Established streaming industry leaders like Netflix and Amazon are facing more competition than ever. Now legacy entertainment giants are in the game with their own subscription services, like Peacock, HBO Max, Paramount Plus, and the Disney Plus / Hulu / ESPN Plus bundle, while Apple TV Plus attacks around the edges. Meanwhile, the rise of ad-supported free platforms like Roku Channel and Pluto TV has attracted enough attention that Plex, YouTube, and Amazon’s Freevee are trying to get a chunk of the action too.
Personally, I don’t have superhero movie fatigue. The powers aren’t the problem; I just think we need a little more comedy and a little less fate-of-the-world drama! This one is Wonder Man, an 8-episode miniseries coming January 27th to Disney Plus. It’s meta in more ways than one.
The main Stranger Things series is coming to an end when the final episode is released tomorrow, on New Year’s Eve at 8PM ET.
Netflix released this new trailer for the finale, which is also going to be shown in theaters, where people can watch together regardless of their familiarity with “shipping” and/or fandom designation.
Did the new Knives Out’s impressively ornate seminary gym seem a little familiar? It’s not just you, it was one of the world’s subtlest Rickrolls.
Hulu has started promoting Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair, a four-episode revival of the original 2000s sitcom. You can watch the first teaser trailer below, with the show set to release on April 10th, 2026.
John Madden, that is, filling the shoes of the legendary NFL coach and commentator, in David O. Russell’s upcoming biopic for Prime Video. There’s only the briefest still of a video game shown in this short teaser trailer, and a quick glimpse of John Mulaney as EA exec Trip Hawkins.
Madden is scheduled for release on Thanksgiving Day, 2026.
In an Elite Daily interview ahead of this week’s penultimate release, series star Gaten Matarazzo referenced the “Stonathan” pairing and said he liked the idea behind “Steddie” fanfics.
But saying the “Byler” shipping between Will and Mike, was “very funny. I see them as just very good friends,” seemingly went too far for some, with social media posts targeting the interviewer, and some even claiming it was a fake quote.
Once you’ve watched the Pluribus (or, actually, Plur1bus?) season finale and read through Andrew Webster’s review, it’s time for Apple TV’s 20-minute behind-the-scenes video with Vince Gilligan & Co.
Junichi Okada talks about the new Netflix series and how his role as action planner touches nearly every part of it.
Last week, we talked about how Warner Bros. — quite reasonably! — had some agita about David Ellison’s bid for the company. Well, what do you know, David’s daddy is going to personally guarantee the offer. Also, since the last time we talked, Jared Kushner backed out of the nepo baby bid.
On Thursday night, the White House Live News section featured YouTuber @RealMattMoney, for reasons that remain unclear. According to Bloomberg, “The White House is aware of the incident and looking into the matter, a White House official said on the condition of anonymity.”
Not nearly enough people are talking about Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone’s masterpiece of a film, Bugonia. But that should change once the movie makes its Peacock streaming debut on December 26th.
The Screen Culture and KH Studio YouTube pages have suddenly disappeared, taking their fake clips with them, reports Deadline. An earlier Deadline investigation showed how they operated, mixing official movie footage with AI-generated images, which some movie studios were profiting from by claiming the ad revenue they brought in.
YouTube spokesperson Jack Malon provided this statement to The Verge:
After their initial suspension, these channels made the necessary corrections in order to be readmitted into the YouTube Partner Program. However, once monetizing again, they reverted to clear violations of our spam and misleading metadata policies, and as a result, they have been terminated from the platform.
Ads are everywhere, and only spreading, with Apple adding more to App Store searches and Peacock fitting them into its profile page. Fortunately, the Verge comments will always stay a safe space.
WesSouza:
This is ridiculous.
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Apple just announced that, in addition to the upcoming second season, a spinoff of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is also on the way that will star young Lee Shaw (Wyatt Russell). Here’s the logline:
The spinoff series will follow the story of Colonel Lee Shaw, an American operative who in 1984 went on a secret mission behind enemy lines in an attempt to stop the Soviets from unleashing a horrific new Titan big enough to destroy the U.S. and turn the tide of the Cold War.
Boy, the creative choices here for the Melania doc... They feel familiar somehow. Even, and maybe especially, the music.
Netflix’s co-CEOs, in a letter to WBD stockholders:
There’s been a lot of talk about theatrical distribution, so we want to set the record straight: we are 100% committed to releasing Warner Bros. films in theaters with industry-standard windows. While this hasn’t been part of our business model until now, we are looking forward to bringing this expertise from Warner Bros. to Netflix.
WBD is urging shareholders to reject Paramount’s latest offer.
He’s withdrawn financial backing from the bid, which may leave it floundering, and the Warner Bros. board has recommended shareholders reject the hostile offer. It looks like everyone involved is beginning to realize what The Verge’s own Liz Lopatto pointed out yesterday: “What Paramount is doing doesn’t make any fucking sense.”
Update: The Warner Bros. board has recommended rejecting the Paramount bid.
Its historic satellite imagery just happened to catch the set of Apple TV’s Pluribus during filming, revealing a big moment from the show’s seventh episode, which aired last week. Here’s a shot of the cul de sac set caught by Google during construction, but click through for a later photo that spoils the show.
Meta had already announced the streaming service was coming to its headsets, but now it’s here.
