Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone who loves hanging around the proverbial water-cooler. That’s because buzz / chatter / conversation / your term of choice is the subject of this week’s Break Down, featuring exclusive data from Fandom about how binge and weekly episode releases are working to generate fan engagement around some of TV’s top shows. Also in this week’s Screen Gab, we encourage you to catch up on the “wondrous inventions” of “The Blacklist” and offer two additional streaming recommendations for your weekend.
ICYMI Must-read stories you might have missed How Snoop Dogg became America’s sweetheart at the Paris Olympics : A look at the decades-long evolution of the onetime gangsta rapper who now finds himself the family-friendly star of NBC’s Olympics coverage. Two seasons in, ‘House of the Dragon’ feels like a flop. There’s a glaring reason why : As with the expansion of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ and Marvel franchises, ‘House of the Dragon’ has lost the sense of humor that made ‘Game of Thrones’ great.
‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 finale: Rhaenyra and Alicent’s ‘battle between pain and love’ : Geeta Vasant Patel, director of ‘The Queen Who Ever Was,’ discusses the old friends’ relationship, Daemon’s vision and filming the episode’s montages. ‘There’s a crisis in comedy right now’: Paul W. Downs explains how ‘Hacks’ is fighting back : In the latest episode of the Envelope video podca.