My favorite theologian, Woody Allen, is coming to twenty-first century TV. From this morning’s Los Angeles Times:

It may be the oddest TV couple since Oscar and Felix.

Two days after making history by becoming the first streaming service to win a Golden Globe for a television series, for “Transparent,” Amazon announced a partnership with one of the biggest names in Hollywood, Woody Allen.

The filmmaker will write and direct an as-yet-untitled series for Amazon, the online retail giant and streaming video service said Tuesday. The deal with Allen marks a clear triumph for Amazon, which less than two years after launching its first original series is now poised to challenge online competitor Netflix, not to mention broadcast and cable networks, in the increasingly competitive race for high-quality original content.

If you wonder about my reference to Woody Allen as a theologian, as unlikely as that seems, given that he’s famously an atheist, I encourage you to watch his latest film, Magic in the Moonlight. The film is bathed in metaphysical angst and speculation. Now we’ll be able to watch some of that Woody Allen magic serialized for smaller screens. It will be interesting to see what he will do with a more flexible and time-extended platform.

On an entertainment level, this is big news. By partnering with Allen, Amazon is telling Hollywood not only that it is serious about producing original programming, but also that it aims to be a player in this budding transformation of how people consume their entertainment.