The hottest TV Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Culture Topics

A new and improved Film and TV Newsletter Directory

Textual Variations • 231 implied HN points • 12 Nov 24
🎭️ Culture Film TV Media Writing Design
  1. The Film and TV Newsletter Directory has been updated and is back up and running. It showcases various film and TV Substack newsletters.
  2. The updates to the directory faced challenges due to technical issues and design limitations within the Substack platform. A new format was developed to make it visually appealing and user-friendly.
  3. The directory allows authors to be mentioned and notified when their newsletters are highlighted. However, there are concerns about some authors disabling mentions, which posed a problem when trying to update the directory.

Best of the year (so far)

Austin Kleon • 5755 implied HN points • 12 Jul 24
🎭️ Culture Books Music TV Movies Podcasts Art
  1. The author enjoyed various types of reading, from essays and books to magazines that make great bathroom reads.
  2. They found joy in both music and movies, highlighting favorites from old classics to new releases, showing a preference for a mix of styles.
  3. The author shared experiences with family activities like pizza night movies and fun gadgets that made everyday life more enjoyable.

🚀⤴ 'For All Mankind' is still the pro-progress, Up Wing show Hollywood and America needs

Faster, Please! • 2650 implied HN points • 16 Jan 24
🎭️ Culture TV Sci-fi Politics Space Technology
  1. For All Mankind is a pro-progress and optimistic science fiction show with drama and thrills.
  2. The show emphasizes the importance of humanity moving forward despite setbacks and challenges.
  3. Themes in the show include entrepreneurial capitalism, societal growth, technology solving problems, and shared human purpose.

An Introduction to UPA

Animation Obsessive • 4664 implied HN points • 07 Aug 23
🎨 Art & Illustration Animation Design History TV Comics
  1. UPA studio revolutionized animation in the 1940s and 1950s with modern art influences and unique storytelling.
  2. The UPA animation style focused on emotion over anatomy, leading to groundbreaking visuals and storytelling.
  3. UPA's work extended beyond well-known films like Mr. Magoo, encompassing TV commercials, series, and experimental shows.
Get a weekly roundup of the best Substack posts, by hacker news affinity:

The Woke Rails of Google Gemini are Literally Just Eric Cartman

Handwaving Freakoutery • 769 implied HN points • 23 Feb 24
🎭️ Culture Art Entertainment Tech TV Satire
  1. Google Gemini's AI image generation software is adding 'diversity' into images where it doesn't belong, like popes and knights.
  2. Google Gemini uses a simple hack to generate 'woke' images by altering prompts before running image generation AI.
  3. South Park predicted Google's approach by parodying inserting diversity into images through prompts, comparable to what Google is doing with its AI.

AI: Notes From The Dark Side

So Here’s a Thing • 1160 implied HN points • 02 Apr 23
🕹 Technology AI Art Prose TV Creators
  1. Implications of AI for news and our perception of the world include the rise of fake photos and deepfake videos, requiring critical thinking and fact-checking.
  2. AI in art poses challenges in distinguishing real works from fakes and may alter how artists maintain their catalogues to differentiate their genuine creations.
  3. The importance of human intent and meaningfulness in creation, questioning what AI-created content lacks in terms of emotional depth and personal connection.

The Week In Recommendations 5.24.23

Rich Text • 825 implied HN points • 24 May 23
🎭️ Culture TV Literature Fashion Podcasts Books
  1. Recommended Netflix show: XO, Kitty, a sweet series with heart, teen angst, and viable love interests.
  2. Engaging podcast: Betrayal, season 1 follows Jennifer Faison's healing journey, season 2 delves into Ashley Lytton's story.
  3. Shopping recommendations: Resortwear like versatile cover-ups and textured swimwear, hair clips for styling growing out hair.

Best of 2023

Obvious Bicycle • 657 implied HN points • 30 Dec 23
🎭️ Culture Music Movies Books TV Quotes
  1. The post shares a list of the author's favorite things from 2023, including music, live events, essays, art & photography, movies, books, TV shows, and quotes.
  2. The author appreciates music as their favorite art form, sharing a ranked list of songs they discovered in 2023.
  3. The author also highlights their experiences of attending live events like cricket and football matches, a marathon, and a Taylor Swift concert, making these a memorable part of their year.

