TV Reviews

Peak TV Overload

The Peak TV era started with The Sopranos in 1999. Since then, I’ve watched a substantial number of critically acclaimed series from across the spectrum of cable channels and streaming platforms — plus my fair share of guilty pleasures.

For anyone who feels lost about which shows to watch, below is an alphabetical list of shows I’d recommend and a few to avoid. As I mentioned in my post, Peak TV Show Recommendations, where I introduced this list, my tastes gravitate toward comedy, sci-fi, fantasy, and post-apocalyptic dramas.

Note: Where I denote the TV network (e.g., “AMC”) or streaming platform (e.g., “Netflix”), I’m indicating where the series first aired or streamed. I recommend JustWatch to check current streaming availability.

Recommended

12 Monkeys

Grade: A+ | Syfy

Maybe my favorite binge-watch of all time, 12 Monkeys is also likely the best time travel story I’ve ever seen. The series originally aired on Syfy from 2015 to 2018 and is loosely based on the 1995 movie starring Bruce Willis and directed by Terry Gilliam. I remember liking that movie, but I don’t have vivid memories of it. Hence, I came to the TV series with fresh eyes.

The Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes indicates that season one premiered to mixed reviews, whereas the next three seasons earned raves. I liked the show from the jump, though it does grow more creative and unpredictable as the seasons progress.

The story has multiple timelines, loops, and “cycles” — as well as ever-shifting character dynamics. Allies at one moment suddenly are at odds in the next. And yet, the plot is never confusing, at least not if you binge-watch episodes in quick succession. If I had needed to wait weeks between episodes and months between seasons, my viewing experience might have been different.

Trigger warning: the protagonists’ goal is to revise history and prevent an apocalyptic worldwide pandemic. After living through COVID-19, that premise may sound like a turnoff. However, the plague aspect isn’t as prevalent as you might expect, and recent world events didn’t diminish my enjoyment of the show.

The core cast includes Emily Hampshire (Stevie on Schitt’s Creek) in a knockout, once-in-a-lifetime role that lets her run wild with different personas. In the lead roles, Aaron Stanford and Amanda Schull anchor the series as characters in an impossible love story who must balance the weight of history against their personal desires. Barbara Sukowa, Todd Stashwick, Kirk Acevedo, Alisen Down, and Brooke Williams round out the regular cast and bring nuance to their roles. The rich supporting cast includes a couple of familiar faces from Battlestar Galactica in fun parts.

In the end, though, the star is the infinitely clever circular storyline whose twists and turns bring endless surprises.

The 100

Grade: B- | The CW

Based on only the first two seasons of The 100, I’d give the series an A- grade. However, after finishing my binge-watch with the seventh and final season, I can only marginally recommend it.

Initially, the storyline is rooted in realistic science fiction terrain. 100 years after a nuclear apocalypse, the residents of a space station send 100 juvenile delinquents down to Earth to test whether the planet has become habitable again. They discover that Earth is not only habitable but already populated by “Grounders” — tribes whose ancestors somehow survived the nuclear radiation. The teens clash with each other and with the natives as they struggle to survive in their new home.

I expected this appealing premise to continue through the series, so I was surprised (and dismayed) when it veered into far more fantastical sci-fi tropes, starting with season 3. Without spoiling any details, I’ll just say that AI becomes a big theme, which opens the door to even more outlandish plot developments.

Ultimately, I enjoyed only three of the seven seasons (1, 2, and 4). I found the final two seasons incredibly frustrating and became impatient to reach the end of the series. On the other hand, from the start, I found the cast charismatic and the characters compelling, including the teens, the Grounders, and the adults still orbiting Earth on the space station. So, I kept watching season after season due to my emotional investment in the characters.

Abbot Elementary

Grade: B | ABC

In the spirit of The Office and Parks and Recreation, this mockumentary-style comedy follows the quirky staff at an inner-city elementary school. I enjoyed the first season (including quite a few of the performances), but it’s a bit too broad for my tastes and not on par (so far) with other mockumentary shows.

Altered Carbon

Grade: B- | Netflix

In season one of this Blade Runner-like sci-fi thriller, the visuals were superior to the story. I watched it partially to enjoy the 4K HDR picture quality on my OLED TV. The improved second season featured a more cohesive storyline, deeper world-building, and a new actor (Anthony Mackie) in the lead role. However, overall, the series still offered more style than substance.

The Americans

Grade: A | FX

This gripping drama revolves around a typical family of four living a suburban life near Washington, D.C., in the 1980s during the Cold War. The parents in the family (played to perfection by Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys) are travel agents and, unbeknownst to their kids, natives of Russia and lethal spies. On top of the travails of raising teenagers and running covert operations, their lives become even more complicated when they befriend their new neighbor (the excellent Noah Emmerich), who turns out to be an FBI agent.

The show provides periodic action and thrills as the spies execute their missions for Mother Russia and play cat and mouse with their FBI pursuers. But overall, the show is deliberate in its pace, and the nuanced and deeply developed characters are the hallmark of its excellence.

Another Period

Grade: B+ | Comedy Central

Created by and starring Natasha Leggero and Riki Lindhome, Another Period is a parody of a genre I don’t like: period costume dramas. So, initially, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this show (which ran on Comedy Central for 3 seasons from 2013 to 2018). I wasn’t even aware of the series until Lindhome mentioned it when she appeared as a guest on Andy Richter’s podcast, “The Three Questions.”

While running low on shows to watch, I decided to check it out on Paramount+. I found much to appreciate.

Set at the turn of the century in Newport, Rhode Island, Another Period revolves around the upper-class Bellacourt family: the matriarch (Dodo) and patriarch (Commodore) and their four grown children (Lillian, Beatrice, Hortense, and Frederick). Most of the action takes place at their palatial estate. The servants in the family’s large household staff are also recurring characters. For me, the two most charming and amusing characters are the utterly unctuous butler, Peepers, and the childishly naive valet, Garfield. Michael Ian Black and Armen Weitzman are treasures in the roles.

