Finally, we’re live and the thing is running. I had to figure some things out to get here, but this is Know-It-All Nation, and it’s exactly what it sounds like: an entertainment news show where Mrs. Know-It-All and I go through what’s happening in the world of entertainment. Top stories first, then the headlines we don’t know a whole lot about yet. And I can’t edit here, so if my ADD runs wild, you’re coming with me.
Jo Koy Didn’t Have the Problem. Taylor Swift Did.
The Golden Globes just happened, so award season has begun. The Globes have had a tumultuous background. It used to be the Hollywood Foreign Press, now it’s a slightly different name and a different way they do the awards.
I like Jo Koy, and a lot of people gave him such crap. Mrs. Know-It-All sees why they did, but she thinks he’s a really funny comedian who didn’t get a fair shake. Her read is that they wrote his stuff, or half of it, and the half he didn’t write he didn’t know how to deliver. Or people were just expecting Ricky Gervais all over again. The Globes have always been the less formal night. It ushers in award season, but nobody should expect the Oscars.
Then there’s the Taylor Swift joke. He said they had enough cameras to cover it, they cut to her, and we’ve all seen the meme. It was rough. Mrs. Know-It-All felt bad for him and didn’t feel bad for her, and she’ll tell you I woke up angry that morning. She’s probably right.
Her case goes like this. Taylor Swift is a wonderful businesswoman. Bringing her concert to the movie theater was amazing, and she did that on her own. Concert tickets are astronomical, so you bring your six, seven, eight, nine year old to a theater where, according to friends and family back home in Chicago, it was like being at the concert, people standing and singing. But the minute you pop into that spotlight, you’re going to have a camera in your face 24/7. Then she started dating Travis Kelce from Kansas City, and we’re a football family here, and she got angry about being on the screen all the time.
Where I land is that she broke down the barrier between the cinematic experience and concerts, distribution, exhibitors, all of it. So she’s entered a different realm. She got invited to the Golden Globes, and nobody in that room cares that she’s Taylor Swift. They’re all famous on their own merit. One of the pundits online said “read the room, Jo Koy.” This was not his problem. Taylor Swift needed to read the room and recognize that the purpose of the Golden Globes is to have fun. It’s basically a roast.
My problem with Jo is that he didn’t lean into it enough, the way previous hosts did. And Mrs. Know-It-All’s point stands: Robert Downey Jr., Meryl Streep, John Krasinski, they all know it’s fun and they all lean into their own jokes. If you can’t do that, then honey, don’t sit at the table.
Somebody in the live chat put it better than either of us: “Nothing’s more awkward than agreeing to be roasted only to get surly about it afterwards.” Thank you, sir. 100% agreed.
Barbie and the Cinematic Achievement Award
There were tons of great speeches. I loved Robert Downey Jr.’s, I loved Cillian Murphy’s. But I want to talk about Barbie winning the first Cinematic Achievement Award, because at first people were pooh-poohing it. Who knows what it means, who cares what it means.
It means Barbenheimer. It’s the billion dollar mark. It’s the confluence of everything that had to happen for that movie to be what it was. Taylor Swift was nominated in that same group, which is the only reason she was even there, and Mrs. Know-It-All thinks that explains some of the bitterness. She also thinks it’s a good category. Both of them were very good for the movie theater: the money, the way it looked, people wearing pink, people dressing up like they were going to a concert. She just hopes it doesn’t become one of those awards that gets so pinpointed nothing qualifies.
Margot Robbie said it’s an award for the fans. People will argue that’s what the MTV Awards or the People’s Choice Awards are for. I think the issue is that Hollywood as an institution hasn’t taken the time to say we support big budget movies. They act like those are cartoony whatevers, and that’s why you’ve got Martin Scorsese talking trash about what is and isn’t cinema. These movies exist. They’re part of the culture, and the culture defines cinema. I love the artists, trust me, I’m a filmmaker myself, we’ve made pilots. It’s a good award.
Picard Season 3 Cleaned Up, So Where Is Star Trek: Legacy?
I’m a huge Star Trek proponent. I have uniforms, we do backdrops, the whole nine yards, and we review Lower Decks on a regular basis.
Picard season 3 cleaned up at the Astras, the Hollywood Critics Association awards. Terry Matalas won best writing in a streaming drama series. Jeri Ryan won too, and Mrs. Know-It-All can’t say enough about how good she is. It’s amazing to me to see them recognizing what I consider the genre stuff.
