TVI Guides

The part the score cannot capture.

Free guides, read by the people who score every title in the catalog against a published methodology. The number gets a show onto our site. These are what the number could not say.

Free · no studio money · for adults and for parents
Free to read · three guides
Free For adults · TV
The Substance List
Twenty-four shows that reward the time you give them, grouped by what they actually do to you, with the insider way in to each.
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Free For adults · How shows depict intelligence
Kinds of Mind
How great television actually portrays a mind, the kinds of intelligence and the characters who carry them. The honest answer to "how smart is this character."
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Free For parents · Kids
The TVI Kids Swap Guide
A more developmentally supportive next pick for the kid who already loves what they love, every swap scored and reviewed against a school-psychologist-built methodology.
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Go deeper

When a guide is not enough.

The guides are free, and they stay free. When you want everything we make, here is where to go.

Founding Circle · open now
The full relationship
$99 once · lifetime · the first 100 members
Every guide, plus the membership: the Personal IQ Tracker, the monthly Founders Newsletter, a quarterly Deep Dive essay, two title requests a year, and your name on the Founders Wall. 6-month full refund.
Join the Founding Circle →
Founding Parents · open now
For families
$49 once · lifetime · the first 100 parents
TVI Kids Premium: Cordelia's quarterly SEL digest, the co-viewing discussion guides, a private parents' community, your name on the Founders Wall, and first access to new kids tools. Reviewed by a school psychologist. 6-month full refund.
Join Founding Parents →
The TVI Library · not open yet
Every guide, one payment. Not a membership.
When it opens: $39 to start, $49 later
This is not the Founding Circle and not a subscription. It is every TVI guide, today's and the ones still being written, for a single payment you make once. It opens when enough of you ask for it, and the people who asked first get the lower price.
Noted. You will be among the first to hear when it opens.
No charge today. This just tells us to build it.