Everyone in the large supporting cast is fun to watch and adept at chewing up the scenery as over-the-top characters. Other standouts include Jason Ritter as the handsome but vacuous Frederick Bellacourt, Page Brewster as Dodo, and Brett Gelman as the crude maintenance man, Hamish. Additionally, each season has guest-star appearances by a cornucopia of comedians and comic actors.

The show’s social satire finds clever ways to draw parallels to contemporary issues (such as women’s rights, racism, and income inequality). Another Period knowingly parodies shows like Downton Abby and Upstairs, Downstairs, as well as modern-day reality TV shows.

Season 1 is remarkably consistent; after that, the episodes in seasons 2 and 3 are uneven and a bit more hit-and-miss — as is typical of most comedies. At about twenty minutes each, the episodes move quickly and go by in a flash.

As for nits, I would have liked for the servant characters to get more screen time and story arcs. Ditto for the homely but intellectual sister, Hortense Bellacourt, who rarely gets the spotlight (and is played by three different actresses). Also, while I admired Leggero’s and Lindhome’s performances in the lead roles of Lillian and Beatrice, their characters were too one-note for my tastes. While part of the fun is that they rarely grow or learn anything, I found the characters with arcs more appealing (e.g., Dodo and Peepers).

When I recommended Another Period to a friend, I compared the satire to Monty Python and Black Adder. Quibbles aside, I can’t think of a higher compliment.

Ashoka

Grade: B- | Disney+

Ashoka is a sequel to the animated series Star Wars Rebels (and also ties in with Clone Wars). As I didn’t watch either of those series, I constantly needed to ask my son questions as we watched it together. You don’t have to be an expert in Star Wars lore to appreciate Ashoka, but it does help enrich the experience.

The show has a ton of flaws, but I enjoyed it anyway. The main problem is that the title character is stoic, static, and not especially compelling. Her sidekick (and Padawan), Sabine, has more of a character arc and is more fun to watch.

Another issue is that the stakes are low. The show is set between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, which means we already know what happens with the situation the heroes are trying to prevent. 

On the other hand, the show features a memorable new droid (Huyang, voiced by David Tennant), a cute new critter species, rousing lightsabre duels, and exciting space battles.

Ashoka is a tasty enough treat if you’re hungry for more Star Wars.

The A Word

Grade: A | BBC

This British drama revolves around a family in a small town (in the Lake District near Manchester) who must face the reality that their five-year-old son, Joe, is on the Autism spectrum. A big appeal of the show is that it expands beyond this premise to include a large cast of supporting characters who face their own challenges unrelated to Joe. By the show’s third (and possibly final) season, the story becomes so rich — with deep characters and impeccable performances — that I didn’t want it to end.

Back to Life

Grade: B | BBC

In the same vein as Fleabag and This Way Up, this is a dark and quirky British character dramedy from Daisy Haggard (who also stars) about a woman returning to her small hometown after serving 18 years for murder.

Bad Monkey

Grade: A- | Apple TV+

Bad Monkey is from Bill Lawrence, the creator of Scrubs, Ted Lasso, and Shrinking. Three of those shows are among the reasons Apple TV+ is becoming a more essential streaming service. (Scrubs is an older show from NBC.)

While Ted Lasso and Shrinking have some similarities in tone and sensibility, Bad Monkey is an altogether different beast. It weaves together quirky characters and tropical locations (in Florida and the Bahamas) with sass, humor, and mayhem to create a colorful pulp fiction yarn.

Vince Vaughn is the lead, playing a suspended police detective who gets tangled up in a criminal caper that starts with the mystery of a severed arm. The show takes great advantage of Vaughn’s quirky humor and fast-talking wit; it’s hard to imagine anyone else in the role.

The large supporting cast features outstanding performances from several actresses. Natalie Martinez has sizzling chemistry with Vaughn as his love interest, Rosa (a coroner who gets sucked into his investigation). Michelle Monaghan commands the screen as Vaughn’s married but adulterous ex-girlfriend, who is running away from her past. Meredith Hagner hams it up as a sociopath who’s more in love with her Pomeranian than her husband. Jodie Turner-Smith personifies ferocity and vulnerability as the “Dragon Queen,” an island voodoo practitioner.

The cast includes fun turns from Rob Delaney, Scott Glenn, Zach Braff, and John Ortiz. Tom Nowicki narrates the tale. He has an evocative voice, but as with most narrated shows, I didn’t think the narration added much and could have been minimized or eliminated.

Bad Monkey is a “page-turner” — each episode ends with a twist that makes you want to keep watching. A few of the storylines feel extraneous or under-developed at times, but for the most part, they intersect and pay off in clever ways.

Ballers

Grade: B | HBO

Duane Johnson plays a football star turned sports agent in this slick, breezy, and funny comedy.

Barry

Grade: B | HBO

A wild mix of comedy and drama about a tortured army vet turned assassin who accidentally falls into acting while on a hit in Los Angeles. The show is often audacious, but, over time, it started rubbing me the wrong way.

BBC Nature Documentaries

Grade: A | BBC

Life / Planet Earth / Blue Planet / Dynasties – these extraordinary docu-series set a new bar for nature documentaries every time the latest mini-series is released. Watch them on a large screen in full HD at minimum and 4K HDR if possible.

Beef

Grade: A+ | Netflix

A road rage incident in a strip mall parking lot leads two drivers into an escalating feud that will forever shatter their lives. That premise sounds like a superficial high-concept thriller. 

Although Beef is indeed full of twists and turns, the show, in actuality, is a surprisingly deep and nuanced black comedy/drama — one that’s unlike anything I’ve seen before.