If that doesn’t scream to everyone that we need a Star Trek: Legacy show, I don’t know what does. You give a show to Jeri Ryan and Terry Matalas right now. Legacy has been trending on various platforms numerous times since Picard ended last year. Discovery ends this year, and pretty soon Strange New Worlds is going to be the only thing holding the torch for a minute.
Mrs. Know-It-All doesn’t think they’d go too far back. She thinks it’ll literally be the three we saw left on the bridge. I think it gives them room to revisit things. What’s Deep Space Nine doing? Keep Seven of Nine and the crew of the Enterprise as the main focus, but this season it’s something with DS9 characters, next season it’s Voyager characters, as organic as possible.
And somebody in the chat pointed out that TrekCulture posted today that Legacy is getting legs, as part of an interview with Matalas. I’m checking that out as soon as the show’s over.
Put Kirk on the Graphic
The other day somebody tweeted asking if we’re ever going to see Captain Kirk again, and William Shatner responded with a picture. To get your answer, take a look at the promotional material on Paramount Plus. There’s obviously no sign of Kirk.
William Shatner has a very problematic history with the fandom, so much so that Saturday Night Live did a bit about it back in the day. He tried to walk some things back, but there are years of history with cast and crew, being a prima donna, wanting to be first on screen. I get it. He’s never connected well with the fans on that level.
All that being said, the man’s Captain Kirk. Some people want a revisionist history where Spock was more important. Everybody was important, I loved every character in the original series. But for years the debate was never Spock or Data. It was who’s your captain, Picard or Kirk.
Now look at the graphic. Why is Archer up there? That’s Scott Bakula from Enterprise, a show I didn’t like at first and have learned to appreciate on rewatches. He’s there. Spock and Uhura are there. Why would you leave the original captain off? Throw his picture up just once. No one’s asking for much.
Star Wars: Just Make Me a Good One
Lucasfilm announced a movie tentatively called The Mandalorian & Grogu, and how cute is that. Jon Favreau is set to direct. A lot of people thought this would be Dave Filoni’s live action movie. I always thought his would be the culmination of the whole Thrawn and Ahsoka story.
Funny enough, Ahsoka season 2 wasn’t formally announced. It was one sentence in a paragraph of that story: Dave Filoni, meanwhile, is busy working on season 2. Literally one sentence. I loved Ahsoka, slow moments and all, and Filoni being the new chief creative officer is a huge win.
Then there was the problematic news. Understand first that I’m a hardcore Star Wars fan. I’m in the bag for all of it. Did I love the prequel trilogy? No, but on rewatch I find value in it. Revenge of the Sith is Boyfriend Know-It-All’s favorite, and we’ve watched it ad nauseam, so much so that Baby Know-It-All can quote the whole “Anakin, you’re breaking my heart.”
The director of the new Rey movie, the one about her starting the new Jedi Order, is Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. She’s a documentarian and a journalist who’s done really good work, and her being announced isn’t an issue whatsoever. In an interview she said it’s about time Star Wars had a woman directing the story. A whole bunch of pundits online got real nasty about it. I’m not trying to get nasty. What I tweeted was: why take this stance? Why feed the fanboys who don’t need help getting inflamed about nonsense?
I don’t care whether you’re a man, a woman, trans, or identify as anything you want. Make me a good freaking Star Wars movie. Right now the franchise is looking very weak in a lot of corners. I liked Ahsoka. The numbers don’t bear out for Obi-Wan, Book of Boba Fett was met with lackluster at best, and Mandalorian was really good and then had some waves.
I’m a card-carrying feminist, so I asked the feminist in the room. Mrs. Know-It-All went back and reviewed the play. The comment was really about the fact that no woman has directed a Star Wars movie, even with a ton of women directing other Star Wars stuff. That’s fair. Her one concern is the jump from documentaries, which she has Emmys and Oscars for, to a Star Wars movie. Then again, she directed two episodes of Ms. Marvel, so she knows what she’s doing. For Mrs. Know-It-All it goes back to story. She loved Andor and Rogue One. And Rey never fulfilled her. There was nothing there to make her love Rey.
I liked each sequel trilogy movie individually. The Force Awakens as its own thing, Rian Johnson’s as its own thing, even the last one by itself. As a whole it really suffered.
