TV of 2026

[Matt]

This more properly belongs in a future "TV of 2026" thread, but Lisa Kudrow and Michael Patrick King are making a third season of "The Comeback."

[brundlefly]

Also for 2026:

HBO teasing Marco Bellocchio's Portobello.

[Boosmahn]

Darren Aronofsky's Primordial Soup studio unveils a(n artistically bankrupt) genAI series.

Google is involved, because of course they are, and so is TIME Studios.

[dx23]

Darren Aronofsky's Primordial Soup studio unveils a(n artistically bankrupt) genAI series.

Google is involved, because of course they are, and so is TIME Studios.

He should lose his DGA membership and publicly shamed by top directors.

[thirtyframesasecond]

He's always been a very overrated filmmaker so I wouldn't lose much sleep over it.

[Murdoch]

I've never been very partial to the superhero genre in general, but both Prime's Invincible and The Boys have really grabbed me the past few years. The newest seasons of both are moving toward their respective conclusions very strongly. For the Boys' newest season, there's one particular scene I found to be one of the best scenes of pure horror I've seen in any TV show: (Major spoiler for newest season of the Boys)

Spoiler

Homelander flying after A-Train, shooting eye lasers at him, as they both rush through the woods at night, the only clear light source being Homelander's red gaze. Absolutely chilling to me yet oddly playful.

[Murdoch]

To follow up on the above, the last season of the Boys took an unfortunate downward slide (really on par with the past two seasons), full of unfulfilling tangents and tired jokes.

MAJOR SERIES FINALE SPOILER

Spoiler

However, Butcher beating and swiftly offing Homelander proves that when you have a villain as despicable as Starr's superman was, it doesn't much matter what comes before as long as the viewer gets to see their comeuppance

Not a show I'm keen on revisiting, especially as its world became a mirror of the U.S. political reality, but it was worth the ride .

[therewillbeblus]

DTF St. Louis is a mixed bag that eventually won me over. First, the problems: The limited series a bit trite in how it emulates aspects of previous HBO miniseries.. the way obviously wrong red herrings are placed, the lame dynamics between the detectives, the incorporation of youth into the denouement, etc. Jason Bateman and Linda Cardellini can't quite escape their limited ranges, and the limited ranges afforded to their characters, making Bateman's final 'big' moment and much of their comedic interplay fall flat. However, David Harbour gives a career-best performance that aches with pain and belly laughs. This is ultimately a show about the vulnerability of adult male friendships, in all their sublime possibilities and devastating limitations. Even though I guessed the mystery from the start, if it had turned out any other way the show would've fallen into even more hackneyed material. So I'm glad they went in the direction they did, especially for the cumulative impact it carried. The more I reflect on the ending, the more mature it feels. Too bad the show around it wasn't as consistent, though it had to shift through a variety of tones to earn its landing.

[mfunk9786]

Margo's Got Money Troubles is something I really have a lot of ... jumbled feelings about. It successfully distills the experience of reading a YA novel geared toward adults into a television show, and I apologize if that seems like me dunking on some kind of dense and complex book (I haven't read it), but I'm guessing it's breezy beach reading based upon the final product of the television show. This show relies heavily on ridiculous coincidences (for example, Margo's roommate is obsessed with a pro wrestler from 20+ years ago. guess who Margo's father is? did you guess that exact wrestler?? because if so...) and is legally illiterate when it comes to mediation and courtroom scenes. It's stupid, in other words. And almost feels like propaganda for OnlyFans. You know what? I kind of hate this show, the more of this I type the more annoyed I get.

But the reason it's worth watching is for Elle Fanning and Michelle Pfeiffer's performances. They're both excellent (note: Nicole Kidman is in this show and is decidedly not excellent, slipping in and out of her accent as though she's shooting her scenes on a coffee break). Greg Kinnear also has a nice turn, it's just always great to see his thoughtful choices as an actor. Nick Offerman's huggable-but-manly shtick was stale before this project began, but that's alright. I have no idea whatsoever what the creators are going to do in Season 2, because the first season was wrapped up in a neat little package with nothing resembling a cliffhanger or even a nod toward why you might want to see the continued adventures of this crew. But if you wrap it up in an afternoon or two, you'll probably take something away from it, even if you have to root around for something not to roll your eyes at.

[domino harvey]

My wife was watching this and I kept managing to walk in at the most inopportune (or most opportune, depending on how you look at it) times. Seemed brighter lit and more colorful than a lot of the other streaming shows I see in passing, at least

[The Curious Sofa]

I'm currently watching The Boroughs on Netflix. Essentially, it's Stranger Things with pensioners, and it appears to be partly inspired by Ron Howard's Cocoon. The great cast makes it watchable, even if it feels overly familiar and, like a lot of streaming 'content', it is stretched out over too many episodes.

The most striking thing to me about it is how representation of retirees has changed. In 1985, a 70-year-old woman looked like the matronly Maureen Stapleton, who was actually 60. In contrast, in 2026, a 70-year-old woman looks like Geena Davis, who really is 70. She looks not a day over 45, and is stylish, fun and sexy and appears so youthful, it made me wonder what she's doing in a retirement community. It's good to see her back in a high-profile role, though.

Edit: By the last three episodes, I couldn't wait for the thing to end. The cast were the best thing about this and the characters were more interesting than the monster/mythology plot, which had to be resolved in the end. However, I found the track 'Lose Your Soul', which played over the end credits of one episode, rather striking, so I looked it up. I discovered that Ryan Gosling, who was in a band called Dead Man's Bones, had released an indie pop album, which is actually quite good.