As one of the two drivers (an upwardly mobile entrepreneur), Ali Wong is a revelation and demonstrates where-did-that-come-from acting chops. She is adept at conveying rage and melancholy in both big moments and small. (To be fair, her dramatic performance is not a complete surprise if you’ve watched the little-seen Paper Girls on Amazon Prime Video.)

Steven Yeun is equally compelling as the other driver —  a struggling handyman/contractor desperate to raise funds to move his parents from Korea to Los Angeles. His performance is equally noteworthy, though less surprising given his previous roles.. 

Nearly every character in the show is Asian, and although the Asian immigrant experience informs and enriches the show, the core premise and themes are universal. 

Overflowing with sharp social commentary and unexpected character turns, Beef offers a wild ride — one that I didn’t want to end.

Better Call Saul

Grade: B | AMC

Like many critics and fans, I rank Breaking Bad as one of the all-time great TV series. After it concluded, I felt satiated. I wasn’t hungering for more stories set in its cinematic universe. So, I was dubious when AMC announced a prequel series revolving around a secondary character (shady lawyer Saul Goodman).

Despite my hesitation, I tried out all ten episodes of the first season. My verdict? The show wasn’t gelling for me, and I found it a bit of a slog to get through. Neither the deliberate pace nor the characters were drawing me in. I stopped watching.

During the pandemic, most of my shows went on hiatus because of COVID shutdowns. In the middle of a TV drought, I decided to give Saul a second chance. I binge-watched four seasons on Netflix. This time, the show hooked me. I watched the sixth and final season in real time on AMC+.

The show eventually established its own identity and offered a vast array of vibrant characters. Some tried and true (Saul Goodman, drug kingpin Gus Fring, and henchman Mike Ehrmantraut). And some new (attorney and love interest Kim Wexler, her boss Howard Hamlin, and mafia underling Nacho Varga). The biggest standout among the new cast was Tony Dalton, who’s magnetic as the main villain, Lalo Salamanca.

As with the original show, dynamic character arcs were the hallmark of Better Call Saul. If you appreciated Walter White’s journey from meek teacher to ruthless gangster, you’ll likely enjoy Jimmy McGill’s transformation into Saul Goodman.

Maybe it was the show’s intent, but one character rubbed me the wrong way: Chuck McGill, Saul’s brother. He was a central focus of the earlier seasons — one reason I had trouble warming up to the show. No shade on Michael McKean (whose acting was solid).

I feel satiated again, but if the showrunners decide to return to this world for another series, I’ll be more open-minded next time.

Better Things

Grade: A- | FX

After reading great things about this series for years, I binge-watched the first four seasons on Hulu. Pamela Adlon created this semi-autobiographical “dramedy” with Louis C.K. — about an actress and single mother raising three daughters in L.A. A dynamo, Adlon writes the show, directs it, and stars in it. I was a fan of her work from Californication and Louie, but her subtle, natural performance in Better Things is a revelation. Louie C.K. stepped away as Adlon’s co-writer after the first two seasons. I enjoyed those seasons, which were more story-driven, more than the later seasons, which feel more like mood pieces. Nonetheless, this unique series is unlike anything else on television, at least that I’ve seen.

Big Little Lies

Grade: B | HBO

After initially avoiding this show, I enthusiastically binge-watched it and found it surprisingly compelling. Regardless of how much you get into the central murder mystery (in which the victim is kept secret until the end), the all-star cast of Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern, Adam Scott and Alexander Skarsgård (along with lesser knowns, Shailene Woodley and Zoë Kravitz) is a pure joy to watch. Overall, the second season was less compelling but still worth watching — especially to see Meryl Streep disappear into a juicy character who creates fireworks with the heroines from season one.

Big Love

Grade: A- | HBO

An under-appreciated dramatic gem revolving around a bigamist family that has broken away from a fundamentalist Mormon sect.

Black Doves

Grade: B- | Netflix

Black Doves is yet another entry in the increasingly popular spy thriller genre. Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw are appealing leads, but the story lacks novelty. The episodes are fast-moving and entertaining enough, but I found it challenging to get emotionally involved. Ultimately, it’s disposable and forgettable, which is fine if you’re seeking some mindless entertainment and have already watched the far superior entries in the genre (e.g., The Americans, Slow Horses, The Night Agent, The Diplomat, etc.).

Black Mirror

Grade: A | Netflix

This anthology series features imaginative, insightful, and sometimes frightening cautionary tales about how technological advances may threaten or damage humanity in the future. Like any anthology series, the episodes are inconsistent, but the best are true masterpieces. A word of caution: the series premiere (episode 1) isn’t representative of the show and scares some people off, so you may want to skip it and come back to it later if you become a fan.

Blue Eye Samurai

Grade: B+ | Netflix

I usually don’t seek out 2D animated shows and have no special affinity for the samurai genre. So, I approached Blue Eye Samurai with some trepidation. Happily, the gorgeous animation immediately drew me into the story, and over the 8-episode first season, I became increasingly invested in the characters. The show is set in feudal Japan and follows an adult orphan on a relentless quest for revenge. I’ll refrain from divulging further details because the less you know about the plot, the better.

The Book of Boba Fett

Grade: B- | Disney+

A spinoff of The Mandalorian, this series is on the bubble for me between recommend and misfire. For the boy in me who saw Star Wars on the big screen during its original release as an impressionable nine-year-old, I’ll err on the side of recommending — but just barely. The show cross-cuts between three story arcs. 1) The backstory of Fett’s resurrection (after seemingly dying in Return of the Jedi). 2) Trade war intrigue in present-day Tattoine — which isn’t inherently compelling. 3) A two-episode interlude with The Mandalorian and Grogu. Overall, the series feels a bit messy and disjointed. Even worse, much of the action falls flat. The show’s worst crime: it wastes the talents of Ming-Na Wen (in a lead role as Fett’s deputy) and gives her character virtually nothing to do. On the other hand, the series offers a fun Western vibe and many colorful supporting characters, both old and new.

