Normally, this is the kind of news that I’d save for lower in the post, but it’s such a crazy idea that we’ve gotta talk about it NOW! So, Natasha Lyonne-starring Poker Face has been Peacock’s most-watched original series for two seasons, but the streamer has passed on a third season. The reasoning is that the numbers dipped slightly between seasons 1 and 2, and it’s an expensive show to produce. That’s not stopping creator Rian Johnson, however, as he’s got a pitch to save the show. You see, he’s currently looking for a 2-season deal with another network or streamer, but there’s a catch: He wants to recast Lyonne’s role with Peter Dinklage. Yes, PETER DINKLAGE. In Johnson’s mind, the concept could continue as something of an anthology show, where the lead would be recast every two seasons. And, ya know…I don’t hate this.
In some ways, it makes sense. I mean, the role did sort of revive Lyonne’s career, but she’s got a lot of irons in the fire these days, so she might not be available to shoot an entire season anymore. That said, she would stay on as an Executive Producer, whatever that entails. I’m more curious, however, as to what would change about her character, Charlie Cale. If you’ve never seen Poker Face, Charlie has the ability to know when someone is lying. It’s not just a hunch, but it’s also not a mutant power. She just KNOWS. So, she initially uses this ability to solve the murder of her best friend, but the second season saw her taking her talents on the road.
So, first off, Charlie is a female character, but does much change about the “core” of the character if played by a man? Would a man still have a female best friend who was a Vegas casino worker? Does that dynamic change? Also, and I’ll just go ahead and say I realize how fucked up this sounds, but it’s always striking how Dinklage plays roles that aren’t necessarily about his…diminutive stature. In fact, I feel like he might even have some sort of clause now where the roles can’t acknowledge it. I’m not saying he can only have “little people roles”, and he’s one of the loudest voices in those discussions. After all, he’s the reason the Seven Dwarfs got changed in the live action Snow White. In his early career, around Nip/Tuck, I feel it was mentioned in stories. By the time of the X-Men films, however, there he is, and it’s never mentioned. And I know he’s more than just that, as he’s a great actor. That said, it does sort of make the elephant in the room even bigger if we’re just gonna pretend we don’t see it.
Anyway, the news of Johnson’s plan has been making the rounds, and it’s great PR because it really helps weed out the corporations who aren’t a “good fit” for such a concept. I don’t see this ending up on ABC, but maybe Paramount+ wants to get in on the action, especially since they’ll need to fill the widening content void, as Taylor Sheridan is about to defect to Peacock. Exciting times for TV!
What happened to books? Seriously, folks – What is going on in the world of publishing? I haven’t really discussed it in a bit, as folks tend to think of me as merely a Comics Guy, but I LOVE books. I discovered a love for reading back in the early 90s when I found the Hardy Boys series. We’re not gonna get into all that right now, but a lot of what I learned there would sort of prepare me for comics (Why don’t Frank & Joe age? So, they solve crimes in the 50s AND the 90s?). After that, I’d go on to read a bunch of Star Trek novels (Imzadi for life!), and then branch out to Roald Dahl and a bunch of other stuff. Then, comics took over. And then college made me only want to read for classwork and not for pleasure. After college, however, one of my favorite parts of every week was receiving that Borders 40% off coupon, and looking forward to blowing it that weekend. Those coupons are probably why Borders is no longer with us, but they did the trick, as I won’t get out of bed for a sale less than 30% off these days. In recent years, I’ve checked out a few things, but I refuse to pay full price for books, so I end up finding most stuff at thrift stores. In my time away from mainstream books, I’ve noticed that I have missed some trends. I know BookTok is a thing, but I couldn’t really get a foothold over there, so I just turned my focus to comics on that app. That said, I don’t think I realized just how bad things have gotten for publishing.
This week, Lindsay took a day off work, and we found ourselves at Barnes & Noble. Now, I’m normally in there because the girls want Calico Critters or something random like that, so I only glance at the actual book offerings. Sometimes I’ll seek out books written by folks I know, since it’s still sort of surreal to see a name on a shelf of someone you knew back when. On this trip, however, she and I took our time walking around. She would point out books she’d read (She’s pretty much always been a voracious reader), and then I’d see something I had put on my running list of books I’ve wanted to read. The early years of our relationship had a lot of these outings, at Borders, and it sort of brought that all back. In fact, I actually bought 2 books while we were there – FOR FULL RETAIL! What I hadn’t realized, though, was just how bad and homogenized book publishing has become. I joke about it a lot, but I would KILL for a YA series that is NOT about a sick kid or a dystopian society. Publishing learned the wrong lesson from the 2000s, and we’ve ended up with more Hunger Games than Twilight. That doesn’t mean the weird vampire fuckers are being left out, however, as now we have a new genre: Romantasy. Have you ever wanted to make love to a fellow member of your coven, next to a sleeping dragon? Then Romantasy has got you covered! But it’s not too different from the other YA stuff, because that coven is probably part of a conspiracy that’s responsible for the dystopian society in which all the non-witches live, so now you gotta fight your masters, and hope love – and luck – are on your side. We’ve reached a point with YA where it really could be written by AI, and no one would notice.
