You walk onto a set that’s been running for five seasons, with a crew and cast who already have their own rhythm — and you have maybe a day to earn their trust. That’s the job of an episodic TV director, and this week Jackie and Alysha sit down with Paula Hunziker, who’s directed episodes of Station 19, 9-1-1, 9-1-1: Lone Star, Walker, and Pretty Little Liars, to talk about leading as a guest in someone else’s house. Paula breaks down why episodic directing is less like a fresh vision and more like cooking Thanksgiving dinner in someone else’s kitchen — you bring one tool, and you use it to elevate the dishes they’ve already made — plus how deep character backstory research turns into real moments on set, the hardest day she’s ever worked through, and the mistake early in her career she’ll never make again. Stick around for a round of “guess the show” built from Paula’s own directing credits, and a rapid-fire close to wrap things up.

Two people whose entire job is leadership under pressure join this week's episode: DGA 1st Assistant Directors Mark Hansson (Dark Matter, Candy, Kingdom Business, Hunt, Hunters) and Laura Sylvester (Pretty Little Liars, The Sex Lives of College Girls, Truth Be Told, Bookie, the upcoming Presumed Innocent) sit down with Jackie Krichevsky to talk about who actually runs a set day to day — including the time Laura had to tell a director mid-take that it wasn't safe to roll.

After news on the DGA's new four-year contract (which raises health fringe rates for ADs and UPMs), the Brand New Day box office streak, and China's first AI-produced theatrical film, a round of Would You Rather gets Mark and Laura giving opposite answers on the same question. From there they break down what a 1st AD actually owns on set and where that authority stops, how the job shifts across genres, what the DGA trainee program puts candidates through, how to keep a crew's morale up on a day that's falling apart, how streaming and alternating DPs have changed the job over the last decade, the hardest shows either of them ever worked, and the advice they'd give anyone starting out today.

No guests this week — it's just Jackie Krichevsky and Alysha Haran, co-owners of Lost Light Films, going deep on leadership. Alysha draws on 17 years as a Navy surface warfare officer to break down "command by negation" and how watertight-integrity thinking translates to running a set. Jackie shares how two decades as a producer turned her from a hard "no" into a problem-solving "yes, but." They cover accountability when a vision doesn't land, leading a crew through a brutal 100-degree shoot day, safety as a non-negotiable, and the 2am phone call that became their feature Ashes and Ink. Plus a surprisingly dark round of "Two Truths and a Lie" with real on-set stories, and industry news on the $110B Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros. Discovery merger, Zach Cregger's Resident Evil box office record, and the new federal film tax credit bill in Congress.