Bored to Death

Grade: B+ | HBO

A comedy gem about a struggling writer who pretends to be a private investigator. The delectable cast included Jason Schwartzman, Zach Galifianakis, and Ted Danson. I wish the show had lasted more than its precious three seasons.

The Boys

Grade: B- | Amazon Prime Video

The Boys puts a unique spin on the superhero genre. In this Amazon original, superheroes work for the benefit of their corporate overlords, and most are more interested in their approval rating than in the public good. Profiting from movie tie-ins and merchandise is a higher priority than crime-fighting or world-saving. The show offers heaping servings of social commentary and character development, whereas action sequences take a back seat. The Boys is undeniably addicting and absorbing; however, while I binge-watched the show, I found the relentless cynicism of the series to be overwhelming. For this reason, the show may be better suited for weekly viewing than binge-watching. My other criticism: the pace is sometimes too deliberate, slowing the momentum. Still, the series lingers in mind, and after two seasons, I’m eager to see where it goes next.

Updates: Season 3 offers more of the same, which is both good and bad. My main frustration is that the Butcher and Homelander characters have grown tiresome. Breaking from formula would help rejuvenate the show. After watching the first episode of Season 4, I realized I had lost my appetite for The Boys and aborted the series.

Breaking Bad

Grade: A | AMC

Breaking Bad is a slow-burning comic drama in which the stakes escalate exponentially each season for its protagonist. Walter White is a high school chemistry teacher diagnosed with terminal cancer who turns to manufacturing methamphetamine to secure his family’s financial future. Bryan Cranston turns in one of the greatest TV performances of all time in the lead role, and the supporting cast is sterling.

The first time I tried the series, I gave up after a handful of episodes because I thought its pace was too slow and deliberate. The second time I tried the show (after the hype around it exploded), I persisted, made it through the first season, and became absolutely hooked. If you have not tried it yet, watch the entire first season before you pass judgment.

Brockmire

Grade: B- | IFC

Brockmire is an engaging character study of an alcoholic baseball announcer (played by Hank Azaria) who finds his way to recovery. I’m not much of a baseball fan, but I do enjoy the occasional baseball-themed movie or TV show (e.g., Eastbound & Down). I’m also not the biggest fan of stories centered around alcoholic or depressed characters. Even so, Brockmire slowly won me over during its first couple of seasons before becoming something truly special in its third season (in which the character achieves sobriety). Sadly, the show lost my goodwill in its ill-conceived fourth and final season. The show flashes forward ten years and provides a horrifying glimpse of the future. I’m all for dystopian fantasies and satires, but I think it was the wrong choice (and felt out of character) for this series. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a show “jump the shark” so badly.

Californication

Grade: B+ | Showtime

David Duchovny seems to be playing a loose version of himself in this comedy about an adulterous writer struggling to keep his family together. The character could not be more different from Duchovny’s iconic role as Fox Mulder on The X-Files, and that is part of the fun. With Evan Handler and Pamela Aldon in key supporting roles and an endless stream of inspired guest stars (e.g., Maggie Grace in one of her best roles), the show has a breezy charm that is hard to resist.

Catastrophe

Grade: B | Amazon Prime Video

This comedy offers a realistic view of the ups and downs of marriage (between a Brit and a Yank). The show is funny, and the cast is charming, but I didn’t love it as much as many TV critics. It’s perfect for binge-watching while traveling, which is how I watched it.

Colin from Accounts

Grade: B | Paramount+

A quirky romantic comedy from down under.

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee

Grade: B- | Crackle & Netflix

Each episode offers banter between Jerry Seinfeld and a guest. It’s inconsistent but fun to watch if you’re a fan of Seinfeld or the world of stand-up comics.

Community

Grade: B | NBC

Before watching Community (about the misfit students and staff at a small community college), I had always assumed it was a garden variety network sitcom. Little did I know that the show was actually one of the most inventive and imaginative comedies of all time.

At its peak (seasons 2-4), Community served up one delectable pop culture parody after another, as well as heaps of compelling character development. An eclectic cast deftly brought to life the diverse denizens of Greendale Community College (including Chevy Chase in maybe my favorite screen role of his career).

Unfortunately, the other seasons were a mixed bag.

Season 1 was fun and showed promise, even though the writers and actors were still discovering the show’s essence.

On the other hand, with Season 5, Community started to decline significantly. Original cast members began to leave, and the writing quality drifted downhill. In the sixth and final season, the Community fell off a cliff. New cast members joined the show and didn’t jibe with the existing cast. The writers ran out of story ideas and were clueless about what to do with the characters after they graduated from Greendale. Stagnation and contrivance set in, and the last season left a sour taste in my mouth.

My recommendation: Watch Community until a few episodes into season 5 when Troy (Donald Glover) departs. One way or another, I’d skip the final season.

The Corner

Grade: A+ | HBO

The progenitor to The Wire in which producer David Simon provides a hyper-realistic glimpse into the trials and tribulations of the residents of an inner-city. You would probably think this show was a non-fiction documentary if you didn’t know better.

Crashing

Grade: A- | HBO

From producer Judd Apatow, Crashing is a charming story about a devout Christian (Pete Holmes playing a loose version of himself) discovering his true self while pursuing a career in stand-up comedy in New York. The show features a ton of notable stand-up comics in fun cameos and guest-starring roles.

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Grade: A | HBO

Larry David (who co-created Seinfeld) plays an exaggerated version of himself in this improvised comedy in which his selfish and insensitive nature leads to inspired comic mayhem. David populates his life with a vibrant mix of regulars and guest stars, drawing out the best in his exceptional cast. The show is wildly inconsistent from episode to episode and season to season, but at its pinnacle, nothing on TV is funnier. For anyone who jumped off the train at some point, the 10th season in 2020 was a return to form.

