The Prestige TV Podcast - The Best TV of the Year (So Far): Shows, Episodes, Performances, and More!

Episode Date: August 19, 2026

Live from Televerse, Joanna Robinson and Rob Mahoney look back at the year in TV (so far) by drafting their favorite dramas, comedies, scene stealers, and more. (0:00) Intro (1:00) The rules (3:16) Has this been a good year for TV? (4:50) The draft Email us! [e-mail] Follow us on IG and TikTok! Subscribe to the Ringer TV YouTube channel here for full episodes of ‘The Prestige TV Podcast’ and so much more! Hosts: Joanna Robinson and Rob Mahoney Producer: Kai Grady Live Production: Donald LoBianco and Sarah Reddy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, welcome back to the Prestige TV podcast, me, and I'm Joyna Robinson. I am Rob Mahoney. And we're here live at Televerse. How are you feeling about that? Oh, I'm feeling pretty good. Thank you all for being here. Appreciate you. Absolutely.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, heck yeah. What do we have planned for today, Joe? Oh, we're just doing a cheeky little draft. We've got a really unstable cork board here. It will fall. It will definitely fall. We are drafting TV shows that came out this year,

just as sort of a way for us to talk about the TV that's come out this year so far, what the landscape looked like, et cetera. So we have a couple categories. The only rules are this. We're only allowed to pick one from any given television show that came out this year. Which is tough. Well, once you've picked something for your category, I'm then obviously not allowed to pick it for my category.

Of course. And those are the rules, right? Yeah. So we're selecting the best of the year in TV so far, starting with the best drama and comedy of the year so far, the best single episode, the best single performance, scene stealer, which I think we can haggle a little bit over how big a role or smaller role scene stealer is, but a performance category as well,

best ensemble. And then Wildcard, you know, if you want to throw in a dragon, if you want to throw in a snake that killed a critical character of a major series, like it could be whatever you want, human being, animal mineral, whatnot. A big year for scaly things, I guess. I would say so. Okay. Was this hard for you to put together, Rob?

I would say only in the depth of the rules that we have created for ourselves. This prison we have manufactured of only being able to select one show to represent in a single category each. Because I found this to be like a pretty top heavy year in TV. I think there's crystallized three or four shows that have really captured. Certainly our imagination. I think a lot of audiences imagination. A lot of the conversation to me is focused around those. And so what are we going to do for these other categories when we can't just put Matthew Reese in literally everyone?

Could you pick Matthew Reese in Widow's Bay and then Matthew Reese in The Beast in Me? That's a great question. I think you could. Yeah, I think one could. If you would like to select The Beast in Me for any of these categories, I do support you. Okay. Thank you so much for your support. I agree with you that there are a couple shows that are no-brainers.

But I think what is fun about some of the other shows we covered this year is that there are nooks and crannies of those shows that we really, really enjoyed or certain episodes that we really enjoyed. And so I didn't find it terribly hard to fill out seven categories. where my only competition was you. But I also had fun trying to anticipate where you would try to block me. What do you think? What category are we going to get most log jammed around? Well, I can't reveal my strategy to you because that would reveal we don't have to go in this order. We can pick any category at any given time.

So if I were to tell you which category I was nervous about, that would reveal something that I don't want to reveal to you. Well, should we just get started? No. Okay. What happened to yes and? I thought we were a team up here. No, but. Was this a good year for television, Rob Mahoney?

I think it's been a good year for surprises on television. You know, we are in the business of making content around this stuff. And so you and I sit down and we look at the schedule and we say, okay, what are the shows we're really excited about that are coming out a couple months from now? It's been like a big question mark. So many things have been moving around the calendar. Things have vacated their premiere dates. They've been delayed. And in their spaces, there's been a couple of shows that just really caught us by a surprise.

And so from that perspective, like, I've had a great. great time watching TV and just being gobsmacked by the things I never saw coming. How do you feel about it? Yeah, that's something, you know, to take you behind the curtain of our show, one thing we would love to be able to tell listeners is we're definitely covering these shows on these weeks going throughout the year. We would love to lay that out for everyone so they could all do their homework and watch along with us.

But then something comes out of nowhere and surprises us like Furious, which we're covering right now. We were looking at the calendar and just scratching our heads and trying to figure out what we were going to cover. And then Furious showed up on Hulu and we just absolutely loved this show. And so we throw the schedule out the window when something like happened. So I just feel like we've been doing that all year. It's just been a lot of throwing out plans in the best possible ways. And so what better way to experience TV than to be constantly surprised by these things? Remember how before we started we were going to figure out who was going to pick who went first?

And then did we figure that? Well, my proposal was that Ky our producer should pick his favorite. And he immediately answered that it was you, so I think you're going first. Kai, am I your favorite? Yeah. All right. Okay, I am going to go first in the category I am most concerned about. Okay. And it is best episode.

Oh. This is when you vamp. Yeah, bear with us. We're going to be experimenting through this process as Joe makes her dramatic reveal of her best episode of the season. What is she writing on this board? Widows Bay. but I'm guessing this is Beach Reeds. Episode four, who would you be

if you did not select a witchy episode of something? I think this is, to my view, and we're going to look at comedy and drama and there are other shows that sort of like, as a whole, I feel certain ways about, but in terms of best episode of a TV show that I watched this year, it is unquestionably that episode.

And we loved Widows Bay. That's another show that came out of nowhere for us. Absolutely. But I think most people, I was just talking to our colleague Van Lathen because he was catching up with Widows Bay a little late and he was like, Joanna is episode four the best episode of television I've ever seen

and I was like possibly. This is the one where Patricia and that's the thing about individual episodes. I always love to be able to do the friends construction of saying the one where X happens. That's why, you know, that's why I'm so resistant to binge television

because then it all just becomes soup. Whereas if you're doing a week by week release and you can say it's the one where. This is the one where Patricia finds a self-health book that turns out, uh-oh, is a grimoire and which stuff happens. And it's just, it's an incredible showcase for Cato Flynn, an actor we really, really enjoyed as having a breakout year. And just really showed to me that the TV show was really assured. I had enjoyed the first three episodes. And then once I saw episode four, I just really felt like we were on. another level entirely.

Kicked into a totally different gear. I think to your point about the Friends construction, Widows Bay might be the ultimate modern, the one-ware show because you have all of these great horror conceits. And so getting into some fun witchcraft and the mid-episode reveal that that is exactly what's going on, I certainly didn't have a better time with any episode. I think if I were to pick,

if we were just doing traditional list-making and actually picking our best episodes, this would probably be my number one. But again, this game that we've created, you now can't select Widows Bay for any other category. I now have fair game to pick any other episode I want. And so I guess those are less pressing needs for me. So I think I'm going to choose my best drama.

