Once you collect the artistic minds behind six of essentially the most entertaining and acclaimed reveals of 2025, the dialog is destined for narrative intrigue. The writers who took half on this yr’s Envelope Roundtable touched on social media blackouts, launch methods, runaway manufacturing, even the marvel of Bravo’s “The Valley.” How’s that for a twist?

This panelists are Debora Cahn of “The Diplomat,” about an American overseas service officer thrust right into a thorny net of geopolitics; R. Scott Gemmill of “The Pitt,” which focuses on front-line healthcare staff inside a Pittsburgh hospital throughout a single 15-hour shift; Lauren LeFranc of “The Penguin,” a reimagining of the Batman villain Oswald Cobblepot as a rising Gotham Metropolis kingpin, Oz Cobb; Craig Mazin of “The Last Of Us,” an adaptation of the favored online game collection about survivors of an apocalyptic pandemic; Seth Rogen of “The Studio,” a chronicle of the movie trade’s mercenary challenges as seen by way of the eyes of a newly appointed studio chief; and Jen Statsky of “Hacks,” about an ageing comedian’s difficult relationship together with her outspoken mentee.

Learn on for excerpts from our dialogue.

The 2025 Writers Roundtable: Lauren LeFranc, left, Jen Statsky, Craig Mazin, Seth Rogen, Debora Cahn and R. Scott Gemmill.

Lauren, you’re making a collection that’s tethered to supply materials that’s actually beloved by followers. I’m curious what the conversations are like with DC, or “The Batman” director Matt Reeves, when your collection has to suit into a bigger canon.

LeFranc: I knew the place Oz resulted in “The Batman.” I knew my job was to arc him to rise to energy and obtain a sure stage of energy by the top. Exterior of that, I used to be given carte blanche and I might simply play. And that’s essentially the most thrilling factor to me. We each have been in settlement that this must be a personality examine of this man. I really like digging into the psychology of characters.

So many individuals have been like, “Do you feel pressure? What’s this like for you?” And I used to be like, “Am I numb as a human?” I don’t really feel that form of stress. I really feel stress to inform an amazing story and to jot down fascinating, participating characters which can be shocking and to form of shock myself. I’m not the primary sort of individual you’ll suppose who would get a possibility to jot down a man like Oz, essentially, and to jot down into this kind of world. I believe there’s been plenty of crime dramas and plenty of style reveals or options that don’t have the lens that I’ve on a person like that. So I took that significantly. And I additionally actually wished to pepper the world with actually fascinating, difficult ladies as properly. I felt like, in a few of these genres, generally these characters weren’t as absolutely fashioned.

Craig Mazin of “The Last of Us.”

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Occasions)

Craig, you recognize what it’s like working with supply materials, and we knew the destiny of fan-favorite character Joel, who dies in Half 2 of the online game. Inform me about your expertise of the demise of Joel within the online game — enjoying it — and the way that knowledgeable what you wished to see out of Season 2 and the place precisely it will fall.

Mazin: I used to be upset when it occurred, however I wasn’t upset on the sport. It was, narratively, the appropriate factor to do. For those who make a narrative that’s about ethical outcomes and the implications of our habits, and someone goes by way of a hospital and murders an entire lot of individuals, and form of dooms the world to be caught on this horrible place, and takes away the one hope they’ve of getting out of it, yeah, there must be a consequence. If there’s no consequence or perhaps a delicate consequence, then it’s a bit neutered, isn’t it? It made sense to me and it made sense that if we have been going to inform the story, that was the story we have been going to inform. Typically folks do ask me, “Was there any part of you that was like, ‘Hey, let’s not have Joel die?’” No. That may be the craziest factor of all time.

How fast have been you watching the real-time response from followers?

Mazin: I don’t try this.

Rogen: However how do you get validation? How are you aware to really feel good?

Statsky: Are you able to train me to not look?

