Episodic Medium

Welcome to Episodic Medium’s coverage of Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal, which somewhat inexplicably returns after its buzzy first season back in 2022. As always, this first review is free for all, but subsequent reviews will be exclusively for paid subscribers. To learn more about our upcoming programming, check out our spring schedule. Nathan Fielder doesn’t want to be funny anymore. Or at least not in the way we might think he does. The first season of The Rehearsal was, in effect, one long joke.

Daredevil may be best remembered for its dark, gritty tone and violent fight scenes, but at its best the show could be really charming and funny too. In fact, one of the reasons I’m less high on season three than a lot of fans is because it lost the wry sense of humor that was so key to the show’s tone for me. Thankfully, that wry confidence is back in the second episode of Born Again, particularly in the Fisk-as-mayor side of the show.

Welcome to Episodic Medium’s weekly coverage of Daredevil: Born Again, which debuted tonight on Disney+. This review covers the first part of the two-episode premiere. As always, the first review is available to all, but subsequent reviews (including the second episode, which will go up tomorrow morning) will only be available to paid subscribers. Yearly subscriptions are 15% off through 3/15 as part of our anniversary sale. “Why are we even talking about this?

Myles here. I don’t know that anyone had a synergistic crossover between this set of Philadelphia-set TV shows on their bingo card, especially since Disney doesn’t even produce one of the shows in question, but here we are.

We often talk about parasocial relationships in terms of the famous faces who fill our social media feeds. But there’s nothing quite like the parasocial relationship you develop with the behind-the-scenes creators of your favorite TV shows. And I’m not sure I’ve ever had a relationship more complicated than the one I have with Steven Moffat.

As I was reviewing the first half of Agatha All Along, I couldn’t tell if I was being too hard on the show. Maybe it was unfair to compare it to the heights of WandaVision or Loki. Maybe this witchy series just wanted to be simple, old-fashioned TV with a predictable episodic structure and corny character work. Maybe I should stop complaining when the trials were too simple or the characters acted too erratic.

Welcome back to Episodic Medium’s coverage of Apple TV+ dramedy Shrinking, which returns for its second season with two episodes. As always, this first review is free, but future reviews will only be for paid subscribers. To learn more about our fall schedule, click here. “I need to hear you say I didn’t fuck it up with my patients.” I don’t always necessarily feel like I’d benefit as a critic from being in a writer’s room for a show I’m reviewing.

“Pierpoint’s history is a history of change.” Of all the many takeaways from Industry’s titanic season finale, that dialogue sticks out the most to me. It’s a line Eric is using to rally the Pierpoint troops on their new future, and it’s inherently rooted in nostalgia, which—as we heard last week—is only useful when you’re selling something.

Welcome to Week-to-Week, the (mostly) weekly newsletter of Episodic Medium written my its editor-in-chief, me, Myles McNutt. To receive future newsletters and updates on the shows we’re covering weekly for paid subscribers, sign up for free today. If you’d like to support our mission and get all those great reviews, yearly subscriptions are 20% off through 9/30. You can read more here.

Scheduling note: since HBO has decided to reclaim Sunday nights for The Penguin following its premiere, Industry is shifting to 10pm in the channel’s linear schedule, but it is still going live on Max starting at 9pm for the final two episodes of the season. We’ll be publishing our reviews following the conclusion of the Max steam of the episode.