KPop Demon Hunters and Sinners scored more music-based awards-season wins Friday at the seventh annual SCL Awards presented by the Society of Composers of Lyricists. The songwriters behind “Golden,” the Grammy-winning global smash hit from Netflix’s juggernaut toon, won Outstanding Original Song for a Comedy or Musical, while “I Lied to You” took the Drama […]
Erik Pedersen
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Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: HBO, Disney, Netflix, FX
Come, weepers! Come, sobbers! Come, ugly-ass criers! You are all welcome here at our annual countdown of the scripted TV moments that undid us emotionally in 2025. Our tear ducts definitely got a workout this year, as television offered up a bounty of gut-wrenching, sob-inducing moments. There were major character deaths and thwarted happy endings and a devastating breakdown against a backdrop of cartoon forest animals. Are you ready to relive all these weepy moments and more? Ready to let television stir the deepest part of your soul? Ready to slide down a door while crying out that it’s all just too damn much? Cool, me too. Below, find the ten moments from the 2025 TV season that we’re still crying over.
Forever, “Forever …”
Photo: Netflix
Justin and Keisha actually break up about halfway through Forever’s finale, and while it’s certainly upsetting, it’s both inevitable and refreshing to watch two 18-year-olds come to the wildly mature conclusion they need to let each other go so that both of them can figure out who they are and what they want. But this is by no means the most emotional moment of the episode. That gut-wrenching honor is saved for later when they meet up one more time at the end of the episode to say good-bye before Keisha leaves for Howard while Justin stays in L.A. to pursue music. There’s no awkwardness, just two people who love and care about each other, who are grateful for what the other gave them. Their final moment together is dripping with bittersweetness. As Frank Ocean’s cover of “Moon River” kicks in, there’s nothing more for these two to say, so instead they take each other in one last time; there’s sadness and longing in their expressions, and also an undeniable feeling of hope that they might find each other again someday. But until then, they have to walk away.
Photo: ABC
There we were, innocently thinking 9-1-1 is an insane procedural about bee tornadoes and cops in space, when along comes the surprise death of a main character to leave you drowning in a puddle of your own tears. When Angela Bassett cries, I cry, this is just a rule to live by. Part of that reaction comes down to shock — both that the show would actually kill off Peter Krause’s Bobby Nash, arguably the lead of the ensemble, and at the reveal that Bobby knew the whole time that he was infected with the virus they were called in to contain, but kept quiet so that Chimney, also infected, would get the only dose of the antidote. The other reason this hits so hard? Krause and Bassett are 9-1-1’s mom and dad, so from the moment Bobby says, “I want some time alone with my wife,” you know we are in for it. He tells Athena he loves her, that he would choose her if he could, and then proceeds to bleed out right in front of her. He wants her to go, but she refuses to leave his side until it’s over.
Photo: HBO
There’s nothing like a catharsis cry, and that’s exactly what Task serves up in its final montage of what befalls both Tom Brandis and Maeve Prendergast once the Dark Hearts case is wrapped up for good (for now). In the end, Tom, who has taken in Sam, the young boy who accidentally stumbled into Robbie’s revenge tour on the Dark Hearts, must let his foster son go. It’s bittersweet to watch Tom “be unselfish” with his love, knowing that giving up Sam is ultimately the best thing for a boy who needs — deserves — stability that Tom can’t give at the moment. (That shot of Emily helping Sam button up his shirt before meeting his new family? Makes me sob every single time.) But forgiving his own son and letting Sam into his heart has offered Tom a fresh start. He seems somehow lighter at the end of all this — isn’t Mark Ruffalo so good at his job?
But Tom is not the only one given this ending. Maeve, too, makes an unselfish act by taking her young cousins into her care and giving them a new life somewhere else. Moving out of that house is the only way forward, but Maeve also makes sure not to dismiss what happened there — she still wants to honor her late father and uncle. For a show as bleak and depressing as Task is for most of its seven episodes, having it end on such a note of overwhelming hopefulness is a welcome and moving surprise.
Photo: Netflix
Honestly, when are you not crying while watching Adolescence? Its one-take formula is made to break you — there are no breathers, the intensity simply keeps building to its apex. This is especially true in the final episode, as we watch Jamie’s parents, Eddie and Manda, and his sister, Lisa, attempt and repeatedly fail to make Eddie’s birthday a celebratory one, even after they wake up to a slur spray-painted on the side of his van. It feels almost in reach until Jamie calls and informs his family that he’s changing his plea to guilty. The dam of emotion Eddie has been holding in bursts, and upstairs in their bedroom, Eddie and Manda have a teary, honest conversation about how they should’ve done better with their son. It feels like the first time they are admitting to the enormous guilt they’ve been internally grappling with. “We made him,” Manda says more than once. They made every part of him, and to have any shot at moving forward, they have to own it.
Photo: AppleTV
Severance has the most complicated and most heartbreaking love triangle on television. With four people and only three bodies, will anyone come out of this thing with even the tiniest bit of a happy ending? Sure, you can’t fault Innie Mark for choosing to stay with Helly and, you know, continue existing, but the implications of that choice are absolutely devastating for Outie Mark and Gemma. For two years, he’s been mourning her “death” and she’s had her brain severed 25 times. Mark’s plan to go rescue his wife is so risky and so insane and so fucking triumphant that it is impossible not to burst into tears the moment Gemma steps out of the Cold Harbor room and returns to her old self, recognizing her husband standing in front of her. Finally, Outie Mark and Gemma are reunited, and the mix of joy and relief and love on Adam Scott and Dichen Lachman’s faces as their characters take each other in wallops you. Mark and Gemma’s elevator ride might be the biggest emotional whiplash on television this year: One second you are crying tears of joy as Mark finally gets to kiss his wife again, and then you get punched in the gut in a whole new way when they reach the severed floor and return to Innie Mark and Miss Casey. It’s a real “Didn’t we almost have it all?” moment, and I would like it severed from my brain immediately.
Andor, “Welcome to the Rebellion”
Photo: Disney+
Andor uses the fact that it’s a prequel to Rogue One to its advantage several times throughout its two-season run, but never does that fact deliver a more emotional blow than when Bix sacrifices her romance with Cassian for the good of the Rebellion. Cassian is ready to leave the war against the Empire behind for a quiet, happy life with Bix, but she refuses to let him choose her over that fight, so she secretly leaves the rebel base, and Cassian, in the middle of the night. When he finds her good-bye video the next morning, she’s already long gone, despite his desperate run out to the ships to see if he can catch her. (Diego Luna’s face here — kill me.) Now, this would all be heartbreaking on its own — especially when paired with Brandon Roberts’s gorgeous scoring of this scene — but the waterworks really start to flow when Bix promises Cassian that once they win this war, she will find him and they can live the life they want together. Her hope is devastating because we know that none of this will ever happen, that Cassian is destined to sacrifice his life for the rebellion. We know that they will never see each other again. Fuck you, Rogue One!
The Last of Us, “Through the Valley”
Photo: HBO
Unless you stayed off the internet for the two years in between seasons one and two of The Last of Us, you likely already knew that Pedro Pascal’s Joel was living on borrowed time. Abby’s brutal, fatal revenge on Joel for murdering her father to save Ellie back in season one was hardly a surprise, and yet that doesn’t blunt the emotional impact. The entire sequence is hard to watch, not only because the sheer level of violence is a shock to the system, but also because of how devastating it is to see Ellie, who tries so hard to act older than she is, shed that veneer and become instantly childlike. She knows he’s dead, but this doesn’t stop her from crawling over to him in tears to hold his hand one last time, just a kid begging the only father she’s ever known to live. Bella Ramsey sells the hell out of this moment, and the scene only becomes more potent on rewatch since by the end of the season we learn that when Ellie told Jesse at the beginning of this episode that she and Joel will be just fine, she really meant it — they were on the precipice of healing what was broken between them. She left for that patrol feeling hopeful, she returned from it forever changed.
Upload, “Mile End”
Photo: Prime
Upload has absolutely zero business going this hard. Yet this silly rom-com — about a dead guy named Nathan whose consciousness is uploaded to a swanky virtual afterlife where he falls in love with customer-service rep Nora — wraps up its final season with an episode that goes so hard I did, admittedly, ugly-cry just thinking about it hours after watching. Nathan and Nora have already had to fight for their happily-ever-after through developments including, but not limited to, getting downloaded into the clone body his clingy ex grew for him, and getting kidnapped by evil billionaires who upload him over 100 times while running evil billionaire experiments on him. And just when they’re finally reunited, they realize that Nathan’s brain will never recover and he’s dying — there’s nothing they can do to stop it. They’ll never get a lifetime of happiness together, but they do have a few hours. Nora gets Nathan home and they lie in bed, where she uses her VR goggles to take him to Montreal, the place they planned to run off to together. They watch the sunset while Nathan tells Nora happy birthday and good morning and asks what she wants for dinner — all the little conversations they’ll never get to have. And then he tells her how happy she made him, that she was the love of his life, “this one. And the next one and the one after that …” and then he’s gone. In the real world, she takes off their goggles and holds him just a little bit longer. And now I’m crying again. Like I said, Upload goes hard.
Photo: HBO
Half of this list could be filled with scenes from The Pitt even though the medical series generally prioritizes authenticity over sentimentality. Maybe that’s the reason its most emotional moments hit so hard — it all feels so real. This is especially true of Noah Wyle’s performance as Dr. Robby, our stalwart leader, the calming voice in the shitstorm that is this season-long shift. It’s honestly a miracle the guy goes 13 hours before breaking down. You know it’s coming, too, as Robby, already attempting to compartmentalize his PTSD, collects one loss after another in the wake of the Pitt Fest shooting. But it’s his inability to save Jake’s girlfriend that finally does him in. Robby holds back tears as he tries to explain himself to his ex’s son, he sobs as he rattles off a list of people we’ve watched die throughout the season, and finally he erupts, kicking Jake out so he can be alone, weeping on the floor of that pediatric room turned morgue. The desperation as Robby falls apart is agonizing to watch, and yet there is some sense of relief, too, that this guy who has been trying to hold it all together for his team and for his patients is finally allowing himself to feel the full devastation of the shift from hell.
Dying for Sex, “It’s Not That Serious”
Photo: Hulu
Well, it’s right there in the title: This is a series about death. But Dying for Sex is much more than a solemn march as Molly’s terminal cancer takes her life, and two of its most magical elements, the ones that elevate it beyond some schmaltzy weepfest, really get to shine in the finale. First, there’s the pitch-perfect blend of comedy and tragedy. You will be crying for this entire episode — yes, even during the flying-penis bit — but you’ll be laughing, too. Laughing through tears, there’s really nothing like it. The second, of course, is the gorgeous friendship between Molly and Nikki, which anchors the show thanks to two fierce performances from Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate. When it gets to the end, Nikki and Molly, who has been in hospice and is in so much pain she asks to be sedated, go into it knowing this will be the last conversation they’ll ever have. As Molly drifts off, Nikki tells her that she’s grateful, that she’s proud of her, that she loves her. Molly takes one last look at her best friend and says good-bye with a simple yet deeply rooted truth: “You were my favorite person in the whole wide world.” Molly may finally be free of pain, but the rest of us are left as crumpled-up disaster zones on the couch, attempting to wipe away the seemingly never-ending snot and tears spewing from our faces before making a much-needed call to our best friends.
Maggie Fremont
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What’s colder than a mocha frappuccino? Losing your job while on maternity leave.
That’s the reality former Starbucks recruiter Leslee Hemenway faces after being laid off by the coffee chain, according to her LinkedIn post on Monday. Hemenway worked at Starbucks for seven years and was one of their retail management interns during college, her LinkedIn profile reads. She was one of the 900 non-retail employees laid off from Starbucks last week.
“Being laid off while on maternity leave feels like a sick joke, but it’s the reality I’m presently facing,” Hemenway’s post said.
Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol said the layoffs were a “difficult decision” to tighten the company’s costs, he announced online. Employees were instructed to work from home on the day laid-off employees were notified. Affected employees will receive “generous severance and support packages including benefits extensions,” according to Niccol. Starbucks did not return a request for comment by the time of publication to offer a more detailed explanation.
“I know these decisions impact our partners and their families, and we did not make them lightly,” Niccol said in a company announcement. “I believe these steps are necessary to build a better, stronger, and more resilient Starbucks that deepens its impact on the world and creates more opportunities for our partners, suppliers, and the communities we serve.”
In addition to corporate layoffs, Starbucks is also closing hundreds of its U.S. stores, including its flagship Reserve Roastery near its Seattle headquarters. The company said it was closing locations where they don’t see “a path to financial performance,” and they’re unable “to create the physical environment our customers and partners expect.” Baristas working at the closing stores are being transferred to other locations, when possible, Niccol said. In cases where transfers are not possible, these workers will be given a severance and are encouraged to “come back” when new stores and roles open.
As for Hemenway, she’s going to use the severance package she received to take time to bond with her newborn.
“After the birth of my daughter this summer, I’m going to savor the time I have with her and not actively pursue a new role for now,” Hemenway said on LinkedIn. “However, if you know of something that might be a particularly good fit in recruiting or talent management, please feel free to send it my way.”
Kayla Webster
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The 2025 Emmys took place this past weekend, and Andor walked away with several wins for its final season, among many highlights for genre media across both nights of awards.
While the sci-fi series didn’t win its Best Drama or Best Directing nominations, it took home Best Writing in a Drama for “Welcome to the Rebellion”. During Saturday’s Creative Arts Emmys, the episode “Who Are You?” took home awards for Outstanding Production Design in a Narrative Period/Fantasy Drama, Picture Editing, and “Harvest” won for Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes. The overall season also took the win in Special Visual Effects.
Elsewhere, Severance won eight Emmys: Trammell Tillman for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama, Britt Lower for Lead Actress in a Drama, Meritt Weaver for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama (“Who Is Alive?”), and technical wins for Outstanding Title Design, Sound Mixing (“Cold Harbor”), Music Composition (“Cold Harbor”), Cinematography (“Hello, Ms. Cobel”), and Production Design (“Chikhai Bardo”).
HBO also got wins for The Penguin and The Last of Us: the former’s triumphs include Cristin Milioti for Lead Limited Series/Anthology Actress and Mick Giacchino for Music Composition, and Contemporary Makeup (both prosthetic and non-prosthetic) for the episodes “Cent’anni” and “After Hours.” The Last of Us’ technical win was for sound editing in the episode “Through the Valley.”
You can see the highlights list of Emmys winners for the 2025 season below, with winners highlighted in bold, and see the full list of winners from the night here.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Justin Carter
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“I’m truly embarassed by how happy this makes me,” Seth Rogen confessed during one of several acceptance speeches during the 2025 Primetime Emmys Awards.
As actor, director, executive producer and writer, the Hollywood funnyman turned multi-hyphenate scooped up four statues for his work on Apple TV+’s The Studio, which earned a total of 13 wins overall.
Hardly surpassing the set three-hour runtime, comedian and host Nate Bargatze led the 2025 Emmys through 26 award presentations; television tributes for Survivor, Grey’s Anatomy, Law & Order and Gilmore Girls and a handful of performances.
The ceremony took place in Downtown Los Angeles at the Peacock Theater.
Following just behind The Studio, HBO’s The Penguin secured nine Emmys, including Cristin Miliotti who won Outstanding Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for her performance as the stylish, conniving Sofia Falcone. “I love acting!” she proclaimed from the podium before exiting the stage.
Severance, Adolescence and SNL50: The Anniversary Special each scooped up eight trophies. Fan favorite shows like The Traitors and The Pitt earned five.
See more winners from the 2025 Primetime Emmy Awards below.
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Outstanding Drama Series
Andor
The Diplomat
The Last of Us
Paradise
The Pitt – WINNER
Severance
Slow Horses
The White Lotus
Outstanding Comedy Series
Abbott Elementary
The Bear
Hacks
Nobody Wants This
Only Murders in the Building
Shrinking
The Studio – WINNER
What We Do in the Shadows
Outstanding Limited Series
Adolescence – WINNER
Black Mirror
Dying for Sex
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
The Penguin
Sirens
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
Adam Scott, Severance
Gary Oldman, Slow Horses
Noah Wyle, The Pitt – WINNER
Pedro Pascal, The Last of Us
Sterling K. Brown, Paradise
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Bella Ramsey, The Last of Us
Britt Lower, Severance – WINNER
Kathy Bates, Matlock
Keri Russell, The Diplomat
Sharon Hogan, Bad Sisters
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
James Marsden, Paradise
Jason Issacs, The White Lotus
John Turturro, Severance
Sam Rockwell, The White Lotus
Tramell Tillman, Severance – WINNER
Zack Cherry, Severance
Walton Goggins, The White Lotus
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Aimee Lou Wood, The White Lotus
Carrie Coon, The White Lotus
Julianne Nicholson, Paradise
Katherine LaNasa, The Pitt – WINNER
Natasha Rothwell, The White Lotus
Parker Posey, The White Lotus
Patricia Arquette, Severance
Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series
Adam Brody, Nobody Wants This
Jason Segel, Shrinking
Jeremy Allen White, The Bear
Martin Short, Only Murders in the Building
Seth Rogen, The Studio – WINNER
Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series
Ayo Edebiri, The Bear
Jean Smart, Hacks – WINNER
Kristen Bell, Nobody Wants This
Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary
Uzo Aduba, The Residence
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Bowen Yang, Saturday Night Live
Colman Domingo, The Four Seasons
Ebon Moss-Bachrach, The Bear
Harrison Ford, Shrinking
Jeff Hiller, Somebody Somewhere – WINNER
Ike Barinholtz, The Studio
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Catherine O’Hara, The Studio
Hannah Einbinder, Hacks – WINNER
Janelle James, Abbott Elementary
Jessica Williams, Shrinking
Kathryn Hahn, The Studio
Liza Colon-Zayas, The Bear
Sheryl Lee Ralph, Abbott Elementary
Outstanding Actor in a Limited Series or a Movie
Brian Tyree Henry, Dope Thief
Colin Farrell, The Penguin
Cooper Koch, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
Jake Gyllenhaal, Presumed Innocence
Stephen Graham, Adolescence – WINNER
Outstanding Actress in a Limited Series or a Movie
Cate Blanchett, Disclaimer
Cristin Miliotti, The Penguin – WINNER
Meghan Fahy, Sirens
Michelle Williams, Dying for Sex
Rashida Jones, Black Mirror
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or a Movie
Ashley Walters, Adolescence
Bill Camp, Presumed Innocence
Javier Bardem, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
Owen Cooper, Adolescence – WINNER
Peter Sarsgaard, Presumed Innocence
Rob Delaney, Dying for Sex
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Movie
Chloë Sevigny, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
Christine Tremarco, Adolescence
Deirdre O’Connell, The Penguin
Erin Doherty, Adolescence – WINNER
Jenny Slate, Dying for Sex
Ruth Negga, Presume Innocence
Outstanding Reality Competition Program
The Amazing Race
RuPaul’s Drag Race
Survivor
Top Chef
The Traitors – WINNER
Outstanding Talk Series
The Daily Show
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert – WINNER
Outstanding Animated Program
Arcane – WINNER
Bob’s Burgers
Common Side Effects
Love, Death + Robots
The Simpsons
Haley Bosselman
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Tramell Tillman has become the first Black man to win an Emmy Award in the outstanding supporting actor in a drama series category, claiming victory for his haunting portrayal of Seth Milchick in Apple TV+’s Severance.
The historic win at Sunday night’s 2025 Emmy Awards ceremony, hosted by comedian Nate Bargatze at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, breaks a 77-year barrier in the only acting field that had never honored a Black performer since the Emmy Awards began.
Tillman’s victory represents more than an individual achievement—it closes the final gap in Emmy recognition for Black performers across major acting categories.
The milestone underscores both the ongoing evolution of television representation and the industry’s gradual recognition of diverse talent in prestige drama categories. Tillman is notably the first openly gay Black man to earn both a nomination and victory in supporting drama actor.
The supporting drama actor category, formally established in 1970, has seen 13 Black actors accumulate 23 nominations over five decades.
The most recent nominations for Black performers came in 2021, when Giancarlo Esposito (The Mandalorian), O-T Fagbenle (The Handmaid’s Tale), and Michael K. Williams (Lovecraft Country) achieved a record three nominations in one year.
Tillman’s recognition comes during Severance’s dominant awards season, with the Apple TV+ series earning 27 Emmy nominations this year—a significant jump from 14 nominations in 2022 when Tillman was notably overlooked.
The Maryland native has become a breakout star, recently appearing alongside Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning and securing upcoming roles in Lena Dunham’s Good Sex opposite Natalie Portman and an undisclosed part in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, according to Variety.
Tramell Tillman’s Emmy acceptance speech, in part: “‘You remember what you want to remember. You make time for what you want to make time for. Do the work, show up, and most importantly, for the love of God, don’t embarrass me in public.’ My first acting coach was tough, y’all. But all great mothers are.”
Tillman said to his mother from stage: “Mama, you were there for me when no one else was and no one else would show up. Your loving kindness stays with me, and this is for you.”
By ANDREW DALTON, Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) — “The Studio” looks like a runaway hit, the innies and outies of “Severance” could solidify a spot among the prestige TV elite, and Noah Wyle could finally have his big awards moment as the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards arrive.
Comic Nate Bargatze will be a first-time host Sunday night when the ceremony at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles airs on CBS Sunday night.
Apple TV+ is poised to have a breakout Emmy year with the two most nominated shows, “Severance” and “The Studio,” which are the favorites to win the two biggest awards.
The Emmys air live on CBS at 8 p.m. Eastern and 5 p.m. Pacific time.
Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers may stream the show live. Standard Paramount+ subscribers can stream it Monday through Sept. 21.
Several outlets will have live red carpet coverage, including E! beginning at 6 p.m. Eastern and “Entertainment Tonight” at 7 p.m. Eastern. People magazine and Entertainment Weekly will also have a live red carpet show on their social platforms. The Associated Press will present a slightly delayed feed of celebrity arrivals and interviews on YouTube, beginning at 5 p.m. Eastern.
“The Studio,” with co-creator Seth Rogen starring as the new head of a movie studio, comes into the evening with blockbuster buzz for its breakout first season.
It tied a record for a comedy with 23 nominations, and with nine Emmys already won at last weekend’s Creative Arts ceremony. It would be a major surprise if it did not break the record of 11 Emmy wins in a season by a comedy.
It could win as many as 15, and Rogen himself could win four times, as an actor, a writer a director and an executive producer.
“The Bear” and “Hacks” which have dominated the comedy Emmys in recent years, are both again up for best comedy series but suddenly find themselves underdogs.
“Severance,” the Orwellian office drama about people who surgically split their psyches into workplace “innies” and home “outies,” was the top overall nominee with 27 nominations for its second season. It won six at the Creative Arts ceremony.
Along with best drama — which would be a first for Apple — it’s nominated in all four dramatic acting categories, with stars Adam Scott and Britt Lower each looking for their first Emmys.
Its top competition for best drama could be “The Pitt,” HBO’s acclaimed drama about one shift in the life of an emergency room.
Its star Noah Wyle could be both the sentimental favorite and the actual favorite for best actor. He was nominated five times without a win for playing a young doctor on “ER” in the 1990s, and now could finally take his trophy for what is in many ways a reprise of the role.
HBO’s prestige resort soap “The White Lotus” could also be in the mix for best drama its Thailand-set third season and has three nominees apiece in each of the drama supporting acting categories.
It could be an unprecedented night of Hollywood recognition for older women in an industry known for discarding female actors.
Oscar-winner Kathy Bates at 78 could become the oldest winner ever in the best actress in a drama category for playing the title role in CBS’ “Matlock.” She’d be the first woman from a network series to win the award in a decade.
And Jean Smart at 73 could extend her own record for oldest winner of best actress in a comedy if she wins for “Hacks” as she has for all three previous seasons of the show.
Netflix’s “Adolescence,” the story of a 13-year-old in Britain accused of a killing whose four episodes each take place in one continuous shot, may be the year’s most acclaimed show and is the consensus favorite for best limited series. Fifteen-year-old Owen Cooper could become the youngest Emmy winner in more than 40 years for playing the accused.
But HBO’s dark Batman universe show “The Penguin” got the biggest number of limited series nominations and won eight times at the Creative Arts ceremony.
Colin Farrell is nominated for lead actor playing the title character, and Cristin Milioti is nominated for actress for playing his nemesis. Both are considered strong contenders.
Not all of the CBS attention Sunday night may be positive.
Voters could give “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” the Emmy for best talk series for the first time as a sort of protest vote and tribute to its host, weeks after its cancellation by the network.
Many perceived the end of the show as punishment of Colbert and placation of President Donald Trump after Colbert was harshly critical of a legal settlement between the president and Paramount, which needed administration approval for a sale to Skydance Media. Executives called the decision strictly financial.
Originally Published:
The Associated Press
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Clockwise from top left: Gilded Age, Sirens, The Bear, The Rehearsal, and King of the Hill.
Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: HBO (Karolina Wojtasik, John P. Johnson), Netflix, Mike Judge/Disney, FX
Great TV will not be confined or defined by genre. That’s true both for the medium generally and here at Vulture specifically, where we are proud to bestow the label on everything from grim-and-gritty prestige dramas to campy reality competitions to weirdo animation and all points in between. Even that dustiest of TV genres, the medical procedural, proved it can still deliver the goods in 2025. Each of this year’s early standout series are distinctive in their form, tone, and appeal and collectively showcase the breadth and depth of the best that television has to offer.
All titles are listed by season premiere date with the most recent shows up top.
Photo: Apple TV+
Few settings are more soothing than the lives of white, upper-middle-class Angelenos, but that’s only one of Platonic’s many charms. Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen, reunited after playing a married couple at war with Greek Life in Neighbors and its sequel (both directed by Nicholas Stoller, who co-created this show with his wife, Francesca Delbanco), star as two estranged college friends who reconnect in the midst of their respective midlife crises. Zany yet surprisingly grounded, the first season offered plenty of delights, though it was weighed down somewhat by the conventional will-they-won’t-they expectations baked into its premise. The second season, freed from those constraints, takes a real leap, letting the show settle into being a splendid hangout comedy that gently layers in the quiet existential desperations of growing older. It also showcases some truly tremendous face acting by Byrne — among her generation’s most versatile performers — and equally tremendous choices by Rogen’s stylist, who dresses his character in outfits so comically loud it’s hard not to smirk at the sight of them. But even this feels like another expression of Platonic’s appeal: The show is assembled with such intentionality you can’t help but be pulled in.
➼ Read Nicholas Quah’s review of Platonic season two .
Photo: Mike Judge/Disney
This could have been a disaster, because a lot of revivals are. Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, the fourth and fifth seasons of Arrested Development, And Just Like That … — none of them quite captured what made their originals so appealing. What a relief that King of the Hill is exactly what a revival should be, with one finger firmly on the pulse of the past (Hank being behind the times, his friends being a bit of a mess, Peggy having a mile-wide competitive streak) and another on the present day. These characters’ personalities are so hard-coded that King of the Hill has a blast updating them to the trends and phenomena of life in 2025, from a grown-up Bobby being a German-Japanese fusion chef struggling with claims of cultural appropriation to a retired Hank using his new free time to pick up odd jobs on a handyman app and realizing that what most of his employers really want is companionship. This ten-episode season has the same gentle openheartedness, Texan specificity, and satirical touches as the original run, and it’s nice to know that sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same. — Roxana Hadadi
➼ Read Nicholas Quah’s review of King of the Hill.
Photo: Apple TV+
The easy way to sell you on Chief of War would be to emphasize that Jason Momoa runs around pantsless a lot. The thoughtful way would be to say that Chief of War is a bit like a Game of Thrones–Shōgun hybrid, in that it’s both an action-packed and fantastical epic and a reframe of Hawaiian history told by the descendants of people who lived through it. Whatever argument is more persuasive for you, go with it! Because Chief of War is a fascinating star vehicle for Momoa, who co-created it with his recurring collaborator Thomas Paʻa Sibbett and also writes and directs. Set in the late 18th century and loosely based on history, Chief of War follows feuding Hawaiian tribes as they attempt to unify against the threat of colonization; Momoa plays Kaʻiana, a general who ends up traveling outside of the Hawaiian islands and realizing that capitalism and international trade will eventually come for his home. The historical epic is bloody, brutal, and sentimental, with an absolutely bonkers final battle set against an exploding volcano. And although the dialogue can be a little corny and the series’ narrative threads a little too diffuse, it’s also an incredibly bold undertaking that challenges viewers’ assumptions about Hawaiian culture and asks challenging questions about whether outside influence on the islands ended up being beneficial. Plus, scene-stealer Cliff Curtis! My captain, my king! — R.H.
➼ Read Roxana Hadadi’s review of Chief of War.
Photo: Kent Smith
Although it won’t be a show for everyone, The Hunting Wives is the best possible version of this particular kind of show: soapy, violent, melodramatic, sexy, and just a touch deep, but only in ways you’re welcome to ignore if you prefer. It is also gay! These ladies are totally horny for each other, and while most shows of this genre coyly feint toward queer undertones, The Hunting Wives is full of sex scenes that are actually sexy while also being shaped by thoughtful, careful decisions about character development and mood and balances of power. Plus, Brittany Snow and Malin Akerman bring beautifully dialed-in performances — big and fun and messy, but always grounded enough that the stakes stay real. — Kathryn VanArendonk
➼ Read Roxana Hadadi’s take on The Hunting Wives’s double twist.
Photo: Patrick McElhenney/FX
The longest-running live-action comedy on TV could have run out of gas — and to be fair, some of its prior seasons have felt like the gang was cycling through the same old beats and story lines. But in this season, It’s Always Sunny feels creatively rejuvenated by its longevity and by how that lifespan gives it the freedom to consider its own place in the TV landscape. The crossover episodes with Abbott Elementary were basically brand management for the gang’s awfulness, while spoofs of The Bear, Succession, Is It Cake?, and The Rehearsal show how adaptable Dennis, Dee, Mac, Charlie, and Frank are to different genres and formats. The indignities they’re put through during “The Gang Goes to a Dog Track” makes for the most upsetting episode of It’s Always Sunny in years, and the crossover with The Golden Bachelor is a wonderful showcase for Danny DeVito. The series got a season-18 order all the way back in 2020, and hopefully it can keep this playfulness going. (Although, on the record: Seeing the unnecessary “Rob Mac” name change in the series’ credits is a real vibe killer.) — R.H
➼ Read the backstory of how the It’s Always Sunny and Abbott Elementary crossover came to be; Roxana Hadadi’s chat with star Glenn Howerton; and Rachel Simon’s list of essential episodes.