Da Ali G Show

Grade: B+ | HBO

Sacha Baron Cohen perfected his most famous characters — Ali G, Borat, and Brüno — in this comedy, known for its groundbreaking ambush interviews where politicians and other guests were not in on the joke that their interviewer was an actor. I was never a big fan of the Brüno segments, but some of the Ali G and Borat sequences are among the most hysterically funny things I’ve seen on TV.

Dave

Grade: A | FX

I came to Dave late, long after its second season had concluded. So, the show already had a ton of hype around it. I was hesitant to check it out because the premise (a suburban white dude tries to break into the music industry as a rap artist) wasn’t innately appealing to me.

After slow-bingeing two seasons on Hulu, I’m a convert. Dave blew away my expectations and more than lived up to the buzz.

I wasn’t aware the series is based on a true story. Dave Burd portrays his real-life rise to fame as the rapper Lil Dicky, and GaTa, his hypeman in real life, plays the same role in the show. Dave has an air of authenticity (and includes tons of fun cameos).

The show has more character depth and heart than you might expect for a comedy. Burd certainly gets the lion’s share of the spotlight. But the rich supporting characters also get compelling story arcs and sometimes even their own “special” episodes. The biggest surprise is GaTa, who steals nearly every scene he’s in with his magnetic screen presence and soulful performance. Christine Ko also stands out as Emma, Dave’s acerbic photographer. Along with Taylor Misiak as Dave’s girlfriend, Ally, these are all characters you welcome spending time with and relish getting to know better.

TV has offered innumerable behind-the-scenes showbiz series, but Dave feels like something new and fresh. Also unpredictable. Especially during the second season — which is more ambitious, experimental, and uneven than the first.

Dead to Me

Grade: B | Netflix

Inspired performances from Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini anchor this dramatic comedy about grief, friendship, and betrayal. Some critics knocked the plot machinations of the first season, but I enjoyed the twists and turns. The second season becomes even more contrived and outlandish. But if you went along for the ride the first time and are invested in the characters, you should enjoy the sophomore season nearly as much.

Dear White People

Grade: B | Netflix

Set at a fictitious Ivy League university, Dear White People is based on the 2014 movie of the same name. The satirical series explores the themes of racism, sexism, and identity as it follows a cohort of (mostly) black college students.

I thought the movie was just okay. By contrast, the TV series is a knockout due to its vivid characters, outstanding cast, and clever storylines.

Seasons 1 and 2 of the show were the sweet spot for me. The series hit its “sophomore slump” belatedly with Season 3. While still compelling, that season failed to reach the same heights.

In Season 4, the producers shook up the formula and took some creative gambles. 1) The season is a musical. 2) The storyline cross-cuts between the future and the present. Neither of those story elements worked for me — in part because I’m not the biggest fan of musicals.

One more thing about the last season. The closing credits of each episode hint at an ominous and imminent event on campus. This adds an underlying tension to the entire season that I found distracting. And it hindered my enjoyment of the season.

For a show about college students, four seasons was just the right length for Dear White People. Still, I was sad to say goodbye to these characters.

The Deuce

Grade: A- | HBO

David Simon shines a light on the nascent porn film industry in Times Square during the late 1970s. As is customary for a Simon show, The Deuce features a huge cast of colorful characters from all walks of life, including pimps, prostitutes, barkeeps, cops, social reformers, and the mafia.

The Diplomat

Grade: A | Netflix

The Diplomat is a must-see for anyone who was a fan of Keri Russell in The Americans. The show gives the gifted actress another juicy role to sink her teeth into. She plays a career diplomat whom the U.S. suddenly appoints as the US Ambassador to the U.K. during an international crisis. In her new post, she must navigate several tricky headwinds. In addition to the monumental egos of American AND British politicians, she has to contend with her disintegrating marriage to the former ambassador to Lebanon — whose backseat driving threatens to undermine the success of her first assignment.

With sharp writing and a terrific supporting cast, The Diplomat weaves espionage, diplomacy, and personal drama into an enthralling package.

Doom Patrol

Grade: B | Max

Doom Patrol is another entry in the ever-growing genre of off-beat superhero shows made for adult audiences. My favorite entry in this category has been Legion. Doom Patrol has a unique vibe and is another fine example. Like Legion, it sometimes gets surreal and trippy, but not to the same extent, and without as much emphasis on horror. Instead, Doom Patrol adds a meta dimension where the show knows it’s a TV show and is self-conscious about it (sometimes breaking the fourth wall). Compared to The Boys, Doom Patrol delves deeper into character development, sometimes at the expense of action and narrative momentum. The series places equal weight on the five “heroes” in the patrol, and some of their backstories and internal conflicts are more interesting to me than others. Your mileage may vary depending on which cast members and characters you gravitate towards — and how much the show’s dark themes weigh you down.

The Dropout

Grade: B | Hulu

When the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes and her biotech startup Theranos was making news, I was only peripherally aware of the story. So, my interest was limited when Hulu released the limited series The Dropout (despite being a fan of Amanda Seyfried from her days on Big Love).

More than two years later, a friend recommended it to me. My daughter and I watched the first episode and a half and agreed that the show was not grabbing us. I later finished episode 2 and still felt the same. The third episode also left me cold and seemed like it’d be “3 strikes and you’re out” — until a “plot twist” at the end piqued my interest.

Episodes 4-8 gripped me, with intriguing storylines around Walgreens (and its inept executives) partnering with Theranos and (later) around The Wall Street Journal researching the company for an exposé. Holmes and her business/romantic partner, Sunny Balwani, become deplorable villains, and witnessing their world crumble is gratifying.

Another appeal of The Dropout is its behind-the-scenes portrayal of Silicon Valley startup culture and its irrational exuberance. However, I’d argue that the HBO comedy Silicon Valley and the AMC drama Halt and Catch Fire cover this territory with more savvy.

