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.
If you search for “Squid Game” on the web or mobile, an invitation card will appear at the bottom of the screen. Click on it, and you’ll see a group of characters you have to carefully guide toward Squid Game’s giant doll when it’s not looking.
If you’re an Apple TV Plus subscriber, you can watch the first eight minutes of Severance season two from the Apple TV Plus app or website under the show’s “Bonus Content” section. The second season comes out on January 17th.
Here’s what to watch over the holidays in case all those live sports broadcasts don’t work out.
After years of brand tie-ins and ill-conceived spinoffs, the series is back — and it’s just as tense as ever.
We got a healthy dose of Star Wars and Marvel shows on Disney Plus this year, but the more mature series from Hulu helped balance things out.
It was another sci-fi-heavy year for Apple’s streaming service.
According to a report in Bloomberg, Arcane racked up the views on Netflix but couldn’t translate that success into profit. The show’s two seasons cost Riot Games roughly $250 million to produce with a Riot spokesperson sharing that the second season was successful enough to, “at least break-even for us financially.”
This year’s Prime Video streaming content was led by adaptations and spinoffs like Fallout and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
Between The Penguin, Dune: Prophecy, and I Saw the TV Glow, Max has you covered when it comes to last-minute streaming options to get you through the holidays.
That’s Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk talking to Variety in a story that explores how the show became a worldwide phenomenon and a massive business for Netflix. Most notable, though, is how much the creator seems done with it all:
I’m so sick of my life making something, promoting something. So I’m not thinking about my next project right now. I’m just thinking about going to some remote island and having my own free time without any phone calls from Netflix.
For reasons that only Frankie Muniz, Bryan Cranston, and Jane Kaczmarek know, Disney Plus has ordered four episodes of a new Malcolm in the Middle revival in which “Malcolm (Muniz) and his daughter are drawn into the family’s chaos when Hal (Cranston) and Lois (Kaczmarek) demand his presence for their 40th wedding anniversary party.”
Reality TV contestants have typically been classified as independent contractors or even volunteers rather than employees whose labor is essential to their shows’ production.
That distinction keeps reality stars from unionizing, but that might change now that the National Labor Relations Board has launched a complaint against Love Is Blind accusing the Netflix show of “several labor violations, including unlawful contractual terms related to confidentiality and noncompete provisions.”
[The New York Times]
Max has been available in a handful of European countries since earlier this year, but now that Warner Bros. Discovery and Sky have re-upped their distribution partnership, the one to watch is finally launching in the UK and Ireland some time in 2026.
Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld’s first season feels like a classic monster slaying story remixed for a new generation.
Most everyone’s feeling festive in the new trailer for Doctor Who’s latest Christmas special, but the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) himself seems to be dealing with an existential crisis.
Neither he nor his new buddy Joy (Nicola Coughlan) seem to know why there are two of him at the same place and time. But they’ll probably have a blast figuring it out when the epidode debuts on December 25th.
Alison Schapker sees Dune: Prophecy as a story about the ebb and flow of institutional power.
Disney Plus’ latest Star Wars series is trying to speak directly to a new generation of young fans.
Subtitled episodes of Dragon Ball Daima have been streaming on Netflix, Hulu, and Crunchyroll for some time now, but the series’ English dub starring Stephanie Nadolny as mini Goku and Paul Castro Jr. as mini Vegeta is finally coming to Crunchyroll on January 10th.
This time it’s Lucky, which stars Anya Taylor-Joy “as a young woman who left behind the life of crime she was raised in years ago, but must now embrace her darker, criminal side one final time in a desperate attempt to escape her past.” No word on when the series will be streaming.
Apple’s mystery-packed thriller is coming back for season 2 early next year. The new season shifts the setting to London, as Sophie (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) “continues her mission for answers in her hometown.” It starts streaming on February 21st, joining an early 2025 lineup that also includes the return of Severance in January.
Arcane’s final season featured one of the better examples of how universe-hopping really can bring some depth to a character’s story. And in a new interview with Polygon, writer / co-executive producer producer Amanda Overton explains how “making it feel like the fabric of that episode is absolutely interconnected to the rest of the season” was essential to making this multiverse work.
Even if Star Wars: Skeleton Crew’s “The Goonies, but in space” premise doesn’t sound like it’s up your alley, you gotta admit that this kid’s all-terrain hover bike is sick as hell. If this is the kind of heat the show’s bringing when it premieres tomorrow, it might be something really special.
