Welcome to the 165th episode of TV’s Top 5, The Hollywood Reporter’s TV podcast.
Every week, hosts Lesley Goldberg (West Coast TV editor) and Daniel Fienberg (chief TV critic) break down the latest TV news with context from the business and critical sides, welcome showrunners, executives and other guests, and provide a critical guide of what to watch (or skip, as the case may be).
Here’s how this week’s episode plays out:
1. Headlines
Bob Odenkirk, Idris Elba and Matt Bomer have new shows; Netflix made some animated renewals; Jerry West goes full-court press against HBO over his depiction in Winning Time; Cruel Summer goes the anthology route for season two; and CNN+ gets shut down a month after its launch.
2. The wheels come off at Netflix
The streaming giant posted a Q1 loss of 200,000 subscribers and forecasts another 2 million more will drop the service in the second quarter. Following the results, Netflix lost more than $50 billion in market cap. So what’s next for the streamer and how does this impact other conglomerates, who have spent millions prepping their own platforms to compete with Netflix?
3. The Goldbergs joins elite company
ABC renewed the family comedy for its landmark 10th season as the series becomes only the 11th live-action scripted original to join that club.
4. Showrunner Spotlight
Natasha Lyonne joins us this week for a wide-ranging interview about the path of Russian Doll. The creator, writer, star and frequent director opens up about the original pitch for the Netflix favorite: “Amy Poehler, Leslye Headland and I pitched it to Netflix as always anthological and three seasons,” she says. And the larger theme of season two: “On a deeper sense, it was if season one was asking how do I stop dying, season two was how do I start living,” Lyonne says. As for the grand plan for the show, Lyonne is hoping for at least six episodes for season three (and beyond).
5. Critic’s Corner
As usual, every episode ends with Dan offering his reviews of what to watch in the week ahead. In this episode, he reviews HBO’s We Own This City and Barry; HBO Max’s The Flight Attendant; Apple’s They Call Me Magic; Amazon’s A Very British Scandal; and Showtime’s The Man Who Fell to Earth.
Hear it all now on TV’s Top 5. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to never miss an episode. (Reviews welcome!) You can also email us with any topics or Mailbag questions you’d like addressed in future episodes at TVsTop5@THR.com.
Programming note: Tune in Tuesday night at 11 p.m. for our second Showrunner Spotlight special episode, this time featuring Better Things creator, star, writer, EP and director Pamela Adlon as we break down the series finale of the FX comedy.
