried Empress Series Premiere (Disney+)