Eastbound & Down

Grade: A- | HBO

I would have predicted Danny McBride’s humor to be too broad and crude for my tastes. And yet, so far, I have found his TV series to be comedy gems with a surprising amount of heart. This one revolves around a washed-up baseball player trying to make his comeback in the minor leagues.

The End of the F***ing World

Grade: B+ | Netflix

At the heart of this exceptionally dark “dramedy” is a romance (of sorts) between two teen social outcasts, both psychologically damaged in various ways. The first season has the couple on the run from the law after a tragic event further shatters their already broken lives. The somewhat less intense second season deals with the psychological aftermath and introduces a third main character with her own compelling backstory. Jessica Barden and Alex Lawther are outstanding in the lead roles, and the show’s writers give them substantial character arcs to portray.

Enlightened

Grade: A- | HBO

An under-the-radar and under-appreciated drama from director Mike White, which stars Laura Dern as a woman driven to a nervous breakdown by the emptiness of the corporate world.

Entourage

Grade: B+ | HBO

I’ve sometimes characterized Entourage as Sex and the City for men. The show revolves around the love lives and careers of four men (a famous actor and his entourage) in Los Angeles. The show is light and entertaining, with endearing characters and a surprising amount of heart. For added fun, Jeremy Piven hams it up as a bombastic Hollywood agent.

Evil

Grade: B | Paramount+

In many ways, Evil is a loose remake of The X-Files. The core premise is the same: a skeptic and a believer investigate the supernatural with often conflicting perspectives. The structure of the show is also similar, as Evil mostly adheres to a procedural “case of the week” format — although it’s significantly more serialized than its predecessor.

However, Evil is no clone or ripoff and shakes up the formula with an assessment team consisting of three members vs two: the believer (a priest in training) and two skeptics (a forensic psychologist and a tech/science expert). Another difference: the institution they work for is not the FBI but the Catholic Church, which assigns them cases to assess — mostly possessions and other demonic infestations (plus the occasional miracle). So, true to its title, the theme is good and evil vs. the aliens and other supernatural monsters of The X-Files.

During the first season, Evil walks a fine line between supernatural and scientific explanations for the phenomena under investigation — providing just enough ambiguity for you to interpret the mysteries either way. The show is not biased toward or against religion; it offers a balanced view of the Catholic church and doesn’t pull any punches when referencing its dark side (e.g., lack of diversity, the role of women, and child abuse).

I watched the first three seasons as a nightly binge over several weeks. I found it compelling, absorbing, and addicting. The show is well crafted in every dimension, especially in the writing and performances. The casting is nearly perfect. Mike Colter, as David, oozes charisma as the almost priest who waffles between belief and doubt. Katja Herbers, as Kristen, gets to play wild character arcs as the skeptic psychologist (and mother of four girls). Aasif Mandvi, as Ben, embodies sarcasm and cynicism as the tech expert who rounds out the team. Andrea Martin steals every scene she’s in as a wise nun (Sister Andrea) who helps with some investigations. As rival forensic psychologist, Leland, Michael Emerson chews up the scenery; he’s an orchestrator of evil whose influence runs deep and wide. Finally, Christine Lahti plays Kristen’s mother, Sheryl, an enigma with questionable motives (her screen time dramatically increases as the story unfolds).

I do have several quibbles with the show. Emerson can sometimes be a bit over the top (and mustache-twirly) as the villain. I love his performance, but the tone of his scenes sometimes doesn’t quite fit the solemn mood of the rest of the show. In the second and third seasons, Lahti’s storyline sucks up too much oxygen and takes attention away from the three lead characters. In the fourth and final season, the 1-hour episodes felt long and tended to drag in the middle. Also, I found the series finale disappointing and anticlimactic, with some characters (like Sister Andrea) deserving better fates.

Overall, however, Evil scratched an itch that I didn’t know I had.

The Expanse

Grade: B | Syfy/Amazon Prime Video

Part space adventure, part political drama, part supernatural mystery, I enjoyed the complexity of this sci-fi drama for its first season or two. I was not fully on board for some of the plot direction in season 3, but I was still disappointed when Syfy canceled the show. Happily, Amazon rescued the series, and its fourth season (as an Amazon original) marked a return to form with gripping storylines for its myriad characters. Season 5 was another misfire season for me, but everything came together in a mostly satisfying way in the sixth and final season (despite several loose ends).

The Fall

Grade: B | BBC

Gillian Anderson plays a detective pursuing Jamie Dornan as an elusive serial killer in this British crime drama. As mentioned, I am not a fan of this genre, which is the reason I have not graded this show higher.

Falling Skies

Grade: A- | TNT

If you’re a fan of The Walking Dead, you’ll likely enjoy this underrated show. It shares the same gripping premise, themes, and pacing, except that the characters fight for survival in an alien-invasion apocalypse instead of a zombie one.

Fallout

Grade: B | Amazon Prime Video

I haven’t played the video game Fallout, but I was predisposed to like the TV adaptation. First, I’m a sucker for post-apocalyptic stories (shows, movies, novels, audio fiction). Second, I’ve become a big fan of Ella Parnell from her previous roles (Yellowjackets, Wildlike, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Star Trek: Prodigy). Third, ditto for Walton Goggins (The Righteous Gemstones, Vice Principals). Finally, I (mostly) liked the TV series Westworld from the same creative team (Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy).

While the pacing lags here and there, Fallout is a fun ride and deftly mixes violence, suspense, character development, and comedy. My only significant complaint is that I found Aaron Moten to be flat as the third lead. He lacks screen presence and has little romantic chemistry with Purnell.

Fargo

Grade: B | FX

Although it was a little too slow-moving for me, I appreciated the first season of the TV reboot of the classic Coen brothers’ film. But I did not find it compelling enough to stick with it for its subsequent seasons.

