Hollywood

As subscription costs rise and choice diminishes on legal sites, film and TV fans are turning to VPNs and illicit streamers, with Sweden – home of both Spotify and The Pirate Bay – leading the way

With a trip to Florence booked, all I want is to rewatch Medici. The 2016 historical drama series tells of the rise of the powerful Florentine banking dynasty, and with it, the story of the Renaissance. Until recently, I could simply have gone to Netflix and found it there, alongside a wide array of award-winning and obscure titles. But when I Google the show in 2025, the Netflix link only takes me to a blank page. I don’t see it on HBO Max, Disney+, Apple TV+, or any of the smaller streaming platforms. On Amazon Prime I am required to buy each of the three seasons or 24 episodes separately, whereupon they would be stored in a library subject to overnight deletion. Raised in the land of The Pirate Bay, the Swedish torrent index, I feel, for the first time in a decade, a nostalgia for the high seas of digital piracy. And I am not alone.

Lucasfilm and the Walt Disney Company have reached a mutual agreement in their legal dispute with Gina Carano following her firing from “The Mandalorian.”

A Lucasfilm spokesperson said in a statement provided to Variety, “The Walt Disney Company and Lucasfilm are pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement with Gina Carano to resolve the issues in her pending lawsuit against the companies. Ms. Carano was always well respected by her directors, co-stars and staff, and she worked hard to perfect her craft while treating her colleagues with kindness and respect. With this lawsuit concluded, we look forward to identifying opportunities to work together with Ms. Carano in the near future.”

The 2025 iteration of Superman is worth a watch if the subject matter at all catches one’s eye. Eschewing a decade of attempts to twist the character into darkness, this reboot embraces the morality at the soul of an American icon.

Gone are the attempts at a moral middle ground or a blurring of the story in an attempt to subvert tropes. The film’s heroes are unquestionably morally good. Its villains are unquestionably depraved. In short, it represents a cinematic return to normalcy.

Netflix chief Ted Sarandos is making no secret of the fact his company is eager to use AI in “content production” because it’s faster and less expensive.

“Netflix Inc. has begun using artificial intelligence video generation software from startup Runway AI, testing the waters with a technology that’s controversial in Hollywood,” reports the far-left Bloomberg. “Sarandos said the company is using AI in content production. That includes creating special effects shots more quickly and cheaply than it previously had been able to with traditional visual effects tools and processes.”

Remember that hoary question from Philosophy 101 — If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a noise? Well, we now have a television equivalent.

CBS’s decision to end its long-running ‘Late Show’ franchise touched off a firestorm—and is a grim sign for a challenged television format

“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” was profitable as recently as a few years ago.

Now, it loses about $40 million a year, according to a person familiar with its budget. On Thursday, CBS pulled the plug on the show and an entire franchise launched in 1993, making it the biggest casualty yet among late-night talk shows contending with cord-cutting, changing tastes among younger viewers and declining ad revenue.

The budget for the show, filmed in New York City’s Ed Sullivan Theater, includes a live band, a staff the host said numbered 200 people, and an annual salary of $20 million for Colbert, according to a person familiar with the show’s operations.

The Colbert show, like all late-night programming these days, was hemorrhaging money. But please, don't let that interfere with your conspiracy theory. https://t.co/R18rd2FV67

— Rod Dreher (@roddreher) July 19, 2025

Broadcast TV has now fallen to less than 20 percent of TV use, according to the latest Nielsen viewership survey.

Nielsen only started tracking all TV use on all platforms four years ago and now includes streaming and Internet-based services. But in that time, regular broadcast TV has cratered in viewership.