The Drop 21: Apple Exhumed Ted Lasso

Apple TV+ dug up Ted Lasso. The show ended. Everyone agreed. Jason Sudeikis did the tearful press tour, Brett Goldstein gave sixteen interviews about closure, and someone in Cupertino probably teared up over a $22 salad. Then a guy looked at the churn dashboard and said the nice man with the mustache needs to come back and hug Rebecca one more time. Season four. The episode is called Curiouser and Curiouser!, which is what I said when I saw it on the schedule.

Nothing about this industry is new anymore. It's all resurrections and returns. Which brings us to the drops.

House of the Dragon, Season 3 (HBO Max)

The Treasons at Tumbleton dropped this week and the Dance of the Dragons is fully lit. HBO Max, which has been renamed roughly four times by a company that also renames itself for sport, is riding this one hard because it's the only Westeros thing that has worked since the coffee cup. Matt Smith is doing extraordinary work as a man who wakes up every morning and chooses violence. Emma D'Arcy is the best casting call of the decade. If you bailed after season two you were wrong. Come back.

✅ WORTH IT

Reacher, Season 4 (Prime Video)

Alan Ritchson is still fifty feet tall and still punching entire police departments into salsa. Reacher knows what it is: a man walks into a diner and by dessert three guys are in traction. Season four's premiere is called One Small Step, a title someone was very proud of. The Lee Child novels this is based on are simple, mean, and effective (the Lee Child books on Amazon). So is the show. Great television doesn't have to be sad.

✅ WORTH IT

Silo, Season 4 (Apple TV+)

Rebecca Ferguson descends further into the toxic hellscape and Apple keeps writing Graham Yost checks with a slight wince. This is a movie star doing television and the show looks like each frame cost the GDP of a small European principality. Common is in it, being extremely serious in an enormous coat. Four seasons in and it hasn't blinked. This is my pick this week. See below.

🏆 DROP EVERYTHING

Lioness, Season 3 (Paramount+)

Taylor Sheridan continues to be paid the annual budget of a mid-sized city to make shows about tough women pointing guns in dusty countries. Season three opened with 7.1 million viewers in three days per Variety, which means someone at Paramount is finally allowed to sleep. Zoe Saldaña is very good. The show is fine. If you liked the first two you'll like this one. That's the whole review.

🛋️ BACKGROUND TV

Ricky Gervais: Alley Cats (Netflix)

Ricky Gervais made an animated show about feral cats being crude to each other. He voices Gus. It is exactly what you think it is. If you liked his last decade of the "am I even allowed to say this" routine, congratulations, they animated it. If you didn't, a cartoon cat doing the same bit isn't the intervention you were hoping for.

🐍 SLOP

Our Sticky Love (Netflix)

Korean drama. An amnesiac prosecutor moves in with a boxing coach who claims to be her boyfriend. She can't remember. He is jacked. The show is literally called Sticky Love. Netflix knows exactly what it's doing and God bless them for it. Twelve episodes, in and out. If K-drama is your thing, this is a very good version of it.

✅ WORTH IT

Quick dismissals

The Ribbon Hero (Netflix): anime princess fights a monster called Nergal. If that sentence hooked you, go. 🛋️ BACKGROUND TV

Teen Titans Go! aired its 340th season, statistically speaking. 🐍 SLOP

Jimmy Fallon still hosts a talk show and yes, this counts as a returning season because Peacock had to list it somewhere. 🐍 SLOP

Around the industry

HBO's Harry Potter is quietly bleeding directors. Ally Pankiw (Black Mirror) and Kate Herron (Loki) both publicly said no, citing Rowling. Per THR, Pankiw's exact response was "absolutely f***ing not." That show is going to be a lightning rod for a decade and Warner Bros Discovery is thrilled about it, because they cannot walk past reheated IP even when the smoke is visible from space. Elsewhere: Satoshi Kon's Perfect Blue hits Netflix in September, which is actual good news; and SCTV is coming to Netflix for the first time ever, meaning your dad is about to talk to you about John Candy for four uninterrupted hours.

Pick of the Week

Silo, Season 4 (Apple TV+). Rebecca Ferguson is doing movie-star work on television and Apple keeps signing the checks. Wednesday night. Nothing else on. Go.

Nothing is new. Ted Lasso is back. Reacher is running. Silo is running. Ricky Gervais is voicing a cat. The business has stopped writing shows and started exhuming them. See you next week, when Netflix announces season six of a show you have never heard of.