TV Break: July 2025 - Reviews of Ironheart, The Bear, Demon Slayer, Smoke + Why is Neil Druckmann Out at The Last of Us?

Welcome to TV Break, where Pop Break’s Podcasts Editor Alex Marcus is joined by editor-in-chief Bill Bodkin, and TV Columnist Josh Sarnecky to talk about the happenings in television.Here’s the format of the show:The Best Thing I Saw on TV Last Month – Alex, Bill, & Josh talk about a show/episode/event they liked from the last month including Hulu’s The Bear, Disney Plus’s Ironheart, and crunchyroll’s Demon Slayer, andAMC’s Nautilus.Newsbreak – This month, they discuss shocking news that the mind behind The Last of Us, Neil Druckmann, will be leaving the HBO series to focus on a new game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, which is currently in development. The guys also review the backlash around the divisive second season of the series and wonder how much that controversy informed Neil’s decision.Streaming Wars – Alex, Bill, & Josh pick a streamer they think “won the month” based on new shows airing/upcoming shows announced etc. This month, everyone backed a different streamer, with Josh giving props to Netflix on the back of its breakthrough Korean content Squid Game and KPop Demon Hunters, as well as strong returning numbers for Ginny & Georgia and Quarterback.Meanwhile, Bill gave some love to Peacock on the strength of viral hit Love Island USA, and Alex gave it to Apple TV Plus after their box office success with F1: The Movie and the recent news that Jennifer Aniston would be starring in and co-showrunning for an adaptation of the hit memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died.New Series Spotlight – This month we are shining the spotlight on Apple TV Plus’s fire crime drama Smoke. This series stars Taron Egerton as a local arson investigator on the hunt for not one but two serial arsonists and Jurnee Smollett as a metro detective who is called in to assist his stagnant investigation. Safe Spall, Greg Kinnear, and John Leguizamo also star. The series was created by acclaimed crime novelist Dennis Lehane, based on the podcast Firebug, about arsonist John Leonard Orr, and is directed by The Falcon and The Winter Soldier director Kari Skogland.