The 2026 Telluride Film Festival runs September 4-7 at Telluride, Colorado. In this podcast, Megan McLachlan, Joey Moser, and special guest Mark Johnson discuss what they’re expecting out of the film schedule lineup. The 2026 Telluride Film Festival is right around the corner, meaning we’re gearing up for another awards season. This year looks like a doozy, with past Oscar winners like Julianne Moore in the mix, newbies like Jordan Firstman campaigning their first awards season, and actresses like Sandra Huller with not one, not two, but four films in contention this year (eat your heart out,
With the Television Academy voting underway, we reveal the 2026 Cooler Award nominations and our Emmy wish list! The 2026 Emmy voting window is finally here. So, with the Television Academy weighing in on their favorite television series, Joey, Megan, and Clarence offer their Emmy wish list recommendations. What do we think that the Television Academy should most definitely consider? What personal favorites do we advocate? Find out on this week’s podcast! But first, Clarence unveils the 2026 Cooler Awards nominations! Find out what surprises the readers and staff of The Contending have in stor
We review three new series including The Shards, Furious, and a new season of Emmy-winning comedy Ted Lasso. This week, Joey, Megan, and Clarence take a break from the 2026 Emmys to look at three new series. Ryan Murphy returns to directing in the pilot of FX’s The Shards. Based on the novel and co-written by Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards stars Igby Rigney as a fictionalized version of Ellis growing up in the posh world of early 1980s Los Angeles. Being a Ryan Murphy project, social norms emerge as frightening as the serial killer targeting Ellis’ prep school friends. Then, Megan has already r
In a very special episode of the Contending at the Water Cooler podcast, Megan McLachlan is joined by freelance writer Joshua Axelrod to discuss all five 2026 Outstanding TV Movie Emmy contenders. Notably, the Outstanding TV Movie category is completely unpredictable, with past winners including Rebel Ridge, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, and Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers. There is no one type of TV movie. In terms of the 2026 Outstanding TV Movie category, this year we have a buddy comedy with John Cena and Idris Elba (with Priyanka Chopra as the third wheel), a rom-com that steals from When Har
The Contending co-founders Megan McLachlan and Joey Moser are joined by special guests freelance writer Fawnia Soo Hoo and costume dresser Eoin Daly to discuss the four Emmy costume categories. Is 2026 the year of Middle-Aged Malaise? It appears to be in the Emmys 2026 Contemporary Limited Series/TV Movie Costume category. Series like DTF St. Louis, Black Rabbit, and Remarkably Bright Creatures tackle growing older and what that looks like—especially in the costumes these characters wear, in khakis, ill-fitting tees (looking at you, David Harbour), and darker colors. Margo’s Got Money Troubles
We review Christopher Nolan’s take on the original epic: Homer’s The Odyssey. Does it withstand all of the hype? Homer’s The Odyssey is one of the great tales to be handed down within humanity. Oddly, or perhaps due to its epic scale, there haven’t been as many takes on the epic poem as you’d imagine. Many films carved bits and pieces of the story into a narrative, and NBC offered a 2-night miniseries with an all-star cast including Armand Assante, Isabella Rossellini, Vanessa Williams, Bernadette Peters, and more. Now, with Christopher Nolan’s take on Homer’s epic tale, it’s difficult to imag
It’s one of our favorite podcast episodes of the year: our break down / geek out over Emmy’s Title Design nominees. Last week, the Television Academy unveiled their 2026 Emmy nominations. So now, we finally get to geek out at length over our favorite Emmy category: Title Design. Back in the fall of 2025, HBO Max’s IT: Welcome To Derry premiered and immediately caught our attention with its vivid, inventive, and often terrifying opening credits. We knew it would be a nominee for Title Design as soon as it launched. And we were right. But is it the front runner? Joey, Megan, and Clarence look at
Team Contending gathers around the Water Cooler to spill the tea on the Emmy nominations 2026 edition, led by HBO Max’s The Pitt. Today, the Television Academy unveiled their Emmy nominations 2026. HBO Max’s The Pitt led all series by nearly doubling its take from last year with 25 nominations. The medical series overcame some relatively quiet naysayers to get in across the board including series, direction, writing (2 noms), and a bevy of performance nominations. But that wasn’t HBO Max’s only great news of the morning. It’s own Hacks broke the record for the most nominations by a comedy seri
Twas a few days before Emmy nominations… Megan and Joey sit down and parse through our recently posted Emmy nomination predictions (Clarence is still traveling back from attending Taylor and Travis’ MSG nuptials, duh…) since some readers need to hear our thoughts while they run on the treadmill or take their pup for a stroll. There’s a lot of talk about The Pitt, Hacks, The Gilded Age, and The Bear but is there a contender that everyone is underestimating? Will Pluribus lead the pack? Will voters embrace the comedic side of Widow’s Bay? Which performers will land double nominations? Will Megan
AppleTV’s Widow’s Bay developed seemingly overnight into an online viral sensation. Will the Television Academy be equally bewitched? AppleTV began screening episodes of its latest series Widow’s Bay several months before its late April premiere date. That’s always a good sign. Critics reacted in kind: the series achieved a 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 78/100 on Metacritic. When it premiered, audiences seemed to like what they saw, but the online buzz felt vaguely muted. Was this to be another well intended AppleTV series that would ultimately vanish? Not so faithful watchers! Widow’s B
It’s a hot (and spoiler-filled) one at the Water Cooler this week: Megan, Joey, and Clarence face off on Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day. Steven Spielberg remains one of history’s greatest and most influential directors. Audiences tend to pay attention when he tackles the question of whether or not we’re alone. In the grand scheme of […] The post Is It ‘Disclosure Day’ Already? We Can’t Handle the Truth! appeared first on The Contending.