The State of the Culture Is...Not Bad, Actually

The Ruffian • 215 implied HN points • 09 Mar 24
🎭️ Culture Film Music Art Literature TV
  1. Hollywood is showing signs of a mini-renaissance with a recent surge in quality films and more diverse storytelling, bucking the trend of blockbuster dominance.
  2. While concerns about a decline in mainstream culture persist, there are still pockets of innovation and quality in mediums like books, TV, music, and film, hinting at a complex and multifaceted cultural landscape.
  3. Previous golden ages in commercial art forms, like Hollywood in the 1970s, have occurred during periods of transition and uncertainty, suggesting that creativity flourishes when traditional norms are disrupted.

Best of T.V. 2023 and Revisiting 'Home Alone 2'

Textual Variations • 231 implied HN points • 26 Dec 23
🎭️ Culture Film TV Entertainment Books Interviews
  1. 2023 was a breakout year for the author, leading to more productivity and stronger writing skills.
  2. The author reflected on their best work in 2023, including topics like film catalogs, George R.R. Martin's progress, and Apple TV features.
  3. A revisit of 'Home Alone 2' led to a new perspective, highlighting enjoyable moments and quotes in the movie.

"Could it 'BE' any more tragic?" - A Eulogy (of sorts) for Matthew Perry aka Chandler Bing

Sounds Good! • 216 implied HN points • 29 Oct 23
🎭️ Culture Celebrity TV Entertainment Memories Reflection
  1. Matthew Perry, known for his role as Chandler Bing in 'Friends', has passed away at the age of 54.
  2. Despite personal struggles, Matthew Perry found success but was unable to shake off his character from 'Friends' in his career.
  3. The tragic life story of Matthew Perry serves as a reminder that fame and success do not always bring happiness.

TITAA #40: Post-Creative Creativity

Things I Think Are Awesome • 216 implied HN points • 28 Feb 23
🎨 Art & Illustration Game design Storytelling Visual Arts TV Poetry
  1. Conceptual artist Sol Lewitt's wall drawings are executed by others based on his written prompts, highlighting different interpretations of instructions
  2. Poetry translation can lead to varied interpretations of the same text in different languages
  3. Copyright laws and the concept of dual authorship raise questions about originality and authorship in derived works

TITAA #41: Spirit Scripts and Repeating Stars

Things I Think Are Awesome • 157 implied HN points • 31 Mar 23
🎨 Art & Illustration Art Literature Poetry Fiction TV
  1. The Atlas of Endangered Alphabets project documents fascinating writing systems, including divinatory scripts and sacred Indian scripts.
  2. New AI art models like DALL-E, SDXL, and Adobe Firefly are being tested and compared for image generation.
  3. Exciting developments in 3D research papers and NeRFs show advancements in scene generation, editing, and efficient representation.

Numlock Sunday: Matty Merritt on the rise and fall of the Disney Channel Original Movie

Numlock News • 78 implied HN points • 04 Feb 24
🎭️ Culture Movies TV Pop culture Entertainment
  1. High School Musical was a game-changer for Disney Channel Original Movies, making billions and shifting towards more sequels.
  2. Disney Channel Original Movies started as small-budget experiments and grew into huge money-makers.
  3. The success of DCOMs like High School Musical led to a shift in Hollywood towards more franchises and less risk-taking in filmmaking.

TITAA #46: Golems, Tulpas, Egregores and AI

Things I Think Are Awesome • 137 implied HN points • 01 Sep 23
🎨 Art & Illustration Comics Literature Science TV Virtual reality
  1. The post discusses folkloric entities like golems, tulpas, and egregores, which are created by humans and can have varied effects.
  2. Golems are creatures from Jewish folklore created from mud or clay with specific activation and deactivation methods.
  3. There are parallels between these entities and modern phenomena like AI behavior and strange chatbot interactions.

TITAA #48: Magic Mirrors and Radios

Things I Think Are Awesome • 117 implied HN points • 31 Oct 23
🎨 Art & Illustration Literature TV Poetry Games VR
  1. Jean Cocteau's film Orpheus explores themes of inspiration and creativity through tech signals and mirror portals.
  2. Mirrors serve as symbols and characters in Cocteau's film, representing death and reflection.
  3. The post also includes recommendations for AI/art creativity, narrative research, and TV shows like Our Flag Means Death and The Terror.

The long, slow death of the TV schedule

How To Measure Ghosts • 117 implied HN points • 19 Sep 23
🕹 Technology Media Streaming TV Broadcasting Digital
  1. Linear scheduled TV viewing is declining, with younger audiences preferring streaming over traditional TV channels.
  2. Traditional TV business models are facing challenges and potential changes, like rebundling and collaborations among broadcasters.
  3. PSBs are adapting to the shift towards streaming by implementing new services, like Freely, to maintain relevance and audience attention.