Photo: Karolina Wojtasik/HBO
In its third season, HBO’s big sumptuous American version of Downton Abbey has figured out how to turn the dial on actual drama just far enough without sacrificing the frivolity that makes it so delightful. We got actual stakes in the industrialist Russell family’s marriage of their daughter (Taissa Farmiga, getting to finally flex her acting talent) off to a British duke, alongside everyone’s favorite clock subplot, a random act of carriage-related violence, and more guest appearances from leading lights of the American theater than you can count (Phylicia Rashad! Andrea Martin!). In these mind-melting months, The Gilded Age’s unique alchemy of nonsense and total actorly commitment — thank God for Carrie Coon — has made it the must-watch show of the summer. — Jackson McHenry
➼ Read Kathryn VanArendonk’s review of the season; Jackson McHenry’s behind-the-scenes set visit; Alice Burton’s recaps of the season; and the backstory of how the pivotal wedding episode was made.
Photo: FX
Though it still falls short of the cohesion (and heights) found in its first two seasons, The Bear’s fourth outing marks a clear improvement over last year’s batch of episodes. We rejoin the gang in the wake of a lukewarm Chicago Tribune review, which kicks off a ticking-clock scenario: Turn things around before Cicero runs out of money and pulls the plug. But before you start expecting a sports movie-style comeback tale — this is The Bear we’re talking about — what follows is a series of detours and departure episodes, as Carmy and company wrestle with questions of who they are and what they want. The season still indulges in the usual excesses (Faks, needle drops, more cameos), but it also has some truly standout set pieces, like a notably restrained episode, written by Ayo Edebiri and Lionel Boyce and directed by Janicza Bravo, that trails Sydney on an excursion to visit her cousin that turns into a babysitting gig where she gets the chance to work out her feelings about the restaurant. The Bear might have its rocky moments, but if you’ve grown attached to this world, there’s a lot to love here. —Nicholas Quah
➼ Read Kathryn VanArendonk’s review, Nicholas Quah on the finale, Marah Eakin’s recaps of the season, and Eakin’s ranking of every episode.
Photo: Paramount+ with SHOWTIME
At this point, calling out Couples Therapy as one of the best shows on TV has begun to feel a little bit rote, but the truth is still the truth: Few docuseries operate on its level, because almost no one else is even trying. Season four continues to lean on the show’s biggest and most apparent strengths, which are selecting interesting couples to follow and creating a platform for the show’s breakout star, Dr. Orna Guralnik. But the sneaky secret to the show is and has always been in the edit — it crafts remarkably clear narratives out of hundreds of hours of footage without ever feeling reductive. —Kathryn VanArendonk
Photo: Rafy/FX
Hangout comedies have almost no premise, and that reality is both a gift and a curse. They’re shows about people who spend time with one another, and they sink or swim entirely on whether there’s chemistry, an established tone, and a strong sense of why these people are good company. Like so many shows in this space, Adults is an occasionally uneven first season with plenty of room to grow, but it begins with strong performances, plenty of confidence, and sufficient joke density to make a convincing argument that it deserves time to get even better. There will always be new comedies about what young people are like these days; Adults is the best of the current crop. —K.V.A.
Photo: Netflix
There are too many shows in the Sirens model (wealthy people in mysterious enclave led by charismatic woman), and too many of them also star Meghann Fahy, but the upside of that situation is that when one of them is actually fun and bizarre and well acted, it’s easy for it to stand out from the bunch. That is the case with Sirens, which rarely makes sense and often collapses under its own weight, and yet is so full of strong chemistry between its leads (Fahy, Milly Alcock, and Julianne Moore in what is traditionally the Nicole Kidman role) that it surpasses all the usual expectations. Kevin Bacon is occasionally there, too. —K.V.A.
➼ Roxana Hadadi’s review of Sirens and Caroline Framke’s recaps of the series.
Photo: Philippe Antonello/Amazon MGM Studios
Hot on the heels of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Amy Sherman-Palladino found an excuse to go en pointe. The Gilmore Girls creator cashed in her clout with Amazon to fund a deliriously niche and indulgent project: a transatlantic comedy about New York– and Paris-based ballet companies trading their star talent, led by Luke Kirby and Charlotte Gainsbourg, both excellent. The show’s both a satire of the world of ballet and a loving tribute to the art form, with extended sequences where you just get to watch dancers at work, all colored by Sherman-Palladino’s specific aesthetic, fondness for warp-speed dialogue, and the charming undercurrent of “Can you believe they actually let us make this?” —Jackson McHenry
➼ Read Jackson McHenry’s full review of Étoile and Oliver Sava’s recaps of the season.
Photo: Star Wars via YouTube
The most creative Star Wars project since the original trilogy (and those films owed a significant debt to Frank Herbert’s Dune), Andor has somehow gotten even better in its second season — more thrilling, more complicated, more talky. While the first season of Tony Gilroy’s prequel to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was about the arc of radicalization, the second is about the challenge of consensus-building and how to organize a rebellion when its myriad factions disagree on methodologies and means. That approach gives each of the four three-episode chapters an organizing construct, so that Cassian’s (Diego Luna) missions around the galaxy, Luthen’s (Stellan Skarsgård) lies and betrayals, and Mon Mothma’s (Genevieve O’Reilly) political maneuverings all feel like spokes on the wheel of Andor’s “What is freedom worth?” questioning. The answer, of course, is everything, and Andor never lets its viewers forget the weight of that sacrifice. Also, Luna’s cheekbones! —Roxana Hadadi
➼ Read Nicholas Quah’s review of the season, Roxana Hadadi’s interview with star Diego Luna, Jesse Hassenger’s recaps, our debate on the show’s Emmy chances, and James Grebey’s interview with star Genevieve O’Reilly.
Photo: HBO
Nathan Fielder returns with his singular social experiment meets radical public therapy session meets performance-art piece meets comedy series. The second season is structured around Fielder’s (deeply researched) theory as to why a good number of plane crashes happen: communicative fissures between flight captains and their co-pilots owing to uneasy social dynamics. Naturally, he uses the extravagant means at his disposal, courtesy of HBO’s finance department, to construct Synecdoche, New York–style large-scale simulations meant to help him get closer to understanding human and pilot interactions. An array of Fielderean gags ensue — including constructing a simulacra of the Houston airport, staging a Canadian Idol–esque music competition, and a Captain Sully–related bit for the ages — that, ultimately and unexpectedly, builds up to an emotional payoff that’s quite beautiful. —N.Q.
➼ Read Scott Tobias’s recaps of the season, Jeff Wise’s interview with star and creator Nathan Fielder, and Wise on what real aviation experts think about the series.
Photo: Ingvar Kenne/Curio/Sony Pictures Television
Director Justin Kurzel’s cinematic filmography is like a kaleidoscope for various forms of masculinity. His interests run toward outlaws, mass murderers, doomed men like Macbeth, and white separatists trying to overthrow the American government. But instead of providing these figures with hagiographic portraits, Kurzel and his collaborator, writer Shaun Grant, prefer to interrogate what weaknesses and traumas lie at the heart of men and push them into aggression. Their ability to emphasize vulnerability without excusing monstrosity allows their films an always-impressive amount of depth. The pair bring all of that finesse to their first TV project, the miniseries The Narrow Road to the Deep North, an adaptation of Richard Flanagan’s Booker Prize–winning 2013 novel. Jacob Elordi and Ciarán Hinds star as the older and younger versions of surgeon Dorrigo Evans, whose time as a Japanese POW during World War II — forced to tend to his fellow soldiers as they toiled on the Burma Railway while starved, overworked, and tortured — transformed his entire life. The miniseries is brutal, gory, and bleak; there’s no romanticism here about the gratuitous cruelty of war, and the five episodes absolutely can’t be binged if you care about your emotional equilibrium. But what works so well in The Narrow Road to the Deep North is its elemental feeling, its suggestion that all these characters are motivated less by logic and more by primal instinct: the need to love, the need to ascend, the need to survive. The series refuses to overdo dialogue as narrative connective tissue, preferring to let its actors’ depictions of their characters’ lush internal lives drive the action. With a final devastatingly astute (and ominous) observation about how war annihilates us from the inside out, The Narrow Road to the Deep North is no less humane than any of Kurzel and Grant’s other works, but it might be the most heartbreaking. —R.H.
Photo: Prime
This animated series from Ramy Youssef and Pam Brady follows the Husseins, an Egyptian and Muslim family living in New Jersey, and how their conceptions of themselves change after September 11, 2001, thanks to increasingly racist neighbors, media, and politicians. It’s a dark subject, but one that #1 Happy Family USA lightens up with original songs (including a quite catchy one about “Spies in the Mosque”), absurd voice performances (including Youssef performing both the family patriarch Hussein Hussein and teen son Rumi Hussein), and a thrilling through-line of anger at how easily America slid into its current atmosphere of paranoia and bloodthirstiness. Maybe the season is too frenetically paced and too overstuffed with ideas. But there’s a devil-may-care quality to #1 Happy Family USA, like no one involved can believe they’re getting away with creating a series in which former president George W. Bush is portrayed as a lizardlike kidnapper, the FBI like a bunch of maladjusted adrenaline junkies, and a hijab-wearing male dentist as possessing beaverlike teeth that can gnaw through trees. (The level of absurdity, it varies.) The elasticity of the medium allows for the series to stretch to accommodate all its most provocative and insightful ideas, until it ends on a cliffhanger that will forever change the way you think about the term “spy kids.” Another season is already on the way, which means you have no excuse not to watch. —R.H.
➼ Read Roxana Hadadi’s review of #1 Happy Family USA.
Photo: Jasper Savage/Netflix
The equivalent of a warm bowl of soup on a cold day, North of North reminds you what a comedy can provide — laughs, obviously, but comfort, too. With Iqaluit, Canada’s northernmost city, standing in for the fictional Indigenous community of Ice Cove, North of North’s eight-episode first season focuses on 20-something Siaja (an extremely winning Anna Lambe). She’s outgoing, cheery, and determined to make something of herself after separating from her overbearing and emotionally abusive husband, Ting (Kelly William). There’s just one problem with her plan: Ting is beloved by the town for his athleticism and his hunting skills, and they all immediately turn on Siaja for leaving him. The plot pushes Siaja toward ambition both professional (can she hold down a new job at the community center; can she serve as a resource for a visiting polar research team?) and personal (can she take a chance on herself; can she avoid being pulled back under Ting’s sway?), and Lambe handles it with all relatable charm. The cast surrounding her has great comedic timing, and the subplot involving Siaja’s mother Neevee (Maika Harper) and a returning flame from her past (Jay Ryan) is one of the season’s most moving. An episode about a baseball-game rivalry between Ice Cove and its nemesis town that’s packed with Indigenous in-jokes suggests that North of North could have Parks and Recreation–style legs, too, if Netflix were to go ahead and renew it already. —R.H.
