Alison Stewart: You're listening to All Of It. I'm Alison Stewart. The past 10 days or so have been full of downtime, and you likely spent some time catching up on TV and streaming. You've debated whether Pluribus is about AI, and wondered about avenging male toxicity, and All Her Fault. It is now a new year, and there's a new slew of sweeping dramas, fantasy worlds, thrillers, comedies, and a little horror to keep this winter's watching interesting, shows like Euphoria, Bridgerton, The Pitt, and Shrinking. Which shows are must watch, which ones surprise us?

We're joined now by Vulture TV critic and friend of the show, Kathryn VanArendonk, to break down the winter television landscape and help us figure out what to queue up next? Hi, Kathryn.

Kathryn VanArendonk: Hello.

Alison Stewart: Listeners, we want to know what shows you're excited to watch right now, or any of your favorites coming back for a new season, or is there a new series you've seen previews about and you can't stop thinking about? Maybe Kathryn knows a little bit about it. Our number is 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC. Vulture listed Disney and Hulu as the top streaming service followed by Netflix and HBO Max. Which streaming service has had some of the most exciting shows come out this season? What do you think?

Kathryn VanArendonk: It was a really interesting conversation, actually, that we had among all of our TV critics and our TV business reporter, Joe Adalian, who knows that side of it really, really well. We came into it assuming we, all, each of us knew, we were like, "Obviously it's this one," and then they were all completely like-- somebody was like, "It's clearly Peacock," and then somebody else said, "Why would you say that? It's obviously Disney." Joe was actually arguing quite strongly that we should talk about YouTube, and we were like, "Joe, that's crazy. That's a completely different thing."

The answer, I think, as with so much of television and culture more broadly, is that it really depends what specific world you're into, where you're most drawn. I think a lot of Vulture readers over the last year were big Peacock people because that was the only way to watch Love Island USA. There's also the whole Bravo verse there, there's traders, there's a lot of sports, and that, to me, made Peacock feel like this really big destination place.

However, Disney, Hulu had a really great year. Andor was this incredible piece of programing earlier last year. I think for people like that, for anyone who needs to watch Bluey, there is no competition for something like Disney, it really is a sort of what fits your needs.

Alison Stewart: All right, let's get into it. The Pitt is returning on January 9th. It is one of the top medical procedure shows of the year. I believe last night it won the 2026 Critics Choice Award. Tell us what you think is particularly interesting about this show, considering we've seen so many medical shows.

Kathryn VanArendonk: There's a lot that's interesting about this show for me, and one of the biggest is just that it is a kind of medical show that has never existed on a streaming native platform the way that this does. It's really straddling this line between what used to be a very standard procedural TV model, where you would have many more episodes per season, and you would have these sort of episodic arcs as well as this bigger seasonal thing.

I think most importantly, given that this show is now coming back in just a couple of days, you knew that there would be a new season within the next year. It was not going to be this two to three-year Stranger Things, Severance gap before you got to see your friends again. The Pitt, it feels like this attempt for streaming for HBO to reclaim this thing that streaming has really given up on, the longer season familiarity that you get to have with characters that you like.

Whether that will actually take off and we'll see more shows like this, I am not sure, but I really love that model of television. I miss it when it's not at a strong moment, which I think it really has not been. I'm hopeful that there'll be more.

Alison Stewart: What expectations do you have for its second season?

Kathryn VanArendonk: Second seasons are really hard. I'm trying to not temper my expectations because I fully believe that this show is going to continue to be great, but they're a really big challenge because you have to be able to give people the big, exciting return of this thing that they really loved and were surprised by, but it has to be the same as the thing that they liked, otherwise, they're like, "This isn't the show that I wanted." It can't be too much the same because if it is, they're like, "They just did the same thing again." It's a hard target to hit.

One of the things to keep an eye out for as you're watching this next season is to think, "All right, so they had this big mass casualty in season one. Are they going to have another one of those? If not, how are they going to try to replicate that same tension without hitting the exact same beats?" The other thing is, this is not a show that goes home with its characters. You only get to see these doctors, Dr. Robby, played by Noah Wyle, you only get to see them in their jobs. How will the show continue to develop who they are as people without being able to then do the Grey's Anatomy, they're at the bar, they're back at their apartments hooking up or whatever it is.

