Dear newsletter subscribers,

My go-to-competition this spring, Tough As Nails, ends its mostly terrific second season on Wednesday. A third season is on the way, thankfully.

But starting this week, there will be four hours of reality TV competition to watch every Wednesday, as the American version of The Circle returns (Netflix, Wednesdays).

That's a batch of episodes each week for three weeks, followed by the finale (which last year was super-bloated) a week later. I really enjoyed the first season, which premiered in the Before Times of January 2020, and am curious how I'll respond now to watching people locked in rooms and communicating only via screens.