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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.

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The NFL is almost all that remains when it comes to broadcast TV.

A set of pie charts done up by Sportico and based on Nielsen data illustrates how much the NFL has swallowed up the top 100 broadcasts list, like a blue Pac-Man gobbling up the dizzy, meandering ghost of what’s left of the old ways.

72 of the most-watched broadcasts were NFL games in 2020. By last year, that number had jumped to 93. (Number two was college football games, at three.)


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Looks like a certain werewolf is coming to Arcane season two.

The new teaser for the second season of Netflix’s Arcane doesn’t really say all that much about what we can expect when the show returns this November. But it definitely makes it seem like League of Legends’ Warwick will finally make his small screen debut, which could mean some very interesting things are in store for Vander.


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One of 90s TV’s biggest critical darlings is finally streaming.

Northern Exposure was one of the buzziest shows of the early 90s, and scored nearly 40 Emmy nominations to boot. While I personally spent an entire season confusing it with Twin Peaks (they were both about guys going to small towns surrounded by big trees!), most people just enjoyed it for the charming “big city guy moves to adorable rural town” yarn it was.

The show has been stuck in a streaming limbo for years, limiting access for people hoping to revisit it or get a good dose of 90s nostalgia and history. But TVLine noticed that now all six seasons appear to be streaming on Amazon Prime. If you start watching it now you might be able to finish before Amazon Prime starts running ads at the end of the month.


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Mike Judge’s new show looks like a cross between Celebrity Death Match and NPR.

It’s always interesting when live-action filmmakers decide to get into stop-motion animation.

But watching the first trailer for Peacock’s upcoming series In The Know (out January 25th) from Mike Judge, it’s hard to say whether you’re meant to be laughing at the digs at public radio or the straight man celebrity guest appearances.


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The head of Warner Bros. Animation wants to to protect artists from AI “as long as we can.”

Hollywood’s entertainment studios seem dead set on incorporating artificial intelligence tools into their production workflows in ways that stand to put people out of jobs.

But during a recent studio executive roundtable discussion, Warner Bros. Animation president Sam Register stressed the importance of protecting human artists “because I think we should give jobs to people who really do that and so they can get their entry-level experience.”


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Echo’s impending premiere on Disney Plus and Hulu also introduces Marvel Spotlight.

After a debut in the Hawkeye Disney Plus series a couple of years ago, the Echo show starring Alaqua Cox starts January 9th. Other than serving as another link to the Netflix shows with appearances from Vincent D’Onofrio (Kingpin) and Charlie Cox (Daredevil), it’s appearing on both Hulu and Disney Plus, even as those experiences overlap.

And it’s the first Spotlight-branded Marvel show, which means:

...in the case of Echo, focusing on street-level stakes over larger MCU continuity...our audience doesn’t need to have seen other Marvel series to understand what’s happening in Maya’s story.


The Verge’s 2023 in review

It was the blurst of times.

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George, send a telegram to Max and tell them we want season three.

Max has renewed The Gilded Age for a third season. The period drama, originated by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and focuses on the lives of New York’s upper crust (and their beautiful gowns) in the 1880s, wrapped its second season on December 17th.

The show’s actors apparently weren’t expecting a renewal and took to social media to celebrate the news along with the show’s growing legion of fans. It’s Mrs. George Russell’s world and we’re all living in it.


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Lionsgate’s plan to spin off its entertainment production arm is coming into focus.

Lionsgate’s desire to separate its film and TV production arms from Starz has been clear for some time now.

But the entertainment group revealed today that it and Screaming Eagle Acquisition Corp. want to take the Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) route in order to form Lionsgate Studios Corp. — “a publicly traded vehicle able to raise fresh capital and merge with existing businesses.”


The Verge’s 2023 in review

A look back at the big moments — and the best releases.

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Returning to the shadows.

The end is nigh for the vampire quartet (or quintet, depending how you look at it) in What We Do in the Shadows. Vulture reports that the upcoming sixth season on FX will be the show’s last. No word yet on when it’ll air, but hopefully we get at least one more scene with Laszlo in human cosplay.


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Notice me, Rick-senpai.

Adult Swim put out another short teaser for Rick and Morty: The Anime, and when I say short I mean it’s less than one minute of some out-of-context footage. There’s not much to explain Summer doing her best Sayla Mass impression or Rick doing the Umbrella Academy meme with parallel universe versions of himself, but it all feels on-brand.


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Netflix picks up ‘Warrior,’ another orphaned show.

The bad news is, according to Deadline, Max has canceled Warrior, leaving the show with three seasons. The good news is that Netflix made a deal to stream those seasons in Max’s markets.

The other bad news is it may not get a fourth season, since, the article notes, the actors are no longer under contract, and the show’s lead, Andrew Koji, is already otherwise obligated.


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Spinoffs are making a big comeback.

In his year-end Screenwriter newsletter, Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw seeded some new TV rumors while laying out why the spinoff apocalypse is nigh.

According to Shaw, Netflix is considering an Uncle Fester spinoff from Wednesday and is making two Peaky Blinders shows. And maybe it’s not a new rumor, per se, but Shaw says Disney really is making that new, Ryan Coogler-produced X-Files.


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Netflix is making a new One Piece anime with the producers of Attack on Titan.

Netflix's The One Piece will be a "fresh new remake" anime adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s manga. It's separate from the impressive live action series and the existing anime that's already 20 seasons deep, with "cutting-edge visual technology to reimagine Luffy’s adventures through the beloved East Blue saga."

There's no release date, but it's produced by Wit Studio, which is behind AOT and Spy x Family. An adaptation of another Oda manga, Monsters 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation, will premiere on Netflix in January.


A nice stay-at-home weekend in entertainment.

OK, yes, Wonka is in theaters, but most of this week’s releases are things you can enjoy from the comfort of your couch.

Barbie is now streaming on Max, and there’s a bunch on Netflix: Yu Yu Hakusho, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, Carol and the End of the World, and the final season of Hilda, which I highly recommend if you need something to watch with kids. And if you’re looking for something fun and holiday-themed, Merry Little Batman is on Prime Video.

When it comes to games, the GTA trilogy is now on mobile (it’s free if you’re a Netflix subscriber), God of War has a free roguelike expansion, and the classic cat-collecting game Neko Atsume gets some new life in mixed reality.


Timothée Chalamet in Wonka.

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Wonka.
Image: Warner Bros. Pictures
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I really hope the second season of Platonic explores its relationship to Invasion.

Platonic has been renewed! Given the first season ended on a pretty definitive note it will be curious to see where season two goes. I hope it immediately addresses the whole “we saw aliens” subplot by pivoting the show into being a prequel to Invasion, also on Apple TV Plus.

Instead, it will probably just continue to be a really good show about Millennials reckoning with growing old.


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Marvel counts down to season two of What If...?

We’re just weeks away from a new year (no, really, I checked), but before the calendar flips over, the MCU will deliver a new season of its animated What If...? series on Disney Plus.

They reworked the 12 Days of Christmas carol as a reminder it’s on the way, just in case anyone forgot.


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Another split season coming to Netflix.

The streamer continues to ever-so-slowly move away from binge releases, at least when it comes to some of its biggest shows. The third season of Bridgerton will follow in the footsteps of Stranger Things and The Witcher by releasing in two parts: the first premieres on May 16th, followed by another batch of episodes on June 13th.