Alison Stewart: This text says, "Very excited for the new season of Bridgerton. I love and appreciate the female love interest is a woman of color again." Here we go, Bridgerton.

Kathryn VanArendonk: Yes.

Alison Stewart: Which child is it who has to get married? The rakish one?

Kathryn VanArendonk: Yes, it is the rakish one. This season, this is season four of Bridgerton, and this is now Benedict Bridgerton's season. If you have been following the show, he has been the one of the seven Bridgerton siblings who has been bumping along in the background, having connections of all kinds with all kinds of people without ever really being interested in settling down and being ready for marriage. His turn has finally come.

This season is, once again, being split across two episode drops, four episodes come out at the end of January and another four in February. I mention that because I have seen the first four episodes of Bridgerton, and I got to the end of the four episodes, and then I wanted to throw rocks out of my windows and be like, "Where? Where? Where are the rest of them?"

Alison Stewart: Where is it? Oh, no.

Kathryn VanArendonk: It was a scene. It was a bad scene. Which is great news, actually, for Bridgerton. I have really loved this season. It is in particular, in fact, because the female love interest is a newcomer, her name is Yerin Ha, she's Korean Australian, and she plays Sophie, who becomes the big Benedict love interest. She's so, so good. She's so good. I'm just thrilled to be able to watch her. It's always fun to find a new talent and be excited about them. Also, I think the season is really fun and well-made. Netflix, are you listening? When are my screeners coming, please?

Alison Stewart: This text says, "I finally finished Task and loved it. Any recs for a new prestige true crime binge watch?"

Kathryn VanArendonk: Ooh, let's see. The true crime genre, like if you haven't gone back and done Mare of Easttown, that really is a must-do. I am going to give you an off-kilter recommendation, but one that I think you might really love, but you're going to have to get a different streaming service for it. It's on BritBox, and it's called Blue Lights. It is a Dublin police crime series. It's three seasons in, so you're going to have a nice big chunk of TV to watch. They're a British series, so they're only like six episodes a season.

I started it and thought, "Oh, this is a nice standard TV," because I like cop dramas, I was having a good time, and then by season three, I was like, "No. What? How is he going to-- Why?" I was completely invested in those characters. I think they're really well-drawn mystery arcs without being too overwrought. I think you get a lot of that really great character depth that something like Task gives you. That one is really my big police drama, crime drama recommendation these days.

Alison Stewart: You got two thumbs up from our control room, by the way.

Kathryn VanArendonk: Yes.

Alison Stewart: Finally, Euphoria is going to come out in April for its third season, and there's a big time jump in this one. Why do you think that was necessary?

Kathryn VanArendonk: It is for exactly the same reasons that I was just talking about for The Pitt, which is that we have fallen out of this rhythm where you would expect to see the next TV season of your favorite show within the next year. It has been quite a long time since we last saw Euphoria, and so all of these actors are now older. I think it is a good idea, frankly, to have a time jump so that you don't end up in the Stranger Things situation where you have all of these mid-20-something, late 20-somethings playing high schoolers still.

Given that this show was always about preternaturally old high schoolers, I don't think it tonally is a problem, it's probably a slightly better fit. The question is who these characters are now and whether we are still going to care about them at this point, and I'm not sure yet.

Alison Stewart: We are chatting with Vulture TV critic, Kathryn VanArendonk, about the most exciting series hitting the small screen at the start of 2026. Listeners, what shows are you most excited to watch right now? Are any of your favorites coming back for a new season? Our number is 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC. We'll have more after a quick break. This is All Of It.

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Alison Stewart: You're listening to All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. I'm chatting with Vulture TV critic, Kathryn VanArendonk, about some of the most exciting series hitting the small screen in 2026. All right, we've come to the category we're calling the thrillers, Paradise coming out January 26th. It's a post-apocalyptic political thriller about 25,000 people, they stuck underground because they think the world has ended. It stars Sterling K Brown, Julianne Nicholson, James Marsden, he does come back for the second season, flashbacks, just telling you, he plays the president, by the way. What is going to be the focus of season two?

