Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Wednesday, September 10th, 2025:
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU A TARGET A CITY FULL OF IMPROV ACTORS
If news reports are accurate, the Trump Administration is set to roll out a heavy ICE and National Guard presence in Chicago, similar to the ones seen in Washington D.C. and Los Angeles. But some people in Chicago have learned from the experiences of those two cities and are preparing a uniquely Midwestern response to the increased presence of outside law enforcement and the military in their city. At least one group is preparing what the organizer described to me as "Resistance TV," an effort to not just document efforts such as immigration crackdowns. The plan is to create incidents which will slow down efforts to crack down on Chicago residents and make it more difficult for federal officials to operate.
I spoke with an organizer of these efforts earlier this evening. He asked to be identified as "Bluto," a name which I suspect is a nod to Chicago's beloved John Belushi. Here are some of his comments, which have been lightly edited for clarity and to mask any personally identifiable details:
When you first contacted me, you described yourself as a "passive-aggressive protestor," and I'm curious how you define that.
I have some strong political views - especially when it comes to gender and race issues. But I have never been political in the sense of being someone who is a strong believer in protesting. Or even telling people my political beliefs, to be honest. But I am like a lot of my friends in that the past few months have radicalized me. There isn't room to stand on the sidelines anymore. I felt as if I needed to do more, especially with the military planning to show up in Chicago.
I couple of weeks ago I was discussing this with some friends at a bar over some beer and wings...
That's a very Chicago detail..
(laughs). That's true. We're mostly people who were born here. A lot of Southsiders or people who grew up in Warsaw Village or places like that. We were trying to think of something we could do that would make an impact. Something more than just holding some signs and shouting. Someone mentioned an idea I saw you highlight on social media. That in LA, people started sticking a Mexican flag decal on their cars. Because ICE teams would see that, pull the car over and waste a bunch of time screening a car full of white guys. So we were trying to figure out what we could do to build on that.
Because it's all about throwing some sand in the gears, right? Making things even slightly more difficult for ICE. So how can we use our talent and experience to make a difference? Early on we decided that everything needs to be on video. And ideally recorded in ways that aren't obvious to the Feds. If you're going to put a Mexican flag on your car, make sure you also add some cameras. Document everything.
And maybe it was the beer talking initially, but we also decided that we could gum up the gears by creating our own little hidden camera mini-shows. I work a lot in commercials and half the people I know think they're a potential improv god. So let's design some stunts that would make great viral videos for the resistance. Ideally without us getting arrested or shot.
Can you talk a little bit about what you have in mind? What was these things look like?
Hypothetically (laughs)...let's say I have a friend who is Hispanic and a priest in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood. When we hear ICE teams are in the area, we have him stand in civilian clothes in front of his church. With any luck, he gets targeted and we have cameras stationed to cover the scene from a couple of angles. You can pull the same stunt with an off-duty Hispanic fireman, police officer, teacher, etc. The goal is to create endless videos of ICE agents arresting Chicagoans who obviously aren't member of some street gang in Venezuela.
Well, one obvious downside of this plan is that they are likely to be arrested. And roughed up quite a bit, based on what we're seen in L.A. and DC. Are your friends comfortable with the idea of putting themselves in real danger?
Fuck no. No one is happy about it. We're going to try and minimize the danger. Anyone doing this has to be a citizen with a clean record. But under Trump, that doesn't necessarily protect you. I've read about citizens being deported anyway. So that's always a possibility. We've reached out to some lawyers in case we need them. But I won't lie, it's scary as hell to think about.
What other things do you have planned? Anything you can talk about it?
Nah, I don't want them looking for us ahead of time. But you get the idea. We're going to be doing whatever we can think of to embarrass them and make their day-to-day crackdowns harder. I saw some video today of some place where people had surrounded a home where immigrants were working on a roof. Not only did ICE have to retreat, they ended up having to drive away on four flat tires (laughing). Those people were heroes.
You've talked a lot about making videos of everything. Who do you think the audience is for these videos?
Social media and YouTube are obvious first stops. But traditional news outlets are also an important part of this for us. They need video of these flawed crackdowns and I think our ability to turn around sharp and clear videos will make sure they air everywhere. Well, maybe not so much on Fox. But everywhere people will listen.