Fear the Walking Dead

Grade: B- | AMC

The first spin-off series in the Walking Dead universe got off to a slow start and paled compared to the original during its first couple of seasons. But over time, the show consistently improved to the point where the characters were nearly as iconic and the show was arguably fresher and more imaginative. Unfortunately, Fear grew stale in its final few seasons with storylines more irritating than inspiring.

Firefly

Grade: B+ | FOX

This short-lived cult classic is a fun sci-fi yarn about a group of space mercenaries trying to make a buck while evading law enforcement and avoiding warring political factions.

Fleabag

Grade: B | Amazon Prime Video

I wasn’t sure I liked this British series because I initially found the main character unappealing. But I stuck with the show, and it eventually got under my skin, thanks to appealing performances from the entire cast. In two short seasons, the show evocatively explores themes of grief and maturation and offers a remarkably nuanced portrayal of how sisters can simultaneously love and hate each other.

Fleishman Is In Trouble

Grade: B | Hulu

Even if I didn’t know that Fleishman Is In Trouble is based on a novel, I’d be able to tell from its narrative structure and character depth. The limited series is set on the Upper East Side in Manhattan and chronicles the troubled marriages and mid-life crises of white, privileged, upper-middle-class characters — ones who are remarkably self-absorbed.

I usually like self-absorbed characters in comedies (Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Crashing, Woody Allen movies, etc.), but I find them harder to connect with in dramas. In this show, I didn’t find myself rooting for any of the three main characters — a doctor, his wife (a theater agent), and his college friend (a writer turned stayed-at-home mom). That said, I still appreciated the outstanding performances from Jesse Eisenberg, Claire Danes, and Lizzy Caplan, who also serves as the show’s narrator.

And yet, while I sometimes wasn’t sure whether I was enjoying the series, at the end of each episode, I couldn’t wait to watch the next. On reflection, I concluded that Fleishman Is In Trouble is a thriller, but the suspense is based on character motivation rather than plot.

The show is billed as a limited series. I’m glad I watched, but I got my fill of this world and likely would opt out if Hulu decides to bring it back for a second season.

The Flight Attendant

Grade: B- | Max

Season 1

The Flight Attendant provides slick pulp fiction thrills seasoned with some humor and a modicum of character depth. The show has more style than substance, and the storyline is implausible. However, as long as you don’t scrutinize the plot holes too closely, The Flight Attendant is a fun ride with story strands that come together in a satisfying way.

Season 2

In its sophomore season, The Flight Attendant lost its charm, at least for me. The formula grew irritating and tiresome, and I stopped caring about any of the outlandish storylines. The trips into Cassandra’s inner psychology, a gimmick that mostly worked in season one, became monotonous and tiresome. Megan’s peripheral storyline seemed half-baked and an unnecessary distraction. Plus, I saw the ending coming from a mile away. Had Max not canceled the show, I wouldn’t have boarded for season three.

Foundation

Grade: A- | Apple TV+

As a teen, I read the Foundation (and Robot) sci-fi novels by Isaac Asimov. I remember liking the series but have little memory of them beyond a couple of character names and the macro premise: Harry Seldon, a brilliant mathematician, creates a scientific model that may save humanity from millennia of misery — but only if the all-powerful Galactic Empire falls.

I had seen mixed reviews for the TV adaptation, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I found the first couple of episodes sluggish, as they have to do a lot of world-building. Eventually, however, the story started to grab me, and I enthusiastically binged the rest of season 1 (and then all of season 2).

Although perhaps a cliche, I’d describe Foundation as “Game of Thrones in Space.” The expansive storyline spans multiple locations and includes a huge cast of regular and supporting characters. The story also stretches over a large expanse of time. However, plot circumstances allow several characters to continue to appear in both earlier and later timelines.

The show has an ensemble cast, but if you had to name a lead character, it would be Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell), a math wizard from an anti-science planet whom Seldon recruits to help him stand up the Foundation (an institution that is a key part of his master plan). Llobell’s performance didn’t draw me in at first, but season two puts her in more dramatic (and compelling) predicaments.

For me, the most vivid characters are the rulers residing in the Galactic capital city of Trantor. Lee Pace (Halt and Catch Fire) commands the screen and dominates his scenes as Brother Day, the current emperor. Terrence Mann personifies wisdom and regret as Brother Dusk, the emperor emeritus. Cassian Bilton radiates innocence and hope as Brother Dawn, the future emperor. Laura Birn, in a nuanced performance, embodies quiet power, self-discipline, and mystery as Demerzel, the First Minister.

Foundation is hard sci-fi, far removed from Earth. If that’s not your thing, the show likely won’t be for you. But for fans of the genre, Foundation is a fine entry in the pantheon of big-budget sci-fi shows with stunning visuals and epic storytelling (e.g., The Expanse, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, The Mandalorian, etc.)

Freaks And Geeks

Grade: B+ | NBC

I finally binge-watched this cult classic almost twenty years after its debut on NBC. The show (which lasted just one season) portrays the daily drama of high school life in a small town in 1980. Freaks And Geeks centers around a nerdy Freshman boy and his older sister (a smart Junior in an identity crisis who starts hanging out with the stoner losers at the school). Freaks And Geeks deftly mixes comedy and drama and is fun for its nostalgia factor. However, the most remarkable thing about the show is its ensemble cast, nearly all of whom became luminaries in later shows and movies. Regulars included Linda Cardellini, John Francis Daley, James Franco, Seth Rogan, Jason Segel, Martin Starr, and Busy Philipps. Look out for guest star appearances from Lizzy Caplan and Rashida Jones.

Game of Thrones

Grade: A | HBO

I don’t think I need to say much by way of introduction for this one. Arguably, the show was overhyped, but even so, it stands as a stunning evolution of television spectacle, exceeding the scale, impact, and artistry of typical cinema blockbusters. Despite the dragons, witches, white walkers, and giants, ultimately, the show was a soap opera following the political machinations of the power-hungry. The show was probably too leisurely in its storytelling in the early seasons and too rushed toward the end. However, it consistently provided a gripping and absorbing ride, with iconic characters representing good, evil, and everything in between.

