2018: The year in television

2018 is the year when streaming service Netflix’s first breakthrough show, House of Cards, ended with Robin Wright in-charge as the (Machiavellian) President of the United States and no Kevin Spacey in sight, as sexual misconduct allegations emerged against the actor.But the finale of House of Cards as a series is one of the many big events that occurred in the world of American television this year. Instep gives you the lowdown...Our story begins with, as always, the show that fans must watch and it seems that show, in 2018, is a BBC production called Killing Eve. Starring former Grey’s Anatomy star Sandra Oh as an MI5 officer and Jodie Comer as a serial killer, it’s a brilliant game of cat and mouse with both women chasing each other until the last episode where the most unthinkable act occurs. To really understand the odd relationship between the two women, we recommend you watch the show. In a testosterone fueled television environment, this was a show that had two women as its protagonists with locales as beautiful as Berlin, London, Moscow, Paris, Tuscany and a decent supporting cast to boot.Another must-watch show was Amy Adams-starrer Sharp Objects that didn’t stay completely true to the book it was based on but made for exceptional TV due to Amy Adams, who carried the series. In other major news, it seems the popularity of comedy series Friends – that ran from 1994 to 2004 – refused to diminish in 2018 and alongside fan-favourite on-going medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, the two emerged as the most binge-watched shows of the year.Sean Penn starred in Hulu series, The First, but it crashed as quickly as it arrived. Even with Beau Willimon, the creator of House of Cards helming the show and the presence of Sean Penn, it was forgotten when it came to major nominations and awards. Up until the last moment, you don’t know whether Penn’s astronaut [in the series] actually goes to Mars or not. In terms of business deals, 2018 continued to be an important year with Disney emerging as the greatest competitor for Netflix ahead of Amazon and/or Hulu. Even as Disney’s streaming platform called Disney+ does not come out for another year, it has become the main competitor of Netflix for a variety of reasons. Among them is the plan to launch limited series on several popular characters from Marvel Cinematic Universe such as Loki (Tom Hiddleston) who will have his own show as well as Scarlett Witch (Elizabeth Olsen). Disney also beat ComCast for control of Fox.On its part, Netflix poached Ryan Murphy from Fox, who is the force behind hit TV shows like American Horror Story, Pose, Feud, American Crime Story, Glee and Nip Tuck. The deal is said to be worth 300 million dollars. Netflix also signed on the likes of Martin Scorsese, the Coen Brothers and Michael Bay as well. They also poached Shonda Rhimes (the creator of Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal) from ABC for a 100 million dollar plus deal. The streaming platform surpassed HBO as the most “nominated” at the Emmys with a promise to spend more than 8 billion dollars on content in the coming year. 2019 will still be tougher for Netflix because, in addition to making moves to surpass Disney’s plans, it will also have to deal with the growing power of Amazon, Hulu and most of all, Apple. The latter, after all, followed the Netflix method and landed rights to Peanuts and the rest of the group and will be making new content with the iconic characters. Scheduled to appear next year, Apple’s streaming service has acquired original content from big names like Oprah Winfrey, Justin Lin (Star Trek: Beyond, Fast Five), Reese Witherspoon, M. Night Shyamalan and Steven Spielberg. It has actors as high profile as Jennifer Aniston, Steve Carell, Octavia Spencer, Chris Evans (Captain America), Jennifer Garner (teaming up with J.J. Abrams, the creator of award-winning series Alias where the two worked together). Announcing an investment of 1 billion dollars in its streaming platform, Apple also acquired rights to develop Shantaram, the beautiful novel by Gregory David Roberts, into a drama series and roped in Damien Chazelle (La La Land) for an untitled drama series. 

from The News International - Instep Today http://bit.ly/2BHwtUv