Quibi launches 20-plus shows you could finish in a day
Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Monday, April 6. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
Dispatches From Elsewhere (AMC, 10:15 p.m.): We’ll get to the latest platform vying for your eyeballs and dollars in just a moment, but first: “Cave Of Kelpius” follows last week’s episode, and it seems like this one might be for the shippers. As Liz Shannon Miller said in last week’s recap of the episode “Everyone”: “If you’re a hopeless romantic, then you know there’s rarely anything as fun as rooting for two characters to kiss, and this is the second episode in a row where Simone and Peter have seemed just on the edge of… something… and then nothing happens. This is a pattern that will hopefully change by next week.”
Quibi: Today also brings the launch of Quibi, short for the “quick bites” of programming for mobile. The platform contains mobile-based shows featuring celebrities from Jennifer Lopez to Joe Jonas to Chrissy Teigen to Reese Witherspoon to Chance The Rapper (there’s a lot more celebrities, we just can’t get over all those names together) Quibi has 20-plus shows out now, and we’re providing bite-sized reviews to match these bite-sized selections. Along with scripted shows—sorry, “Movies In Chapters”—the service also offers documentaries like the affecting I Promise from producers LeBron James and Marc Levin, unscripted game shows like Gayme Show!, and daily news shows. Look for our complete guide to what’s available at launch—and worth your time—on the site later today.
Should I get it? Quibi is a pretty low investment at the moment, with a 90-day free trial. However, there’s a Hulu-esque payment system: $4.99 a month for shows with ads, $7.99 for without. (No word on whether the ads are bite-sized as well.) As mentioned, you can’t watch the content on a TV or on laptop: You can only do so on your phone (and iPad/tablet, which is important for squinters like us). It could prove to be a nice distraction from switching between news sites, and it’ll have a lot better production value than your friends’ Instagram stories. You could conceivably finish all this content in one day, though. It was made as an on-the-go service, to potentially watch when you’re stuck in line at the grocery store. Of course, now we’re too focused on staying six feet away from everyone to look at our phones—then again, those lines do wrap around the block a few times…
Regular coverage
Better Call Saul (AMC, 9 p.m.)
The Plot Against America (HBO, 9 p.m.)
Wild card
Never Too Small (YouTube): A video channel featuring tiny apartments and interviews with the architects who built them. The series is based in Australia, which is where several of the episodes are set, but it’s expanded to Europe and Asia in recent episodes, and includes a variety of architects with clients of varying taste. Kind of like Netflix’s The World’s Most Extraordinary Homes, but with a smaller footprint. The sunlight, greenery, and art of this apartment is one of our favorites: