For the TV shows I watch, I love consuming the supplementary content that goes with the episodes. That includes written recaps and analysis, and increasingly now podcasts! I consider podcasts that are part of other media properties to be borderline in my definition of branded company podcasts, but it’s a fun detour to cover two examples of this trend in my reviews today and tomorrow. First up:

3 Body Podcast from Netflix

This show is, of course, the companion podcast for the sci-fi drama 3 Body Problem. HBO has the strongest track record of releasing great shows for their prestige dramas (like Succession with host Kara Swisher) and Netflix is keeping pace with this show. It features hosts Dr. Maggie Aderin-Pocock and Jason Concepcion in a nice pairing. Maggie brings the gravitas of a distinguished scientist in the areas relevant to the show (no spoilers), while Jason has the boundless passion for book-to-TV adaptations that many fans know from his Game of Thrones podcasts on The Ringer.

3 Body Podcast and the other great official TV companion podcasts have an excellent model of combining analysis of themes from the episode with interviews of cast and crew. Given the science and virtual reality elements of the show, they’re smart to bring in guests like the science advisor and VXF supervisors. Also interesting - they use a coverage model of podcast episodes discussing an overlapping pair of TV episodes; so podcast episode 1 covers TV episodes 1-2, and podcast episode 2 covers TV episodes 2-3. It’s a subtle choice that I think they found gives them more ability to highlight themes that build over more than a single episode.