And this is somewhat surprising to me. And maybe it's recency bias because we are covering this actively. But I'm going to select Furious as my best drama of the year so far. That's a shocker. We're loving Furious. I'm surprised that you're picking. The only reason I'm surprised is because you're picking it mid-season. So I don't think this will be the case, but there are a couple episodes of Furies we haven't seen yet.

So if this show goes off the cliff quality-wise, I don't think it will, but what if it does? Will you forever be shamed that you picked it in this category? I think I'll be praised as being a man of hope. Oh, okay. A visionary. I believe women, Joe. I believe in women serial killers. Not me.

No, clearly not. But I just have tremendous faith in where we started this season, how things have progressed so far, as the category. and mouse detective's story, but also, like, really investigating the inner workings of human trafficking. And I think something in common with the Widows Bay and something in common with many of the best shows of this year, a remarkable sense of humor that, frankly, should be impossible. Right. Furious should not be able to be as funny as it is while talking about domestic violence. And yet, like, I genuinely have no idea how they pull it off.

And I am amazed every week out. I think, I think that's true. I'm going to, I'm going to go ahead and pick my drama. Okay. It is a show we covered at the beginning of the year. I do have a couple, perhaps a couple categories of shows we didn't cover. But for the most part,

we really hit the highlights this year. This is a show we both really, really loved, but a drama that is also oddly funny, and I'm picking industry as my drama. Amazing. So we have two drama selections off the board so far. Neither one of them,

for those counting at home, is the pit, which is a surprising result to me. like industry only continues to get bigger and bigger every season in terms of the scope of that show and what they're like interested in talking about. What was it about this season that really worked for you? I think this felt like a major reinvention season and they've had versions of that before. But anytime a show can really reinvent itself with an infusion of new cast members and still feel like it has the core DNA of what it was. But if you showed someone an episode from this season of industry and an episode of

the first season of industry, they would say those are two completely different shows. But they have taken us on journeys, went to some really surprisingly dark places with some characters that we've been with from the very beginning, but also the joy of the Kid Harrington birthday episode. You know what I mean? So I think, I don't know, it has, industry has everything. It does have everything. I mean, I was considering it, and I may still select it here for best ensemble, just for how stack that cast is. I mean, honestly, more great. and interesting actors in the show even has time for at various points. Like Cal Penn just kind of shows up and disappears.

Kit Harrington spends an entire episode that is wonderful, but hanging out with his ghost dad. And it's like there's a lot happening on that show that I love. There's a lot that feels messy. But I think messy in a good way. The ambition of industry is beyond reproach for me. I think that might be one of the reasons that I picked it, because you know how much I loathe a ghost dad. And the fact that they did ghost dad and it worked and it played. They sold you on a ghost dad.

I have to give them credit for them. that. Also, this is not what this draft is about at all. This draft is about being, I don't know, cutthroat in a rare way, I suppose. But also, I like to champion things that aren't being championed. And the fact that industry is as good as it is and is not one of the biggest shows on television makes me want to put it in the in the drama category. What do you think is the obstruction to that? Like even, you know, I think there are levels of success for any show on any network. Industry has found a core audience without a doubt. We are among. it. What is it that keeps it from being

one of the biggest shows on TV? I don't know. There are certain shows this year that I really thought would leap to another astronomical level. And I know in season, the previous season, industry did have like a leap in its audience, but it still hasn't reached that the pit, everyone's watching it, sort of

energy. Similar with one of my faves, the vampire list at, I really thought that show was going to explode this year. Didn't really do that. So people are underestimating vampires always. And that's That's just a reality we have to live with. But I don't know.

What do you think it is about industry that makes it not huge? I wonder if the changing nature of the show season to season and the reinvention of it makes it harder for people to jump in midstream. It is a show that you kind of have to understand from the beginning to see the layers being built on each other from working in finance to like spreading into politics to spreading into understanding the ins and outs of like larger. Once again sex trafficking. Well, sex trafficking.

But I guess, you know, maybe. by extension or tangentially, like, the noble systems of Great Britain and the greater United Kingdom. Like, there's just so much context you have to have that I wonder if it's like an easy show for people to go back and just pick up in the way that, you know, like a breaking bad would have been in a later season. That's kind of an easier pitch in some ways. It's always been a question, but I feel increasingly audiences are getting hung up on the likeability question. Do I like anyone in this show? And I think, and I heard that about Furious as well. And I just, I don't see the obstruction. I like a lot.

lot of people on both of those shows, but also I like extremely complicated characters. I spend every waking moment of my actual life trying to be around people I like. And when it comes to television, I want to be around people who mostly repulsed me or whose decisions I find confounding. I'm going to choose, though, a performance. Actually, you know what? I'm going to go comedy. Let's just get some of the easy stuff out of the way right out of the gate. You've already selected Widows Bay for your episode. I'm just going to select it as the best comedy of the year. I feel like that's an easy, simple, pen it in, and we can talk about it. Yeah, the way that Widows Bay has taken over, and this is not a show about Emmys, we don't usually cover that on prestige, but the Emmy, the way the Emmy conversation completely shifted in a way that nobody saw coming, I think is incredible.

I also think it's a really good story about Apple. Like, HBO had an incredible year, and we'll talk about plenty of HBO shows. But what I like is that right now we have an Apple show, an HBO show, and a Hulu show on the board. and that's a nicer spread than I think we've seen in some recent years. Yes. And this one in particular, I think, is just a great way to leverage some of Apple's advantages on the board. If you're willing to invest in on-scene filming, if you're willing to invest in high-end talent, but also relative discovery talent, at least for people like me, getting to see what Cato Flynn can do.

We talked about her with episode four in particular. But the depth of the cast, the depth of the thought, the depth of the care in crafting these episodes, in the tone of the show, to me is a reason why you could pick it in literally any one of these categories. I mean, you could even make the argument for drama if you really wanted to. If you're diving into the clown side of Widows Bay or the deep sea hag lore of Widows Bay, I think you could make an argument for that too, but it's just, it's such a rich text. And I know, like, you and I love a mystery show. It is that, but you don't have to dwell on it. I feel like there's so many entry points for so many different people.

It was wild going to Comic Con this year and seeing how much Widows Bay had to, again, with like very little lead time, how much Widows Bay had sort of taken over the Comic-Con enthusiasm. There were a couple Widows Bay-centric panels that they had to put together basically at the last minute because, again, this came out of nowhere. And they were packed and people were screaming their heads off for this show. I was in Hall H for the big Apple presentation. And they showed some clothes from Widows Bay.