Somebody in the chat made a good observation: I’m not suffering from the same kind of prejudice women are. That’s true. My issue has always been the throw-it-in-your-face of it. To be accepted as normal, things need to just be normal. It’s like the short guy with a short guy complex who wants to get in every big guy’s face. I’m 6’7”. Trust me, I know something about that.
She may make the best Star Wars movie ever. It’s what I taught my daughter: your actions are always going to speak louder than your words. You know what gets revenge? Success.
Mrs. Know-It-All is hopeful that what she captured in her documentaries, the horrors against women, translates into how she directs Rey. I’m positive we’ll get a strong character. And I’m in the bag for these things. I’m still going to the theater.
Doctor Who: I’m Not Worried
Mrs. Know-It-All came on to Doctor Who with David Tennant, and this is her first time getting a brand new Doctor together with me. She’s so excited.
Ncuti Gatwa had “The Church on Ruby Road,” the Christmas episode. I loved it, and he had me sold very quickly. Russell T Davies and company were already finishing the next series while we watched the special.
Then doctorwhotv.co.uk reported on an interview with Millie Gibson and Ncuti Gatwa. He was real cagey about whether he’s coming back, talking about theater plans. She said she’s waiting to hear. Russell has committed to Doctor Who every year, so both of them talking about what’s next after their second season is raising alarm bells. We just got you. Mrs. Know-It-All is concerned, because Doctors are supposed to run for a few years.
I don’t want to panic. We’re at the doorway. His season starts in April. It could be nothing more than the BBC playing it safe and committing to a third season once they see the reception. And of course the actors aren’t allowed to say anything. I’m excited, I’m not worried, and I don’t think you should be either.
Tom Cruise Goes to Warner Bros.
Big news dropped last night: Tom Cruise is partnering with Warner Bros. Mrs. Know-It-All asked me why that’s a big deal.
Mission: Impossible and Tom Cruise live at Paramount. Paramount just finished licensing the Star Trek movies to other places, so the home of Star Trek keeps only the series. There have been rumors of meetings about buying Paramount or parts of it, like Disney did with Fox.
You can read this as him joining the DCU, and the internet’s rife with that, but I was reading The InSneider, Jeff Sneider’s newsletter, and his point was that Cruise is going there to create his next legacy thing. More Oscar-worthy material. He’s not going to put on tights to do it.
On the flip side, it doesn’t bode well that one of Paramount’s largest earners is jumping ship. We all knew the streaming wars would leave wreckage. There’s every possibility Paramount doesn’t survive them. That sucks, because I believe we’re in the second golden age of Star Trek.
Echo Is Brilliant, and I Don’t Know What Anybody’s Talking About
Echo dropped under Marvel Spotlight, their more mature line. I got up at 3 in the morning, a little restless, and watched all five episodes.
This show belongs right up there with the Netflix Daredevil, Punisher and Jessica Jones shows. Those lived in a darker palette, at night. This lives somewhere rural. It feels almost like Reacher for comic book characters. She goes to Tamaha, Oklahoma, a predominantly Native American town, running from what she believes she did, which is kill the Kingpin. I’m doing a full video, so that’s all the premise you get.
People complained the first 30 minutes is recycled recap. They got the same young lady who played her as a little girl to play her again, they gave us more context, and you get her very first mission for Kingpin, with classic Netflix style Daredevil, all red, and a really great fight. They frame it as a one-shot, and anybody who watches Corridor Crew can spot the cuts.
There’s one moment where he gets up really quickly and people are calling it rubber-bandy CG. What I saw was wirework, a little too fluid, with a seam hidden between cuts. It’s fine.
Mrs. Know-It-All asked whether our expectations for Marvel are so high that we won’t like anything they put out. I hope not. I hated Secret Invasion, and I purposely went into Echo with an open mind and enjoyed it from the word go. The Choctaw lore they’re building is great, and the actors are brilliant. Watch it.
Goodbye to MatPat
We ran short on time today, but one more. MatPat is signing off. He’s got nine more videos, then he’ll lead creatively while four other hosts replace him. It’s both sad and happy for me. He gets to evolve, and I’m going to miss him. Good luck, Matt. We’re still going to watch.
Know-It-All Nation is every Wednesday, 2:00 p.m. Eastern, 11:00 a.m. Pacific.
Tell me what you thought of Barbie winning the Cinematic Achievement Award, Taylor Swift, and Jo Koy, and please be polite, the poor man’s been eviscerated as it is. Then give me your thoughts on Shatner, Star Trek: Legacy, the Rey movie, and whether Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson are sticking around. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.