➼ Read Roxana Hadadi’s review of North of North.
Photo: Sarah Shatz/FX
It feels incredibly reductive to call Dying for Sex a limited series about a woman with cancer, even though that is technically accurate. That’s because it’s about so much more than just cancer, including reclaiming one’s sexuality in midlife, facing childhood trauma, experiencing deep bonds of female friendship, and, yeah, staring down the barrel of mortality. Anchored by a gorgeously understated yet deeply felt performance by Michelle Williams, Dying for Sex is also darkly and consistently funny, flipping the bird at every trope in every maudlin cancer story we’ve seen before. This isn’t a show about dying at all; it’s a celebration of all the things that make life so worth living that we fight to keep doing that as long as we can. —Jen Chaney
➼ Read Rachel Handler’s talk with Michelle Williams about the making of the series, Handler’s interview with star Jenny Slate, and Erin Qualey’s recaps.
Photo: Apple TV+
Pity the … studio chief? Seth Rogen anchors this Apple TV+ comedy that follows a newly elevated head of the fictional film studio as he tries (and fails) to realize his dream of making great movies in a modern showbiz era that sees an IP-fixated Hollywood in uneasy decline. Rogen does impressive work performing multiple duties: In addition to starring in the lead role, he writes, produces, and directs all episodes with frequent collaborator Evan Goldberg. The resulting series is both an electrifying farce about the insipidity of the movie business and a loving testament to its enduring magic. It also looks incredible and features an absurdly extensive list of high-wattage cameos from the likes of Martin Scorsese, Charlize Theron, Ron Howard, Olivia Wilde, Anthony Mackie, and, shockingly, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos. —Nicholas Quah
➼ Read Nicholas Quah’s review of The Studio and Keith Phipp’s recaps of the season.
Photo: Ben Blackall/Netflix
If all that this British series did was technically succeed at pulling off four episodes that were each shot in a single take, that would have been impressive enough. But what makes Adolescence such vital television is the way it uses that continuous, unedited visual flow to underline the themes and character beats in this intense exploration of a preteen’s arrest on charges of murdering a fellow classmate. Director Philip Barantini, working alongside creators Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, often shoots tight close-ups that make it difficult for the viewer to see, quite literally, what’s coming around the next corner. That approach mirrors the shock and uncertainty now embedded in every second for the accused, Jamie, and his family as they confront the possibility that Jamie could be a killer. The camera’s unflinching point of view also allows for the actors to unleash some remarkable performances, particularly Owen Cooper as an untethered, sometimes aggressive Jamie and Graham as his distraught dad Eddie. In the final episode, when Eddie and his wife, Manda (Christine Tremarco, also excellent), contemplate their role in enabling their son to become an incel, Adolescence does the most difficult and powerful thing it can do. It refuses to let us look away. — Jen Chaney
➼ Read Marah Eakin’s Adolescence recaps, Shannon Keating’s essay on how the series fails to bring Katie’s perspective to the story, Nicholas Quah’s close read of the ending, Fran Hoepfner on the show’s one-shot takes, and Roxana Hadadi’s interview with star and co-creator Stephen Graham.
Photo: Jake Giles Netter/HBO
For four seasons, HBO let Danny McBride and his creative team cook with The Righteous Gemstones, and in the parlance of the God-obsessed titular family, bless the channel for doing so. McBride has a specific flair for honing in on American subcultures and unfurling the oddness at their cores, and as he chronicled the infighting and exploits of the famous Gemstones family, he charted a path to understanding what it is about American’s specifically abundance-based branch of Christianity that holds so many in its thrall. No matter what absurd things the Gemstones family did, from fighting ninja-trained orphans to building megasize time-shares, the series always offered them second chances — and opportunities for fantastic actors like Edi Patterson, Walton Goggins, and McBride himself to go absolutely berserk. Gemstones was never again as cutting and caustic as its excellent first season, but in every subsequent outing — especially the backward-looking, romance-focused fourth — it was reliably stupid as all get out and hilarious as hell. We’ll miss them misbehaving, and we’ll keep our fingers crossed for a Teenjus spinoff. —R.H.
➼ Read Scott Tobias’s recaps of the season; Brian Grubb’s Edi Patterson performance review; Roxana Hadadi’s essay on the series finale and Hadadi’s exit interview with stars Danny McBride, Edi Patterson, and Adam DeVine.
Photo: Robert Viglasky/Disney
Because sometimes you just want to watch someone get punched in the face. Those longing for Steven Knight’s Peaky Blinders movie will be well sated by this series, which has the same roiling energy, propulsive scoring, and heavily accented gangsters as the British filmmaker’s most popular work. Set in London’s East End in the 1880s, A Thousand Blows triangulates on three figures in the city’s shady underworld. There’s Mary Carr (Erin Doherty), queen of the female gang the Forty Elephants, who’s sick of stealing from the poor and starts hatching a scheme to yoink valuables from the Queen of England. Coveting her is bareknuckle-boxing legend Henry “Sugar” Goodson (the insanely ripped Stephen Graham, who enlisted Doherty to join him in his series Adolescence), a man who only knows how to use violence to solve his problems and whose natural state is “teetering on the edge of an emotional cliff.” And getting between Mary and Sugar is immigrant Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby), who fled a massacre in his Jamaican homeland for a job in London, only to learn that the zookeeper wanted to put him in a cage and advertise him as a “wild man of Africa.” Hezekiah pivots to boxing, and his strength in the ring and romantic chemistry with Mary get him the wrong kind of attention from Sugar — who’s just itching to swan-dive off that cliff into self-destruction. A Thousand Blows pulls off a casting hat trick with this trio, whose magnetism elevates some of the first season’s cornier dialogue and sells the characters’ rapidly developed feelings. The fights are brutal, the schemes are clever, the six-episode drop is concise, and the “to be continued” ending promises more drama down the line. If you felt particularly burnt by The Nevers, give A Thousand Blows a try. — Roxana Hadadi
Photo: Adult Swim
In this Adult Swim cartoon created by Joseph Bennett and Steve Hely, a kindhearted and noble naturalist discovers a rare mushroom that can miraculously heal any ailment … even death, under some circumstances. The discovery shoves him into the center of a conspiracy involving the American government and a big-pharma corporation, which both attempt to stop his efforts to produce the mushroom at scale in order to free the world of illness. King of the Hill’s Mike Judge and Greg Daniels feature as executive producers (with Judge turning in a reliably doofy performance as a pharma CEO), and the result is a wry, delightful, and poignant series that simultaneously feels like a Gen-X throwback and deeply modern satirical take on a broken world. Bonus points for the show’s psychedelic sequences, typically populated by strange miniature humanoids who look like twisted, western versions of Hayao Miyazaki’s weird little guys. —N.Q.
➼ Read Roxana Hadadi’s close read of the season finale and Hadadi’s interview with co-creators Steve Hely and Joe Bennett.
Photo: Apple TV+
The first season of Severance ended on a cliffhanger so intense it temporarily halted the flow of oxygen to most viewers’ brains. Then the show did the cruelest thing possible: It did not come back for three years. When season two of this dense and deeply weird workplace thriller finally dropped on Apple TV+, expectations were understandably high. These ten new episodes meet and often exceed them.
Series creator Dan Erickson, director Ben Stiller (he handles half of the season’s episodes), and their colleagues have delivered a surreal, meticulously rendered odyssey that delves more deeply into the cultlike environment at Lumon, the shadowy biotech company that has a team of severed employees whose work and personal lives are fully divorced from each other. As the members of that team, Mark S. (Adam Scott, in a career-best performance), Helly R. (Britt Lower), Irving B. (John Turturro), and Dylan G. (Zach Cherry) continue to investigate what’s really going on at this freakishly controlling corporate enterprise. The craftsmanship on this show, from the idiosyncratic production design to the carefully composed cinematography, is sterling on every level. And while it may feel right to describe Severance as a drama, it’s got a really terrific, twisted sense of humor that feels especially suited to these dark times. If you didn’t guffaw during the office memorial service where employees were told to “each take nine seconds” to remember a former colleague, I’m sorry, but you may not be Lumon material. —J.C.
➼ Read Kathryn VanArendonk’s review of Severance, Erin Qualey’s recaps of the season, VanArendonk’s close read of the conversation between Mark’s innie and outie; Devon Ivie’s interview with star Britt Lower, and Roxana Hadadi’s interview with star Tramell Tillman .
Photo: Matt Kennedy/Neflix
No, Peter Berg and Mark L. Smith’s gritty-grimy-ugly depiction of the American West in American Primeval isn’t perfect. There are maybe too many moments that feel derivative of The Revenant, and Betty Gilpin could have had more to do. But there’s a pureness to how committed American Primeval is to its thesis of “American history bad, actually.” Our pop culture has been so stuck in a mode of romanticizing pioneers and settlers that American Primeval, with its insistence on diving into Mormon history and rejecting the idea that violence in the name of gaining power is justified, feels like a balancing of the scales. Taylor Kitsch gives one of the most textured performances of his career, Shea Whigham is having a ball going head-to-head with Kim Coates, and the series actually takes the time to depict the Shoshone with depth and context. All the beautiful shots of the sprawling American landscape are nice, but American Primeval never lets us forget that these lands are soaked in blood. —R.H.
➼ Read Roxana Hadadi’s full review of American Primeval and Keith Phipps’s recaps of the series.
Photo: Netflix
Once again, Netflix has unceremoniously dumped a miniseries from the wonderfully empathetic Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda on its streaming service with no fanfare, and once again, it’s phenomenal. In 2023, it was The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House, an adaptation of a manga series; in 2025, it’s Asura, an adaptation of a 1979 TV series and its preceding novel. One of Kore-eda’s many superpowers is finding the core of friendship, family, and community in these sources and blowing them up into immersive proportions, and Asura is riddled with these kinds of connections. The seven-episode miniseries follows four sisters who suspect that their father might be having an affair — and might also have fathered a child with the other woman. The daughters range in their reactions to the possibility, which in turn alters their relationships between each other and their partners. But their varying responses aren’t finite. The women change their minds throughout the course of the series as they gather for meals to gossip, reveal their own hidden secrets to each other, and wonder whether the men they love could also be cheating on them. Does anyone really know anyone at all? The cast and Kore-eda address that question with humor and nuance, a lot of meal scenes (for all The Makanai nostalgists), and a finale that suggests love is a choice to be made every day rather than a certainty to take for granted. It’s a cheeky ending to one of the most thoughtfully rendered series of the year. — R.H.
