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.
Firewalk Studios’ Concord may no longer be with us, but the game is still going to have another (short) moment in the sun when Amazon’s Secret Level anthology series premieres on December 10th.
Between being paid a pittance for creating Squid Game and losing multiple teeth from stress during the first season’s production, it would be understandable if Hwang Dong-hyuk had walked away from his hit franchise.
But in a new interview with The BBC, he explains that the streamer’s choice to finally push some serious cash his way is what brought him back for season 2.
HBO’s It prequel series Welcome to Derry still doesn’t have a concrete release date. But the network’s new 2025 sizzle reel features a fresh look at Pennywise (in human disguise) as well as a whole bunch of footage from Creature Commandos, The Chair Company, Dune: Prophecy, and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
Arcane’s final season puts an even finer point on its story about revolutionary war.
At 18 episodes, the League of Legends spinoff has become the most expensive animated series ever produced, Variety reports. Despite the heavy spending and the earlier-than-expected series finale, Riot co-founder Marc Merrill told Variety that the company’s “ambitions in entertainment haven’t changed:”
What did change as we learned more was our expectations of ourselves: We realized that getting it right takes a lot more time than we’d originally expected, and so we recalibrated our development, output goals and teams with that in mind.
Though Netflix insists that it has been following tax law to the tee, the BBC reports that the streamer’s European headquarters in Amsterdam and its office in Paris were raided as part of an investigation into whether it has been “covering up serious tax fraud and off-the-books work.”
When Netflix picked up the streaming rights to the sci-fi series, there was hope that it would lead to a renewal for season 2. Unfortunately, according to co-creator Joe Bennett, that’s not the case — though they aren’t giving up yet. “There is more story to be told,” he said, “we are ready to make another season.” Here’s a teaser of what that might look like.
As promised last month, Adventure Time creator Patrick McHale’s Over the Garden Wall got the stop-motion treatment in a new 10th anniversary short film released today.
If you want behind-the-scenes details, Directors Dan Ojari and Mikey Please discussed realizing the short using hand-carved puppets, miniature sets, and stop-motion — or the “complete opposite” of AI — in a brief interview with Fast Company.
Juston Gordon-Montgomery sees his new shonen-inspired Adult Swim series as a gateway to the world of wrestling.
But Marvel’s WandaVision follow-up stuck the landing by spelling out the secrets that were hiding in plain sight.
Warner Bros. is apparently in the early stages of developing a Game of Thrones movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter. I can’t say I’m surprised — add it to the list of other Game of Thrones spin-offs, which include House of the Dragon and the forthcoming A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
[The Hollywood Reporter]
HBO is heading back into the world of Stephen King’s It next year with the prequel Welcome to Derry. And while we wait for a proper trailer, the network has released a handful of Pennywise-free first-look images.
The visionary behind Cowboy Bebop opens up about his return to sci-fi and collaborating with Chad Stahelski.
When Amazon launched its Alexa voice assistant, it envisioned a computer platform that could do anything for you. A decade later, the company is still trying to build it.
Jon Stewart isn’t returning to host The Daily Show full-time, but Variety reports he’s extended his deal with Comedy Central to keep reporting from the desk on Monday nights through the end of 2025.
Just how popular is Shohei Ohtani in Japan? As the Wall Street Journal reports, the recent premiere of One Piece was delayed by a whole week so that it didn’t conflict with the World Series. It seems he’s approaching Dragon Quest levels of fame.
During an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Sarandos was asked which series he wished Netflix produced:
I love The Bear. I wish that was one of ours. Ted Lasso spoke to the time really well. People were looking for something light and fun, and it was just that.
You can check out the full interview below.
Netflix has renewed Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft for a second season that will follow as Lara (Hayley Atwell) “discovers a trail of stolen African Orisha masks.” Sounds like the show might be gesturing towards a bit of Britain’s real-world history of looting the continent.
Like a Dragon proves that a quality adaptation doesn’t always have to be a faithful one.
Following the first wave of Disney Plus series coming out on 4K UHD and Blu-ray last year, physical copies of The Mandalorian’s third season, Ahsoka’s first season, Hawkeye’s first season, and Loki’s second season are set to hit stores on October 31st.
After Amazon and Sony parted ways with the original creative team working on the live-action adaptation, Deadline reports that Moore has joined the production as writer, executive producer, and showrunner.
Moore is best known for producing Battlestar Galactica and for his work on Star Trek spinoffs Deep Space Nine and The Next Generation.
It sure looks like we’re getting a Severance trailer at 9AM ET tomorrow. The first teaser for season 2 didn’t reveal a whole lot, but there’s still plenty of time ahead of the January 17th premiere. At least we know there will be balloons.
In what feels like a preview of the influencer media problems of tomorrow, Touchdown Tom is now both the lead analyst for Fox and a part-owner of the Raiders. He’s still allowed to call Raider games for some reason, but part of the NFL’s overall solution to the obvious conflict of interest issues is to bar Brady from criticizing officiating during games. The Athletic asked a number of sports TV producers for their read on it:
The producers also noted something interesting: You will have people actively listening specifically for whether Brady says something critical about another franchise or officials. The converse, too. People will evaluate whether he is intentionally avoiding what is in front of him. That’s a mess for everyone.
“You have to at least know you have the freedom to share your opinion about officiating,” said a veteran NFL broadcaster who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “These are split-second decisions on air. You can’t ponder whether the league will be happy.”
Brady calling Chiefs / 49ers this afternoon; we’ll see how he handles it.
We’ve known for a while now that HBO was aiming to debut its Dune: Prophecy prequel series at some point this fall. But in addition to dropping a new trailer, the network has finally announced that the show will premiere on November 17th.
Showrunner Rafe Judkins and executive producers Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus were well into their preproduction process for Amazon’s live-action God of War series. But Deadline reports that, even though Amazon and Sony were into the creative team’s scripts, the studios have decided “move in a different creative direction” with the help of an entirely new writers room.
It’s one thing for Netflix to split Arcane’s upcoming final season into a three-part event, but the streamer has some nerve to keep dropping these banger trailers so close to the show’s return next month.