David Phillips meets with Industry’s Marisa Abela to discuss the series’ development and her personal growth as an actor. HBO’s Industry started out as a sharply written, crisply shot, and boldly performed cult show that may not have had a huge audience, but those who tuned in were ardent followers. While the show seemed destined to […] The post Marisa Abela on Yasmin’s Devastating Journey Through Four Seasons of ‘Industry’ appeared first on The Contending.
Joey and Megan finally weigh in with their Obsession reaction and dip their toes into Margot’s Got Money Troubles. There’s no doubt about it: everyone is talking about Curry Barker’s Obsession. The $750,000 film has made boatloads of cash since it debuted last week, and horror on a budget has had quite the run these last few weeks. […] The post Do We Have An ‘Obsession’ with Elle Fanning’s ‘Money Troubles’? [VIDEO] appeared first on The Contending.
The Emmy 2026 documentary landscape includes two buzzy Netflix documentaries: the touching Marty, Life is Short and the viral The Crash. The 2026 Emmy documentary landscape includes the typically wide array of potential contenders. Netflix added to the pile with two buzzy titles that recently debuted. Marty, Life is Short lovingly explores the career and personal […] The post Emmys 2026: ‘Marty, Life Is Short,’ ‘Crash’ Bring the Docu Drama appeared first on The Contending.
Memorial Day marks the beginning of Summer 2026. We offer up the 15 entertainment milestones we’re hottest for this year. Summer 2026 is here. It’s hot out, and movies are already burning up the box office. But there’s more to summer than just good movies. This week at the Water Cooler, Clarence, Joey, and Megan […] The post Summer 2026: 15 Things We’re Hot For In Entertainment [VIDEO] appeared first on The Contending.
This week at the Water Cooler, Megan & Joey dive into Jack Thorne’s Netflix adaptation of the classic novel Lord of the Flies. If you can wade through all the chatter Megan and Joey do about high school and the politics of Lincoln High, you might be able to survive the unexpected brutality of Netflix’s […] The post ‘Lord’… Time ‘Flies’ When You’re Getting Bullied on an Island [VIDEO] appeared first on The Contending.
‘What’s up, faggots?’ is the first line of Elliot Tuttle’s buzzed about new flick, Blue Film. The two-hander, starring Kieron Moore and Reed Birney, has courted some controversy before its release this weekend, but the reviews have been really solid so far. Frank and I are always talking about the queer films that don’t get […] The post ‘What’s Up, F*ggots?’: Celebrating Complexities of ‘Blue Film,’ ‘My Brother’s Killer,’ & ‘No Dogs Allowed’ appeared first on The Contending.
First up, we review The Devil Wears Prada 2. Then, we continue in our “Megan’s Never Seen This Michael Douglas Movie” journey with The War of the Roses. This week, we chat about Meryl Streep’s return as Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada 2. The sequel to Oscar-nominated film revisits the publishing industry in a […] The post Reviewing ‘Devil Wears Prada 2’ & Revisiting ‘War of the Roses’ [VIDEO] appeared first on The Contending.
In Episode 550, we look deeply and longingly at The Pitt. How much did we love Season 2? More importantly, how will Season 2 rewrite The Pitt Emmy narrative? We love The Pitt, and that did not change with Season 2. Yes, certain online communities seem to have already turned on the medical drama, but we believe […] The post ‘The Pitt’ Emmy Chances: How High Will Season Two Fly? [VIDEO] appeared first on The Contending.
Joey and Clarence look at Beef Season 2: the themes, the performances, and its Emmy chances. Plus, an early look at Michael. Beef Season 2 dropped last week without the typical Netflix limited series fanfare. Audiences reacted in kind: initial ratings ranked 60% lower from season to season. But Beef Season 2 may not be a shower, more of a […] The post ‘Beef’ Season 2: Eating the Rich With a Side of Generational Angst [VIDEO] appeared first on The Contending.
