I watched it on a screen: rolling TV and streaming media 2026

New year, new thread - mostly for TV but really anything you watched on a streamer/at home/etc is fair game.

January is chock full of new and returning shows. Some stuff I'm looking forward to:

The Pitt s2 (HBO) - Jan 8
The Traitors s4 (Peacock) - Jan 8
His & Hers (Netflix) - Jan 8 (new mystery show with Jon Bernthal and Tessa Thompson)
A Thousand Blows s2 (Hulu) - Jan 9
The Night Manager s2 (Prime) - Jan 11 (10-years-later followup to the John Le Carre adaptation w/ Tom Hiddleston and Olivia Coleman)
Industry s4 (HBO) - Jan 11
Hijack s2 (Apple)
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (Paramount) - Jan 15
Ponies (Peacock) - Jan 15 (new thriller with Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson)
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (HBO) - Jan 15
Wonder Man (Disney+) - Jan 27
Shrinking s3 (Apple) - Jan 28
Bridgerton s5 (Netflix) - Jan 29

will def watch the pitt and traitors and knight of the seven kingdoms. been meaning to watch both industry and shrinking

The Pitt and Industry for sure. Maybe The Night Manager as well; I liked the first one and didn't realize it had been 10 years.

Just realized I've been conflating the Night Agent and the Night Manager (haven't seen either)

I really liked Night Manager when I watched it years ago. I’m a sucker for the Le Carre brand of espionage shows. Which is definitely NOT what Night Agent is.

Haha same - I was getting really confused by the excitement around the new season of the Night Agent

Haha same - I was getting really confused by the excitement around the new season of the Night Agent

Bad: We watched the first two episodes of Night Manager 2, and it is some pretty generic and implausible stuff. Might not bother with the rest.

Good: We're also three episodes into Néro on Netflix, a French drama set during the early 16th century, which has assassins and witches and people fighting their way across hostile countryside. It's pretty good.

Sad: I've had to give up on Culinary Class Wars. During episode 4, one of the chefs started grilling crabs over coals, and it was immediately apparent that one of the crabs was still alive while this was happening. And they didn't just show it once: a couple of times they cut back to the crab trying to climb off the grill and the chef hooshing it back on there. I'm aware that attitudes to marine animals differ across the world, and I know that it might make me a hypocrite or whatever, but if I'm watching something purely for entertainment purposes, I don't really want to see that, so I have parted ways with this otherwise excellent show.

yeah that was a bit grim.

Futher ahead, looking forward to the second season of Beef which is around April I think.

All new cast (and beef) this season

Looking forward to His and Hers, hope it's good, plan to start that as early as today. I just finished The Lowdown last night so I have a bit of a void (watching The Beast in Me and Death by Lightning with the wife so our schedules/appetites have to align before I move forward with those).

I liked season one of the Night Manager well enough but tbh the trailer for season two looked incredibly trashy and bad and was enough to put me off for now. Reading the comments above won't drive me on to watch it.

Task is decent but should have been a single half hour episode because that guy wouldn’t have survived robbing a single drug house.

This looks reeeeeally stupid. I'm in. On Amazon January 28.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8R0xDczERo

I watched one episode of His & Hers and don’t think I’ll continue. I hope Bernthal and Thompson got big paychecks.

Very late to the party, but finally gave the Lowdown a shot last night. The whole lovable screw-up who stumbles upon something bigger than himself, while trying to fix stuff at home, all felt bit played out. Still, the Tulsa backdrop is interesting/intriguing. Will try one or two more episodes before deciding whether to pass.

I watched the first episode of Lowdown and it felt a little forced and cutesy -- and yet another show/movie to trade in on Keith David's innate likeability without giving him anything interesting to do. But maybe it gets better?

agreed on His & Hers, I couldn't even make it all the way through one episode. very soapy, which isn't my speed. that makes two Tessa Thompson projects in a row (also Hedda) that I've quit after roughly a half-hour. I don't think the problem is her, but I'm a little wary.

also, Keith David has plenty to do in The Lowdown, I'd advise you stick with it. I know YMMW with Ethan Hawke and sometimes he does seem extremely try-hard, but ultimately he won me over, plus it's got lots of other great folks like Jeanne Tripplehorn, Kyle McLachlan, and especially Tim Black Nelson.

*Blake

Yeah, I will watch a few more.

Tessa Thompson is a terrible actor imo. I mean, she's okay in Thor, where she's supposed to be a little blank and aloof. But she's always somewhat wooden, like she's rehearsing for a Hal Hartley movie.