Photo: Warrick Page/Max
Some elements of The Pitt feel surprising and refreshing because they’re a return to a kind of TV that streaming has been uniquely bad at making: a long season, a strong sense of individual episodes, and a straightforward and unfussy drama premise. Those features alone are so well executed that The Pitt would be worth notice. But The Pitt is astonishing beyond that baseline. Executed with a real-time logic and a bare minimum of emotion-juicing musical score, two things can stand out: the immediacy of the medical crises and the show’s stellar performances, especially from Noah Wyle, Katherine LaNasa, and Taylor Dearden. The Pitt would be a standout at any point in TV history. After years of streaming bloat, it seems nearly miraculous. —Kathryn VanArendonk
➼ Read Kathryn VanArendonk’s full review of The Pitt, Maggie Fremont’s recaps of the series, and Roxana Hadadi’s profile of star Noah Wyle.
Photo: Euan Cherry/Peacock
Honestly, Lala’s outfits are enough to get this show in our best of the year. Those little tutus! But even setting aside the continued sartorial magnificence of Alan Cumming and his stylish sidekick, The Traitors’s entertainment value as a social experiment keeps on rising. Since the series has fully reoriented itself around reality-TV celebs, it’s become a fascinating analysis of how this genre’s stars perform themselves, lean into their infamy, and align based on the networks that gave them fame in the first place; The Traitors now has a layer of meta-tension that makes all of the bickering between factions feel weighted by how these people define themselves, too. Reality-TV competitions like this are all about assumptions, how we size up strangers and decide to align ourselves, and that tribalism has an even sharper edge now that we think we know these people from their appearances on other series. That’s fun! And it’s only a bonus that this season has had so much mess, from bickering Traitors who spend most of their time backstabbing each other to Tom Sandoval somehow winning us over with his transformation into a walking banana peel. —R.H.
➼ Read Tom Smyth’s recaps of the season.
Photo: Gilles Mingasson/Disney
After a third season dominated by the will-they-or-won’t-they relationship between Janine and Gregory and a flurry of high-profile guest stars, Quinta Brunson’s public-school sitcom put its head down and got back to basics for its fourth season. With Janine (Brunson) and Gregory (Tyler James Williams) openly together and the cameos kept to a minimum (well, okay, there was the Always Sunny crossover), Abbott did what it does best: explore real issues (gentrification, low teacher pay) through the prism of relatable comedy. Abbott is still the most consistently funny show on broadcast television, with a cast that understands their characters so deeply they’ve made them feel like old, dear friends. Even the kids on Abbott raised the bar this season. Please, somebody give an Emmy to the little girl who played Margaret, the student who dressed up as Barbara to celebrate the 100th day of school because she assumed Mrs. Howard was 100 years old. (“You’re even older than Ms. Teagues, and she’s, like, 50.”) — J.C.
➼ Read Ile-Ife Okantah’s recaps of the season, Roxana Hadadi on the backstory behind the Always Sunny in Philadelphia crossover episode, and Devon Ivie’s interview with star Janelle James.
Tramell Tillman’s performance embodies the Apple TV+ show’s guiding metaphor.
Photo: Apple TV+
Tucked in the midpoint of its season-two finale, “Cold Harbor,” is a moment that bottles the disorientation that makes Severance such irresistible television. Seth Milchick, played by Tramell Tillman, meets one of his employees, Dylan (Zach Cherry), in a sterile conference room to resolve the lingering issue of the latter’s resignation request. Despite enduring repeated humiliations from his employer, Lumon Industries, and though he’s oversubscribed, Milchick nevertheless handles the exchange with faultless professionalism. “As it may yield an embarrassing, emotional response in you, and as I am duly swamped, I shall leave you to read it in solitude,” Milchick says, his diction measured and verbose as he slides forward a folder with three exacting fingers. When Dylan takes it, the camera cuts back just as Milchick pivots and darts out the door like a bat out of hell, his ramrod posture still discernible even as the odd framing crops him off. It’s a fleeting and strange beat, cartoonish if it weren’t so unsettling, but one that effectively crystallizes Severance’s surreal tone — and at its center, the Magnetic Mr. Milchick.
As Lumon’s middle-manager par excellence, Tillman was the breakout performer of Severance’s first season. Season two gives the character more power and complications that challenge his sense of self, and Tillman capitalizes on the material, repeatedly seizing the spotlight every second he’s on the screen. Tillman earned himself an Emmy nomination for Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, and though pundits are placing their bets on The White Lotus’s Walton Goggins, Tillman deserves to take up more space in the conversation. Beyond the historic possibility of becoming the first Black actor to win the category, he doesn’t get enough credit for embodying the strange essence of Severance, a show that broke out in no small part due to the boldness of its peculiarities. In a series defined by unusual, carefully calibrated choices, from its mysterious goats to the elliptical nature of its central corporation to the constant presence of archaic language (“Has it verve?” “The most of its flock”), Tillman delivers the performance that feels the most singular.
The exchange with Dylan doesn’t come close to Milchick’s most dazzling showcase. That comes later, in the finale’s unhinged marching-band sequence, in which his electrifying physicality shifts to genuine menace as he tries to break down the vending-machine barricade Helly (Britt Lower) built to prevent Milchick from stopping her and Mark (Adam Scott) from freeing his wife. It’s a distilled version of the force first glimpsed in season one’s “Defiant Jazz” scene, in which Milchick grooves out with Mark, Helly, and the rest of the MDR crew in a corporate-mandated effort at boosting worker morale (or “merriment”). That moment worked in the opposite direction, injecting brief humanity into a character who had until then been cast as a Sphinx-like authority figure.
What makes both scenes pop is their contrast. As Milchick, Tillman holds his body with a statuelike composure, which makes his bursts of movement land with amplified intensity. He is the vessel through which Severance constantly communicates Lumon’s dominance over its workers, his very stillness humming with the implied threat of corporate violence. That threat is made literal in “Cold Harbor” through another character, Mr. Drummond, a hulking Lumon higher-up played by Ólafur Darri Ólafsson who savagely attempts to kill a spying Mark in the series’s most visceral confrontation to date. But Severance keeps Milchick more enigmatic. The danger he represents never fully erupts but instead simmers perpetually beneath the skin. We continue to learn surprisingly little about him, even compared to Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette), who gets her own standalone episode this season, but the glimpses of Milchick we do see are tantalizing: the sharp leather jacket and motorcycle, the flickers of unease on his face hinting that he recognizes the system’s wrongness, and his fierce defense of traits central to his identity, especially his ornate, loquacious speech. That verbosity can be read as a battleground of race, class, and corporate respectability, and it speaks to Tillman’s performance that it all comes through without the character having to spell it out. His obliqueness is the quality that makes him so consistently compelling, accentuated by how the show never really lets you settle on how you’re supposed to feel about him: Is he an antagonist, a victim, or something in between?
In this, Milchick embodies a crucial facet of Severance’s workplace metaphor. While the show’s sympathies rest squarely with the macrodata refiners as put-upon workers (including even Helly, though the philosophical ambiguity as to whether she can be considered her own person is part of the show’s conceptual fun), Milchick is the consummate middle manager, suspended between the ruthless authority of capital and the moral clarity of labor. His position grows even more complicated in the second season when he’s nominally promoted after Lumon benches Cobel as manager of the severed floor. The “elevation” means little, as he’s immediately wedged between another subordinate, Miss Huang (Sarah Bock), and Mr. Drummond, who looms over him as a corporate enforcer. The effect is a tightening vise. Drummond belittles him after a poor performance review, specifically targeting his speech; Milchick displaces that humiliation onto Miss Huang, and then, in a remarkable scene, onto himself. Alone before a mirror, laboring to internalize Drummond’s order to he simplify his language, the camera zooms in as he repeats a line he once delivered to Ms. Huang, whittling it down with each iteration from “You must eradicate from your essence childish folly” to “You must abandon childish things” to the blunt, simple “Grow up.” A sequence that could very well dance on the edge of hokeyness becomes, in Tillman’s hands, a scene of a man struggling between dueling impulses. His voice gradually descends into a growl as he vibrates with a mixture of pain, anger, and yearning.
Severance may ground its narrative and moral thrust in the plight of its macrodata refiners, but Milchick is in many ways the essence of the show’s thesis, embodying the ways corporate culture twists, consumes, and corrupts all it touches. Nothing about Milchick works without Tillman’s exacting performance, and I’m rooting for him to have a long, unpredictable career. We’ve already seen flashes of what that might look like. In Mission: Impossible — Final Reckoning, where he plays the captain of a nuclear submarine Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is trying to commandeer, he delivered the film’s single best acting performance, radiating more chemistry with Cruise in a single scene than all of Hunt’s love interests combined — “Mister, if you’ve come to poke the bear, you’ve come to the right man” — and so much militant erotic charge it could power the nuclear sub they’re inside. That moment, too, capitalizes on Tillman’s ability to radiate intimidation by way of an otherworldly strangeness, a quality that feels exciting in its sheer potential and, in this moment, award-worthy in its own right.
Nicholas Quah
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When it comes to Severance, there are rarely simple answers. Everything is wrapped in mystery and intrigue. Which, admittedly, is kind of the best part about it. We love to explore and speculate about what’s going on at Lumon. And yet, getting an answer, even a small one, here and there is nice. Which is what the creator of the show, Dan Erickson, just did.
Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, Erickson dodged questions about big topics like the structure of season three or the ultimate length of the series but did definitely answer a question about the logistics and mechanics of the boundaries of a severed person. Basically, he’s asked how Ms. Casey transformed into Gemma by leaving through the emergency door, but Mark and the rest of the Innies have to take an elevator up/down several floors to do the same. Where’s the line? What’s the boundary?
