Fame can be complicated and if you add the internet, it can be hilarious. Funny or Die recently released a new original comedy miniseries, The Real Stephen Blatt, starring Justin Long — its first Amazon Prime Video exclusive.
The new miniseries will find Long starring as 16-year-old Stephen Blatt who develops an unhealthy social media addiction after he gets an iPhone for his birthday. After an Instagram video of his accidentally goes viral, Blatt is thrust into internet stardom. The rest of the eight-episode season deals with the consequences of such a rise. A few of the episodes involve him getting an internet personality mentor, hiring an assistant, and legally separating from his parents.
Long is also executive producing, writing, and directing the miniseries with his brother, Christian Long. You will be able to binge on all of The Real Stephen Blatt in the time it takes you to scroll through your Instagram feed. Each episode is roughly three minutes long with the entire miniseries clocking in at a 30-minute runtime. According to the series’ IMDB page, HBO’s The Affair‘s Darren Goldstein and Super Dark Times’ Sawyer Barth will also appear in episodes.
“We have seen tremendous success with introducing Funny or Die content to the Amazon Prime viewers,” Brian Toombs, Vice President of Partner Content at Funny or Die, said in a press release. “The audience really embraced our programming and we are excited to premiere The Real Stephen Blatt series exclusively on Prime Video.” Funny or Die has already made some of its short form content like Drunk History, Between Two Ferns, and The Very Best of Will Ferrell available to Amazon Prime subscribers.
Amazon is looking to get back on the right track after a disappointing reception from Emmy voters this year. The subscription on-demand video service received 16 nominations for the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards, the same number as last year. This year, Amazon’s smash hit Transparent is absent from the running for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series after the show’s creator Jill Soloway won the award the last two years. The show is also absent from the running for Outstanding Comedy Series after being nominated the past two years as well.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.