Kathryn VanArendonk: This first season of Paradise took place in this big bunker, which we understand gradually over the course of the season, this apocalypse bunker where all of these people fled after some horrible event. Without going in two, two specific details for anyone who wants to now catch up on the first season of the show, it's season two, so we're going to have to leave the bunker. There's going to be some exiting of the bunker happening. If you watched the first season, you can imagine why that might be.

Some characters that people thought were no longer in play maybe are in play, and so Sterling K Brown is going to have to do some exciting adventuring outside, much in the manner of shows like Silo or Fallout. As soon as there's a bunker, you got to get out of the bunker. You can't stay in the bunker that long. Much in the same way as The Pitt season two, my big question is, the first season of Paradise pulled off this big twist at the end of the first season, people have different feelings about that twist and whether it felt earned or whether it was satisfying, but it was a pretty accomplished twist.

How you do that same thing in a second season, I think, is an open question, and is going to be something that people are watching for. This show has really invited you to engage with it on that level. That's what I'm keeping an eye on for, whether I think of this next season as successful.

Alison Stewart: I do want to point out, you mentioned, and it was an accident, the show Blue Lights, it's based in Belfast, not Dublin.

Kathryn VanArendonk: Oh, Belfast. Excuse me. Not Dublin, excuse me. Yes.

Alison Stewart: The Night Manager is a spy thriller series. It premiered a decade ago. How's the show bringing viewers into the world now?

Kathryn VanArendonk: This was a le Carré thriller and it starred Tom Hiddleston and Olivia Colman at a time when you might have looked at those two people and been like, "I bet they're going to have pretty exciting careers in the next decade," and you would have been correct. They did, and now they're back. Like we were talking about with Euphoria, you have this long space, you get to get back into the mode of who these people are. There's a standard spy version of for how to do this, which is like, "He's out of the game, but you have to get him back for some reason that the show will have to make up."

The question about Night Manager and the thing that I find really interesting about it, actually, is that it did this strange thing that I really loved in the first season, where Olivia Colman was pregnant when she filmed that first season. It didn't mention it. It was just a part of who her character was. You could see it on screen, it was very clear, and it came up a tiny bit, but it was mostly just left unremarked upon, which I found to be a really interesting way of developing that character. How you come back to her as a person now, like how much of these people's lives you see in the backdrop, I think are going to be, for me, the interesting thing about Night Manager season two.

Alison Stewart: This text says, "Big Boys on Hulu was the best show I saw last year, and Heated Rivalry, wink, wink, but nobody talks about it, so I just wanted to give it a shout out." Another text.

Kathryn VanArendonk: Wow. The fact that you are in a bubble where no one is talking about Heated Rivalry means that there are some other bubbles for you to join because in my life, that's all anyone is talking about.

Alison Stewart: Yes. Exactly. This text says, "What about Heated Rivalry," all in capital letters. For people who haven't heard, it's a Canadian sports romance series about hockey, about two players who decide that they are in love.

Kathryn VanArendonk: Yes. Heated Rivalry really came out of nowhere for a lot of people who follow TV, which is really exciting. It did not come out of nowhere for people who follow romance because hockey romance has been a huge genre for several years now. It's an adaptation of Rachel Reid series called Game Changers. It's a little tiny Canadian show that was made with like $3, and then HBO licensed like two weeks before they actually released it. Everyone was like, "What's this?" "I have no idea."

If you are a person who is at all interested in romance and who is interested in, particularly in queer romance, I cannot recommend it highly enough. I think it's a fascinating series. For somebody who feels like they are not hearing enough about it, truly go on Threads, go on TikTok, you only need to search a little bit and your algorithm will be inundated. There are so many edits for you. Your people are out there, I promise.

Alison Stewart: All right. Let's go into the fantasy era of things. Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, it comes out on the 18th of January. It's HBO's latest fantasy drama. It's set about a century before the Game of Thrones. How is the world different from Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon?