So if someone in Chicago wants to help, what should they do?
Stay away from my sorry ass (laughs). Seriously, though. The government may be wrong about this, but they have some serious tracking technology available. For this to work and for all of us to stay out of some Midwestern Alligator Alcatraz we need to keep a low profile. Do your own thing and I'll be cheering from afar. And I hope they'll do the same for me.
IF THE WORLD OF 'BLADERUNNER' HAD PODCASTS, THEY WOULD SOUND LIKE THIS
The Hollywood Reporter has a profile of Inception Point AI, which produces "podcasts" featuring AI hosts and AI-written scripts. Because the costs are so low, these podcasts don't need to have much of an audience to be profitable:
The company is able to produce each episode for $1 or less, depending on length and complexity, and attach programmatic advertising to it. This generally means that if about 20 people listen to that episode, the company made a profit on that episode, without factoring in overhead.
Inception Point AI already has more than 5,000 shows across its Quiet Please Podcast Network and produces more than 3,000 episodes a week. Collectively, the network has seen 10 million downloads since September 2023. It takes about an hour to create an episode, from coming up with the idea to getting it out in the world.
The company produces different levels of podcasts. The lowest level involves weather reports for various geographic areas or simple biographies and higher levels involving subject-area podcasts hosted by one of about 50 AI personalities they’ve created, including food expert Claire Delish, gardener and nature expert Nigel Thistledown and Oly Bennet, who covers off-beat sports.
Aside from the weirdness of having hosts with names such as "Nigel Thistledown," who sounds like a Scottish stripper who specializes in entertaining lonely farmers wives, this business model is just about as dystopian as you can imagine:
The company has been recently experimenting with short-form videos and creating social media profiles for the AI personalities, in the hopes of eventually turning some into influencers. Wright hopes to create thousands more personalities in the near future to see what personalities stick.
The team is in the midst of navigating the ethics around creating these AI personalities as the technology advances. Each host now identifies themselves as being AI at the top of the episodes, and they’ve stayed away from having the hosts invent their own backstories, for now, but that could come. Wright says she could eventually imagine having hosts chat with listeners, or sing “Happy Birthday” to them, but there’s wariness about diving in too deep.
I hate to break it to them, but they have already dived into the deep end of the pool.
A BIT OFF TOPIC, BUT WELL WORTH THE READ
Philadelphia Magazine has a fascinating oral history of Terry Gross and Fresh Air. To be honest, being interviewed by Gross is one of my bucket list items. Albeit one that is very unlikely.
This passage in the piece resonated strongly with me, because reading it I realized that this is approach I take in my own interviews, although I have never been able to articulate it this clearly:
Ken Tucker, pop music critic, Fresh Air: What Terry was doing was really unprecedented — not just on NPR, but on radio. She would ask people questions that sometimes seemed very personal or sometimes had an implicit judgment. If she was talking to someone like John Updike, I would get a feeling about which ones of John Updike’s books she admired and which ones she didn’t. There was a critical sensibility working behind so much of what she did when she talked to people in the arts. She was not afraid to either overtly or implicitly talk to an artist about what was strong and what was weak about their work.
I found that as a critic it really struck me what an extraordinary thing [that was] and how seldom I heard it anywhere else: how you could go deep in a conversation and break down the interviewer’s reticence and get to something honest and true.
READER FEEDBACK
After writing about MTV for two nights in a row, it was starting to feel like it was 1985 all over again. But the pieces sparked a ton of reader feedback and here are a few of the highlights:
"Good read - and I agree with your take. Hard, almost impossible to rebuild these old cable brand without some investment.
And very hard to reestablish the digital footprints they had, that have been slashed, without… investment.
Especially with shows like the Beavis and Butthead revival moving to Comedy Central, hard to find the identity of what a “MTV original” would be right now, even in the nostalgia space."
--Trent M.
"You wrote recently that “The average age of an MTV fan is in the late 50s.” Is that the demo who remembers those Unplugged sessions when they aired? As a younger millennial, people in their 50s wouldn’t have been caught dead watching what was on “my” MTV.
