TV Break: November 2022 - House of the Dragon & Rings of Power End, Henry Cavill Bolts, High School Stuns, Andor Makes The Leap, and The Peripheral Underperforms

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, and Josh talk about a show/episode/event they liked from the last month including Disney Plus’s Andor; HBOMAX’s House of the Dragon; Prime Video’s The Rings of Power; FreeVee’s High School, and FX’s Atlanta. News Break – Alex, Bill, and Josh discuss the news that Henry Cavill will be replaced by Liam Hemsworth as the lead of Netflix’s The Witcher. The trio discuss why he may have made the move, what they think of Liam Hemsworth replacing him, what this could mean for DC and his role as Superman moving forward, and whether the news that James Gunn is now in charge of the DCU will have an impact on things to come. Streaming Wars – Alex, Bill, and Josh pick a streamer they think “won the month” based on new shows airing/upcoming shows announced etc. This month, Bill & Josh agree that Disney Plus won the month, thanks to the recent news that they will be the global home of the latest season of Doctor Who, in addition to well received originals like She-Hulk and Andor, the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special trailer dropping, and Elton John’s farewell concert special on the horizon. Meanwhile, Alex went against the grain by standing up for HBOMAX. Despite its parent company’s many bad headlines of late, he argued that the runaway success of House of the Dragon, the Success trailer, the White Lotus premiere, and all the recent DC news helped give it the edge. News of a new Chuck Lorre/Sebastian Maniscalo sitcom coming to the network certainly didn’t hurt either. New Series Spotlight – Alex, Bill, and Josh review Prime Video’s The Peripheral, the latest sci fi series set in a future dystopia from producers Lisa Joy & Jonathan Nolan (Westworld). This series, created and showrun by Scott B. Smith (novelist and screenwriter of A Simple Plan) and based on the William Gibson novel of the same name, stars Chloe Grace Moretz & Jack Reynor as a brother/sister pair of VR gamers for hire in 2032 Appalachia who get caught up in a conspiracy thriller when a game they are hired to test out turns out to be more real than either could have imagined.