Lowdown is loosely based on a real person and story, which adds some perspective.

https://slate.com/culture/2025/11/the-lowdown-show-fx-ethan-hawke-sterlin-harjo-lee-roy-chapman.html

I'm really enjoying The Lowdown but would be sticking with it anyway just for all the JJ Cale on the soundtrack

The Lowdown is a great hang! to me it’s like a cross between Inherent Vice & Long Goodbye where it’s more journey than destination, but even more shambolic & lazy-river. The vibes are SO good though.

lowdown was my favorite show of last year. perfect vibes. incredible cast too, just a murderer's row of character actors. like i tell my friends that the ethan hawke show also has kyle mclachlan and keith david and tracy letts and tim blake nelson and they are like "why have i not heard of this show before now"

About halfway through Lowdown and loving it

You know what's pretty good? The Joel Coen version of MACBETH on Apple TV! (Particularly recommended to ANDOR fans. You'll be shocked why.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptqe7s6pO7g

I watch that every year with my students when we do our Macbeth unit. It generally goes over pretty well, though I do end up having to explain what film noir is because they've never seen any.

yeah i kinda liked that one too! odd that they made Mac & Lady no longer able to have children, kinda removes the point of the whole thing i thought

I didn't realise there was a wait for the culinary class wars final! I feel like there was a slight slump in the middle and 70 min episodes are a lot, but endless cooking paradise (surely "heaven") and hell were great. Loved the guy rushing out multiple dishes like they were being scored on quantity not quality, felt like he didn't give a shit about getting to the final; and the calm but not arrogant confidence of Culinary Monster. Sad but not too surprised to see Brewmaster Yun go.

I do like the show but here's my impersonation of Culinary Class Wars

Shot of dude making bibimbap

Black Spoons chatting amongst thrmselves: What is he making? Bibimbap?

White Spoons doing same: he is very fanmous for his bibimbap!

Cut to interview with guy: I will be making bibimbap.

Caption: THIS GUY - BIBIMBAP EXPERT

also:

The mystery ingredient is... KIMCHI!

Shot of assembled chefs gasping

KIMCHI!

Different shot of gasping chefs

KIMCHI!

Different shot of gasping chefs

I watched Heated Rivalry and found it very addictive and compelling TV. Went back and forth on whether it's actually good, whether something that's by definition a romance novel can *be* good, etc. Concluded that it's really well-made in all the details; acting, cinematography, lighting, music, etc. are all very high quality and the guy who plays the Russian is star material. Still can't quite tell whether that adds up to Good, Good Bad, Bad Good, or what.

It doesn't strike me as fetishizing in the way that Red, White and Royal Blue did; the characters are much more realistic, and it's the kind of difficult relationship situation (two people who get stuck in a situationship for almost a decade because the homophobia of their environment doesn't let them conceive of having an actual relationship) that seems worth spending a season on. Definitely seems to be made for a variety of audiences, not just women (though as a woman it's hard for me to say for sure.)

I’m guessing the source novels are fluff, but the filmmakers have clearly approached the material with the intention of making a quality production, which separates it from the pathetic Red, White and Royal Blue. I love the (Van Sant-inspired?) closing-credit sequence of the finale. And yeah, Conner Storrie is a star.

To me, the really big issue with Red, White, and Royal Blue wasn't even the quality, abysmal though that was; it was the way these two characters interacted in ways that seemed designed to make them as cute and unthreatening as possible to a straight audience. Their emails get leaked and what's in them? No sex videos, nothing embarrassingly dirty, just poetic long-form love letters full of literary quotations. That's not character; that's someone mashing two Ken dolls together.

With Heated Rivalry, the characters seem like actual twentysomething guys who have known each other for years but have never had a real conversation and don't know how, and it's genuinely interesting to watch them figure it out.

xposts i've only watched a couple of episodes but those descriptions of culinary class wars basically describes what happens on 99% of all SKorean reality shows

it's just their standard filming trope/style... like americans on a TV competition show and going "i'm not here to make friends, i'm here to win"

anyway, i'm here to echo others upthread - do not watch His&Hers. I watched it to the end against my better judgement, but it was very bad throughout and the final twist is incredibly stupid

All Her Fault was enjoyable though! Also a cheesy soapy thriller but it helped that the characters were various levels of sympathetic, even when they were being dumb.

