There’s no dearth of options to choose from between streaming and linear TV, but sometimes that’s the problem. For example, I still have a cable subscription, but I missed a couple of cool shows on AMC recently and because I don’t subscribe to AMC+, I hadn’t been able to catch them later. That all changed when Alexandra Daddario announced Mayfair Witches and others had come to Netflix. I’m stoked the show is doing so well, but there’s another AMC series I have been champing at the bit to throw on.
What AMC series am I talking about? None other than the Clive Owen-led, Maltese Falcon sequel Monsieur Spade. The series is set 20 years after the events of one of literature’s most famous novels. It’s a period drama, set in the 1960s (‘63 to be exact). Sam Spade has retired to France, but some murders bring him back into the private detective fold.
It's still mind-boggling to me that Clive Owen is of an age where he could play someone retired. Regardless, what is not to like a period drama with a film noir – or I guest post-noir, neo noir – bent? It's also well-reviewed, garnering a 77% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes after its release earlier this year.
I was so bummed to have missed the first few episodes when this initially came out on AMC and I didn’t want to pick up in the middle of the series, and now I have the chance to binge it. It’s a smart move, honestly, and one FX made a few years ago when it started running its programming for those with a Hulu+ subscription.
Daddario’s Mayfair Witches has been doing well, hitting Netflix’s Top 10 in the US at least over the last couple of days, though its reviews (audience and critics) are a bit lower than Owen's series. Fewer eyeballs seem to be on Monsieur Spade, and that’s a bit of a shame. But insofar as sequels go, this one has me hooked and I know exactly what my plans for the weekend are.
As one of the best streaming services, in the TV space Netflix has a bunch of great originals; still, a lot of times the projects that pop tend to be shows the streaming service picked up elsewhere. That’s how Suits got to be so popular years after its initial release and how shows such as Arrow or Criminal Minds have popped in the past. In fact, in the latter case, C-Minds got so popular on Netflix they rebooted the show. Suits is also getting a new LA spinoff after the original show's renewed success.
In the case of the AMC stuff, a lot of these shows are still in the air, like Mayfair Witches, and hopefully I’ll be able to catch up on the streamer and can watch linearly moving forward. It’s not a half bad scheme for the network or the streamer alike.
