To herald the arrival on Disney+ of Dopesick, Danny Strong’s drama chronicling the devastating impact of the opioid crisis on America, the Empire Podcast and Pilot TV Podcast crews have, once again, set aside their differences and come together to have a good old natter. In this very special crossover episode, in association with Disney+, Chris Hewitt, James Dyer, and Beth Webb do a deep dive into Dopesick, which tackles the opioid crisis from the points of view of characters connected to the cr...
Nov 15, 2021•51 min•Season 1Ep. 170
Dougray Scott and Irvine Welsh drop by the show this week to talk about their new thriller, Crime, on Britbox (37:51-54:31), plus we get our Dan Brown on with The Lost Symbol on Sky and put our anime knowledge to the test (ably assisted by Anime-doctorate-holder Beth K Webb) with Netflix's live action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop. Plus we look at which cancelled shows we still recommend people watch, the prevalence of Brit crime thrillers, the veracity (or not) of Squid Game's return, and how Jame...
Nov 15, 2021•2 hr 54 min•Season 1Ep. 169
If you're wondering why this week's runtime is so long, it's because we have a big old Q&A with Gemma Whelan, Jim Loach, Tahirah Sharif, Jimmy Akingbola, and Patrick Harbinson, all to talk about ITV's rather excellent new drama The Tower, which runs at the very end of this week's show (for reasons you'll soon discover). Elsewhere, we're getting reacquainted with our Dark Passengers for Dexter: New Blood on Sky Atlantic, seeking some rather problematic therapy from Paul Rudd in Apple's The Shrink...
Nov 08, 2021•2 hr 13 min•Season 1Ep. 168
We're immersing ourselves in slick Sunday night drama this week with BBC1’s Showtrial, solving a PD James murder mystery with Bertie Carvel in Channel 5’s Dalgliesh, and taking a peek inside the mind of BJ Novak in topical anthology series The Premise on Star. But that’s not all because there’s an absolute landslide of new shows hitting the airwaves this week from What We Do In The Shadows to Narcos: Mexico, the final season of Dickinson and more! Plus james finally finishes Squid Game and would...
Nov 01, 2021•2 hr 40 min•Season 1Ep. 167
This week's show sees us disappear down the rabbit hole of the BBC’s recently published list of the 100 greatest TV shows of the 21st century, poring over both their rundown (which all three of us contributed to) and each of our individual lists, which the Beeb was good enough to publicly name and shame us with. Not only that, though, but we’re banging on about Squid Game *yet again*, in this instance taking the show’s English dub to task and asking some key questions about its rather baffling a...
Oct 25, 2021•2 hr 36 min•Season 1Ep. 166
After a two-year break, Succession is finally back on our screens this week and what better way to mark the occasion than with a dedicated Pilot TV Succession special? James, Boyd, Beth and Nick sit down to chew over the phenomenon that is Jesse Armstrong’s backstabbing masterpiece, discussing everything from the secrets of the show’s success, to the writing, the best episodes for newcomers and, naturally, which Roys each of them identify with the most. But that’s not all, because we are joined ...
Oct 21, 2021•2 hr 47 min•Season 1Ep. 165
Ben Aldridge, joins us on the show this week (41:52-1:00:00) to talk about having one of the most excellent IMDb credits as Fleabag's 'Arsehole Guy', as well as his new ITV series, The Long Call. We then struggle through the rest of the podcast recording with James in a rather fragile state, as we get down with the Roys in season 3 of Succession on Sky, re-litigate Bill Clinton's extra-marital rumblings along with Ryan Murphy in Impeachment: American Crime Story on BBC2, and try to work out what...
Oct 18, 2021•2 hr 53 min•Season 1Ep. 164
There was no getting around it, we needed to talk about Ted this week, prompting a 15 minute discussion of the recent Ted Lasso finale and whether the Season 2 as a whole was full of buttery goodness or just a salty bitch (if you've not yet seen it, avoid 3:45-19:19). Elsewhere, we seek some marital advice from Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac in Scenes From A Marriage on Sky Atlantic, do the absolute opposite with Penn Badgley in Netflix's You, and follow Robert Carlisle as he tries to steer th...
Oct 11, 2021•2 hr 43 min•Season 1Ep. 163
It's an ITV double bill this week as we bask in the golden glow of Sunday evening feels with The Larkins, before shifting tonal gears entirely for Joanne Froggatt's domestic abuse thriller, Angela Black. Then we head up into the big black for Disney's astronaut documentary, Among The Stars, and James gets saddled with some extra homework as Boyd and Beth decide he needs to watch something out of his comfort zone as retribution for #StarTrekForBeth. Plus we talk about the wisdom of Steve Coogan p...
Oct 03, 2021•2 hr 44 min•Season 1Ep. 162
On this week's show we have a story that slowly unfolds over a thousand years... we also talk about Foundation. While the runtime for this week's episode is undeniably immense (sorry!), we did have good reason because the delightful Sophie Petzal joins us a guest co-host, ostensibly to talk about her new show Hollington Drive but more accurately to debate the merits of Star Trek: Voyager, call out our anti-animation bias, shed light on the secrets of great screenwriting, and speculate about sex ...