Mazin: I believe I’m searching for validation. Actually what I’m searching for is to repeat abusive habits towards me — that’s what my therapist says. For all of our reveals, thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of individuals are watching these around the globe. And if 10,000 folks on Twitter come at you for one thing, that could be a negligible quantity relative to the scale of the viewers, however it positive doesn’t really feel [like it]. So I made a selection. The draw back is I do miss the applause. Who amongst us doesn’t love applause? I’ve simply needed to give that feeling as much as not really feel the unhealthy emotions.

Seth Rogen of “The Studio.”

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Occasions)

With a present like “The Studio” or “Hacks,” does it really feel cathartic to lampoon the trade or present the ridiculous nature of the enterprise and the decision-makers generally?

Rogen: What’s humorous is, as we have been writing the present, we by no means used the phrase “satire.” To us, the aim was to not make enjoyable of any aspect of the trade — truthfully, it’s principally based mostly on myself and my very own fears, as somebody who’s accountable for issues, that I’m making the unsuitable decisions, and that I’m prioritizing the unsuitable issues, and that I’m convincing my idols to work with me after which I’m letting them down, and I’m championing the unsuitable concepts. That I’m making issues worse and that I’m giving notes to folks which can be detrimental moderately than thrilling, and that I’m mitigating my very own dangers moderately than making an attempt to bolster artistic swings. That was the startling second the place I noticed I personally relate in my darkest moments to a studio govt greater than I do a artistic individual within the trade in some ways. And that was form of the second the place I used to be like, “Oh, that’s a funny thing to explore.”

Jen Statsky of “Hacks.”

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Occasions)

Statsky: However it’s fascinating if you put it like that, due to the a part of showrunning the place you turn out to be administration and also you’re way more on that enterprise aspect [of] operating a present. We’re executives in some ways too.

Mazin: I’ve a query for you. How do you take care of the truth that — as we form of transfer by way of issues as writers, we’re all the time comrades, we’re colleagues of individuals. Once you turn out to be a showrunner, you don’t discover it at first, however there’s this barrier between you and all people, and someday you get up and understand, “Oh, it’s because they look at me and see someone who can fire them, who can elevate them, who can change their lives for better or worse.” And also you begin to really feel very, very lonely swiftly.

Statsky: Oh, there’s a gaggle textual content you’re not on.

Mazin: And it’s about you.

Statsky: It’s about you. It’s such a tough a part of this job that I battle with very a lot as a result of as writers, we’re empathetic to others, and we’re observing the world, and we are attempting to commune with folks as greatest as potential. However you then do that factor and also you’re like, “I like writing, I like writing, I like writing.” They usually’re like, “Great. Now here’s a 350-person company to manage and you become a boss.” I battle with it so much, the considering of individuals’s emotions, considering of individuals’s feelings, eager to be in contact with them, however then additionally, on the finish of the day, having to generally make actually tough management-type selections that have an effect on folks’s livelihood. I discover it very difficult. I would like your therapist for that as properly.

Debora Cahn of “The Diplomat.”

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Occasions)

Debora, you will have a personality, a feminine vp, who’s been doing the bidding of an older president whose capabilities have been referred to as into query, and spoiler alert, she turns into president. The season launched per week or so earlier than the 2024 presidential election. What was that like? And the way is it writing a political drama now versus if you have been engaged on “The West Wing”?

R. Scott Gemmill of “The Pitt.”

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Occasions)

Let’s discuss launch methods. There’s the standard, week-to-week mannequin and the extra trendy, all-at-once mannequin. There’s a mixture of each within the market. Scott, with “The Pitt,” you could possibly simply see the way in which folks rallied round each week to see what occurred subsequent. What do you want in regards to the weekly launch?

Gemmill: I’ve solely ever achieved that. That is my first streaming present, and we’re doing it in a standard drop per week. So I’ve by no means had a present that was bingeable. I don’t know every other approach. At one level, they have been going to launch three episodes directly, however they solely launched two [at the start]. I don’t have a canine in that struggle. I believe my present, simply due to the character of it, could be very laborious to binge.

Rogen: As somebody who’s been bingeing it, I can attest to that. [To Cahn] Yours comes out abruptly.