And I was sitting next to a stranger's one off a dozen Hall H at Comic-Con. And this really nice man with like a very thick Austrian accent turns to me. He's like, is it scary? I was like, he's like, oh, they're about to show something scary? I was like, they're about to show you a clown. If you don't like clowns, then close your eyes, man. But the reveal at Comic-Con when Kay Callan took off the Dr. Doom mask and revealed herself to the audience. I mean, it just doesn't get any better than that.

I mean, we deserve Ruth in a Marvel movie, don't you think? I absolutely do. I think I want to do performance. I'm going to zag and not do comedy right now. This is a really hard one to pick, actually. I thought this was easily the deepest category. Yeah, absolutely. And the options are you could go with an obvious leading performance that is just sort of a barn burner and we're all talking about it.

Yep. But once again, I like to champion things. And I would say the level of difficulty of delivering a fantastic performance inside a very messy show is what I want to reward right here. No, I'm terrified. I feel like you're going to step on all my great picks. What are you thinking? I don't know. I'm going with Coleman Domingo in Euphoria.

that is my pick. A great pick. For anything you could say about Euphoria, Coleman Domingo innocent. Completely innocent in every scene he's ever been in brings a gravitas to that show that is just like so singular, so important,

a counterbalancing force in terms of season three of Euphoria, like bringing you the hope in what can otherwise be like a very bleak and dreary season. I honestly, like, I wonder if they knew from the jump exactly what they had.

I don't think anyone, I think a lot of people in Hollywood more broadly, that was their introduction to a version of Coleman Domingo was in Euphoria. But like how quickly that came together, how quickly like Ali became a critical part of the show and certainly the storytelling of this most recent season. Rob, you remember the mess that was us covering Euphoria this season? Boy, do I. We did Sunday nights live in studio watching the episode and then talking about it,

fairly stressful for us. It was the first and maybe the last time that us and several of our coworkers would get together in a conference room and watch. Sidney Sweeney do online sex work? Yeah, for me, it was just sort of the mountain of dildos watched next to our colleagues, you know? At least they washed them. Yeah, they did.

That dishwasher was going over time. Absolutely. A very messy, messy show. But what a lot of people were watching is fascinating to me. And one, it's interesting to pick Coleman Domingo when Euphoria has Zendaya, who did a great job this season, obviously. Jacob Lorty, who was barely there, Sydney, sweetie, who was giving it everything she had, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

But we talked about Euphoria as having this sort of these three young actors who are among the biggest actors in the world. But what they have in Coleman Domingo is a closer. And Coleman Domingo comes in at the end of the season. And spoilers for euphoria, spoilers for euphoria, spoilers for euphoria, spoilers for euphoria. Zendaya is not around to carry the show. Yeah. The star of the show is not around.

They forgot Hunter Schaefer existed. That is something that they did. Or didn't book time. One of the two. But they brought Coleman Domingo in, and he's the only reason the end of that show worked at all. So for a level of difficulty, I'm giving it to Coleman Domingo. Did you feel inspired in the future of American life after seeing Coleman Domingo's various monologues at the end of season three? As you know, I'm a staunch patriot.

And, yeah, I think I went out and procured several flags and decorated them around. my apartment. I support you and support America. My question, now that you've selected your euphoria entry, I'm going to say I am, despite how stacked the cast is, I will not be selecting them for best ensemble. Okay. And I'm wondering, like, should they even be viable for best ensemble? If you have a lot of great actors in your show, but they are in various silos and never interact, is that a great ensemble or not? If they refuse to be in the same scene together. Allegedly, allegedly. For legal purposes, allegedly, is it on ensemble? I think that's a great question.

But yeah, a lot of great singular performances in that show. Honestly, I thought Zendaya might be where you were going. I was thinking about it. I'm tempted by Zendaya, but for the sake of some diversity, I'm going to leave her out there. I mean, God knows. No one is talking about Zendaya right now. It's not her year or not. So I deeply apologize.

I'm also going to go best performance. And now I've already selected Widows Bay and Furious. Some of the best performances in the year are from those shows. So I can't be selecting that. We could pick Noah Wiley from the pit. I think he's a worthy entry every year. Dr. Robbie being very sad means a lot to me. What if the pit doesn't make it at all on either of our sides?

I think we owe somebody an apology. It's just too good a show, and I feel like maybe... That's a real contrary move. We're maybe being a little bit too cute about some of this stuff, and so we're going to have to reconsider squeezing them in at some point. But for the sake of diversity and a performance in a similarly messy show that I really, really enjoyed, I will be selecting Sarah Pigeon for Love Story for my performance of the year.

All right. So this show is another one that kind of came out of nowhere, the FX show, a love story about JFK Jr. And Sarah Pigeon is Carolyn Beset is the show, like unquestionably. I actually think she sometimes did not have a great cast around her. I'll speak on it. But she was always delivering an incredible role, incredible follicular performance.

Does her hair play into your decision here? It has to. I mean, the sheer number of times that hair is tossed. Correct. Like, that's 60% of the show's screen time. Absolutely. And it's powerful every time. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think that show, to the extent that it works and your mileage may vary, I like, certainly by the finale, I was, I was not on that particular ride. Yeah. But the early episodes of them falling in love hinges on her performance, I think, more than anybody else's. And, like, her being captivating, her being charming. It's like, there is an it factor there that you could not bottle, that you could not sell, that like, it's just an indefinable thing

that I found like incredibly potent in that show. Maybe that makes me a sucker. Maybe that means I'm just like rolling with it and exactly the way love story wanted me to. You love, Rob. I do love love love love love. You're a yearner. I love a yearn.

I love a like, let's get together and bounce around a party or walk around a city for a day kind of story. And so it's like, yeah, it just kind of, the early episodes of love story in particular really worked for me because Sarah Pigeon worked for me. It was also interesting to, because you had not watched any of the American crime story shows, right?

You didn't watch OJ or... I had not. Yeah. And so you were initially, like, unsure about the show because you're like, what is this Ryan Murphy joint on FX? I'm not sure that's really my speed. As I'm often saying. Yeah, forever.

And then there's also this sort of slight micro generation that separates us in age. You were not around for this story. So it wasn't something that was really on your radar. I think it's like in the broad strokes. You were born. Yes. Existed was born. But like in the Wikipedia entry sense of like, oh, this is an event I know, but

do I understand it? Right. I got to say, having seen the show, I still don't understand a lot of it. I'm not sure the show entirely understands it, but Sarah Pigeon got the assignment. Like that part of it, again, is an unimpeachable success as far as love story is concerned. I think it's always interesting to talk to people who were too young to have experienced the event, like, especially when OJ came out and they're like, what do you mean the Kardashians are connected to OJ, et cetera, et cetera.

