Series Snapshot ~ 9/18/25

By: [email protected] on Thu, 09/18/2025 - 14:58

Welcome to the Series Snapshot, a weekly deep dive into the shows topping the streaming charts.

Netflix’s smash hit Wednesday reclaims its number one spot from last week. The series’ second season finale aired on September 3rd, but has proven to have staying power even after concluding more than two weeks ago. The series also recently surpassed Stranger Things’ third season as Netflix’s tenth most-watched of all time, and is becoming a potential pop-culture landmark. Wednesday stars Jenna Ortega, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Luis Guzmán, and Isaac Ordonez, and comes from series creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. The series has also been renewed for a third season.

Alien: Earth shows no signs of slowing down, with consistently high viewership and back-to-back weeks at number one on Hulu. The series has much to praise, but it’s becoming more and more clear that despite the breathtaking special effects and setpieces, the core of the show really is the cast, which has seen recognition for their specific portrayals of future versions of humans, synths, cyborgs and hybrids. There’s particular praise for the nuance with which each actor portrays their character and the degree of humanity they have remaining. Sydney Chandler, Timothy Olyphant, Alex Lawther and Babou Ceesay all fit the world beautifully, and fans can’t wait for season two, which creator Noah Hawley has confirmed is in production.

At HBO Max, originals Task and Peacemaker are neck and neck, with Task coming out just ahead. Critics rate the crime-thriller quite highly, but generally audiences offer mixed opinions. Everyone seems to agree that both Mark Ruffalo and Tom Pelphrey deliver excellent performances as the lead characters, but some feel the show sticks too close to a formula to feel like the stakes are actually ever as high as presented. Still, Task continues to perform well on the whole. Task also stars Emilia Jones and was created by Brad Ingelsby.

After dropping off in viewership for a bit to make way for The Terminal List: Dark Wolf, Amazon’s hit teen drama The Summer I Turned Pretty returns to the top of the charts. The Summer I Turned Pretty’s series finale aired Tuesday night, so it makes sense that viewership would be high. The finale was well received, but left audiences craving more. Needless to say, we won’t spoil anything here. The Summer I Turned Pretty stars Gavin Casalegno, Lola Tung, Christopher Briney, and Rain Spencer, and was created by showrunner and series author, Jenny Han. The Summer I Turned Pretty will return to continue the story with a full length feature, but no official dates have been set as of now.

This week, AppleTV’s The Morning Show returned for its fourth season, after an almost two-year break from season three. Early reviews are extremely divisive. Some critics love the show’s elevated daytime drama feel, while others find the series to be somewhat preachy and hard to believe. Over the course of its run, The Morning Show has had twenty-seven Primetime Emmy Award nominations, with two wins for Billy Crudup for Outstanding Supporting Actor, and the series also saw lead Jennifer Aniston win the SAG award for Outstanding Lead Actress. The Morning Show also stars Reese Witherspoon and Mark Duplass.

On Tuesday, High Potential released its highly anticipated first episode of season two on Disney Plus. Consensus is that critics and fans are both pleased with the return. The show’s success is largely in part to Kaitlin Olson’s magnetic performance as Morgan Gillory. Many are excited to see the new season explore some of the auxiliary characters like Lt. Selena Soto, played by Judy Reyes, and Detective Adam Karadec's partner, Oz, played by Deniz Akdeniz. High Potential also stars Daniel Sunjata and Javicia Leslie, and comes from creator Drew Goddard. New episodes will be released Wednesday nights on ABC and Disney Plus.