“So, yeah, this is actually also—this is a whole section (in the show bible) of how exactly that the severance threshold works,” Erickson said. “And basically the company can build it however they want. And the idea is that there sort of is just a section—if you were to dig through the wall of the severed floor, you would eventually reach a point where you’re beyond the threshold and you’re no longer within that space where your Innie is being activated. And so, they would have basically just designed it where that doorway is, where the cutoff point is.”
Which, logistically, is a little wonky, but we buy it. The emergency door was down a long hallway, so maybe that hallway goes beyond the boundaries of the elevator, just on a different axis. Either way, we love that he’s thought about this and had an answer. There are a few other answers at the interview, including confirmation that Erickson does, at times, read Reddit theories. Click here to check it out.
Severance season three has been in the works for several months now and, it seems, may start production soon. Fingers crossed maybe it hits Apple TV+ next year, or at the very latest, early the year after.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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Chris and Andy talk about the trailers for Severance Season 2 (0:00) and Say Nothing, which were released this week (1:00). Then they talk about two recent independently made shows—Penelope from Mark Duplass and Shatter Belt from James Ward Byrkit (21:08)—and how this burgeoning independent TV industry compares to the independent movie scene of the ’90s (37:40).
Hosts: Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald
Producer: Kaya McMullen
Subscribe: Spotify / Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / RSS
Chris Ryan
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Finally, some good TV. MAX, the artist formerly known as HBO, is back to dominating my Sunday nights with its highly addictive, highly stressful brand of terrific television.
After
The Idol flopped so badly, I worried that MAX wouldn’t ever live up to its glory days. But Industry, which was a compelling quarantine-watch that I feared might fizzle out in its third season, has proven itself to be the streamer’s latest juggernaut — and possibly one of the best shows of the year.
Move over prestige period dramas and fantasy epics – the hottest show of the fall is all about the cutthroat world of high finance. HBO’s
Industry has quietly become must-see TV for its potent cocktail of ambition, excess, and anxiety that capitalizes on our love for “eat the rich” dramas.
It’s like
Succession and The White Lotus had a baby, except instead of the quiet comedy of the former or the slow, sleepy thrill of the latter, Industry is an anxiety-inducing feat of stress and success. While The Bear’s third season was just a flash in the pan, thanks in no small part to its immediate release of all of its episodes, Industry is coming out one episode at a time and really allowing us to sit in the stress it creates. And I love every second of it.
Industry, like all the beloved shows du jour, revels in depicting the bad behavior of the obscenely wealthy. But unlike overly didactic versions of this like Blink Twice or even Don’t Worry Darling,Industry follows a cohort of young finance hopefuls, exploring how a generation raised on social media and economic instability navigates the rarified air of high finance. The result is a show that feels both timeless in its examination of power and greed and painfully specific to our current cultural moment.
Simply put,
Industry is about investment banking. But what an antidote to the “looking for a man in finance” song that went viral this summer. If these are the men in finance, keep them away from me! Industry follows a group of analysts at Pierpont, a fictional London investment bank. But it spins all stereotypes on their head.
There’s the spoiled
nepo-baby heiress Yasmin (Marisa Abela); the prototypical Oxford boy who turns out to be a sensitive scholarship kid; Rob (Harry Lawtey), the privileged Nigerian golden boy suffering from disillusionment; Gus (David Jonsson); and our main anti-hero Harper (Myha’la), a Black woman from a state school who is both a prodigy and a fish out of water.
Now in its third season,
Industry has solidified its place as the rightful heir to the anti-hero drama throne once occupied by titans like Mad Men and The Sopranos. But instead of 1960s ad men or New Jersey mobsters, we’re following viscous Gen-Z frenemies It’s a world of obscene wealth, ruthless competition, and morally bankrupt decision-making. And though Harper, — called a “diminutive Black woman” in a recent episode — might seem the opposite of my beloved yet deeply flawed Don Draper, she’s a talented outsider struggling to make it in a world of wealth. And talk about an underdog we hate to love rooting for.
The cast makes each of their characters so compelling we can’t look away — even when they’re making a trainwreck of their lives. Myha’la anchors the show with her complex portrayal of Harper Stern, bringing a fierce intelligence and vulnerability to a character who could easily have become a caricature in less capable hands. Marisa Abela’s Yasmin Kara-Hanani has become a fan-favorite for her portrayal of a woman navigating the intersection of wealth, privilege, and gender politics in the boys’ club of finance. “I got a surprisingly large gay following,” she says in one of her opening scenes this season — and I get it.
But it’s not just the charm and quotable quips. What sets
Industry apart is its unrelenting pace and frenetic energy. In an era where prestige TV often favors measured storytelling and slow burns, Industry hits like a shot of adrenaline straight to the heart. Honestly, it shares more DNA with the anxiety-inducing rhythms of The Bear with an upper-class flair.
Admittedly, the middle of the second season dragged. And with all the finance jargon and plotlines heavily contingent on the ups and downs of the market, sometimes it’s tough to follow. Sometimes I call up my friends who are deep in the trenches at Goldman or J.P. Morgan to simply translate whatever I just saw — and to provide a lens on what’s
actually realistic. I worried that the third season would let me down. But instead, it ratcheted up the show to a level of intensity that shows Industry at its best.
Watch the Industry Season 3 trailer here:
This latest season doubles down on the show’s stress-inducing tendencies, with the most recent episode drawing comparisons to the Safdie brothers’
Uncut Gems for its relentless tension. The last time I was this stressed watching an episode of television was during The Bear season 2’s famous episode “Fishes.” If you know, you know that episode was a departure from the Season’s quiet meditations on its characters. It was the epitome of a chaotic family Christmas. And it was critically acclaimed for a reason. Similarly, White Mischief breaks from the narrative to focus on giving us heart palpitations.
Rishi has been a character on the sidelines who delivers some of the best — though sometimes pretty vile — one-liners. But in this episode, we get an unprecedented spotlight on Rishi as he navigates an even more chaotic Christmas than Carmy’s family. From work to home and back again, the episode takes us through a harrowing 48-hour period of gambling, drugs, and increasingly risky trades. And though it takes such a narrow focus compared to other episodes of the show, this episode exemplifies everything that makes
Industry so addictive.
Season 3 has upped the ante considerably, with the addition of Kit Harington (of
Game of Thrones fame) as an unstable — and perpetually shirtless — tech CEO disrupting the lives of our beloved Pierpoint characters.
But what exactly is the point of
Industry, beyond giving viewers weekly panic attacks over concepts they barely understand? At its core, the show is an examination of ambition and its costs — literally and metaphorically. Through its characters’ struggles and their differing axes of identity — the rich trying to get richer and the poor trying to be just like them — it asks how far we’re willing to go to succeed in a system that may be rigged from the start. Through its ensemble of deeply flawed but magnetic characters, Industry explores the toxic allure of power and wealth and the toll it takes on those who pursue it relentlessly.
As we head further into Season 3, fans are on the edge of their seats to see how the various plot threads will interweave and resolve. Will Harper’s risky plays pay off and allow her to rebuild the glory she tasted for a moment at Pierpont, or will her house of cards finally come crashing down? Can Yasmin successfully navigate the minefield of office politics and her complicated personal life? And where the hell
is her father? Will Harry get his emotions under control and deal with his grief instead of drinking it away? And just how long can Rishi’s luck hold out before everything implodes spectacularly?
I mean, we all saw the ending of
Uncut Gems…
These questions — combined with the show’s sharp dialogue and on rushing pacing — have made
Industry appointment-television for all of us who tuned in to watch Succession and White Lotus. It’s the kind of show that demands to be watched in real-time, lest you fall behind on the water cooler — or, more accurately, Slack channel — discussions the next day. In a television landscape often dominated by IP-driven content and safe bets, Industry feels fresh and unpredictable.
The week between each episode feels unbearable. But if you’re like me, the best way to distract yourself from the wait between good TV episodes is to watch
more good TV.
Now, if you like
Industry, you’ll like these shows — and vice versa. From timeless rewatches to new favorites, this is what I’m watching while waiting for the next episode of Industry.
For the
Industry fan craving another dose of high-stakes professional drama, Mad Men is the ideal binge. Set in the cutthroat world of 1960s advertising — March 1960 to November 1970 — this AMC classic shares Industry‘s fascination with ambition, power, and the moral compromises we make in pursuit of success.
Jon Hamm’s Don Draper is the OG antihero who paved the way for
Industry’s morally ambiguous leading characters. Like Harper Stern navigating Pierpoint’s treacherous waters, Draper’s journey from mysterious outsider to advertising titan is a masterclass in reinvention and survival. Mad Men may swap Industry‘s glass-and-steel offices for wood paneling and cigarette smoke, but the underlying tensions feel remarkably familiar. Both shows excel at exploring workplace dynamics, gender politics, and the psychic toll of constant performance.
With 16 Emmys and universal critical acclaim,
Mad Men set the gold standard for prestige TV. Its influence on shows like Industry is undeniable, from the meticulous period detail to the complex character studies. The type of stress it creates is different and more simmering, as you wonder if Don Draper is going to get away with his indiscretions and if his company will retain their accounts. But it’s just as thrilling. For viewers who appreciate Industry‘s incisive writing and nuanced performances, Mad Men offers seven seasons of equally riveting drama.
HBO’s critically acclaimed drama about the dysfunctional Roy family and their media empire shares
Industry’s fascination with wealth, power, and the corrupting influence of both. Where Industry focuses on hungry young graduates clawing their way up, Succession examines what happens when you’re born at the top — and the constant fear of falling. Both shows excel at depicting the often absurd world of the ultra-wealthy, balancing sharp satire with genuine pathos.
Jeremy Strong’s Kendall Roy could easily be a glimpse into the future of
Industry’s most ambitious characters, What happens when you achieve everything you thought you wanted, only to discover that it’s not enough? The ensemble cast, including Brian Cox, Sarah Snook, and Kieran Culkin, delivers performances as nuanced and compelling as anything in Industry. With 13 Emmy wins and counting, Succession is the definitive show about wealth and power in the 21st century. Succession‘s razor-sharp dialogue and complex character dynamics will feel instantly familiar to Industry fans.
HBO’s groundbreaking mob drama paved the way for the complicated anti-heroes that populate shows like
Industry. Both shows excel at exploring the psychological toll of existing in a world of constant pressure and moral compromise. The Sopranos may focus on organized crime rather than high finance, but the themes of loyalty, power, and the American-Dream-gone-sour resonate strongly with Industry’s explorations of late-stage capitalism.