So to watch people discover it for the first time. And this was the case with younger generations loved this show. I mean, the 90s music was doing its work, but also just sort of it felt like a revelation for a lot of people, that moment in time, the Calvin Klein of it all, the tabloid of it all. Yeah. Are you, where is Love Story and sort of your favorite shows of the year, though? Not. Not.

Yeah. But I think weirdly enough is another one of these like kind of incomplete, kind of messy shows that are eligible for several of these categories. I think Love Story has a couple of scene stealers in the mix as well. Guess what? That's my pick. Let's go. But which one?

Which scene stealer from Love Story will Joe select? I'm going to guess it is, actually no. Oh, yeah, it is. Our mutual favorite, Constance Zimmer, who, I mean, look, has a showcase moment in terms of getting to get up and give a big wedding speech that just, like, brings the house down in Love Story.

But also a very important, how dare you kind of speech. We love a how dare you moment on a show. Somebody's got to do it. Yeah. Talk us through it. What are you thinking? We love Constance Zimmer.

And when she showed up playing Carolyn's mother, we were both a little like, huh, that's not how I would use Constance Zimmer personally. And also I had to check ages to see if she was age appropriate for that. But Constance Zimmer, who's just been like an absolute killer in TV for a long time, they knew what they had. Yes. And so they deployed her in mid-season. And then once again, these closers, like at the end of the season,

she really sort of ran away with it for me. So Constance Zimmer, man. She deserves that Emmy. She does. I mean, this is one of our favorite games. as we cover a lot of these shows week to week, episode to episode, when someone like Constance Zimmer shows up, it's not just like, oh, that's a weird way to use her,

but like, do they know and when will they deploy it? Like, when is the bomb going to go off for these wonderful supporting actors? Do they know what we know, which is that Constance Zimmer all, like, absolutely rules? I mean, somebody watched Unreal other than us, I would hope. Sometimes they don't know. Like, remember how Donald Logue is in that show for no good reason whatsoever, so. Is he played? Which Kennedy does he play?

I refuse to acknowledge. Call or acknowledge. Okay, I think I'm going to get in on ensemble just because that is now one of our few competitive categories. Actually, our only competitive category yet that we're vying for. And this is where I had a lot of options. I had a lot of great cast this year. I was looking to support.

But if we don't put the pit on the board, I think somebody is going to riot. I might riot. And so I will be selecting the pit for the best ensemble. What's wild about the pit in terms of ensemble is, like you have such a broad group of actors just playing the doctors. But then you've got the rotating guest stars that come in on the show. It's just an unusual format for a show that you can spend so much time, not just like singular episode guest stars, but guest stars who show up and stick around for like four, five, six episodes, sometimes just in the background.

It just feels like this completely lived in world. I think it's like a perfect pick for ensemble, except I didn't make it. But it's a perfect pick for ensemble. Thank you for your support. Are there any other picks you want to praise while we're here? Mine? No, I wouldn't know what I was thinking. But yeah, I think, look, clearly the pit is a Noah Wiley driven show and maybe secondarily

a Catherine Lanasa driven show. But everyone getting their moments. And I think this is something that any show has to deal with in kind of the growing pains of season two is like, how do you deal with the fact that there are deep fandoms and deep appreciation for all of these characters individually? Oh, so do you want to talk about the Pitt fandom losing its collective marvels this year? Well, I think the fan art of test. to that. But more so just like, how do you explored any of that fan fiction I sent you, Rob?

Not personally, but I thank you for sending it. It's just good to have on record. Yeah, yeah. But how do you find- In our work email? Again, very professional, everything we do. But how do you find time for all these people? How do you find plot lines for all these people? Like within, you know, the pit is in some ways a very traditionally constructed show, traditionally shot and published show. But like an ABC plot doesn't service 18 different doctors and nurses who are bouncing around this place. Like, how do you make that work? And, within the context of how you're telling a season story over the real-time course of an entire day, what are the arc payoffs? Like, how much growth can you really have if you're one of these characters?

I think given those constraints, constraints they created for themselves, you should all acknowledge, I think they do a pretty damn good job of juggling all of these different doctors. And yeah, sometimes like, you know, Taylor Dearden in season two, like you're not going to have as much to do as you did in season one. That's just the reality of playing a team sport. And the pit to me, I can't think of a single better team sport. on TV in terms of the blocking and the production and the way that show is shot and made, than what we see on the pit. Which character's stock was most on the rise for you this season in the pit ensemble? It's a great question.

I mean, honestly, it might be Shabana Aziz, who I just continue to be floored by. And that's a character who, like, I kind of wonder if she's entering that space where you can't minimize what she's doing. Like, you can't push her into the background. I think her and probably Issa Brioz, for me, are the two where it's like, I really want them to be involved constantly. And maybe the pit is that kind of show. Maybe it's not. Maybe in the next season will be there.

Spotlight, maybe it won't. But I think in terms of the presence they bring to the screen and what those characters represent, that's who I'm most invested in seeing right now. As you know, I really only like to support white men on screen. So I have to say Patrick Ball is my guy. I mean, we got to talk about it. I mean, you and your therapist need to talk

about this, but you have something going on with Patrick Ball. I mean, specifically this arc of like a doctor in recovery who's seen and done some things and is constantly trying to apologize to everyone in a work inappropriate ways. I don't think there's a mystery here, Rob. This is an archetype I enjoy, which is a character who has a huge fall from grace and then tries to claw their way back.

Are they usually white men? Yes, but you know what? This is what we're here for. It's true. What are you thinking next? Where do you want to go? I would probably do ensemble. And this is where I'm going to surprise myself and also see if I can write on this board

from this chair and pick the bear. I will say as far as the ensemble goes for the bear, this to me is sort of the opposite of the euphoria problem. The previous season of the bear or partial season of the bear, however you want to break it down, there was a lot of fact going on. You know, like love Maddie Matheson. Way over fact. But sometimes you're over-indexed on a show like this.

Sometimes the shooting schedule dictates who gets to be the focus of the frame. And I thought this season was just a huge course correction of like, let's actually let the main characters of the show who are now massive film and TV stars. Let's get them in the same places for our concentrated. amount of time and actually let them carry potentially the ending of this show. We didn't cover the bear on the prestige feed, the two of us, because our pals, Van and Charles, have been covering it since the beginning. Brilliantly.