My only problem with Heated Rivalry was that the actual heated rivalry part of it wasn't shown all that well. Like, every so often someone would go "don't you hate him?" but there was never any real footage of them hating each other on the ice (because the show couldn't afford to spend very much time on the ice, I guess), or any real feeling that they interacted at all beyond a lot of round-bum shagging in private. But otherwise, knowing some sporty guys, I found their relationship sort of realistic. In that one says "you're so boring" and the other says "you're an asshole" and they play video games and they watch a lot of hockey, and they basically do this for years, because that's what they do. They don't suddenly become incredibly articulate just because they're together.

Is anyone watching new season of Fallout? We enjoyed season 1. Two episodes into season 2 - not quite feeling it, too many plot lines.

yeah i like it okay but it is a lot to keep track of, i think mr veg enjoys it more than i do perhaps bc he played the games

I find myself increasingly getting annoyed by so many shows so I wind up just watching Fisk, I hope there's another season coming considering the success it seems to have had with stateside audiences via Netflix.

I’m 4 episodes into His & Hers … the Sobotkas + Bernthal … apart from them, the best characters are the kid and Alzheimers mom

I gave up on season two of Fallout after two episodes. It seemed to be going for maximum grossness over minimal entertainment and I just couldn't be bothered. Similarly, husband is still watching it because he played the games.

Last week's episode of Fallout was pretty good where they finally introduced deathclaws

Okay I finished His&Hers … it wasn’t horrible… but I had low expectations going in based on the “dead baby trauma” in episode 1.

Also, I swear that there is a scene in Walking Dead where Bernthal has the exact same lines & delivery as in one of the last two episodes.

I am watching The Traitors US season 4 but not opening the Traitors thread and posting about it because the UK version is also airing right now and Peacock won't show that until sometime later this year. Am I missing out on any discussion of the US version, or is it all just about the UK version?

(I get the impression that The Traitors, while certainly a successful show in the US, is a bigger deal in the UK. Or at least watched not just by gay men.)

Fallout S1 was overstuffed on plotlines too, I didn’t remember a third of the recap.

My mom is a big U.K. Traitors fan but hates that the US version is all reality TV losers.

Yeah, I was very resistant to the US version for precisely that reason, but I got hooked on the UK version recently and now I just want more Traitors.

(I get the impression that The Traitors, while certainly a successful show in the US, is a bigger deal in the UK. Or at least watched not just by gay men.)

Yeah, it's a total watercooler show here.

People try to talk to me about it and when I tell them I don't watch it they can't believe it!

It's almost exclusively chat about the UK version xps

thank u groovypanda, that's what i expected. i will stay away for the time being.

I guess the main reason the US version is more niche is that it only airs on Peacock, not on broadcast TV.

I think NBC has run past seasons on network tv, after they run on peacock.

I'm a couple episodes in to Amsterdam Empire and it's tonally all over the place yet trashy fun like a vintage prime time soap. On a bonkers scale of 1 to 10, Famke Janssen's acting and costuming scores a 12.

Which dumb, "prestigious" but commercially underperforming biopic should I watch this weekend: Bruce Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere (on Hulu) or The Smashing Machine (on HBO Max)?

Turns out Homicide: Life On The Street is on Tubi, so that's the weekend sorted.

I'll be interested to hear what you think of the streaming version of Homicide. I tried it and ended up going back to my DVDs because they didn't get the rights to all the music so some of it's different, and the crisp, high-def look seemed wrong for Homicide and didn't pair well with the shaky camerawork for me. But if I didn't have the box sets I'd probably still watch it on streaming.

yeah i had the same issues w streaming, the music substitutions really took me out - mr veg got me the dvd set for xmas

I watched it on Friday nights when I was in high school, 35+ years ago. I have no memory of what the original music may or may not have been.

Sorry, that's not fully accurate; I thought it aired earlier than it did. But I did watch it in its original late 90s network run, which was 25-30 years ago.

Drafting off my brother’s MGM+ subscription I found an adaptation of Jordan Harper’s She Rides Shotgun.

It’s got some good points (the acting of the father and daughter, primarily) but they cut out the best elements of the novel (the bonding of said father and daughter, the process of getting to the big action climax) and yet it’s still two hours long.

Yeah, I was reeeeeally disappointed by that. The book rules (as does its half-a-sequel, The Last King of California), but the male lead wasn't nearly hardass enough and they really did leave out the best parts of the plot.

I rented it from Amazon, ftr.

