Welcome to the 177th episode of TV’s Top 5, The Hollywood Reporter’s TV podcast.
Every week, hosts Lesley Goldberg (West Coast TV editor) and Daniel Fienberg (chief TV critic) break down the latest TV news with context from the business and critical sides, welcome showrunners, executives and other guests, and provide a critical guide of what to watch (or skip, as the case may be).
This week, Dan and I are going long on the Emmy nominations and then we’ve got a fantastic conversation with Ms. Marvel head writer Bisha K. Ali.
Here’s how the episode plays out:
1. Headlines
The Bear, Sex Education, Criminal Minds, Loot, Black Mirror, Katherine Pope and TBS’ Chad lead the week’s biggest headlines.
2. Emmy nominations
Dan breaks down the key series categories — drama, comedy and limited series — while also looking at some notable oversights among this year’s Emmy nominees.
3. Emmy nominations by the numbers
HBO, Warner Bros. Discovery and Succession were the big winners when you do the math — which the TV Academy opted against doing for the nominees by platform — among this year’s lot.
4. Showrunner Spotlight
Ms. Marvel head writer Bisha K. Ali joins us for a terrific conversation that includes some spoilers about the Disney+ Marvel finale. Ali, whose credits include Sex Education, Four Weddings and a Funeral and Marvel’s Loki, also opens up about exploring the Partition of India in the younger-skewing series and why it was important for her writers’ room to be representative of the show they were making. “If this is a global franchise … that plays to people all around the world, then surely we can characterize other bits of history as well that are deeply entwined with the history that you’ve already met, put on screen and made a part of the public imagination,” she says. Oh, and about that “mutant” name-check in the finale? It was a pitch from the room to Marvel honcho Kevin Feige, who approved of the X-Men reference. “It wasn’t in the first draft of the script,” Ali says. The writer and producer also discusses meeting with other Marvel showrunners about how to best navigate the larger MCU. “Being around in the first phase of Marvel’s TV got me familiar with their process and people,” she notes.
5. Critic’s Corner
As usual, we wrap with Dan’s look at what to watch (or skip) this weekend. In this episode, he weighs in on Freeform’s Everything’s Trash, HBO’s The Rehearsal and ESPN’s Derek Jeter docuseries The Captain.
Hear it all now on TV’s Top 5. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to never miss an episode. (Reviews welcome!) You can also email us with any topics or Mailbag questions you’d like addressed in future episodes at TVsTop5@THR.com.
Source: Hollywood
