You're listening to episode 243 of TV's top five, the Hollywood Reporter's TV podcast.

I'm Leslie Goldberg, the West Coast TV editor, and I'm joined as always by the great Dan Feinberg,

the Hollywood Reporter's chief TV critic. How's it going, my friend?

Busy, busy, busy, awards, awards, January TV, 17 different TV shows about different kinds of detectives.

Everything's just so darn busy, Leslie, but that's okay because it's better than the alternative.

That's right. I feel like we spent last summer talking about the alternative, and it wasn't as fun as we had expected it to be.

But you do mention awards. You've got the Emmys coming up on Monday on Fox.

We're going to have a big supersized segment up fourth this week,

previewing what to expect from the 75th annual primetime ceremony.

But before we get into that, we're going to lead off where we usually do with headlines.

Number one.

Up first in headlines, The Last of Us,

Season 2 is coming into focus ahead of production starting this spring. Caitlin Dever,

Emmy-nominated beef actor Young Mazzino, and Rosaline's Isabella Merset have joined the cast as video game characters Abby, Jesse, and Dina, respectively. And the casting department at HBO is hella busy because continuing HBO production on the Thailand set third season of The White Lotus begins next month.

And new cast members include the great Carrie Coon, the very funny Leslie Bibb.

I'm going to stop adding adjectives in front of people's names,

Jason Isaacs, Michelle Monaghan, and Parker Posey, among others. They will be joining Natasha Rothwell,

who will make sure that the series can't compete as an anthology anymore, and will continue to be

a drama, even though it's comedy. Anyway, though, like The Last of Us, it is not expected to air

until 2025. Do you like this cast, Last of Us, it is not expected to air until 2025.

Do you like this cast, Dan?

Oh, God. You put Carrie Coon in a cast, I am always happy. That is a good starting point.

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