Sep 27, 2021•3 hr 40 min•Season 1Ep. 161
Y: The Last Man showrunner Eliza Clark and star Ashley Romans join us on this week's show as we enter a world without men in that apocalyptic drama on Star. Plus we get the bejesus scared out of us by horror maestro Mike Flanagan as he returns with Midnight Mass, and finally get to talk about the second season of The Morning Show. Elsewhere in the show, we talk (and occasionally scream and shout) about the winners and losers at last night's Emmys, and reel off our lists of shame by confessing to...
Sep 19, 2021•2 hr 57 min•Season 1Ep. 160
The wonderful Julianna Margulies joins the cast of The Morning Show for season 2, and Pilot TV for episode 159, dropping by this week's show to chat all things TMS and how it feels to be reunited with Jennifer Aniston, with whom she exploded onto network television at exactly the same time and on the very same lot. Plus James, Beth and Boyd take to task people who still think films are better than television, try to navigate streaming subscription priorities, and still find the time to review Ne...
Sep 12, 2021•2 hr 42 min•Season 1Ep. 159
The entirely fabulous Amanda Abbington joins the team for this week's show as a special guest host, discussing everything from Sherlock and her new show Wolfe to parenting tarantulas and the horrors of forgetting lines on stage. Plus we run through the annals of great televisual wordsmiths to assemble our picks for the greatest living screenwriters, pull on the latex for Ryan Murphy's American Horror Stories, and go whaling with Stephen Graham in The North Water on BBC2.
Sep 06, 2021•2 hr 58 min•Season 1Ep. 158
After 151 episodes, it was the end of an era for the Pilot TV podcast this week, as the third leg in our triumvirate of bellends, the legend that is Terri White, bid the show a fond farewell and signed off for the very last time. To mark the occasion we did make the somewhat dubious decision to stream the episode live online (you can find it on the Empire Magazine YouTube channel) and, miraculously, nothing went wrong! In addition to giving Terri the send off she so richly deserved, we let you, ...
Aug 29, 2021•2 hr 40 min•Season 1Ep. 157
As a wise doctor once said, "we're in the endgame now." Particularly when it comes to The Walking Dead. The eleventh and final season of the iconic, groundbreaking show is set to premiere from Monday 23rd August as a STAR exclusive on Disney+, and that is an occasion so momentous that, once again, the Pilot TV and Empire Podcast teams have joined forces with STAR on Disney+ to talk about it. So, in this very special crossover episode, Chris Hewitt, James Dyer, and Beth Webb pop into the virtual ...
Aug 23, 2021•1 hr 15 min•Season 1Ep. 156
It's not only our one hundred and fiftieth episode this week but it's also Terri's *penultimate* show. Fitting, then, that she chose to mark the occasion by being more 'Terri' than ever before, laying into James' penchant for "fantasy shite", due to being forced to watch season 2 of the magnificent See with absolutely no context. As well as the return of of Steven Knight's post-apocalyptic magnum opus, we find out what Line Of Duty on a submarine would look like in Vigil on BBC1, explore the dar...
Aug 23, 2021•2 hr 43 min•Season 1Ep. 155
It's quite the week for getaways as The White Lotus opens its opulent Hawaiian resort on Sky Atlantic and Nicole Kidman's wellness retreat receives visitors in Nine Perfect Strangers on Amazon. Of course, Nicola Walker pulling bodies out of a river in Annika doesn't *quite* fit the theme, but her boss has an office that puts most five star hotels to shame so we'll let it slide.
Aug 15, 2021•1 hr 24 min•Season 1Ep. 154
We're all about the hypotheticals this week as we explore alternate superhero realities in Disney's What If?. Plus, we enter the squared circle with StarzPlay's drama about the ups and downs of small town wrestling in Heels, and go undercover to try and catch a killer in Channel 4's Deceit. All that and Terri takes a deep dive into the latest episode of The Handmaid's Tale (19:47-26:43 if you want to avoid spoilers) and we find out why she and Pacey Witter would never have lasted.
Aug 10, 2021•1 hr 28 min•Season 1Ep. 153
It's a cruel (it's a cruel) Cruel Summer this week, leaving us here on our own. But don't worry if those Bananarama lyrics meant nothing to you - that just means you're young. Cruel Summer is not, however, a show about the 80s popsters, but rather a teen psychological thriller on Amazon that we get into this week, along with Joseph Gordon Levitt's Mr Corman on Apple, and the second series of Dominic Savage's I Am on Channel 4. Plus Terri and Boyd roundly ignore the listener question and instead...
Aug 01, 2021•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 152
Terri's over the moon on this week's show, which can mean only one thing: a new Law & Order. Taking her love of Benson and Stabler to all new heights, Terri leads the charge on Law & Order: Organized Crime, hanging in there for series 2 of Jerk on BBC3, and the return of King Gary on BBC1. Plus we talk through some of the TV actors who should be far bigger stars than they are, and laughably attempt to report the TV news despite having recorded the episode last Thursday.
