Netflix inks a new deal with the Sussexes

Saturday, August 16, 2025

It's me again – welcome back to another instalment of The Independent's culture newsletter! The sun is out and the temperature is high for what could be the last time this summer so I hope everyone is making the most of the great outdoors. Before then, though, a little culture rundown with your morning cuppa. 

It has been a relatively quiet week on the arts desk but there has been one big surprise: Netflix has decided to ink a new deal with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Their previous contract (allegedly worth $100m) gave rise to a run of forgettable programmes over the past few years… Netflix might want this, but does anyone else? Likewise, Adam was less than thrilled with Sex and the City reboot And Just Like That, which came to a thoroughly awful conclusion this week. "What a sad, depleting end for the fictional Manhattanites who raised me," he writes. 

Elsewhere I went for lunch with the inimitable Julio Torres. You may know him as the writer of SNL's best sketches (Ryan Gosling in 'Papyrus', anyone?) but the El Salvador-born comedian is so much more, known for his surreal and fantastical worlds. I can't recommend his HBO shows enough: Steve Busemi as the letter Q. Emma Stone as Real Housewives glamazon glitching out. Tilda Swinton as toilet water. Need I say more?

Catch you later, 

Annabel

Written by Annabel Nugent

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