Issue 12 - Malcolm Returns, Gilead Gets a Sequel, and Sharks in a Hurricane

Nobody sent industry news this week. The trades took a nap. Which is fine, because Hulu did something so funny on its own that I don't need Deadline to hand me a bit. In a single week — the same seven days, same platform, same executive probably — Hulu launched a legacy sequel to Malcolm in the Middle AND a legacy sequel to The Handmaid's Tale. One show about a chaotic working-class family in the suburbs. One show about women being enslaved by a theocratic regime. Released four days apart. By the same company. This is the Hulu content slate. This is what a strategy meeting produces now. Somebody in a Patagonia vest looked at a whiteboard and said "we need range," and the range is Bryan Cranston eating cake at an anniversary party and Ann Dowd running a girl prison. Beautiful. I love this country.

Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair (Hulu)

Here's the pitch: Malcolm has been hiding from his family for a decade — relatable — and gets dragged back for Hal and Lois's 40th anniversary. Bryan Cranston is back. Justin Berfield is back. Christopher Masterson is back. Frankie Muniz is back, although the show is weirdly not named after him anymore, which is the first crack in the foundation. The original was one of the five best sitcoms of the 2000s and it ended cleanly in 2006. Nothing needed to happen after. But here we are, because no property is ever allowed to die — it just gets frozen, defrosted, and slapped onto a streaming dashboard twenty years later so a 42-year-old dad can feel something while folding laundry. Early ratings are actually pretty good. I'll watch it. I'll hate myself. Fine.

The Testaments (Hulu)

The Handmaid's Tale sequel, based on the Margaret Atwood follow-up novel (the book it's based on on Amazon). Ann Dowd returns as Aunt Lydia, which rules, because Ann Dowd playing a menacing aunt in a bonnet is one of the great bits of modern television. The show follows young women growing up inside Gilead as they figure out that maybe a theocracy run by tech guys and oil executives is bad, actually. Early numbers are softer than the flagship — 6.7 is not a great start — which tracks, because audiences are exhausted from watching women get oppressed on prestige TV every Wednesday for eight years. At some point people just want to watch a cooking show. But if you're in, you're in. The machine cranks on.

The Boys, Season 5 (Prime Video)

The final season of The Boys is here and sitting at an 8.4 with twelve thousand people voting, which is the closest thing to a real consensus streaming has. Homelander's still a psycho. Butcher's still dying. Hughie's still the only person on the show who behaves like a human. Kripke has said this is the end, and I believe him, because he seems tired, and you can feel it in the last two seasons — the satire got a little louder because reality got a little louder and the writers are just trying to keep up. Still the best superhero show ever made. Still funnier than 90% of actual comedies. If it sticks the landing it becomes one of the great runs of the decade. If it doesn't, we act like Game of Thrones didn't happen and move on.

Invincible, Season 5 (Prime Video)

Prime Video had a big week — Invincible is also back, somehow still chugging at an 8.6, still animated, still gory enough to make your aunt shut her laptop. J.K. Simmons voicing Omni-Man may be the single best voice casting decision of the 21st century. If you bailed after season 2 because the release schedule was giving you whiplash — seasons would air in two halves a year apart, like they were rationing wartime meat — just come back. It's still good.

The Pitt, Season 3 (HBO Max)

Noah Wyle back in scrubs, yelling at residents, saving lives in an overrun Pittsburgh ER. It's basically ER but if ER had to acknowledge fentanyl exists. 8.7 rating, which is absurd for a medical drama in 2026, a genre everybody thought was dead. Turns out people still like shows where a smart adult solves a problem in 45 minutes. Who knew. The networks, probably, but they were too busy rebooting Malcolm in the Middle.

Euphoria, Season 3 (HBO Max)

Four years later. They finally made it. Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney, Hunter Schafer — all back, all now A-list movie stars who had to be begged to return for Sam Levinson's 90-minute meditations on a teenage girl smoking a cigarette in slow motion. Ratings are solid. I have no idea if it's good yet. I just know that every shot will be backlit magenta and somebody will deliver a monologue in a bathtub.

Big Mistakes (Netflix)

Dan Levy and Rachel Sennott wrote a show about two incompetent siblings who get blackmailed into organized crime. Laurie Metcalf is in it. This is the kind of show I root for — two actual funny people making something with teeth — but the numbers are early and the premise is thin. Could be great. Could be the 400th streaming dark comedy where the joke is "what if normal people had to launder money, haha." I'll give it three episodes.

Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord (Disney+)

An animated Dave Filoni joint about Maul rebuilding his crime empire. If you are the kind of person who knows who Maul is without Googling, this is for you, and you don't need me. If you're not, don't start here.

The Miniature Wife (Peacock)

Elizabeth Banks and Matthew Macfadyen in a marital dramedy where a "technological accident" causes a power imbalance. I've read the premise four times and I still don't know what the technological accident is. I suspect the show doesn't either. Macfadyen is always worth watching, though, so — fine.

Trust Me: The False Prophet (Netflix)

A Netflix doc about Samuel Bateman, the guy who declared himself the heir to Warren Jeffs and ran a polygamist splinter cult. Netflix cannot stop making cult documentaries. At this point I think if you work at Netflix you're contractually obligated to make one per fiscal quarter. This one actually looks grim and good — infiltrators, FLDS lore, true-believer horror. Put it on while you do laundry.

The movie situation

Netflix released Thrash, a movie about sharks that get washed inland by a Category 5 hurricane. This is not satire. This is a real movie directed by Tommy Wirkola and starring Djimon Hounsou. At some point we crossed the line where the Sharknado parody became the actual movie getting the actual budget, and nobody told me. Apple TV+ dropped Outcome, which is Jonah Hill directing himself and Keanu Reeves as a canceled child star on a redemption tour. Cameron Diaz is in it, which is genuinely exciting, because she took fifteen years off and apparently came back for this. A 5.3 rating suggests it's not great. But I'll watch Keanu do anything.

Also, Netflix has Untold: Chess Mates, about the Magnus Carlsen–Hans Niemann cheating scandal. If you remember the anal beads rumor, this is for you. If you don't, I envy you.

Pick of the Week

The Boys, final season. It's the one thing this week where you know the people making it actually care whether you enjoy it. Start there. If you've never watched, start the whole thing — season 1 episode 1. Eight hours in, you'll know. If you have watched, the endgame is here. Don't let it slip past while you're doom-scrolling a Malcolm reboot.

See you next week. Somebody will have rebooted something. It's the law.