How Hulu’s ‘The Great’ Balances Fact, Fiction and Funny in Season 2

Welcome to Episode 144 of TV’s Top 5, The Hollywood Reporter’s TV podcast.

Every week, hosts Lesley Goldberg (West Coast TV editor) and Daniel Fienberg (chief TV critic) break down the latest TV news with context from the business and critical sides, welcome showrunners, executive and other guests, and provide a critical guide of what to watch (or skip, as the case may be).

This week’s five topics are:

1. Vaccine crackdowns.
This segment explores how film and TV studios are cracking down on COVID vaccine mandates in Zone A, where cast and crew work in close proximity to one another. The mandates to be vaccinated have already seen changes on a handful of film and TV shows.

2. Disney+ turns 2.
Friday is Disney+ day and the streamer has a number of programming specials that showcase its breadth launching to celebrate its second anniversary. This segment offers a look at how the streamer has performed since it launched two years ago, plus an update on total subscribers.

3. Mailbag!
In this segment, we respond to listener questions about Impeachment: American Crime Story. If you have a question you’d like to hear us discuss on the podcast, email us at TVsTop5@thr.com.

4. Showrunner Spotlight.
Tony McNamara, the showrunner of Hulu’s The Great, joins the podcast this week to discuss the second season of the royal dramedy. McNamara opens up about his love for profanity and how “huzzah” has become a popular catchphrase. Plus the showrunner weighs in on how he approaches fact vs. fiction and how Hulu quickly embraced the show’s unique tone. “It’s not a history lesson. It’s a take on history that has some history in it but it’s moved around about,” McNamara says. “We’re telling her story, as a woman who tried to do something and did amazing things and tried and failed we owe a debt to that to tell that story. The rest of the story and how precise we are with historic details is more up for grabs.”

5. Critic’s Corner.
As usual, every episode ends with Dan’s thoughts on what to watch (or skip). This week, he weighs in on Apple’s The Shrink Next Door, Showtime’s Yellowjackets and Paramount+’s Mayor of Kingstown.

Hear it all now on TV’s Top 5. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to never miss an episode. (Reviews welcome!) You can also email us with any topics or Mailbag questions you’d like to be addressed in future episodes at TVsTop5@THR.com.

Coming next week: Meet the married couple behind Showtime’s Yellowjackets, Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson.