Month-to-Month & Year-to-Year: Episodic Medium's Spring 2025 Schedule & 3rd Anniversary

Your annual rumination on ethical capitalism and a look at our busiest spring yet

A year ago, Episodic Medium celebrated its second anniversary, and in addition to commemorating the work of our great contributors and my tremendous thanks for our subscribers for making it possible, I had to address the reality of hosting a newsletter on the Substack platform.

This was not a new concern: in truth, little about the Substack platform has changed in the three years since we started. Its business model has always been built on the idea that it doesn’t care what kind of writers are publishing newsletters or what content they’re publishing; they just care people are willing to pay to read their work so they can take their 10%. Early on, this meant financially incentivizing writers with large platforms elsewhere to join Substack, even if those writers were actively cultivating anti-trans rhetoric. And while that program was discontinued, they actively resisted the deplatforming of Nazis in the intervening period, and more recently doubled down with structural support for morally bankrupt right-wing provocateurs as the next logical extension of their neoliberal capitalist identity.

But while none of this is new, there’s no question that our moment is changing. Substack’s techno-utopian rhetoric has always been hollow, but it feels especially hollow during the dismantling of American democracy. This is a challenging time where we are all seeking meaningful spaces of resistance, and looking to the platforms we engage with to stand up for the principles we believe in is entirely reasonable. It’s also antithetical to the ethos of tech capitalism, especially in a climate when capital is consciously and collectively positioning itself to avoid retaliatory regulation from an illiberal government. This moment is not the first time people have chosen to cancel their Substack subscriptions or migrate their newsletters to other platforms, but the stakes no doubt feel higher for everyone involved.

I want to be clear that it does not feel good to be remaining on Substack right now, and having to write these posts every year is exhausting, but I regret to reiterate that the stakes of migration add too much uncertainty to this project. If I was running a personal newsletter, where the only consequence of losing access to Substack’s network effects were my own revenue, I would have moved long before now. But what Substack’s network offers is a passive form of connection—referral networks with other publications, for instance—that would be less developed on other platforms or require me to engage in more marketing and outreach that is inconsistent with the time I’m able to commit to running this newsletter and supporting the work of its contributors.

It would be one thing if I felt like alternate paths to networking were available, but it’s been a real challenge on that front. In the fall we did a short trial of some marketing to Reddit, and while it’s possible a larger investment could see different results, not a single one of the 300-ish people who clicked through the ad became a subscriber (free or paid). And while the rise of Bluesky over the past few months has rekindled the spirit of social media discussion, early evidence suggests the people likely to find Episodic Medium through the platform are the people who already found it before. When I wrote my recent newsletter on FX’s renewal of English Teacher, which was spread widely on Bluesky and linked by Mo Ryan in her piece at Salon, it resulted in 11 new free subscribers. And the simple truth is that while maybe publishing similar pieces weekly would help grow our audience without Substack’s assistance, this remains a part-time commitment for me in ways that make it hard (if not impossible) to keep up that pace.

This is all to say I’ll never co-sign the things that Substack chooses to do with the $6000-ish they collect from Episodic Medium every year, but they currently represent the best platform for ensuring that I can run this newsletter in a sustainable way while still supporting our writers and the great work they’re doing. In the past year we’ve added new contributors—William Goodman, Liam Mathews, Emma Fraser—and continued to expand our coverage. In March and again in April, we’ll have nine active shows being covered on a weekly basis, and that doesn’t even include the free Reactions to The Pitt that have been going out to all subscribers. Episodic Medium has become so much larger than I ever imagined it could be, and I’d argue there is no greater value in online publishing than what you’re getting for $5 a month. And while I understand that knowing $0.50 of that is supporting a company with no understanding of ethical capitalism could be a barrier for some, and I’m resisting increasing the price of the newsletter in part based on the discomfort of giving them more money, right now the best way for this newsletter to exist is with the passive support of Substack’s tools.

Could this change in the future? Absolutely. I remain committed to exploring all available alternatives, and I don’t want the people who’ve unsubscribed or voiced their hope that people on Substack would reconsider feel that I have taken their calls lightly. I want to believe in the dream of ethical capitalism as much as they do, but I also know what I see every day I run this newsletter, and the idea of disrupting that makes the entire project feel wholly untenable. Given the moment we’re living in, our personal politics are about giving us the most sustainable version of getting through each day; I totally respect the subscribers for whom supporting Substack is a drain on their well-being, much as I hope they’ll respect that leaving Substack would be a drain on mine.