Speaking of Storrie, I watched a film he was in yesterday— ‘Riley,’ about a closeted gay football player who has an affair with the arty boy, played by Storrie. The film was awful but Storrie stole every scene in it, very glad he has become a major star.

(I have not watched Heated Rivalry, waiting for the hype to die down)

WTF?

https://www.avclub.com/vertical-dramas-style-popularity-cost-reelshort-dramabox-exploitative-addictive

That is absolute insanity.

it’s not great but at the same time i get nostalgic for the days of pulp trash comics and movies and i wonder if maybe there are new pulp geniuses waiting to be birthed in this new vertical world

Speaking of Storrie, I watched a film he was in yesterday— ‘Riley,’ about a closeted gay football player who has an affair with the arty boy, played by Storrie. The film was awful but Storrie stole every scene in it, very glad he has become a major star.

Oh yeah, Riley is just about the most banal possible version of the 'tragic closet jock' trope in Queer YA, and I've seen and read plenty of 'em. Storrie is indeed the only good thing in it.

The typical vertical drama is a three-act feature between 90 and 100 minutes, chopped up into 60 to 80 chunks

Suicidal Tendencies are side-eyeing this shit.
Also I refuse to believe multiple million ACTUAL people are PAYING for something like this. Watching it? Maybe. Not paying.

https://www.avclub.com/vertical-dramas-style-popularity-cost-reelshort-dramabox-exploitative-addictive

on FB i'm constantly getting pushed reels for some moderately high production lesbian 50 shades of grey looking drama.

RIP quibi

Started Ponies - tonally it’s kind Spy Poker Face, it has promise. Denaerys is almost unrecognizable as a brunette.

moderately high production lesbian 50 shades of grey looking drama

ysi?

This guy makes a lot of assumptions, and he focuses on Disney, but he also brings up some good points about the general state of streaming relative to physical media:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O0PoDVCmQI

I've seen a few people suggest that the reason Disney, or Netflix, or Apple et al. don't release their shows or movies on home video is that they would prefer people subscribe to their respective services. I don't doubt that, but I suspect there is more to it than that. All the same, this whole system feels so precarious at a time when a legendary studio staple like Warner Bros. is in the middle of a (politicized) bidding war/takeover, or when even standard-bearers like the Washington Post or CBS are teetering on the brink. Just yesterday I heard a piece on the radio about Disney growth being flat for a decade, and the prospect of spinning off a couple of their streaming services (like Hulu or ESPN). And of course this comes not too long after Disney itself absorbed another studio mainstay in Fox. A lot of these companies are growing too big to fail and yet also ... failing. And it's already started to affect the availability of films and shows, from Looney Tunes to Ewoks, any or all of which these companies can make unavailable at the flip of a switch, sort of a distant echo of Disney's old "vault" strategy.

Holy shit the Muppet Show special is extraordinary. Please please bring this back as a full series.

yeah it was fantastic

very disappointed to realise today there isn't a new one this week. I thought this was a full relaunch.

Y'all are selling me on this.

Muppet Show is the first thing since Get Back that has me thinking about reactivating Disney+

the last reboot was so flat & unfunny, i’m glad this time round the vibe was if it aint broke dont fix it ie what if we just did The Muppet Show

and utilizing that deep bench of so many classic Muppets, even just spying them waiting around in the wings or in the audience AH! so great

i got weirdly teary just with them doing thr opening theme song

*the

Yeah, same here - I did briefly think "are they really going to not open with the world's greatest opening theme?" but then they got on it.

I'm amused there's a lot of muppets from Muppets Tonight, who at the time I was very "you're not a real muppet, you don't count!" about but now I've softened on - also inevitably Muppets Tonight is now closer to the original Muppet Show than the current day.

(Ooof, I just checked and there's been three other TV series since then? Four if you count the 3-d Muppet Babies, which is the only one I have any recollection of)

I was just about to post the same thing Andrew! Part of me wants to be "hey, Bobo and Pepe are 'new' Muppets, they never worked in this theater! What are they doing here?" but I'm happy to see them regardless.

The only thing keeping this from being an A+++ episode was Rizzo doing a Weeknd song, which was fine but I'd have happily swapped that out for Pigs in Space.

Also missed Lew Zealand and his fishes, and Crazy Harry bombing something but I think maybe they got rid of his bombs after the Unibomber or Manchester?

and, as someone lukewarm on Sabrina Carpenter's music, she is the perfect person to work with the Muppets.

Finally got around to watching the first episode of PONIES and enjoyed it!

Emilia Clarke has cartoon character-expressive eyebrows.