You’ve got to wonder, though: Are Gen Alpha/Beta so fucked up because their literature is so fucked up OR is the literature just meeting the audience where it is? And it starts early. I had an idea for a post a couple years ago about how today’s kids are just built differently, in that one of the leading middle grades series is The Last Kids on Earth, which is a setting that we wouldn’t have played around with in my day. Society hadn’t quite caught the zombie bug back then, plus our series didn’t deal in mass death. No, Christopher Pike might write about a haunted storefront at the mall, where the was a rumor that a teen cashier had been murdered, but nobody was writing about kids surviving on their own in the Zombie Apocalypse. Meanwhile, the younger kids are learning to read with Dog Man, which is about a police officer and his dog, who are sewn together in a mangled hybrid after being caught in an explosion. Sure, it’s played for laughs, but it always brings me back to Inspector Gadget, and how I’m sure he probably just wanted them to let him die, instead of shoving an umbrella up his ass, just in case he might need it on a case.
I’m not here to rant about content, however, ’cause “different strokes” and all that. My main gripe is with the packaging. In any store, there are roughly 3 different cover layouts that you’ll see. I guess the “You can’t judge a book by its cover” crowd won, because ALL the covers are the same!
Now, I can understand a unified look for books within the same series, so as to have a unified look on shelves. I know I hate when DC changes the trade dress on collections midway, so that the spines don’t match on your shelf. It happens more than you’d think! That said, publishers aren’t just matching book design within series, but rather within genre. There is NO creativity being found in fiction book design these days, outside of how there are some fancy editions, meant to lure folks away from ebooks, where there are pretty designs on the pages edges. Otherwise, the most variety is being found with nonfiction books, especially biographies. Self help books are the worst right now, as they tend to have some attractive blonde with a goofy smile, and a title like “Girl, That Ain’t For You: How To Love The Life You Live and Stop Pining For The Life You Want”. SO many goofy blondes, and you can set your watch to when the story breaks about her contentious divorce, and how her estranged husband actually wrote most of the book.
Maybe a lot of this doesn’t matter, since folks are reading more things digitally, but it’s still sad. I’ve bought books merely because of the cover and/or title, and that just doesn’t seem like something you can do these days.
Run The Numbers
I actually really put a dent in some single-issue comics this week, but I don’t want to bore you with all the details. If you want to hear about all of them, I posted “Just The Tip Comic Reviews 11/13/25!” on TikTok yesterday (@williambwest). For today, we’ll just cover a few things.
First up, I read Bloom from :01 First Second Press. I don’t really know why, as I’ve more than met my TPB/GN goal, but I’m a sucker for things from this publisher, as I handled them during my Diamond years. Their editor, Gina, introduced me to a lot of cool things, like Robot Dreams, that I’d have never sought out on my own. Plus, I read the first volume of Heartstopper while I was in OBX over the summer, and I was getting those vibes here.
Bloom is a thick book, but a quick read. The main character is a recent high school grad named Ari, who has spent his life helping out at his parents’ Greek bakery. Like any angsty teen, he’s now dying to get out of his one-horse town, and move to The City with his friends so they can focus on their band. Ari’s father, however, expects him to stay around and help out at the bakery. So, there’s a lot of “You just don’t understand!” from Ari, and a lot of “I understand more than you think, which is why I’m telling you that your plan won’t work” from his dad. Ari tells his dad that he’ll find a replacement to work at the bakery, so that he can be free to follow his dreams. Enter Hector, a cute, nice boy who’s in town to clear out the house of his recently-deceased grandmother. We immediately discover that baking is Hector’s love language, which comes in handy when Ari chooses him as his replacement at the shop. Throughout the summer, the two work closely together, while Ari begins to realize his friends might not all be his friends, and maybe the whole band thing was impulsive. The whole book is done in a two-tone turquoise and white color palette, which really helps sell the “seaside town” setting. A lot of these publishers releases translations of European comics, and that’s what I sort of thought was going on here. So, imagine my surprise when I realized not only was it set in America, but a lot of it takes place IN Maryland! And “The City” they were moving to was Baltimore! Apparently the writer, Kevin Panetta, lives here, and there’s a scene at the Maryland State Fairgrounds where it’s clear he provided artist Savanna Ganuchau with reference photos. It’s a cute book, but not as satisfying as Heartstopper. The last quarter felt rushed, and I’d actually like to revisit these characters to watch their relationship continue to develop. Also, I get that we’re watching a relationship as it blooms, but wasn’t there a more baking-centric term they could have used for the title? Rise? Soufflé? Fondant?