Yeah, brilliantly. So they landed the plan that we haven't really talked about the bear. Do you want to take a moment here at Televerse to talk about the bear? A show that's had so many ups and downs. But, like, if this is the end of the show, I actually found myself. I was so out last season, as was everyone. And then this season started, I was like, oh, no, it's still not great. Oh, no.

And then it just really clicked into place in this last night of service way and the penultimate episode, which involved a payoff for a lot of our supporting characters having big emotional triumphs. I was like sobbing through, like really unexpectedly sobbing through the penultimate episode of the bear. Let's do this right now because I'm going to be selecting that episode caramel for my best episode of the season. So a little pick synergy and then we can dive into it a little bit. Okay. Yeah. So I don't know.

I guess I'm going to ask the room, which is maybe not a great thing to do for recording because people can't hear you. But like, clap if you enjoyed this final season of the bear. All right. Clap if you were sort of out on the bear and you stayed out. Okay. Even split, controversial. I would love to hear that argument because I would say. The things that I did not like about the previous season were mostly the balance of the show,

the balance of who was, again, like, featured in it, the plot lines. And I thought this episode in particular, caramel to me, is you need the workplace anxiety bomb if you're going to sell me the constant dad rock scored navel gazing. Like, I need both of those things. You need the salt and the caramel together to really bring out the flavor of both. Wow, Rob. Yeah, thank you. And so, like, this for me was such a back-to-basic situation.

Like, let's put all these crazy, very accomplished, very successful, talented chefs in a kitchen together for one night of service. You know how I feel about a real-time episode. And, like, let's just get the, you know, season four version of the receipt printer going into overdrive. Let's get that feel back. And getting to experience that on the other side of everything that these characters had been through, I thought it was just like the payoff of payoffs for me on TV this year. And I think in part because I disliked the previous season so much. It was nice to know that this was still in the bear.

Right. They still have the juice. What did you make of the accusation that it was sort of the pitification of the bear, that the bear was sort of leaning heavily on this pit premise to deliver the ending of the season? They didn't invent this shit. If anything, the success of the pit is dependent on being a version of a show that we all know and love. Something that we've experienced before, there's like a nostalgia and a warmth and a familiarity of the patter and the rhythms of the pit that like helps it really lock into something. that in this TV context feels different,

but it's really quite traditional. And so, I mean, we've seen, like, there's been versions of that on the West Wing. There's been versions of that in, like, every major drama that has probably ever existed of, like, there's a ticking clock. How are these characters going to survive over the course of this hour of TV?

So, yeah, it feels a little pit-ish, but I feel like it's different enough in some of, I mean, maybe the food porn part of it, if you want to categorize it as that, which certainly appeals to me. Yeah. But also just in the, dynamics of these characters. And I think if anything, we're on the other side of where the pit

is now, where for the pit, all of these, like, calcifying character dynamics are just kind of starting. Like, we're, you know, days or months or years in, depending on how you want to classify the passage of time in that show versus, I mean, the people in the bear have been through some stuff together already. And so this to me is the culmination of all that more so than where the pit is. Well, first of all, how would you describe this as the one where, this episode? I mean, I think it is the one where they have to survive the cruise. crucial night of service at a fine dining restaurant. But to me also, just the reveal of the caramel candle, which you see coming. Like, look, I've eaten at some of these restaurants.

Like, I have in my day. But even if you haven't, it's like, it's not a secret that this candle is something. It's been like toiled over and cared over for multiple episodes by now. And yet, the idea of serving a delicious inventive dessert to your kind of estranged father to show him, you know what? My life actually did turn out okay. And maybe I am worth something. It did something for me. I don't know what to tell you. The way that that is paired inside of that episode with this moment for Sydney, like getting to be out on the floor and sort of hear people talk about how good her food is,

this is me weeping buckets of tears and really enjoying myself. Is this a big year for a weepy TV for you? I know the bear has some of those moments. Like, I mean, did any of the deaths in Euphoria have that effect on you? Did any, I mean, I guess, spoiler. You were sitting next to me while I was crying through Euphoria. I was just tearing you up to like absolutely go to bat on that show. But whatever, I mean, look, has anything else,

the pit certainly has that capability too, I think in terms of some of the cases, especially. Has this been a big emotional year of TV? Or is it just one that has been good for laughs and horror and good times? Well, I'm an easy cry, honestly. And I think they usually come in surprising places. I think if a show is trying to make me cry, which probably the bear was trying to make me cry in that episode.

They always are. Yeah, yeah. But oftentimes it comes where you least expect it, which might tee up my next category. Please. I love a transition. Controversially, perhaps, I'm putting this in comedy. But I think this is probably where it belongs.

It's Night of the Seven Kingdoms, which definitely made me cry multiple times a season. I mean, as much as I would love to fight you for category fraud, something that I find you guilty of in most drafts that we participate in, I can't argue with the show being a comedy if almost every episode they are dedicating some kind of fart or shitting joke to a significant portion of the runtime

and the character development. The comedy is a huge part of why that show works and it is so fucking dialed in from the jump in a way that is super refreshing, at least for me with like IP-driven spin-off entertainment. Was this the sort of the height of genre? You and I don't cover a lot of genre shows together because I usually do that on my other gig, House of R.

Thanks for the invite. Yeah, you're welcome, Rob. But we did be covered alien Earth together. It's true. I occasionally get to play along with you guys. But we didn't get to talk about this show. So, like, was this the best genre show for you this year? Do you have another candidate?

I think it's really the only one. Okay. Other than Widows Bay, which I don't know if we're quite counting as that. I guess, yeah, I'm kind of putting in a different category with your, you know, your spider noirs and your daredevils. And like, I mean, what are the peer group? Put some respect on Spider. No, don't worry about it.

I will. I will defend Nicholas Cage on this in any stage. But this to me, again, it's like... You picked Spider-Noir in a draft, did you not? I'm not saying it's not a good show. And did you wind up watching Spider-Noir at all? We don't have to talk about that. Okay.

That's what I thought. But for Night of the Seven Kingdoms, again, a text that, like, you are intimately familiar with the cortex of these shows. So you're experiencing them in a totally different way. A low-stakes, pleasant surprise, we're just going to get, like, the meeting of these two historically crucial, but ultimately, like, fun, rompy characters. I mean, it's a one. I thought this was yet another candidate for best episode of the season.

I think you could argue the huge battle episode as far as those things are staged. And I found to be more emotionally engaging than almost any big battle on Game of Thrones ever was. Like the backstory elements of that really worked for me. But rewind it, but like, let's get a team together episode. I think is also a good candidate. Yeah. There's, I love that you're calling it a battle when it was just like a bunch of dudes swinging a mace. A couple guys in the mud, you know what I mean?