Cahn: It does. I don’t love that. It’s not what I’d select. I believe Netflix provides plenty of different pluses. [It’s] bought an enormous viewers all around the world and that’s very nice. However I got here up in broadcast tv, and the concept you’ve created this factor and it’s a narrative that you simply’ve skilled over time, after which individuals are like two days and achieved, it simply —

Mazin: It’s bizarre.

Cahn: And it modifications the way in which that you simply write.

Mazin: Over the previous few years, what’s occurring is, for reveals which can be popping out week by week, folks will now save up three at a time. So that they don’t need to watch week after week. There’s this bizarre accordion factor occurring, and I don’t know the place that is going. I don’t suppose any of us do. I’m a little bit nervous in regards to the week by week. I’m simply hoping that it stays.

I assumed for positive someday Netflix would go, “Why are we doing this?” As a result of I actually didn’t perceive. I nonetheless don’t perceive.

Cahn: I’ve this query each three months.

Rogen: They don’t have a solution.

Cahn: It really works for them.

Gemmill: Marvel why they complain about grind. As a result of it’s not there. Properly, it’s since you put all of it out directly.

Mazin: However then what I’m anxious about is that they’re proper. I’m simply questioning if individuals are beginning to lose their endurance.

Statsky: Consideration span. I believe they’re. I’ve even observed, as a result of we used to drop two per week. On this season for “Hacks,” we’ve achieved one per week. I noticed a pair tweets the place folks have been like, “Why are the episodes shorter this year?” I used to be like, “Well, they’re not. You used to watch two.” However I do suppose the one-a-week mannequin, as a result of now individuals are so skilled [to binge] — such as you’re saying, the eye span, it’s scary. I don’t suppose folks need to watch like that anymore.

Nothing I’ll ever make is pretty much as good as ‘The Valley.’

— ‘The Studio’ co-creator Seth Rogen, on Bravo’s buzzy actuality collection

Rogen: I produced “The Boys,” and we truly went from all of them popping out directly to weekly. And it didn’t have an effect on the viewership in any approach, form or type was what we have been informed. What it did have an effect on, that we might simply see, was it sustained cultural influence. Folks talked about it for 3 months as an alternative of three weeks of extremely intense chatter. It simply occupied more room in folks’s heads, which I believe was helpful to the present.

Cahn: After they’re popping out one per week, you’ll be able to repeat issues which you could’t after they’re popping out all collectively. It’s important to take a look at them by way of, did they every have the identical rhythm? Are they every actually that includes the identical characters and storylines? It’s important to give it some thought by way of, “If people do three at a time, what’s their experience going to be?” It’s horrible.

The discuss of the city is runaway manufacturing and cease it. Scott, “The Pitt” is about in Pittsburgh and you probably did movie exteriors there, however principal manufacturing occurred on the Warner Bros. lot. Speak about why that was vital for you.

Gemmill: The present might have been shot in Moose Jaw. However it was vital to convey the work right here, so we fought actually laborious to get the California tax credit score. An important a part of my job in addition to writing producible scripts which can be on time is to maintain my present on the air so long as potential, to maintain everybody employed so long as potential. And that’s the factor I like the very best about it. That is the primary present that Noah [Wyle]’s achieved since he left “ER” that’s shot in Los Angeles. It’s a disgrace. There’s extra manufacturing now, however after we first have been at Warner Bros. for this, it was a ghost city. It’s so unhappy as a result of I’ve been within the enterprise for 40 years and nonetheless get excited once I go on so much. And to see them turn out to be unused simply because it’s cheaper to shoot some other place … and there’s so many gifted folks right here, and it’s laborious on their households if it’s important to go to Albuquerque for six months. I don’t ever need to depart the stage once more.

Mazin: We did our postproduction on the Warner Bros. lot, however we shoot in Canada. And I really like Canada. However yeah, in fact, I’d like to be residence. I like doing postproduction right here. I’ll take what I get. The monetary realities are fairly stark, that’s the issue. In case you are making a smaller present, the hole is just not large. For those who’re making a bigger present, each share turns into an even bigger amount of cash and in addition represents a bigger quantity of individuals to make use of. However what’s good is it looks as if they’re beginning to get their act collectively in Sacramento. I do fear generally it’s a little bit bit too late, as a result of the remainder of the world appears to be in an arms race to see what number of incentives they may give to get manufacturing to go there.

