Entertainment
Best Show Of The Decade Suffering From The System That's Killing TV
By TeeJay Small
| Published
It’s impossible to deny the impact that streaming services have had on television and film. Beyond simply offering these creations for our viewing pleasure, streaming has changed the way that productions themselves take shape. These days, you’re likely to get eight episodes of a prestige television series once every three years, rather than a 22+ episode season every autumn. While these long gaps can support massive budgets, big name stars, and more intentional writing, they make it difficult to keep up with storylines and develop memorable characters.
We’ve seen this trend negatively impact productions such as Stranger Things, which saw its core cast of lovable young kids sprout into full-blown adults over the course of five seasons. Now, according to a recent write-up from Polygon, it looks like Apple TV’s greatest new series is set to receive the same unfortunate fate. The show in question, Pluribus, likely won’t return for a second season until late 2027, at the earliest.
We’re Not Getting Any Younger
For those not in the know, Pluribus is the latest project from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul creator Vince Gilligan. The Apple TV original concluded its inaugural nine-episode season in December of 2025, ending with a high-stakes cliffhanger. The series was originally greenlit in September 2022 with a two-season order, prompting many fans to assume that the second season would follow a tight production schedule.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case, as Vince Gilligan has confirmed that the team behind Pluribus has only just begun mapping out the next batch of episodes. While discussing his process with Polygon, Gilligan stated “We are breaking the season. It is not going quite as fast as I would hope, but we’re hoping there’s lots more excitement and twists and turns. And I think we got some dramatic stuff coming up in season 2.”
Later in that same discussion, Gilligan acknowledged the elongated production schedule, joking “we’re looking forward to people seeing it in eight or nine years when we get Season 2 finished.” Luckily, Pluribus doesn’t feature a core cast of young children, so the ticking clock may not be a complete show-killer. Still, it’s disheartening to binge through nine hours of incredible narrative, only to find out you’ll have to wait for two or more years to receive a conclusion.
Great Art Takes Time
Marvel was able to put out Infinity War and Endgame in the span of a year. Parks and Recreation reliably churned out 125 episodes in six years. Now, fans are forced to wait half a presidential term to catch eight new episodes of a show that doesn’t even need a massive special effects budget. With all due respect to the team behind Pluribus, this cheapens the material. Once the episodes arrive, every single moment that doesn’t immediately progress the plot feels like a waste of time.
To give an example of exactly how this trend is killing TV shows, let’s look at Pluribus‘ first season. Episode 7 “The Gap” is one of the most visually stunning journeys ever committed to the small screen. In the episode, a fan-favorite character makes a perilous trek across unknown territory, as the camera lingers and highlights some spectacular scenery. It’s the kind of thing you might see in a nature documentary, or a feature film about the dangers of global warming and the beauty of the untraveled planet.
I’d like to be able to fully enjoy scenes like these. Unfortunately, I was acutely aware of the fact that there were only two more episodes after the journey, and that I’d likely have to wait a very long time to get a real conclusion. As a result, the travel montage made me antsy and left me wondering how the season would wrap up in a satisfying way. In the old days, I’d be able to enjoy multiple filler episodes, bottle episodes, and one-off adventures that contribute little or nothing to the overall plot, because I could remain confident that there would be enough material to keep me hooked for weeks.
Trading Slop For Art
Vince Gilligan himself is no stranger to these tight production timelines. Breaking Bad managed to reliably deliver 13 hour-long episodes each year, culminating in 62 episodes over five seasons. Better Call Saul had a similar trajectory, despite airing through a global pandemic and taking a production break after lead actor Bob Odenkirk suffered a near-fatal heart attack on set. I understand that a sci-fi epic like Pluribus can contain a lot of moving parts, but surely the team behind the show is capable of delivering a batch of episodes under significantly less tumultuous conditions.
The good news is, Pluribus is very, very good. I’ll still be thinking about the show and open to rewatching it when the new episodes do finally filter through. The point is, this trend of taking multiple years to deliver brief seasons is killing TV, because most other shows simply don’t provide the same value. If you’re not Vince Gilligan, you probably shouldn’t get comfortable joking about this sort of thing, because it might leave your show dead in the water.
Entertainment
AI stocks are cooling — this ChatGPT trading tool keeps delivering
TL;DR: A ChatGPT-powered investing platform that helps you find and manage stocks with clearer signals—lifetime access for a one-time $54.97.
Credit: Sterling Stock Picker
The AI trade has seemingly had its moment — big runs, big headlines, big expectations. The AI fun is not over by any means. But now that things are settling, the real question is what comes next?
Instead of chasing whatever’s trending, Sterling Stock Picker leans into a more grounded approach: using a ChatGPT-powered assistant (Finley) to help you understand what’s actually happening inside a stock. You can ask questions about companies, sectors, or your own portfolio and get explanations that are tied to real data — not just surface-level summaries.
Mashable Deals
It also handles the heavy lifting most people avoid. The platform analyzes financials, growth metrics, and risk, then surfaces signals like whether a stock is worth buying, holding, or avoiding. There’s even a “North Star” system that simplifies that call into something actionable.
Mashable Trend Report
If you’re building from scratch, there’s a done-for-you portfolio builder that aligns with your risk tolerance. If you already have positions, it can suggest adjustments based on your portfolio’s performance.
One thing that stands out is how it balances guidance with transparency. You’re not just handed picks — you can see the reasoning behind them, which matters if you’re trying to build a repeatable process.
Have a lifetime way to pressure-test your judgment — especially in a market that’s moving past hype and into something more selective.
Get lifetime access to the ChatGPT-driven Sterling Stock Picker while it’s on sale for a one-time $54.97 payment (reg. $486) through May 10.
StackSocial prices subject to change.
Entertainment
Get 2TB encrypted cloud storage and collaboration tools for just $112.49
TL;DR: Lifetime access to 2TB of secure Drime cloud storage is on sale for a one-time $112.49 (reg. $299.99) through May 10.
$112.49
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Cloud storage is one of those things that quickly turns into a monthly bill you forget about. That’s what makes a lifetime option like Drime worth a closer look.
You can currently get 2TB of storage for a one-time $112.49 (reg. $299.99), which means no ongoing fees just to keep your files accessible.
Mashable Deals
But this isn’t just a place to dump files and forget about them. Drime leans more toward being a full workspace. You can upload, sync, and access files across devices, but also edit documents, leave comments, and collaborate with others without switching tools. It’s useful if you’re juggling projects, clients, or even just shared folders with family.
Security is a big part of the pitch. Files stored in the encrypted Vault are protected by end-to-end encryption, and everything is hosted in Europe in compliance with GDPR standards. This means your data isn’t floating around unsecured, and you have more control over who sees what.
There are also a lot of small quality-of-life features that make a difference over time — like version history for restoring older files, advanced link sharing with passwords and expiration dates, and even built-in e-signature tools.
It’s a simple way to get more control over your files without adding another monthly expense.
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Get lifetime access to 2TB of Drime Cloud Storage for a one-time $112.49 (reg. $299.99) through May 10.
StackSocial prices subject to change.
Entertainment
The Bear still doesnt know how to write romance
Whenever The Bear introduces a new female character, I pray she doesn’t become a love interest for one of the male leads. Not because I hate romance, but because I specifically hate the way The Bear does romance.
The clearest offender is Carmy’s (Jeremy Allen White) relationship with Claire (Molly Gordon). A childhood friend who re-enters Carmy’s life, Claire is less a real human character than she is a walking self-help book for Carmy. She spends almost every moment she’s on screen talking about him: her memories of him, his mental health struggles, his relationship with his family. In theory, she has a life apart from Carmy — her defining character trait outside of being his girlfriend is vaguely “nurse” — but in watching The Bear, you wouldn’t know it.
Usually a great performer (see: Shiva Baby, Oh, Hi!, and more), Gordon is reduced to two modes here: luminous love interest hanging onto Carmy’s every word, or calming therapist. She’s not the only Bear character to meet this fate. As The Bear builds Ever staffer Jessica (Sarah Ramos) into a possible match for Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), it replaces her level-headed expertise with empty platitudes designed to ground him. (Season 4 line “honesty is sanity” made me want to drive my head through a wall.) Elsewhere, Richie’s ex-wife, Tiffany (Gillian Jacobs), acts as a similar pillar of support.
Their heads constantly askew, their eyes lit up in adoration, their mouths always ready to offer up an eager laugh or some cornball advice, these characters morph into The Bear‘s single idea of a Woman In Love. Now, The Bear‘s standalone episode “Gary” offers a new addition to this pantheon: Sherri (Marin Ireland) from Gary, Indiana.
Mashable Top Stories
Sherri is a woman whom Richie and Mikey (Jon Bernthal) meet at a bar while on a work trip to Gary. She immediately strikes up a rapport with Mikey, playing a private game of “Fact or Fiction” with him, listening to his complicated woes while nestled together in a bathroom stall, and stealing his beanie and wearing it like a middle schooler trying to get a rise out of a crush. It’s a level of blindly supportive compassion we haven’t seen since Claire Bear, and Ireland, typically a huge asset to any project, soon becomes trapped in The Bear‘s love interest archetype. (Someone please ban affectionate head tilts from the set of The Bear, effective immediately.)
While Sherri feels like she was meant to be a moment of bright connection in Mikey’s life, maybe even “the one that got away,” she really just comes across as an empty vessel for him to pour his trauma into. “What are you looking for, Michael?” she wonders. Later, when he asks permission to do a bump of cocaine, she simply responds, “I want you to be you.” It’s a series of faux-deep exchanges that even two great performers can’t sell. (It doesn’t help that Bernthal and Moss-Bachrach wrote the episode.)
That faux-deepness is what sinks The Bear‘s other romances, too. The show tries to force these deep, cosmic connections, but it forgets that these relationships should be a two-way street. Perhaps that’s why many viewers are drawn to shipping Carmy and Sydney (Ayo Edebiri). While the showrunners have affirmed that their relationship is platonic — and I personally agree with that choice — what sets this hypothetical pairing apart is that they each have such rich lives, both in their work together and their time apart. That’s because The Bear is invested in both of them as characters, rather than just using one as a device to unlock the other. You simply can’t say the same of The Bear‘s other romantic pairings, and the release of “Gary” further proves that romance is the recipe The Bear has yet to master.
“Gary” is now streaming on Hulu. The Bear Season 5 premieres this June on Hulu.
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