What is your definition of a bad? battle. I think it's more of a melee than a battle actually at the end of the day. But I think because it was so small scale and so you could really invest in the characters. And like this was a short season with short episodes. And so just a surprising amount of depth there. This is adapting these novellas by George R. Martin. So, you know, I'm going to put some love on House of the Dragon's name and say it's a much easier task than the House of the Dragon writers have in terms of they can just adapt it almost word for word off the page of the novella onto the screen, and it's just the right match of show and source text and stuff like that. And so it just worked perfectly. And what I loved about it is

because people do feel quite split on House of the Dragon, whether or not they're really enjoying it, and are maybe me still nursing their wounds from the end of Game of Thrones. And so something about Night of the Seven Kingdoms, it was just an uncomplicated joy to be back in Westeros with the Night of the Seven Kingdoms. It was something almost everyone could agree on. I don't think I talked to a single person who watched the show who didn't have a great time with it. And also there were people who were wary of it. They were like, this looks dumb. I'm still mad about Game of Thrones.

I didn't really care. And who are these guys? I don't even know who these, you know, because Secret Targaryans, right? And so there are no dragons. What are we even doing here? And it turns out you don't need dragons. You just need a couple guys and some fart jokes. Honestly, one of my favorite things about TV is just that, that you don't need the dragons.

Like, every show will tell you what its stakes are, what matters. And sometimes the stakes are just, like, getting in the ring. Like, the fight for legitimacy to even just, like, have these lords hear you and acknowledge that you are a knight, that's not a crucial plot line on a show like Game of Thrones, where you're talking about an existential threat against Westeros' version of humanity. But you zoom in far enough, and it's like all of these stories can matter. And I think it's just what's so infuriating about so much of the other spin-off attempt. at so many, on so many other platforms

or so many other, like, properties. Like, you can just make this stuff small. And if the actors are good and the characters are good, and that's an if. But, like, if you are dialed in, you can make people really care about this. And I would put Night of the Seven Kingdoms up against, like, as the most bingeable show of the year.

I think because of the runtime, because of the tone, it was certainly one that, like, I had a really hard time putting down. And there's some other good entries in that category as well. But just for something to feel so light and breezy while also being in that, universe, I think is quite an accomplishment. I know. When there's like, you know, between six or eight episodes and a season and the episodes

are 30 minutes long, you're like, that's watching two movies. No problem. Yeah, I just, because I love this world that Georgia Martin has created and I've spent, you know, I don't know, hours, months, days of my life, years of my life talking about it. How did you feel about that? Great, great. I really, I think allocated my time appropriately. But I think that I think everyone enjoying.

it just made me really happy because I just want us to all celebrate it. You just want good things. Yeah. It's really not that complicated. It's what a bring joy to the masses. I'm going to make my selection in scene stealer. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not, but this is a good performance. I'm going to be selecting Shalene Woodley for Paradise, a show that if I'm not familiar, have you seen Paradise as of yet, Joanna Robinson? I think we made a deal that I would watch Paradise in exchange for something else, and I don't think you've come through on your side of the deal yet. This is a shocker to me, honestly.

But I think probably you just want to get your Faye of Paradise on the board. I actually, here's what I know about Paradise. Yeah. Can you please explain the plot of Paradise? Yeah. I mean that as someone who has watched two seasons of that show. I really don't know. Sterling K. Brown.

Yep. At some point, James Marsden, but perhaps no longer. No comment. And then something happened in episode seven in, in season one where everyone was like, whoa, this is a completely different show now, bro. What do you think that was? Like, did the world end?

I don't know. I don't know. Like, it seemed massive. And I was like, oh, I'll get to that. And then I haven't gotten to it. That is a great episode that you're highlighting. I actually do recommend, as far as like bat shit, twisty-turny shows go.

Yeah. You could do so much worse than Paradise. It is a great time. I love Sterling. What is Shailene Woodley doing that you want to give her credit for? So we're in like a classic. like, okay, I'm gonna tip the hat a little bit. You can spoil paradise.

We are in a post-apocalyptic environment. So the apocalypse happens in episode seven? I mean, it did happen. Well, it does happen in episode seven. And it took James Marsden from us and ported him all the way over to your friends and neighbors. You're going into side rows that we simply cannot go down right now. Shaley Woodley plays like a crucial like spin-off side story.

Like we are totally divorced at first from the Sterling K kind of part of this story. Okay. And Shailene Woodley is a woman who is, like, working as a tour guide at Graceland. And ultimately, like, battens down the hatches at the end of the world and somehow manages to survive in the Elvis compound using, I'm sure, just like lots of jars of peanut butter that are stored there. All right, right. And manage just to, like, really pull it out. And so you get the combination, like, castawayish, like one actor showcase kind of performance. Yeah.

Then, of course, spoiler alert, Sterling Kay does enter the picture. and she starts kind of entering the main story. But it's like it's a love story yearning from across the space and time of the post-apocalypse. It is the story of this woman's survival. It is the story for me of Shailene Woodley being a fucking capital A actor. Okay. We get those on TV, but you know what? I want to celebrate it every goddamn time.

It's been a minute for Shailene. Like I feel like she was here and then she sort of retreated for a minute. She diverged, do you think? Yeah, you're telling me that she's waiting for me on Paradise. Whenever you're ready. Okay. This is the way you're describing, you're like, a woman hunkers down at Graceland and to survive the apocalypse. This is why, as exhaust as I get sometimes with the unending zombie stories on television,

occasionally you just stumble upon a great concept. This is what I'm saying. You know what I mean? Just sort of like, what if we're at Graceland? And that's it. And it's Shailene Woodley. Well, everyone else is thinking like, oh, I could hide myself in a bank vault. Like, what is the most secure facility?

It turns out it's Graceland. It's not Fort Knox. It's Graceland? No, well, for one, you need places with food storage. You need places with apparently post-apocalypse is very important. Horses just hanging around. And so, like, the adjacent farmlands become very important. I just think, like, Shalien, in Paradise had it all figure it out in a way that nobody else in the post-apocalypse does.

Where are you hunkering come the apocalypse? Jill, let's be real. I'm cooked. Like, I'm so done day one. We're both dead day one. Yeah. We are soft, soft podcasters, but let's pretend we survive day one. Where are we setting up the Prestige TV podcast Survival HQ?

It's a great question. Kai's coming. Paige and Charlie are coming. Everyone's here. Sarah. All of them are coming. Well, everyone has to provide a skill. Everyone has to show that they can do something to help keep our little commune alive.