The Sopranos set the template for the kind of nuanced, morally complex storytelling that Industry excels at. For viewers who appreciate Industry’s deep character work and unflinching look at a cutthroat world, The Sopranos offers 6 seasons of unparalleled drama. Each time I watch Industry, I can relate to Tony’s panic attacks.
If
Industry is the adrenaline rush of a million-dollar trade, The Bear is the heart-pounding intensity of a dinner service in the weeds. FX’s breakout hit about a high-end, fine-dining chef taking over his family’s struggling Chicago sandwich shop shares Industry‘s frenetic energy and exploration of high-pressure work environments.
Jeremy Allen White’s Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto — like
Industry’s Harper Stern — is a talented but troubled protagonist trying to prove themselves in an unforgiving world. Both are prone to panic as much as moments of pure genius; we can’t help but root for them while hoping they finally get out of their own way.
Both shows excel at depicting the toll that constant pressure takes on the characters, balancing moments of triumph with crushing setbacks.
The Bear swaps financial jargon for kitchen slang, but the underlying tension feels remarkably similar. The Bear has quickly established itself as one of TV’s most exciting new dramas, finding moments of connection and humanity amidst the chaos.
For
Industry fans seeking a different flavor of high-stakes drama, The Fall of the House of Usher offers a gothic twist on tales of wealth and corruption. Based on Edgar Allan Poe’s works, Mike Flanagan’s Netflix limited series shares Industry’s fascination with the dark side of ambition and power. Bruce Greenwood’s Roderick Usher — the patriarch of a pharmaceutical dynasty — can be viewed as a cautionary tale for Industry’s young strivers. Both shows excel at exploring the moral rot that often accompanies great wealth and influence.
Where
Industry finds horror in plummeting stock prices, Usher leans into supernatural terrors. Yet both understand that the most frightening monsters are often the ones we create ourselves while in pursuit of success. It’s too new for major awards, but Flanagan’s track record (including the acclaimed The Haunting of Hill House) suggests Usher will be a contender.
For
Industry viewers who appreciate that show’s psychological depth and examination of familial legacy, The Fall of the House of Usher offers a compelling, horror-tinged alternative.
Apple TV+’s
The Morning Show shares Industry‘s fascination with high-pressure work environments and the often murky ethics of corporate America. Swapping finance for broadcast journalism, The Morning Show offers another perspective on ambition, power, and the price of success. Jennifer Aniston’s Alex Levy and Reese Witherspoon’s Bradley Jackson — like Industry’s Harper and Yasmin — navigate a cutthroat world where personal and professional lines are constantly blurred.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbjIaPzODs0
NBC’s
Good Girls offers a fresh spin on the high-stakes world of finance that Industry inhabits. Both shows explore how financial desperation can drive people to cross lines they never imagined they would. The stress in Good Girls is more visceral and violent, but the underlying question is the same: what would you do for money?
Where
Industry finds drama in legal (if ethically dubious) financial maneuvers, Good Girls dives into outright criminality. Yet both understand that in a world driven by money, the line between legitimate business and organized crime can be surprisingly thin.
Apple TV+’s
Severance shares Industry‘s interest in the dehumanizing aspects of corporate culture — albeit through a surreal lens. This sci-fi thriller — about employees who surgically divide their memories between work and personal life — offers a different flavor of workplace anxiety. Adam Scott’s Mark Scout, like many of Industry’s characters, grapples with the all-consuming nature of his job. Yet both understand that in our late-capitalist world, the boundaries between work and life are increasingly blurred.
For
Industry fans craving more high-stakes financial drama, Showtime’s Billions is the natural next step. Following the chess match between a hedge fund king and the U.S. Attorney determined to bring him down, it shares Industry‘s fascination with the ethical compromises and psychological warfare inherent to the pursuit of vast wealth.
Where
Industry focuses on young graduates entering the world of finance, Billions examines those at the very top of the food chain. These aren’t messy college kids living in a house flat who don’t know what to do with their money. These characters have far more to lose — but they’re playing equally fast and loose with their love and money.
LKC
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When season one of office thriller show Severance aired in early 2022 it became an instant hit. The Apple TV+ show starring Adam Scott was a biting critique of the modern workplace and an engaging sci-fi mystery wrapped into one. Fans have been waiting for news of a second season of the program for over two years! Now we can finally celebrate with the appearance of a release date announcement trailer.
Season 2 of Severance will premiere on January 17, 2025. That’s next year! Having already waited well over two years, another five months feels too much. But at least we now have something tangible to look forward to.
For those unfamiliar with the show, it follows a group of workers that are part of a “severance program,” that separates a person’s work memories from their life outside of the office, the two resulting personalities dubbed innies and outies.
The show heavily depicts the life of the innies to be one filled with constant workplace abuse, and centers around both the innies and outies fighting to gain a better life. Season 1 wrapped up with a lot of cliffhangers about the future of the severance program and the workers who are a part of it, but the season 2 teaser puts them right back in the office. With all the memory shenanigans, it’s possible season 2 could pick up with characters having no memory of the final moments of the first season.
Hopefully musician SZA is happy to know when she can watch the second season, even if it isn’t “right the fuck now” as she had begged for in a social media post this May. The delay in season 2 can partially be attributed to a pause in production from May 2023 to January 2024 due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. But as I’m sure viewers of the show can imagine, it’s good to let workers fight for better rights even if it disrupts your life a little.
.
Willa Rowe
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ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — As the final semester winds down students and faculty are working to figure out their next move, with other local colleges stepping up to help. Friday afternoon had a big turnout at the welcoming party for the College of Saint Rose students and faculty members as they join the ranks of their new school, the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences ACPHS.
“I have a lot of friends that went to Saint Rose, and I know the emotion that comes along with having your school shut down. So, I’m excited to give them an open welcoming to make them feel comfortable about coming here,” said Student Ambassador, Annie Motler.
ACPHS is one of the latest colleges to be granted approval from the education department to provide teach out programming for biology, forensic psychology, forensic science, and psychology for St. Rose students.
“I’m glad I made the right choice,” said transfer student Karleigh Seeloff.
What was unique about Friday’s party was the college also welcomed eight faculty members from Saint Rose, as well. While exciting for those who were there, for many at Saint Rose, the future is not so clear. “The bitter side of that is not everyone has that opportunity and I know some folks are really struggling with that, that is very challenging,” said Dr. Lillian Rodriguez-Steen.
The end of the semester is only weeks away, and for faculty news from the board this week stating that funding will run out by June 30 and all pay and benefits for hundreds of Saint Rose employees will end was unsettling for those with nowhere to turn. Only about 45 employees will remain on to close operations through the rest of the year.
Senior Adjunct Professor of Music, Kelly Bird, says the closure and job loss will cause her to have to reinvent herself. But like many others at the shuttered college retirement packages and severances will not be offered. “So, for things to turn upside down like this I have a lot of other considerations. My health and my husband’s, his health. Those sorts of things,” said Bird.
She says she has concern for what kind of jobs there might be available. “Whether or not I feel like I could even return to a full 40 an hour a week job at this point, I’m not sure what else would be available,” said Bird.
The College of Saint Rose may have grounds for not fulfilling the year notice outlined in their faculty manual, but Liz Richards, Chair, Department of Communications, Associate Professor of Production says it was deeply unethical for them to do so.
And yet, some administrators, she says are the highest paid, will be retained, with bonuses, to remain to shut the school down. She says providing salary, healthcare and bonuses to high paid administrators is a slap in the face to those of us them who are not receiving the established year’s notice of termination.
James De La Fuente
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These days, if you’re an epic sci-fi story looking to be told, there’s only one destination: Apple TV+. From popular novels like Foundation and Silo to originals like For All Mankind and Severance, the streamer is a haven for weird, bold sci-fi. Which is why it feels like the perfect, natural home for William Gibson’s Neuromancer.
The landmark 1984 cyberpunk novel has been on Hollywood’s wishlist for decades, with multiple filmmakers attempting to bring it to the big screen. Now, it’s coming to a smaller screen, but in a longer format. Graham Roland (Dark Winds) and J.D. Dillard (Devotion) have teamed up to adapt the novel for Apple TV+, which has given them a 10-episode series order.
“We’re incredibly excited to be bringing this iconic property to Apple TV+,” Roland and Dillard said in a statement. “Since we became friends nearly 10 years ago, we’ve looked for something to team up on, so this collaboration marks a dream come true. Neuromancer has inspired so much of the science fiction that’s come after it and we’re looking forward to bringing television audiences into Gibson’s definitive ‘cyberpunk’ world.”
That world follows a futuristic hacker on a secret mission against an advanced artificial intelligence. Which, admittedly, sounds kind of familiar, but that’s because, as Roland and Dillard said, the novel was so influential. Plus, Gibson followed it up with two sequels—Count Zero in 1986 and Mona Lisa Overdrive in 1988— so this could go on for longer than just a season.
It’s a pair that feels perfectly up for the challenge, too. In addition to creating Dark Winds, Roland was a writer on Lost and a writer-producer on Fringe. Dillard has written and directed several features, including the criminally underrated genre films Sleight and Sweetheart. They’ll both produce the series with Roland showrunning and Dillard directing at least the pilot.
So, is this the one? Do you think Neuromancer is finally going to get the adaptation it deserves? Let us know below.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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Though many school students have sat through presentations about the dangers of drugs, some community members worry about the tactics of an upcoming speaker in the Weld RE-4 School District.
Laura Stack, founder of the marijuana prevention nonprofit Johnny’s Ambassadors, will speak this month at multiple schools across Weld County, teaching students and their guardians about the negative impact of THC, the component of cannabis that makes users feel high.
Stack said her findings are based on research about the difference between today’s marijuana and the marijuana past generations ingested.
In 2022, 30.7% of 12th graders reported using marijuana in the past year, and 6.3% reported using marijuana daily in the past 30 days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Stack intertwines her son’s story with marijuana use into her attempts to wean middle and high school students off or keep clear of marijuana.
Three days before Johnny, Stack’s son, died by suicide at the age of 19, he told his mother that weed ruined his life and his mind. Stack said Johnny began using marijuana at 14 in the form of heating and inhaling highly potent marijuana concentrates, known as “dabbing.”
Stack’s upcoming stops in the Weld RE-4 School District to educate children about the dangers of THC generated a handful of concerned community members and parents who question Stack’s credibility and bias, arguing she conveys a fear-based approach that may not have…
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