I’m hoping that at the very least we will begin to transfer the needle a bit as a result of, hear, that Warner Bros. lot, once I was a child beginning out, I’d go on that lot, I’d see the little “ER” backlot with the diner and all of it. And I used to be like, “That’s on TV. It’s here.” And now I stroll across the Warner Bros. lot and it’s only a single tram filled with vacationers and nobody else. And it’s so, so unhappy.

Lauren LeFranc of “The Penguin.”

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Occasions)

LeFranc: It’s actually heartbreaking. You used to have the ability to write what you’re doing, produce, do publish all on the identical lot. You had a household that you simply have been in a position to type, and you could possibly mentor writers. I’d not have the ability to be a showrunner if not for all of the individuals who got here earlier than me who mentored me, and I might stroll to set, produce my very own episode, after which I can stroll to publish. It’s so laborious now the place you’re asking writers, particularly if networks aren’t paying for writers to go to set, “Can you pay for yourself to fly to New York?” It simply makes it so laborious to have the ability to educate folks in the way in which that I really feel like I used to be privileged sufficient to be educated. What are we going to do about that?

Gemmill: Errors get made. One of the best half about the entire enterprise is it’s collaborative. However if you’re separated by 1000’s of miles, generally there’s a disconnect.

Earlier than we wrap, please inform me what you’re watching. Jen, we have been speaking about “The Valley” earlier.

Rogen: Oh, I watch “The Valley” too. It’s superb. Do you watch “The Valley” aftershow? It’s nearly pretty much as good as “The Valley.”

Statsky: I’m actually anxious about Jax.

Rogen: We watch actuality tv. I see the clean appears to be like on all people’s face.

Statsky: We’re in comedy.

Mazin: I can’t imagine how scared I used to be if you have been speaking, after which how good I felt if you’re like, “It’s a reality show.”

Statsky: So, you recognize “Vanderpump Rules”?

Mazin: Ish.

Statsky: It’s an offshoot.

Rogen: Which is an offshoot of —

Statsky: “Real Housewives.”

Mazin: That is an echo of an echo. Go on.

Statsky: Sure, it’s an echo of an echo of rubbish.

Rogen: However it’s so good.

Statsky: However it’s the worst indictment of heterosexual marriage I’ve ever seen.

Rogen: Sure, it truly is.

Mazin: Oh, so by the way, the San Fernando Valley is what it’s [about]? It’s about Valley Village.

Statsky: Valley Village. It’s the {couples} which have moved to the Valley and are having youngsters and —

Rogen: And they’re all in very unhealthy locations of their lives. It’s superb.

Statsky: You suppose [in] actuality reveals most individuals are in unhealthy locations. That’s sadly what folks need to watch. These individuals are in significantly unhealthy locations.

Rogen: And the present appears to be compounding it, I believe.

Statsky: Yeah, weirdly, being on a actuality present is just not serving to their downside.

Rogen: I discover that I watch actuality TV as a result of once I watch your entire reveals, I discover them intellectually difficult. They make me self-conscious, or they make me impressed or one thing, which isn’t how I need to really feel essentially after a protracted day at work simply watching one thing. And so actuality TV makes me really feel none of these issues. It on no account jogs my memory of what I’ve achieved all day.

Mazin: For those who make me dissociate, I’m watching.

Statsky: You’re going to adore it. However when you begin watching, Jax owns a bar in Studio Metropolis. We are able to all go. We are able to reunite.

Mazin: I’ve gone to that bar.

Rogen: You been to Jax’s?

Mazin: Sure, I’ve been to that bar.

Statsky: Wait, maintain on. However everybody else in that bar was there as a result of they watched the truth present. Why have been you there?

LeFranc: Out of context, I’m so invested in all this.

Rogen: You’ve bought to look at it. … Nothing I’ll ever make is pretty much as good as “The Valley.”