Big personal news
Plus read one of my MBA essays about the metaverse
Hi All!
Welcome back! I want to start out today by acknowledging that I've missed the last two weeks of newsletters. I only ever do this when things are * busy * … so it would be fair if you might be wondering “what is going on?!”
To start, I had a busy exam period. I wrote a massive paper on the metaverse and its potential for Canadian TV producers (super interesting stuff... happy to chat about that more later). I also wrote an exam about corporate responsibility, ethics, and ESG policies. I loved the content but hated the course so I'm thrilled to be done.
Then my big news, and the thing that's been also keeping my brain occupied the past two weeks, is a career change. I had an incredible year at the hospital, working with great people and creating amazing stuff for wonderful kids, but over the last few weeks, it became clear that there wasn't going to be room for me to grow professionally in the role moving forward and I declined to sign a contract renewal. My last day will be May 18th. And then… who knows. I’m open to new opportunities.
Those of you who have been reading this for a while know this year has been particularly stressful with lots of highs and lows. So to celebrate the highs and really recharge from the lows... I took a trip to Amsterdam ✈️
To review: paper due Friday; exam on Saturday; ended my contract on Tuesday; flew to Amsterdam on Wednesday; spent the long weekend with friends; then flew back on Monday to start wrapping up all my projects Tuesday… and started my spring semester on Tuesday.
So I hope you can forgive me for missing a few weeks of "what to watch.”
Okay. Let's get into it
This week on the blog:
On the blog this week — I'm publishing the metaverse paper that I wrote for my innovation class this semester.
It’s not my *best* paper in terms of the writing (I’m out of essay practice), but I really found the ideas I got to explore super interesting.
I truly could have gone on and on and on … and so I did. I had a 2000-word limit and I really struggled to cut things… be warned it feels a bit Frankenstein-y and then because I was trying to focus on getting all these ideas in, I really ran out of time for editing (so don’t tell me I’ve spelled things wrong or the grammar is off, I already know 🙃).
BUT — I'd love to know your thoughts because the IDEAs and theories here are things I could discuss for a long time
Read my essay on “The Metaverse & The Canadian Television Industry” here.
Things to watch this week:
So I missed quite a few shows while I was away. I’ll just list them off and let you pick up what you want.
On Netflix: Selling Sunset: Season 5, Along for the Ride, Heartstopper (everyone I know is obsessed with this), Grace and Frankie: Season 7 (this is the last season). Ozark: Season 4, Part 2, and The Circle: Season 4 (I’m obsessed).
On Crave: Barry: Season 3, Gaslit, The Staircase, Star Trek: Strange New World and We Own This City.
On Gem: Score: A Hockey Musical (an oldie but a goodie).
On Disney+: The Kardashians (I hate that I love this, but the new season is produced by Ben Winston and you all know how much I love his stuff).
This week:
Tonight Netflix has a little rom-com, Along for the Ride. It looks very cute. Watch the trailer here.
On Gem, we’ve got CBX: Canadian Ballroom Extravaganza. I’m in. I don’t need to know more. That name is perfect. It starts streaming today. Check out the trailer here.
Also on Gem this week, if you are interested in Canadian music there are a lot of pre-Juno events including Junofest: Jazz Showcase (today), Juno Songwriters’ Circle (Wednesday) and Junofest: Indigenous Nominees Showcase (Thursday), with more over the weekend.
On Wednesday, Netflix’s big movie of the week is Operation Mincemeat. I loved this trailer and I’m really looking forward to watching this WWII drama.
Thursday on Crave we’ve got Season 2 of Hacks. I watched season one on the plane back from Amsterdam and I loved it so much. It is an excellent show. I highly recommend catching up and watching this season too. Both Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder are fantastic in this. Watch the trailer here.
Other things to check out:
I have a list of things to check out from the Met, the Roe leak, and Ontario politics, but you know what… let’s just keep it short this week. I’ll send you that stuff next week.
Here are some highlights:
🎶 I adore Irish singer Dermot Kennedy and his new song “Something to Someone” is wonderful.
🎶 Maisie Peters's new song “Cate’s Brother” has been everywhere on my FYP. She’s finally dropped the full song and it’s a JAM.
🎬 For Harry Styles fans, we’ve got the new trailer for Don’t Worry Darling. It looks… intense.
📺 I read The Summer I Turned Pretty a few years ago and loved the series so I’m really looking forward to the show. The trailer just launched with a new Taylor’s Version drop of “This Love”. I’m really excited about it. It’s all I’ll be listening to this weekend.
I’m going to call it here, have to go do my accounting homework 🙃
Have a great weekend,
-Paula
📝📝📝 This newsletter was graciously edited by Emma Sakamoto 📝📝📝
Editor’s Pick:
I’ve been watching a new anime, Heroines Run the Show(on Crunchy Roll), and I love it with my whole heart. The trailer is here. It’s about Hiyori, a high school girl who moves to Tokyo from the country to run track. She gets a part-time job as manager-in-training for the idol group (AKA super intense boy-band situation) LIPxLIP. The band members are total divas, and Hiyori couldn’t care less about them or their music — so she won’t take any of their shit, and it’s delightful to watch. As an added fun fact: LIPxLIP is a real (virtual) band who have been around since the mid-2010s. There’s a whole fandom rabbitho
This newsletter was written by me — Paula Sanderson — a freelance Television Producer and current MBA student based in Toronto. After years of recommending the best shows to my friends, I decided to start a newsletter so everyone could get the recommendations. If you want to learn more about what I do professionally or follow me on the various social channels click here.