They had dating shows, reality competitions, and yes, Snookies and Jackasses. At some point the channel became a parody of itself with blocks of Ridiculousness repeats. I just feel like the core brand of the past 20-25 years had value. The version you describe, with archival footage and behind the music, sounds like what used to be VH1.
Maybe it’s a sign of our broader cultural decline. Recycled franchises and known IP sell. It might be fitting for Gen Alpha to consider anything millennial cringe and bring back Kurt Cobain. But I agree with you about one thing: It sure doesn’t leave space for new artists."
--Joe
TWEET OF THE DAY
ODDS AND SODS
* The anime series Cat's Eye premieres Friday, September 26th on Hulu. Here is a first video look at the series. And here is the official logline: " The new twelve-part series follows Hitomi, Rui and Ai - three sisters with a secret. By day, they run the popular Cat’s Eye Café; by night, they slip into the shadows, executing high-stakes art heists with precision and style. Since its manga debut in 1981, "Cat’s Eye" has developed a global fandom, with the upcoming series sure to deliver on everything fans have come to love: thrilling action, high stakes heists, and the impossibly complex relationship between Hitomi and her partner Detective Toshio – a man sworn to catch the infamous thieves."
* The newsletter Stop The Presses has a great piece on "Why Won't The Media Say That Trump Is Becoming a Dictator?"
* Season two of Baylen Out Loud premieres Tuesday, October 7th on TLC. Here is the official logline: "Baylen and her fiancé Colin are now living together, learning the ropes of adulting and discovering that love and cohabitating require a lot of compromise. From pre-marital counseling sessions to cozy apartment life, this season is all about Baylen leveling up. As she adjusts to a new city, she begins building new friendships and expanding her support system. Baylen’s journey with Tourette Syndrome continues as she navigates new challenges, medications, and opportunities to learn more about herself. With a wedding on the horizon, Baylen and Colin begin laying the groundwork for their big day, preparing what’s to come through dress shopping, floral design, and venue visits, as they take meaningful steps toward building a life together. But wedding planning isn’t as dreamy as they imagined as they are faced with personal compromise, budget realities, and location dilemmas that challenge their vision and test their teamwork."
SUPPORT THE BACK INDIE MEDIA DRIVE
As I mentioned in an earlier email, Too Much TV is part of a September Back Indie Drive, in which 30+ independent publications are taking part. Each one is run by a creator-model journalist who’s building something sustainable, bold, and deeply needed in today’s fractured media environment.
Every day this month I am going to quickly highlight a publication from the campaign list and I hope you'll check them out. Supporting independent media has never been more important and there are truly some talented journalists on the list:
Subscribe for free here.
WHAT'S COMING TOMORROW
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10TH, 2025:
aka Charlie Sheen (Netflix)
Big Cats 24/7 Season Two Premiere (PBS)
Downton Abbey Celebrates The Grand Finale (NBC)
Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service Season One Finale (Fox)
Helluva Boss: Mission: Zero (Prime Video)
Love Is Blind: Brazil Season Premiere (Netflix)
Love Is Blind: France Series Premiere (Netflix)
Match Game Season Six finale (ABC)
Mussolini: Son Of The Century Series Premiere (Mubi)
Sacred Planet With Gulnaz Khan Series Premiere (PBS)
The Dead Girls Series Premiere (Netflix)
The Girlfriend Series Premiere (Prime Video)
The Hardacres Series Premiere (Britbox)
The Hospital Series Premiere (BET)
Tempest Series Premiere (Hulu)
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11TH, 2025:
Beauty In Black Season Two (Netflix)
Diary Of A Ditched Girl Series Premiere (Netflix)
Dylan's Playtime Adventures Season Premiere (HBO Max)
Kontrabida Academy (Netflix)
Sesame Street Season Fifty-Five Finale (HBO Max)
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season Three Finale (Paramount+)
Thursday Night Football Season Nineteen (Prime Video)
Tyler Perry's Beauty In Black Season Two Premiere (Netflix)
Wolf King Season Premiere (Netflix)
Zatima Season Four Premiere (BET+)
SEE YOU EARLY THURSDAY MORNING!