Okay. Does Kai have practical skills other than editing podcasts? I really don't know. I don't think there's anything Kai can't do, honestly. See that I do believe. And also, Kai is such a picky eater, sorry Kai. Kai is such a picky eater that, like, I feel like most of the food would be available to us. He would not take too much of the food.

I think the only way to open up his palate would be like, I'm sorry, dry turkey is no longer available. You're going to have to make do with something else. But this is like, this is the question. Where are the resources? Like, my first thought is like some kind of store. Like, can we survive in a Walmart for a little while? But that's pointing us right in the crosshairs of every other survivor out there. Are there marauders in paradise?

Well, when are they not? Yeah, exactly. See, I don't know where to live, and this is why I'm going to die. What about Dollywood, which is like Graceland adjacent, but just like a little bit better? This is the question. Post-Paradice, is Graceland going to be a competitive category? Are people going to be meeting me at the gates of Graceland trying to get in? And they're like, the horses are mine.

The horses are there. You can't have the peanut butter. There's like an intense, like, surveillance system going on here. There's a lot happening. Rob, what's your key survivor skill that is going to make you that we're going to open the gates for you? I'm a delegator. Oh, okay. All right. You're a managed management. I'm just writing things down on a clipboard. I'm here to Oregon. Honestly, logistics, very important in a post-apocalypse, it turns out. Did you know that I can identify poison plants? Is that true? Yeah. What's the backstory there? Do you know that that's a skill I intentionally learned? So, like, if the apocalypse happened, I could identify poison plants.

So you, Joanna Robinson. Yeah. Incredible preparer and all, in all professional aspects that I have known to be a proper. Yeah. You have now developed a life skill just so not really so you can. could do it, but really so you could have an answer to this question on a thing like a podcast? Who's to say? I don't have a go bag, though. I did used to work with someone. Like, when I was at Vanity Fair, the most sort of hoity-to-to-y upper, like New Yorker, she was like my entire family. We all have go-bags for the apocalypse. And I was like, I feel like she knows something that I don't know. And perhaps we should all get our go-bags back. Well, we live in California. So, well, you need a kind

of a go-bag. You need an earthquake go-bag. If nothing else, I'm ready for the big one. I think you should be too. I grew up around earthquakes, Rob. You're from Texas. You don't know anything about earthquake preparedness. I'm scared of this stuff. Do you have like a hand crank radio? No. Okay. Who do you think I am? You're not ready. All right, I'm going to only be myself with my last pick. Yeah. Who else would I be? Is there only one one pick, wild card? Looks like we're both left to wildcard left. And so, I mean, there's so, for the parameters of wild card that we've established, it can be literally anything. If you were very impressed by the trailer, for a show you could pick it, an actor, a performance, a special effect, a series itself.

Like, how do you want to approach that? That shirt that Jacob Alorti wore in Euphoria, that was leather, even though it looked like flannel? You mean the one that is like his brand? Yeah. But take a banana. I mean, just. But there you go.

Yeah. Just embarrassing. But alas, I've already chosen Euphoria, so I cannot pick Jacob Alorty's shirt. I'm going to pick another show, another show entire that we have not covered, but is one of my favorite shows of the year. And I cannot wait to watch you vamp well. I write this down. It is the other

Bennett sister, Rob, you tell me what you think the other Bennett sister is about. Honestly, I was really hoping you would pick the vampire list. So I could at least have some vampire thing I could say here. But the other Bennett sister

is about the surviving sister because the other one died. And this one is about her attempts to navigate the hoity-toity upper crust life of I'm trying to think of a cutesy British sure name, but I honestly have none.

How close am I? Shropshire, something like that? Shropshire. Langfordshire. Really wrong. Okay. Yeah, really bad. You did really poorly.

I believe it. Yeah, yeah. Well, pitch me. What is the other Bennett sister actually about? Well, here's what I'll just say. And we have a pride and prejudice. I know you don't read books, but we have... This is an allegation that cannot stand.

You don't read fiction. I don't read fiction. Okay. I watch it. You've heard of Jane Austen. I have heard of Jane Austen. There is a Pride and Prejudice show coming out on Netflix soon with your guy, Jack Loudon, as Mr. Darcy.

Maybe James Bond? Maybe James Bond. How do you feel about that? I don't think you can be the worst spy and also a good spy. Yeah, you can't be River Cartwright and James Bond. But he, I mean, look, he looks the part. He could play the, I guess the whole appeal of River Cartwright is he looks like he should be a good spy, and yet it's not.

What if he's Mr. Darcy and James Bond? Searcher Ron and you really did it. I mean, that is kind of the center of a very specific kind of type in circle, if we want to be real about it? Not really, because you wouldn't cast Matthew McFadden or Colin Firth as James Bond. Oh, Matthew, I would. You would not. Colin Firth, I would not. Absolutely not.

Okay, anyway. Colin Firth is M, maybe. I have a lot of doubts about this upcoming Pride and Prejudice show. I have a lot of doubts about Jane Austen adaptations in general. It's really, really hard to do it well. It's really, really hard. What's even harder is to do something that is like Jane Austen fan fiction, essentially. which is what the other Bennett sister is,

which is the story of Pride and Prejudice told from the point of view of Mary, who is like sort of the nerdy if you're being generous, but like awful Bennett's sister inside of that book. So they wickeded this thing? They wickeded the shit out of this thing. And it's great. And what I love about it is that,

unlike with wicked, they didn't have to turn every other character into a jerk in order to turn this character into someone interesting. Genuinely, how do you do that? You write fully fledged human characters. Oh, I've heard of those. Have you thought about that?

It just seems hard. Yeah, yeah, it seems tough. Anyway, the other Bennett sister absolutely rules. One of the best shows this year. Really surprising. Like, my, I am very personicking when it comes to Jane Austen Literary Adaptations, all that sort of stuff. My sister's way worse.

She is the worst person to put that in front of. She ate this shit up. She left it. Past the Morgan Robinson test, the point of the other benefits. You have to do it. Yeah. What got you over the hump to even check it out?

Like, will you check out an Austin adaptation? Or do you need to be sold by someone like Morgan, who you trust? I will watch every single one, and I will judge them harshly. This is just one that cleared, you know? This one actually worked. Yeah. What would it take to get you to watch a Jane Austen adaptation?

Very little. I was actually eyeing, like, the Curid Nightly Pride and Prejudice screening coming up of the film version. Very excited to go re-watch. I mean, look, I love a movie. Yeah. So I was considering that. So it really didn't. You don't have to twist my arm.

