This week we not only dissect the nominations for this year's EMMYs, but James reveals the extent to which Covid (which, in the mother of all ironies, laid him out immediately after recording last week's show) has allowed him to put a dent in his mammoth watch-list, specifically around a certain Breaking Bad prequel. And speaking of which, in a cryptic review that plays out almost entirely in code, Beth and Boyd review Better Call Saul's home stretch while protecting James' delicate ears from any hint of spoilers. And we watch Witness No. 3 on Ch5 and cry (and laugh, but mainly cry) our way through season 3 of Trying on Apple TV+.
Michelle de Swarte is our guest on this week's show, chatting demonic offspring with Beth in honour of Sky comedy The Baby. Elsewhere, prompted by a recent episode of The Boys, the team discuss the most shocking scenes in all of tellydom, plus we announce our LIVE 200th episode (keep Sunday 21 August free!). Review-wise, we wade into The Control Room on BBC1, comedy Sneakerhead on Dave, and James and Boyd try (and fail) not to get into (another) fight about Breeders.
As promised a couple of weeks back, we welcome The Man Who Fell To Earth stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Naomie Harris and Bill Nighy to the show this week, where they were warmly greeted by Pilot TV superfan Chris Hewitt. Plus we run through our pick of the 20 best TV shows of the year so far, and even find time to do a quick rundown of the Stranger Things finale (at the very end if you want to avoid spoilers). We also look at Apple's Taron Egerton prison thriller Black Bird; Sky's parenting black comedy The Baby; Starzplay's true crime drama The Girl From Plainville, with Elle Fanning; and Prime Video's The Terminal List, which sees Chris Pratt kill everyone in sight as a vengeful Navy SEAL.
Simon Pegg joins us on the show this week, to talk about his new Channel 4 cyber security drama, The Undeclared War. Plus we head back to the future for the fourth season of Westworld on Sky, Atlantic, off to New Orleans for the US reimagining of Queer As Folk on Starzplay, and back to Atlanta for Season 3 of that show, which returns to Disney+. Plus Boyd catches up with the second season of Only Murders In The Building. All that and some Kate Bush love and musings on the pros (and cons) of book to TV adaptations.
Want to hear from The Master Chief himself? Of course you do, which is why Pablo Schreiber joins us on this week's show to talk all things Halo. Plus the team take sides on whether they're #TeamMaggie or #TeamBirdy in Everything I Know About Love, Beth and Boyd go into raptures about the Barry finale and we review ALL the shows. Why? Because Paramount+ launched this week, and with it everything from The Man Who Fell To Earth and The First Lady to The Offer, Halo and the new Star Trek show. There is a LOT going on and we do our level best to cover off the whole lot.
Paapa Essiedu and Anjli Mohindra join us on the show this week to talk all things time travel for Joe Barton's new series, The Lazarus Project on Sky. Plus Anson Mount — Christopher Pike himself — is also with us, sliding back into the captain's chair for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds on Paramount+. Not only that, but we investigate a murder among the miners with David Morrissey in Sherwood on BBC1, and finally get to talk about the latest addition to the MCU, Ms Marvel on Disney+.
The legend that is Murray Bartlett is our guest on this week's show, chatting all things Physical Season 2, as well as The Last Of Us and (most importantly) Farscape. Plus we finally get David Simon's Baltimore-set follow-up to The Wire, We Own This City, into our eyes; go out on the lash with Dolly Alderton in Everything I Know About Love; and catch up with Homelander, Starlight and the inimitable Billy Butcher in season 3 of The Boys. All that and James, Beth and Boyd still find time to talk about great musical moments in television and re-litigate Stranger Things.
Only a group as seismic as The Sex Pistols could bring the Empire Podcast and the Pilot TV Podcast together once again. Yes, to mark the launch of Danny Boyle's brand-new six-part series, Pistol, on Disney+, Chris Hewitt, James Dyer, and Beth Webb put their collective noggins together and discuss the show, which debuts on Disney+ on May 31, and which charts the rapid rise and fall of the British punk band towards the tail end of the 1970s. In a fun episode, Chris, James and Beth talk about the cultural impact of Johnny Rotten, Steve Jones, Sid Vicious and the boys; their legacy; their weird link to the Spice Girls, and much, much more. Plus, Chris sits down with two of the stars of the show, Maisie Williams and Thomas Brodie-Sangster, and asks one of them about nicking Andy Serkis' arancini at the Empire Awards. It doesn't get much more punk than that. Never mind the you-know-what, here's [Empire and Pilot talking about] the Sex Pistols.
Not only do we have both Karl Urban and Jensen Ackles on this week’s show to talk about the new season of The Boys, but Empire’s Helen O’Hara makes her Pilot TV debut, finally getting the chance to lay her hands on one of the stars of Supernatural (figuratively speaking). Then, we nearly fail to get Obi-Wan Kenobi on the show but, thanks to some post-production tomfoolery, we were able to do a last minute drop-in to cover off all things Star Wars, and that was in addition to Danny Boyle’s Sex Pistols biopic, Pistol and sci-fi adaptation The Midwich Cuckoos on Sky. All that and Beth (for she has returned) Boyd and James mull over some of the best shows that have filmed in their respective home towns.
We may not have been able to see Obi-Wan Kenobi this week but that didn't stop us inviting Indira Varma onto the show to talk all about the latest addition to the Star Wars canon. Plus we return to Hawkins for Stranger Things' fourth season on Netflix, see Kaley Cuoco return in season 2 of The Flight Attendant and head off to university with that wee English fella in Big Boys on Channel 4. Beth is in Cannes this week so we're instead joined instead by none other than Boyd's Heat magazine desk-mate Kay Ribeiro.