This week on TV Corner Notes: why streaming turned TV into fast food, Sophie Turner’s action-star glow-up, and a punk-rock midlife rebellion you need to hear.
Welcome back to TV Corner Notes, where we sort through the chaos of Peak TV so you don’t have to. This week, I’m digging into how streaming quietly turned television into something disposable — and why the slow-burning, weekly ritual might be the thing that saves it. Plus: Sophie Turner proving she’s ready to carry an action franchise, and a punk-rock BritBox drama that turns midlife into a full-volume rebellion.
TV Corner Notes: Why Streaming Services Should Steal the Broadcast Playbook
Remember when TV shows had a night? And a rhythm? And a whole week to breathe?
For nearly a decade, streaming platforms have treated traditional television like a problem to be solved.
The binge drop was their big innovation: a bold statement that TV should be consumed like a software update. All at once. No waiting. No friction.
And for a while? It was fun.
But here we are in 2026, drowning in content, struggling to remember what we watched last month, and wondering why even “hit” shows vanish from the conversation almost as soon as they arrive.
The problem isn’t binge-watching itself. It’s that it became the default. And in the process, streaming quietly broke the rhythms that made television stick.
TV used to be an appointment.
You knew what night your show was on. You planned around it. You talked about it the next day. You argued over theories, worried about characters, and lived with stories for weeks at a time.
That space between episodes wasn’t empty — it’s where fandom lived.
Now a streamer drops ten episodes on a Friday, Twitter does its thing for 48 hours, and by Monday, the internet has moved on to the next shiny object. Even genuinely great shows barely get time to breathe.
Weekly releases turn shows into events.
Binge drops turn them into takeout.
And then there’s the other streaming epidemic: the wait.
Two years between seasons has somehow become normal. Sometimes three. By the time a show returns, viewers are Googling character names and trying to remember why they cared in the first place. Momentum is gone. Emotional investment cools. The magic leaks out.
Television runs on habit.
Break the habit, and loyalty becomes optional.
But there’s a second part of this problem streamers almost never talk about:
They don’t give shows time to prove themselves.
Traditional networks had a system. A season would air. The audience would grow (or not). Buzz would build. And then, in May — during upfronts — a decision came down: renewed or canceled.
It wasn’t perfect, but it gave them a full runway to find their footing.
Now? A series can be quietly judged by opening-weekend numbers and algorithmic completion rates — and sometimes scrapped before word of mouth even has a chance to kick in.
That’s not how fandoms are built.
That’s how cult hits die young.
If streamers truly want long-term franchises instead of disposable content, they should steal one more page from the broadcast playbook:
Air the season.
Let it live weekly.
Let the conversation grow.
And wait until spring to decide its fate.
Give viewers time to discover it.
Give critics time to champion it.
Give stories time to matter.
I’m not arguing for a full return to 22-episode seasons padded with filler or walls of commercials. Nobody’s asking for that. But there is a middle ground — one streamers seem weirdly resistant to embracing:
High-quality seasons
Weekly episodes
Predictable release windows
Renewals that don’t feel like hostage negotiations
Give a show time to grow. Give the audience time to connect. Let conversations build, rather than burn out in a weekend binge haze.
Streamers have mastered delivering content.
What they still haven’t mastered is how to let it last.
If the goal is to build fandoms instead of fleeting hits — to create shows people carry with them, not just scroll past — the answer isn’t another algorithm tweak or release experiment.
It’s remembering what television has always done best:
Make it a habit.
Make it an event.
Give it time.
What do you think — are you team weekly releases, or do you still prefer the full-season drop? Let me know in the comments.
Why Steal Feels Like Sophie Turner’s Lead Star Arrival
Sophie Turner is officially done being “just” a Game of Thrones alum. Her new Prime Video thriller Steal quietly doubles as a high-octane audition tape for her upcoming turn as Lara Croft — and honestly? She crushes it. What starts as a sleek London heist drama quickly turns into a paranoid chase thriller, with Turner transforming from an office worker-in-over-her-head to a scrappy, sharp survivalist in record time.
The show isn’t perfect (a few familiar thriller tropes and a very talkative finale), but Turner’s performance is the real headline — physical, smart, and convincingly dangerous. If you’ve been on the fence about her Tomb Raider casting, this series might change your mind.
Read my full recap and review of Steal for deeper thoughts on the twists, the finale, and why Turner might be our best Lara Croft yet.
Riot Women Turns Midlife Crisis Into Punk Rock
Dust off your Doc Martens and crank the amp; if you haven’t started Riot Women on BritBox yet, you’re missing what might be Sally Wainwright’s most rebellious (and emotionally bruising) series yet. The show follows five women in Hebden Bridge who form a punk band not for fame, but for survival, trading quiet midlife invisibility for feedback, fury, and second chances.
Across the first three episodes, a near-tragic breaking point, an accidental band lineup, and a volatile new member (Rosalie Craig’s glorious chaos agent, Kitty) ignite something raw, messy, and deeply human — especially in her electric connection with Joanna Scanlan’s fragile, unforgettable Beth. It’s loud, funny, tender, and unapologetically angry in the best way.
I go deeper into the characters, the music, that secret, and why this could be one of the year’s best dramas in my full recap and review.
What to Watch This Week
It's the final week of January, from season premieres to docuseries, here's what's on this week.
Monday, January 26
8/7c American Idol Season 24 (ABC)
8/7c Extracted Season 2 (Fox)
8/7c Wild Cards Season 3 (The CW)
9/8c Memory of a Killer Episode 2/time slot premiere (Fox)
10/9c History's Deadliest with Ving Rhames (History): Hosted and narrated by Rhames, the docuseries examines some of the deadliest people, disasters, and events in history.
10/9c The Rookie time slot premiere (ABC)
Tuesday, January 27
Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators Season 5 finale (BritBox)
9/8c Wonder Man (Disney+, eight-episode binge): An aspiring actor (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) crosses paths with a washed-up performer (Ben Kingsley) as both pursue roles in a superhero remake.
Take That (Netflix): The documentary uses never-before-seen archive footage to chart the rise, fall, and record-breaking reunion of one of the UK's most iconic boy bands.
9/8c 33 Photos From the Ghetto (HBO): The documentary tells the story of the only known photographs from inside the Warsaw Ghetto during the April 1943 uprising and its brutal repression that were not taken by German forces.
Wednesday, January 28
School Spirits Season 3 (Paramount+, three-episode premiere)
Shrinking Season 3 (Apple TV)
The Wrecking Crew (Prime Video movie): Estranged half-brothers (Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista) reunite after their father's mysterious death, uncovering buried secrets and a conspiracy that threatens to tear their family apart.
Thursday, January 29
Bridgerton Season 4 (Netflix, four-episode premiere)
Sanstuary: A Witch's Tale Season 2 finale (AMC+)
8/7c Next Level Chef Season 5 (Fox)
Friday, January 30
8/7c Inside the 68th Annual Grammy Awards (CBS)
9/8c Masters of Illusion Season 11 finale (The CW)
9:30/8:30c Junk or Jackpot? Season 1 finale (HGTV)
Saturday, January 31
2/1c WWE: Royal Rumble (ESPN app)
Whether TV becomes fast food or a full meal is still up for debate — but at least we get to argue about it together. Thanks for spending part of your week here with me, and I’ll see you next Monday with more thoughts, recaps, and things to add to your watchlist.
Until next week,
Adam
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