It’s been one grab-bag of a Tuesday for the world of Netflix; if we’re not hearing about the streamer loading up on potential ammunition to unleash upon poor Shadow and Bone, we’re getting hit with a blast-from-the-past reminder that streaming wasn’t always the name of the game for the industry giant.
As for what we can expect from the streamer in the coming days, Netflix mainstay Jo Koy looks all but intent on staying as such, and a high-concept Spanish horror film was apparently too impatient to wait for the Halloween season.
Jo Koy secures his fifth and sixth comedy specials with Netflix
Easter Sunday may have been something of a bump in the road, but we all know that Jo Koy is at his finest when tickling our funnybones on stage anyway; a craft he’s honed across four different Netflix specials already, and one he’ll continue to indulge as he prepares for two more.
While we wait for Koy to cook up number five — which is set to release to the platform in 2024 — at Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre on Nov. 10 and 11 this year, his upcoming appearance in Netflix’s animated film The Monkey King will have to hold us over until then.
As controversy around The Blind Side swirls, its literally unbreakable record resurfaces
The Blind Side has never been any stranger to contention, with the 2009 awards season darling having oft been criticized for indulging the white savior trope among other perceived infractions. And with the film’s real-life subject, Michael Oher, injecting a much more personal voice into the subject these days, The Blind Side is back in the public eye.
Rightly or wrongly, the development may have caused a nostalgic sparkle in the eyes of Netflix, as The Blind Side has the distinction of being the most-rented DVD in the entire history of Netflix (which began as a DVD delivery service in 1997), and with that prehistoric business model now firmly confined to the past, this is one record that The Blind Side can always and forever lay a claim to.
The clock was already ticking for Shadow and Bone, but it might be ticking a bit faster now
The fate of Shadow and Bone — one of the last still-surviving young adult fantasy shows on Netflix — was already in a precarious position back in June. We’re in August now, and with news on a third season renewal still nowhere in sight, you can all but feel the anxiety gestating in the throats of its fanbase.
And, unfortunately, Netflix may have just been handed the numbers it needed to pull the plug without much remorse; indeed, the completion rate of season two is underwhelming across the board, with only 36% of subscribers finishing the eight-episode season within a week, 52% finishing within roughly a month, and just 57% finishing in roughly three months.
It remains a case of renewed-until-proven-canceled, of course, but given Netflix’s cancel-happy reputation, especially in the fantasy space, this wasn’t the sort of report that the Shadow and Bone faithful needed today.
It already challenged Disney’s animated efforts with Nimona, now Netflix wants to one-up Disney’s decision to release a Halloween-worthy film in the middle of summer
Not saving Haunted Mansion for Halloween seemed to many like a bold strategy from Disney, whose opportunities in the horror game are practically non-existent, though we doubt the seasonal mismatch is to blame for the film’s woes.
In any case, with Netflix already stepping on Disney’s animation and fairy tale toes with Nimona and Once Upon a Crime, it looks like the streamer is also gearing up to do Disney one better in the summer horror movie realm, with its Spanish horror flick Killer Book Club set to release later this summer, on Aug. 25.
At a glance, the film looks to be a mix of I Know What You Did Last Summer and Bodies Bodies Bodies, all wrapped up in a nightmare-inducing clown mask and an infinitely creepy book club setting. Only time will tell if it manages to hit the mark or not, but at this point, we’re sufficiently entertained by Netflix’s seeming insistence on trying to show up Disney at the strangest possible junctions.