Next, I read Who Are The Power Pals? from Dark Horse. It’s a really straightforward concept, and I’m sort of offended that Dark Horse bamboozled the customer into buying it as single issues. Look, I understand that there are multiple revenue streams, so they release as singles, and then release a collection. That said, this was the kind of story that, 20 years ago, Oni Press would have released as an original graphic novel. It certainly reads better collected. It’s giving “webcomic”, and I don’t necessarily mean that disrespectfully, but it feels like PvP or Penny Arcade – one of those early 2000s comics that was later collected in print for posterity.
Who Are The Power Pals? follows Derek and Alex, who are the former stars of the teen superhero show Power Pals. They played the heroes Buzzard and Swallow, but the ratings were so bad that the show was canceled before the end of its first season. Now, the guys work as security guards at Fishy Films Studios, which had produced their show. They still go out for auditions, but aren’t taken seriously as actors. After a chance encounter in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre goes viral, Sam wants to capitalize on it to get back into the spotlight. Meanwhile, it awakens in Derek to desire to protect people. So, with conflicting goals, the “real-life” Power Pals start going on patrol, looking for crime to fight. It’s a wacky read that delivers everything you’d expect. It’s not too deep, and it would be suitable for kids graduating from Captain Underpants. If Dark Horse had a kids line, I’d understand then taking on this project. As it stands, however, I’m not sure there’s a strong, current audience for this.
Will Around The Web
Adam and I are back with the “half” episode for Wizard issue #118. I know these are sold as “mini episodes”, but they’re really “Part 2” of the main podcast, as we just can’t cover everything in one episode. So, don’t think these are optional!
Things You Might Have Missed This Week
- After years in development, Netflix officially picked up the revival of A Different World, which will focus on the youngest daughter of Dwayne Wayne and Whitley Gilbert from the original series, attending Hillman College. If they want me interested, Marisa Tomei better be on there!
- Warner Bros is reportedly developing a true crime series starring the character Jimmy Olsen, which I think sounds like a terrible idea. Brace yourself for “Oh, Superman? You just missed him!” and a bunch of “whooshing” sound effects.
- Reportedly, Jenny McCarthy is developing a pilot for a daytime talk show. See what y’all did?! Can’t wait for her to shove her anti-vax agenda between a cooking segment and a performance from Harry Connick Jr.
- The hits keep coming for Sydney Sweeney, as her boxing film Christy debuted with a $1.3 million box office against a production budget of $15 million, making it one of the biggest box office bombs in history. If it’s any consolation, the film did twice the numbers of the Ryan’s World movie…
- Former West Week Ever recipient English Teacher has been canceled after two seasons at FX, while it was announced that the second season will also be the last for Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
- Target has reportedly instituted a new policy where employees are required to smile at any customers who are within 10 feet of them. Taking a page from Chick Fil A, employees who violate this policy will be shot on sight, with their bodies dumped behind the Orange Julius dumpster.
- Olympic gymnastics champ Simone Biles admitted that she had two new things on her chest, and they ain’t medals! She said that she underwent breast augmentation in order, and that it was about “feeling good about yourself and loving yourself”.
I’ve reached a point in my life where I don’t really follow award nominations anymore. No, I’m not some “Awards Don’t Even Matter” edgelord, but, I mean, do they? Also, there are few artists out there where I feel the need to watch a televised performance. Growing up, unless you had concert tickets, these shows were the only way you might get to see a performance of your favorite songs from your favorite artists. Then, networks started doing concert specials, and then we got the internet. Eventually, the bigger stars began to skip the award shows, because they were usually on tour, which is really the only way to make money in that industry these days. So, if Taylor Swift was too busy for the American Music Awards, then so was I! Anyway, that’s a long preamble to say that the 2026 Grammy nominations were released since last we met. I’m not going through all of them because I don’t think there are a ton of surprises. No, I’m only here to talk about one artist: Huntr/x. Yes, the faux girl group from KPop Demon Hunters, and their single “Golden”, were nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, Best Song Written For Visual Media, Best Remixed Recording (David Guetta remix), and Song of the Year. Yes, SONG OF THE YEAR. The song was performed by artists Ejae, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami, who were the singing voices for Huntr/x in the film, and are now making the late night talk show rounds. Ejae is also a co-writer on the song.
It’s really extraordinary how KPop Demon Hunters has come to define 2025. I mean, outside of all the political stuff. This little anime that could, sold off by Sony to Netflix, went on to become the most streamed movie in history, breaks all the records you can think of, and it’s cleanly every kid’s favorite movie of the year. At this point, I’m certain there have been a string of quiet firings at Sony for completely dropping the ball everywhere important. Now, the company has to be content with whatever scraps Netflix decides to throw its way, as Netflix also nabbed the merchandising rights. Netflix is a company that built its brand on critically acclaimed originals, but they’ve been in a bit of a drought since Covid. Who knew this one film would change the game across music, streaming, and now dolls (Yes, a $150 Huntr/x doll set went up for preorder at Mattel this very morning). So, in what is becoming a regular thing in 2025, KPop Demon Hunters had the West Week Ever.