Programming Note

I want to start by offering an explanation and an apology: back in January we announced the return of LaToya Ferguson’s Episodic Classics coverage of The O.C., but her health issues pushed back our start date, and we both decided in the interest of giving her the space to catch up to postpone the reviews until she feels they are sustainable within her schedule. As a result, we don’t have a specific date for its return, but I’ll keep you in the loop.

New Coverage

Daredevil: Born Again is the latest MCU series to debut, but it’s notable as the first to actively draw on the Netflix properties that were originally developed by Marvel Television separate from Kevin Feige’s oversight. That’s why Caroline Siede has been busy rewatching Daredevil in recent months, and I’d also recommend that people check out her reviews of Echo from last year for some additional context that will likely resonate in this new chapter in Matt Murdock’s story.

Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal flew under the radar in its first season, a Friday HBO oddity that blew up into a major cultural moment, so much so that we hosted a standalone discussion of the finale. As such, it’s been elevated to a prime Sunday slot for its April 12 premiere, and William Goldman will be stepping in to cover its six episodes here at Episodic Medium.

New Reactions

The Pitt has been a test of a new format of shorter “Reactions” to weekly shows, which either don’t fit traditional coverage (we’ll have one of those in this window once a release date is available) or where there’s a question of whether there’s interest or capacity to sustain full coverage. I honestly had placed The Pitt in the latter category, but it’s become a real conversation starter, and so we’ll elevate it to full coverage for Season 2. Along similar lines, I’m going to be posting some reactions to Apple TV+’s The Studio this spring—maybe it will also turn into a big hit, but having seen the whole season I think it’s better suited to a quick set of thoughts to start a conversation.¹ We’ll continue experimenting with the most cost-effective ways to expand our coverage and engage our audience.

Returning Coverage

• The Righteous Gemstones is back for its fourth and final season, and that means that Donna Bowman is finally back on the roster, with coverage starting this coming weekend on March 9.

• Shoutout to the BBC and Disney+ for announcing a Doctor Who return date in time for this calendar, as the show and Caroline Siede’s reviews return on April 12.

• The Last of Us is another one of those shows that has decided two year hiatuses are a-okay, and they’re delivering a shorter season to boot, but Zack Handlen will be back on the beat to cover the 7-episode second season on April 13.

• In addition to a 2+ year hiatus, Andor is also committing to a three-episode-weekly release structure, and I’ll need to talk to Josh Spiegel about how we’re going to approach this, but the show and his reviews will return in some form or another on April 22.

• We actually don’t have a release date yet for Hacks, but every sign points to Max wanting to keep the Emmys rolling in, so I expect we’ll see another early May start. Lisa Weidenfeld remains in her emeritus status, so we’ll be finding someone new to cover the comedy’s fourth season.

Ongoing Coverage

• The White Lotus (Ben Rosenstock)

• St. Denis Medical (Caroline Siede)

• Survivor (Myles McNutt)

• Mythic Quest (Les Chappell)

• Abbott Elementary (LaToya Ferguson)

• The Traitors (Myles McNutt)

• Yellowjackets (Ben Rosenstock)

• Severance (Myles McNutt)

Anniversary Sale

In honor of our third anniversary, yearly subscriptions to Episodic Medium will be 15% off (that’s a savings of $7.50) until 3/15. Yearly support gives us the most stability to continue doing what we do, and with the increased coverage in March and April that means you’ll be paying less than $0.15 a review. We might not always be covering everything you’re watching, but if you’re someone who watches TV and interested in none of what we’re covering in the next three months, I’ve got questions.

Calendars

As always, these are subject to change as necessary, and there’s a good chance that things are added to the schedule as more release dates arrive for April and (especially) May.

1. I want to be clear that when I asked Emma to take on this experiment, I was clear she should limit her time to reflect lower rates, and her choice to mostly ignore me is a sign of her enthusiasm for the show and the eternal struggle of the TV critic.