Contending at the Water Cooler

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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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. […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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. […]

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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 […]

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