Jul 25, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 151
Assemble the Diamond Dogs because Ted Lasso is back on our screens this week, which gives James and Boyd a second chance to try and make Terri succumb to the moustachioed one’s folksy charms. Plus, we hang out on Uzo Aduba's couch for the new revival of In Treatment on Sky, and take a look at Steve McQueen's new documentary, Uprising, on BBC1. All that and the team get to thrash out the hits and misses of the recent Emmy nominations and ruminate on what manner of egregious TV tastes it would tak...
Jul 19, 2021•2 hr 31 min•Season 1Ep. 150
Aisling Bea joins us on this week's episode as a very special fourth host as we talk about the second series of her Channel 4 show, This Way Up, and chat everything from eating crisps on the couch to how it's possible to be simultaneously obsessed with both Line Of Duty and The Real Housewives Of New York. We also run through the shows we're most looking forward to during the second half of 2021 and even manage to review some shows, including Schmigadoon! On Apple TV+, and season 2 of War Of The...
Jul 11, 2021•2 hr 50 min•Season 1Ep. 149
With the eleventh and final season of The Walking Dead just around the corner, we’re getting all kinds of excited to see how the groundbreaking, landmark AMC show brings the whole bloody affair to a close. But first, we figured it would be time to look back at the previous ten seasons, which are now available to stream on STAR on Disney+. And so the Empire Podcast and Pilot TV Podcast teams have decided to join forces with STAR on Disney+ to bring you this very special episode in which Chris Hew...
Jul 11, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 149
Due to the convergence of both football and tennis, new shows are a little thin on the ground this week but that can't stop us from bringing you another glorious instalment of the podcast. Indeed, this week's is an episode in which Boyd and Terri try to explain the concept of sport to James and then audition a series of (fictional) TV characters to fill Terri's soon to be vacant seat. On the telly front, it's an animation double bill as we look at the Resident Evil anime show on Netflix, and rej...
Jul 04, 2021•1 hr 20 min•Season 1Ep. 148
True crime, fake crime and organised crime are the themes this week as we take a look at Netflix documentary Sophie: A Murder In West Cork; Alibi's Facebook acquisition, Limetown; the latest Season of Sons Of Anarchy spin-off Mayans M.C.; and ill-conceived Terry Pratchett adaptation, The Watch. Plus, to celebrate the fact that we've reached the year's midpoint, the team wrangle over their personal lists for the best shows of 2021 so far.
Jun 27, 2021•1 hr 21 min•Season 1Ep. 147
We're all about the Bosch this week as Amazon's Michael Connelly adaptation arrives with its seventh (and final!) season and James gets a little... well, James about it. We also review the modern (if ill-fated) remake of Party Of Five and celebrate Pride Month with LGBT history documentary, Pride. Plus, the team takes a nostalgic trip back to TV shows past, digging through their memories for some of the childhood show that shaped them into the loveable bellends they are today.
Jun 20, 2021•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 146
We take an adventure with Marvel's god of mischief on this week's show, finally passing the embargo for Loki on Disney+. Then we find out whether Rose Byrne can find salvation through aerobics in Apple's Physical and how James McAvoy and Sharon Horgan survived lockdown in Together — a one-off-feature-length-not-a-film written by Dennis Kelly. Plus James, Terri, and Boyd look at some of the most memorable TV character departures, pick through the carcass of last week's TV Baftas, and get *incredi...
Jun 13, 2021•1 hr 25 min•Season 1Ep. 145
James is away but somehow still manages to dominate the conversation before Terri, Boyd and guest co-host Beth Webb turn their attention to the Mare Of Easttown finale (spoilers – skip between 6:31 and 12:00 if you still haven’t caught up with one of the shows of the year). Then it’s back to James-spiration for a discussion of the biggest bell-ends in TV history, and what exactly makes a bell-end, before we review The Schwim in Sky One’s Intelligence season 2, Blindspotting on Starzplay and crim...
Jun 06, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Season 1Ep. 144
Charlotte Ritchie and Mae Martin join us on this week's show to talk about the second (and final) series of Feel Good on Netflix. Plus the Pilot team dissect last week's Friends Reunion special, before embarking on a bumper reviews segment covering Stephen King adaptation Lisey's Story on Apple, Jimmy McGovern's Time on BBC1, Channel 5's adaptation of the last weeks of Anne Boleyn, and Feel Good itself.
May 31, 2021•1 hr 28 min•Season 1Ep. 143
James’ re-watch of Game Of Thrones comes to a triumphant conclusion this week, so brace yourselves for an extended monologue/re-evaluation of that show as he drives Terri to the brink of catatonia with fresh takes on all things Season 8 (it ends at 18:43 if you feel your life ebbing away and/or want to avoid any GoT spoilers). And speaking of re-evaluations, we discuss how we view other classic shows differently over time as our perspectives on life change. Plus we finally get to see Amazon’s So...
May 23, 2021•2 hr 32 min•Season 1Ep. 142
