We may be living in a golden age of TV, but panning through all the dross to find that gold can be time-consuming and tedious. For every much-discussed hit like Severance, House of the Dragon, and The Bear, there are dozens of new original shows that barely tip the cultural needle. And with so many new streaming services competing with HBO, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and Disney Plus, it’s impossible to keep up with everything new to view. But The Verge’s TV section is ready to help. Our news, reviews, and interviews help you find the next Stranger Things or Star Trek: Strange New Worlds in time to keep up with the cultural conversation. And our essays and analysis invite you to consider the deeper context of what you’re watching.
We may have to wait until next year to return to the post-apocalyptic show, but HBO has released these images to hold us over. They look like, well, Ellie and Joel. You’ll have to wait a bit longer to see the live-action version of Abby it seems.
1/2
While we still don’t know a lot about the upcoming Disney Plus reboot of Daredevil, we do at least have a release window: Marvel says the show will start streaming in March 2025.
While Amazon has renewed Mr. & Mrs. Smith for a second season, the streamer has yet to announce whether co-stars Donald Glover and Maya Erskine will return to reprise their roles as John and Jane.
Sauron (Charlie Vickers) was careful about keeping his true identity secret all throughout the first season of Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. But the dark lord’s powers are on full display in the series’ new season two teaser, and it seems like he’ll be laying waste to Middle-earth when we see him next. Show’s back on August 29th.
People sure seem to like Amazon’s adaptation of The Boys, and Amazon likes it when folks are watching its shows, which makes the news that the gritty superhero show has been renewed for a fifth season anything but a surprise.
[US About Amazon]
If you combined Squid Game with Survivor and set it in a South Korean high school, you’d get something that looks a lot like Pyramid Game. The series follows a group of students contending with “a ranking system that chooses class outcasts via secret vote.” As if being a teenager wasn’t bad enough. It starts streaming on Paramount Plus on May 30th.
Variety reports that Max has cancelled the gorgeous sci-fi series after one season, but there’s hope: not only will the show start streaming on Netflix on May 31st, but the streamer is reportedly considering giving it a second season, as well.
AMC’s original Orphan Black series always left open the possibility of there being even more people wandering around in the world not knowing they were clones. And the first trailer for Anna Fishko’s spin-off Orphan Black: Echoes makes it seem like Kira Manning’s (Keeley Hawes) experience dealing with genetic dupes is going to come in very handy.
Batman: Caped Crusader jumping ship to Amazon Studios after the Warner Bros. Discovery merger made it seem like the project might never see the light of day. But the series now has an August 1st premiere date, and it seems like when the show drops, it will be introducing yet another new Harley Quinn riff.
Tubi is partnering with Issa Rae’s Color Creative initiative to launch an incubation platform for up-and-coming filmmakers looking to break into the business.
Here’s your reminder that Disney’s latest animated anthology series, Star Wars: Tales of the Empire, started streaming today.
The six-episode miniseries may not quite be enough to tide everyone over until The Acolyte’s June 4th release, though — the longest episode clocks in at just 19 minutes.
Star Wars Day doesn’t technically kick off until May 4th, but Apple is celebrating the event a bit early with a precision finding-focused iPhone 15 ad spot starring a squad of (cosplayer) Mandalorians.
Disney Plus has never hosted “Dad Baby” — likely because it depicts Bluey’s dad Bandit pretending to give birth to his daughter Bingo — but the entire episode is now available to watch online via the official Bluey YouTube channel.
Despite Dad Baby’s cult status, it's actually one of several episodes of the Australian children’s TV show hit with censorship.
Private equity firms are a blight on society, but Sony is hoping that its offer to buy Paramount for about $26 billion with the help of Apollo Global Management will be tempting enough to get the studio to consider biting — something Skydance and its private equity partner Redbird Capital Partners haven’t been able to do just yet.
[The New York Times]
Netflix is really making a meal out of the sixth and final season of Cobra Kai, which will total 15 episodes split into three parts. The first is out July 18th, followed by part two on November 28th. But for the “Finale Event” fans will have to wait until 2025.
Our guide to the most interesting games, movies, and TV shows of the year.
Though Apple TV Plus has been crushing it on the sci-fi front lately, the streamer is gearing up for a crime thriller turn with a new series adaptation of author Scott Turow’s novel Presumed Innocent from David E. Kelley starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Negga. The series debuts on June 12th.
The first season of My Adventures with Superman left most of the superheroic heavy lifting to Clark Kent (Jack Quaid) as villains terrorized metropolis. Even more of Superman’s classic foes are making their way to the show in its second season (out May 25th.) But this time around, the Man of Steel is going to have a bit more Kryptonian muscle on his side.
While Fallout is huge at the moment, don’t forget about that other post-apocalyptic series about people living deep underground. We don’t have a date or trailer yet for season 2 of Silo on Apple TV Plus, but at least there’s this assurance from the author of the novels the show is based on.
Hollywood is always chock full of writers trying to sell networks on scripts for brand new franchises. But! Netflix has reportedly just outbid a number of other studios in “a competitive situation” to produce another live-action Scooby Doo adaptation that people are absolutely, definitely going to be excited about.
Post-Barbie, Mattel has been making a lot of noise about its plans to keep the toy-to-movie ball rolling with projects based on IP like Hot Wheels and Magic 8 Ball. But the company also wants to channel that energy into series meant for the small screen, and it has just hired Sidney Clifton, Cory Bennett Lewis, and Amy Suh to spearhead those efforts.
[corporate.mattel.com]
Why does the villain in this Knuckles series sneak peek look familiar to me? Is it because he was in Game of Thrones and Slow West? Nope, didn’t see those. Season of the Witch? No, he had a bit part.
It seems the only role I’ve seen Rory McCann play is Michael Armstrong, aka the “yarp” guy, in Hot Fuzz. Anyway, Knuckles starts streaming Friday on Paramount Plus.
Some Westworld props are being auctioned off over at Heritage Auctions, beginning tomorrow, April 24th. Props from the canceled show include a self-driving car — complete with “manual gas throttle” and a “hidden compartment to operate vehicle.” (See the image gallery below.)
Also available are a table, some e-bikes, and assorted sous-vide bags of Dolores’ skin.
1/5
Production designer Howard Cummings talks glass houses, Red Rockets, and how Fallout became a verb.
It’s very common for US-based studios to outsource big chunks of their animation projects overseas where production costs are significantly cheaper. Less common, though, are things like CNN’s report about production sketches from Amazon’s Invincible series and Max’s Iyanu: Child of Wonder show somehow winding up on a computer server located in North Korea.