Kathryn VanArendonk: I opened up my Knight of the Seven Kingdoms screeners with, I admit it, a sense of fatigue. I have been living in this world for many, many years. I feel like I got it. I got the language, I got the dragons, I got the sort of tone, I got the tendency toward violence and particularly sexual violence, and I was like, "Oh, okay, Game of Thrones." Then I watched it, and I was like, "Wait a second. First of all, this first episode is only like 43 minutes long. That's funny," and then episode two was only half an hour long, I was like, "This is sort of a lighter, less serious take on what this world might be." In fact, that is the case.

It's funny, is I feel like should be the major headline about this series, it's funny and more fun. It's not that it doesn't feel like Game of Thrones at all. It still does. The main characters are a hedge knight named Ser Dunk, who's very bad at being a knight, and who is sort of taken on by this precocious little kid who wants to be his squire whose name is Egg, and they are traipsing around this familiar Game of Thrones landscape while Dunk tries to basically create his career as a knight.

Alison Stewart: It is--[crosstalk]

Kathryn VanArendonk: Oh, no, please continue.

Alison Stewart: Oh, but it is more a knight's tale than it is your classic Game of Thrones, dragon, sadness. This text says, "Shrinking is an absolute favorite, talking about such hard topics with such empathy and joy, and one of the most insightful approaches to the grief. Every member of the cast is absolutely phenomenal." Shrinking is coming back on the 28th of this month. The show was about a group of people grieving therapist balancing his responsibilities as a father and a friend after the loss of his wife. Jason Segel plays the therapist. How do you feel about the way it balances humor with heavier emotional moments?

Kathryn VanArendonk: It definitely does balance humor with those heavier emotional moments. It is something I increasingly struggle with for this show because particularly as season two develops, I find that Jason Segel's character is really invested in trying to forgive this person who has done something that's really traumatic to his family.

It is difficult for me to tease apart the show's investment in a trauma and recovery narrative from who they want me to understand that he is, which is a functional therapist who is able to make reasonable choices within his career because he's way past many lines at this point as far as what seems okay for a therapist to be doing, and how much energy it has to put into asking people to forgive this person versus just being a Bill Lawrence hangout show. I am not sure how I feel about how the second season negotiated.

I would actually really like season three to correct for a little because it feels like there have not been enough consequences for Jason Segel's character for me within the world of this series. I know that there are a lot of people who disagree with that perspective, and that is great. I prefer a Bill Lawrence show to have that be more of a sort of thread than the load-bearing structure.

Alison Stewart: I have to ask you about The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, which is premiering on February 23rd. It's Tracy Morgan. That's all I can say, it's a Tracy Morgan? What makes this a uniquely Tracy Morgan show?

Kathryn VanArendonk: For one thing, it's The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, which is important because the Tracy Morgan of it suggests that it will not be directly engaging with Tracy Morgan's personal life over the past several years, but maybe influenced by it. He had this really terrible accident and has been coming back to Hollywood as he has recovered from that event. The character that he plays in this show is he is a football player who has had something terrible happen, not so much a physical accident, but other things in his career, and he is now trying to come back.

That alone is interesting, but it is also a Tina Fey, Robert Carlock show, which that's a 30 Rock team that is always interesting to return to. The other thing is that its co-star, Tracy Morgan's co-star, is Daniel Radcliffe, who tends to make really, really interesting career choices. I am very curious to see it just in that context alone. Whether anyone is going to be invested in network sitcoms who are not already watching network sitcoms, I am not sure, but it's certainly something that I'm keeping an eye on.

Alison Stewart: Dan, Rad, and Tracy Morgan? I know. That's wild.

Kathryn VanArendonk: I know. The thing is that I actually think both of those people can have incredible chemistry with basically anyone, but together, I feel like that energy is going to be so weird, and fun, and off-kilter. I was so delighted to see the couple of stills, they're like press stills where they're just standing next to each other and you're just looking at both of them of their faces and thinking, "Oh, they're in the same-- What is this?"

Alison Stewart: What?

Kathryn VanArendonk: Yes, I know. I'm delighted.

Alison Stewart: Kathryn VanArendonk, Vultures TV critic, giving us a little bit of a preview of what we're going to watch over the next few months. Thanks, Kathryn.

Kathryn VanArendonk: Thanks so much for having me.

Alison Stewart: That is All Of It. I'm Alison Stewart. I appreciate you listening, and I appreciate you, and I will meet you back here next time.