2017 was the year women took back their own narratives

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The year began with a record-breaking march, and chant: “The pussy grabs back.” At the time, it felt like an abstract promise. As the months went on, it became our warning, until it came to define 2017: the year women took back their narratives — both real and fictional.

Turning the language of so-called “locker room talk” into our rallying cry was just the beginning of reappropriating “male-only” spaces to speak our truths. From politics to Hollywood, we stopped giving institutions ruled by men a free pass to define us. And the seismic reckoning of getting to tell our own stories continues to shake those institutions to their core. Read more…

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These are the best Christmas episodes to watch this weekend

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No holiday this century would be complete without a carefully curated list of television episodes. Because there is literally more TV than is humanly survivable, we limited our list to eight personal fave picks and a relative mix of old and new that complement each other. Just don’t overthink it – it’s Christmas!

Also – not an episode so it doesn’t count – do yourself a favor and start out with this jam from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Season 1:

1The O.C. Season 1, episode 13: “The Best Chrismukkah Ever”

How many TV shows can lay claim to creating a holiday word? (Yes, we see you, Festivus. That’s good too.) But The OC’s Chrismukkah episode was such a perfect blend of all that made the teen dramedy better than it had any right to be: a clever idea, a lot of heart, a little romance and, duh, great tunes. Take a break from your family and hang out with the Cohens. Read more…

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The 10 best new TV shows of 2017

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There’s enough new TV to make a longtime fan want to curl up and hide out until they renew The Office, but most of us choose to soldier on and explore these plentiful new frontiers. 2017 was a year of much-buzzed new television – can these shows maintain their promise in the new year and their second seasons? We’ll have to wait and see.

Here are the best new TV shows of 2017.

1013 Reasons Why

Netflix’s adaptation of Jay Asher’s Y.A. novel was anything but run-of-the-mill teen drama. With a diverse cast of formidable young talent, 13 Reasons Why got viewers talking longer than most streaming shows are even remembered in conversation. Hannah Baker’s story was everywhere, whether in admiration for the cast or criticism of how the show handled her death. A second season will depart from the novel, but hopefully, in this story of collective grief and suffering, there is solace. Read more…

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Hulu study finds viewers coped with 2017 by watching comedy — a lot of comedy

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Hulu released its year-end statistics on television viewing, and we turned to comedy to keep us sane in 2017. Viewers watched 36 percent more comedy movies in 2017 than 2016 – which is saying something, if you recall how that year went.

Among the report’s findings, Hulu shared that Montana is the top state for streaming in the U.S., that half of live TV subscribers who use Hulu watch both live and on demand content every day, and that one person watched over 650 movies and almost 200 TV shows during the year (please let this be the same person obsessed with Pirates of the Caribbean on Netflix). Read more…

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Disney and Netflix are battling for your kids’ attention — and your wallet

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With Disney’s $52 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox, the world’s greatest children’s entertainment behemoth now gets the foundation for distribution platforms to match. 

In other words: The kids content steaming wars are on. And — this should go without saying — where there are kids’ attention spans, there’s a ton of money to be made.

While talk of cord-cutter culture is usually centered around millennials, it’s worth remembering that they’re not all young adults living in big cities with roommates, Slack rooms, group chats, and haute weed habits. Plenty of them have small, demanding, freeloading roommates with sugar habits. You may know them as “children.”  Read more…

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Disney details overarching direct-to-consumer plan possible through Fox deal

 Disney CEO Bob Iger positioned his company’s acquisition of Fox’s TV and movie businesses as a way for the company to prepare for a future in which streaming and direct-to-consumer dominate media consumption, on a conference call this morning to discuss the $52 billion deal. He noted that while they’re still planning to support cable channels and external distribution… Read More

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YouTube TV hits 34 new markets

 The unbundling of the cable media empire is well underway, as players like Netflix grow others like Hulu and YouTube offer live TV service. YouTube TV, in particular, is executing an aggressive rollout, just yesterday making the service available to another 34 markets. That brings us to a total of 83 U.S. markets in which YouTube TV is currently available. ️ Cable-free live TV is now in… Read More

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HBO and Netflix top the list of Golden Globes nominations

 The Golden Globe nominations are out, and once again HBO and Netflix have come out on top as the most-nominated networks. HBO is down by two from last year’s total of 14, but still leads with 12 nods for series including “Big Little Lies,” “The Wizard of Lies,” “Game of Thrones,” and the “The Young Pope.” Meanwhile, Netflix is having a… Read More

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