IP Picks🔎: Best Friends in Romance, Death and Local Theater

➕ a fantasy detective thriller that's Elmore Leonard meets 'Stranger Things'

NO STRANGER TO RATINGS The bigger the hit, the bigger the viewer gains. No. 1 show Stranger Things had over five times as many viewers as the No. 15 one. (Netflix)

Welcome to The Optionist! As always, thanks for reading. One of the best parts of joining The Ankler fold has been getting to read our other writers’ work. As I’ve said, The Wakeup by Sean McNulty is my go-to morning read. A good a.m. rundown is catnip for me. If done right, it makes you feel like you know what’s going on in the world in just a few minutes. (Ground zero for this for me is the late, great Talk Soup. Pre-Twitter, YouTube and clips, its rundown of the day’s talk shows was pure genius.)

My other favorite Ankler columnist is the Entertainment Strategy Guy, who has the most insightful and trenchant analysis of the business out there. It’s a data gold mine for both stat geeks and the people who want to be.

Here (and in a follow-up on his personal Substack), he looked at who’s winning in the streaming wars and what we can learn from the performance of individual shows. He offers a look at the power of runaway hits, and how when something lands in streaming, it really clicks. Stranger Things has more than five times the total viewing hours of the 15th most-watched streaming show, while the list of most-watched streaming films is dominated by kid’s fare. I often think about his deep dives when I’m putting together The Optionist.

That same newsletter also reminded me of the enduring popularity of sitcoms and procedurals. People like comfort TV, and there’s nothing more comforting than these tried-and-true formats. That’s something I keep in mind when I’m looking at material to include in the newsletter.

On to this week’s picks, in which I exclusively focus on new books. (Honestly, the journalism and new podcast pickings were slim this week.)

• A YA thriller about a group of teens trying to solve a Hollywood cold case after one of their friends is stabbed in the house where the crime happened.

• A cute YA rom-com with Gilmore Girl feels about a small town, a community theater production and a girl with an unrequited crush.

• A whodunit set at a French chateau, centered on the murder of one friend when four BFFs reunite 20 years after they studied abroad together.

• A gay-themed rom-com based on the love/hate relationship between the best man and the man of honor in the wedding of the best man’s brother, and the man of honor’s female pal.

• A grounded fantasy procedural following a thief of magic who gets caught up with a doomsday cult when he helps a friend find a missing teenage girl.