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
Hurdle hints and answers for March 13, 2026
If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.
There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it’ll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.
An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.
If you find yourself stuck at any step of today’s Hurdle, don’t worry! We have you covered.
Hurdle Word 1 hint
A juicy fruit.
Hurdle Word 1 answer
PEACH
Hurdle Word 2 hint
Never gives.
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Hurdle Word 2 Answer
TAKER
Hurdle Word 3 hint
A glimmer.
Hurdle Word 3 answer
GLINT
Hurdle Word 4 hint
To sock.
Hurdle Word 4 answer
PUNCH
Final Hurdle hint
To empty out.
Hurdle Word 5 answer
DRAIN
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Entertainment
NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for March 13, 2026
Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is easy for fans of the Big East.
As we’ve shared in previous hints stories, this is a version of the popular New York Times word game that seeks to test the knowledge of sports fans.
Like the original Connections, the game is all about finding the “common threads between words.” And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier — so we’ve served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.
If you just want to be told today’s puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for the latest Connections solution. But if you’d rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
What is Connections: Sports Edition?
The NYT‘s latest daily word game has launched in association with The Athletic, the New York Times property that provides the publication’s sports coverage. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.
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Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there’s only one correct answer.
If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake — players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.
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Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.
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Here’s a hint for today’s Connections: Sports Edition categories
Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:
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Yellow: Hang the banner
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Green: Big East
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Blue: Food analogies
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Purple: Famous Tims
Here are today’s Connections: Sports Edition categories
Need a little extra help? Today’s connections fall into the following categories:
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Yellow: Things Fans Hang on Their Walls
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Green: A Big East Athlete
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Blue: Food, But Make It Baseball
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Purple: Tims
Looking for Wordle today? Here’s the answer to today’s Wordle.
Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today’s puzzle before we reveal the solutions.
Drumroll, please!
The solution to today’s Connections: Sports Edition #536 is…
What is the answer to Connections: Sports Edition today?
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Things Fans Hang on Their Walls – BANNER, FLAG, PENNANT, POSTER
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A Big East Athlete – FRIAR, HOYA, HUSKY, PIRATE
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Food, But Make It Baseball – CAN OF CORN, MEATBALL, PICKLE, TATER
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Tims – DUNCAN, RAINES, SALMON, TEBOW
Don’t feel down if you didn’t manage to guess it this time. There will be new sports Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we’ll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.
Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today’s Strands.
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Connections.
Entertainment
NYT Pips hints, answers for March 13, 2026
Welcome to your guide to Pips, the latest game in the New York Times catalogue.
Released in August 2025, the Pips puts a unique spin on dominoes, creating a fun single-player experience that could become your next daily gaming habit.
Currently, if you’re stuck, the game only offers to reveal the entire puzzle, forcing you to move onto the next difficulty level and start over. However, we have you covered! Below are piecemeal answers that will serve as hints so that you can find your way through each difficulty level.
How to play Pips
If you’ve ever played dominoes, you’ll have a passing familiarity for how Pips is played. As we’ve shared in our previous hints stories for Pips, the tiles, like dominoes, are placed vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The main difference between a traditional game of dominoes and Pips is the color-coded conditions you have to address. The touching tiles don’t necessarily have to match.
The conditions you have to meet are specific to the color-coded spaces. For example, if it provides a single number, every side of a tile in that space must add up to the number provided. It is possible – and common – for only half a tile to be within a color-coded space.
Here are common examples you’ll run into across the difficulty levels:
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Number: All the pips in this space must add up to the number.
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Equal: Every domino half in this space must be the same number of pips.
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Not Equal: Every domino half in this space must have a completely different number of pips.
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Less than: Every domino half in this space must add up to less than the number.
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Greater than: Every domino half in this space must add up to more than the number.
If an area does not have any color coding, it means there are no conditions on the portions of dominoes within those spaces.
Easy difficulty hints, answers for March 13 Pips
Number (11): Everything in this space must add up to 11. The answer is 6-6, placed vertically; 5-5, placed horizontally.
Number (8): Everything in this space must add up to 8. The answer is 6-6, placed vertically; 2-2, placed horizontally.
Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. The answer is 2-2, placed horizontally; 4-4, placed horizontally.
Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 3-3, placed vertically.
Medium difficulty hints, answers for March 13 Pips
Number (9): Everything in this space must add up to 9. The answer is 1-4, placed horizontally; 5-3, placed vertically.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 1-4, placed horizontally; 0-0, placed vertically.
Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. The answer is 5-3, placed vertically; 3-4, placed vertically.
Number (5): Everything in this orange space must add up to 5. The answer is 0-0, placed vertically; 2-6, placed horizontally; 3-1, placed horizontally.
Number (5): Everything in this green space must add up to 5. The answer is 3-1, placed horizontally; 4-5, placed horizontally.
Number (9): Everything in this space must add up to 9. The answer is 3-4, placed vertically; 4-5, placed horizontally.
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Hard difficulty hints, answers for March 13 Pips
Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-0, placed vertically.
Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 3-3, placed vertically.
Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-2, placed vertically.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 1-1, placed horizontally.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 1-1, placed horizontally.
Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-0, placed vertically.
Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 3-3, placed vertically.
Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 0-2, placed vertically.
Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 4-3, placed horizontally.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 4-1, placed vertically.
Less Than (4): Everything in this space must be less than 4. The answer is 2-4, placed horizontally.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 1-3, placed vertically.
Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-4, placed vertically.
Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-1, placed horizontally.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 0-1, placed horizontally.
Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-3, placed horizontally.
Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 0-3, placed horizontally.
Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 1-3, placed vertically.
Number (2): Everything in this light blue space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-1, placed vertically.
Number (2): Everything in this dark blue space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-2, placed horizontally.
Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-2, placed horizontally.
Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 3-2, placed horizontally.
Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 3-2, placed horizontally.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 2-1, placed vertically.
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Ohio State holds off Iowa, advances to Big Ten quarterfinals
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