Sure. I'm in for this kind of story. I'm trying to figure out what to do with Wildcard. You and I don't really talk about any reality TV. I'm tempted to do something from like the suite of very intense and incredibly produced Korean reality TV, specifically singles inferno is what I might be eyeing here. Oh, are you just going to name a bunch of stuff that you're not going to pick? Well, this is literally the last spot on the board. So if we're not naming some guys, what are we doing?

I think, again, a lot of great performances this year that we really enjoyed. Charles Melton, I thought, for achievement in hymbo acting on beef, just exemplary stuff. Honestly, Nick Cage, a pretty good entry here. Matt Smith, in terms of, like, acting opposite a shoddily CGIed dragon. He had to do it a lot. Shotally Cigied? You thought that, you thought him? You think the Cgi of the dragons on House of the Dragon is shoddy?

I think the scenes in which he is like on a saddle, on a dragon that is clearly just a slightly moving thing. the dragon. That's the backgrounds. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah, no. The dragons look great, though. The dragons, when they're independent defunions look amazing. You know I hate CGI. The House of the Dragon Dragons look amazing. How is it that you bump on every wig on television and you see Matt Smith on like a rocking horse and you're like, that's good TV to me. That's cinema. That is art. But I, too, I'm just going to pick a show that I loved that I thought I might end up selecting

in comedy if you would beat me to Widows Bay, but you left me no choice there. And that's how to get to heaven from Belfast. This is a classic Rob choice, and I will just take you behind the curtain before when we, oh, on one knee. Okay, a couple things. Number one, this is not going to make great audio, but for the listeners at home, Rob is kneeling as he writes his wildcard. Two things. Number one, I said, wild card's going to be the hardest one to write, and Rob's like, it's going to be the easiest one to write. You had to take a knee.

Secondly, he was like, how are we going to write the really long ones? And I was like, you can just write Belfast if you want to pick how to get to Heaven from Belfast. Rob, why did you pick that show? It's hilarious. Yeah. If you're going to have your little twisty murder mystery. What's it about for people who might not know? It's about three women who are lifelong friends from their childhood who harbor a dark

secret and are also trying to unveil what may or may not be a murder and trying to get to the bottom of it. And I love many things about it. I mean, look, if you are familiar with dairy girls, if you're familiar with Lisa McGee, like this is in your zone comedically, and does not shy away from that. Like, wants to be funny, wants to be engaging, wants to be pulpy. in a beach read kind of way, but also like,

let's actually have fun with this thing. And also is in that zone of sex in the city, girls, Seinfeld, like characters as personality test? Like,

which one of these people are you? Are you the professionally successful, but in a terrible relationship? Are you the one who's, like, trying to be glamorous, but maybe, like, a little bit vapid as a result? Are you...

And that's you, right? Historically. Yeah. Are you, like, the offbeat friend that no one understands, or are you the one who may be, or maybe,

not committed a murder that you've been hiding for decades. And that's me. We all know it. The maybe murderer, yeah. All right. So that's our board. We only have a few minutes left. So I thought, even though it may not register at home, so you'll just have to take our word for it.

Should we pull the audience to see who won this draft? I would love to. I mean, is there any criteria we should give them other than which of these things do you like? Just bear in mind that just because I didn't pick the pit doesn't mean I don't understand what's popular on television. Wow. Wow. Already shying away from the results of a poll, we have not done. Any pitch you want to make for your side?

I think the work speaks for itself. I think it does. Okay. Round of applause for Rob's side of the board. Okay. All right. I like that. Round of applause from my side of the board.

Oh. It's really close, but there was a stronger woo on your side, so I'm going to give it to you, Rob. I think that's because Shailene Woodley is in the audience. Okay. Shailie wooed you. Thank you. so much for acknowledging my work on a great show, Paradise. Anything else you want to say?

I loved, I mean, for one, doing this exercise was a lot of fun. I feel like there's still so much stuff that we didn't even get to dive into because of the categories we created. But I think the top heavy nature of this year of TV did bear out. It is a lot of, you know, Widows Bay. It is, honestly, the bear kind of entering into that conversation was interesting. The pit clearly. I'm a little curious that Furious didn't get on your board somewhere. Well, I don't like to, like, plant my flag on a mid-season.

So many shows have disappointed me, like, after mid-season. Where is your courage, you know? Where is my sentence, you know? I'm shocked you didn't pick anything in Cape Fear. The cork board's here. Yeah. But you didn't pick anything in Cape Fear. Wildcard, I mean, Javier Bardem is as wild card as it gets in that show.

Actually, specifically, the spider monkey jump that Javier does in the finale of Cape Fear through a rainy window is the most athletic. thing I've seen on every television and I cover professional basketball for a living. So take from that what you will. If you haven't seen Cape Fear yet, I honestly would strongly recommend it, despite the fact that I really have no idea if that show was good. I almost picked for achievement and horniness off campus, a very popular show. Amazon really like churning out the horny young adult content right now.

Is that their brand? Currently, they are shifting in that direction. They're moving away from massive IP to horny teenagers. And they're like, guess what's worked every time? Horny teenagers. Hivit to horny video. It's just an incredible business strategy that frankly, all streamers and networks should embrace. The Vampire List Out, as you mentioned, Wonder Man, which I thought was an incredible show

that canceled devastatingly too soon. Young Sherlock, a show that you mocked your parents were watching and I really enjoyed. My parents were listening. I'm sorry. My parents tried to tell me about Young Sherlock and specifically the episode, I guess is it early where he meets Young Moriarty? It's the premise of the show. I mean, what in the Young Sheldon?

are we doing here? We need to stop this. Anything didn't get mentioned off of your long list? I think the only one I wanted to shout out. I mean, we didn't really get into beef. I think that's more of a performance, maybe forward show than it is a show

that we really loved through and through. And in our mutual appreciation, really only eligible for Wildcard of the British competition show Taskmaster. I wanted to highlight the great work of your fellow Joanna, Joanna Page, correct. Who on a series in which Armando Ianucci is on it,

Camel Najiani, on it, like pretty loaded by taskmaster standards. The clear winner and clear standout is a Welsh woman who just over explains every single joke she's trying to make. And it was probably the funniest thing I saw on TV this year. Have you ever seen, have you seen her show Gavin and Stacey? No. Okay, you should watch it.

You'll love it. Clearly. All right. Well, that has been our draft of the best of the year so far. We did it. Thank you to everyone here at Televerse who is here. Thank you to our team. And we'll see you for more furious coverage and so horses and all the rest this year.

Bye. Thank you.