GLOW

Grade: B+ | Netflix

You don’t have to be a fan of wrestling (which I’m not) to succumb to the charms of this fun and sometimes dramatic series, which tells the true story of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. WTF fans should note that Marc Maron is excellent as the seedy director recruited to oversee the league.

Good Omens

Grade: A | Amazon Prime Video

This series chronicles how a group of angels, demons, witches, witch hunters, and regular human kids conflict (or collaborate) with one another to either fend off the end of the world or precipitate it. The tale sounds ponderous, but the series is delightfully whimsical, and the intricate, interweaving storylines are mostly played for comedy. The cast is superb and features Michael Sheen, David Tennant, Adria Arjona, John Hamm, Miranda Richardson, Michael McKean, and Frances McDormand (as the omniscient and almighty narrator).

The Good Place

Grade: A | NBC

I initially abandoned this series about the afterlife after watching a few episodes and concluding it was too conventional for me. However, after the hype continued to build around it, I tried the show again. If you start The Good Place, you should watch the entire first season before passing judgment. Without spoiling any specifics, the first season concludes with a major twist, and, in fact, unexpected twists and turns are a hallmark of the wildly creative series. The show features a large ensemble cast, with the core parts delectably played by Kristen Bell, newcomer Jameela Jamil, Ted Danson (in perhaps his best role since Cheers), William Jackson Harper, Manny Jacito, and D’Arcy Carden (who is remarkably inspired as an AI-based character).

Gotham

Grade: B- | FOX

This series is a prequel to Batman and chronicles Bruce Wayne’s transformation from a teen into the caped crusader — plus the origin stories of many of his classic villains. That said, the main character is James Gordon, and the show portrays his days as a new Detective on the Gotham police force. The first season was stylish and entertaining, but it didn’t leave me hungry for more. A big reason: Ben McKenzie (as Gordon) rubbed me the wrong way as an actor.

Hacks

Grade: A- | Max

Season 1

I was late to the party, but I became a big fan of Jean Smart after she had key roles in two of my favorite shows from the last few years, Legion and Watchmen. So, naturally, I was curious to check out her new series, Hacks. Smart plays a legendary stand-up comic (a boomer with a Vegas residence) who hires a Gen Z writer (played by Hannah Einbinder) to punch up and modernize her jokes.

The series took me two tries to get into, but the show gets decidedly better as it progresses. Smart is great throughout as an acerbic, seen-it-all showbiz veteran. But at first, I didn’t find Einbinder’s character remotely appealing. She (and the show) eventually won me over, even though I thought the critical reaction to Hacks was a bit overblown.

My main problem was that the stand-up comedy in the show wasn’t particularly funny. Moreover, there’s not enough of it (especially the new material the two characters collaborate on). But I grew up watching a ton of live stand-up comedy in my formative years, so maybe my standards are higher than a typical TV viewer’s.

Season 2

I can’t remember my reaction to season 2, but I vaguely recall liking it the same or more than season 1.

Season 3

Season 3 is a quantum leap forward, with the show hitting its stride. Smart is a force of nature as Deborah Vance; her performance is never less than sensational. Einbinder’s acting has improved markedly over the seasons, and she holds her own against Smart and makes for a compelling co-protagonist.

Halt and Catch Fire

Grade: A+ | AMC

Halt and Catch Fire is a remarkably accurate portrayal of the tech industry — and a surprisingly addictive and compelling drama. The show gets so many details right about startup culture and software development. With one caveat: the Atlanta shooting locations sometimes struggle to stand in for the Bay Area. The story spans a long stretch of time, starting in the early 1980s at the dawn of the personal computing era (in Dallas, Texas, where hardware was king). By the end, it’s the mid-1990s, and the characters are in software in Northern Cal during the early days of the web.

Compared to HBO’s Silicon Valley (also excellent and a biting satire of startup culture), Halt and Catch Fire is a hard-edged drama. The characters are rich and complex and suffer non-stop emotional anguish. I didn’t think the tech milieu would make for compelling drama, but I was wrong. I binge-watched all four seasons (40 episodes) in less than a month. Note: the show starts off well in season 1 but kicks into a higher gear for seasons 2-4 when it increases the focus on the female leads.

The Handmaid’s Tale

Grade: B- | Hulu

If nothing else, this post-apocalyptic drama set in the former U.S. after environmental collapse and a totalitarian coup is worth watching for the exceptional performance from Elisabeth Moss. Overall, the show is slow-moving but gripping — and so relentlessly bleak that it can be excruciating to watch. Lauded in season one, the show experienced some critical backlash in season two for its monotonous misery, and I decided not to watch season three and beyond.

His Dark Materials

Grade: B | HBO

I am a big fan of the Philip Pullman book series of the same name, which was the source material for this series. The show is set in a fantastical world where:

• A religious theocracy rules over humans.
• Human souls are external and take the form of talking animals.
• The opposition movement includes witches and polar bear warriors.

Beyond that, the less you know about the plot specifics, the better.

Covering book one (The Golden Compass), season 1 was well-executed with solid acting and high production values. I enjoyed the season but felt it was missing some X-factor that would make it a great show. The most obvious shortcoming is that His Dark Materials lacks sufficient urgency and momentum in its storytelling. I liked Season 2 (based on book two, The Subtle Knife) at least as much as its predecessor. I found Season 3 (based on book 3, “The Amber Spyglass”) to be disjointed and my least favorite season — not surprising since I had the same opinion of the book.

Homecoming

Grade: B | Amazon Prime Video

Adapted from a popular podcast (which I never listened to), this haunting psychological thriller is about a secret government research group pioneering a new form of post-traumatic stress therapy for returning war veterans. The show mines solid performances from Julia Roberts, Stephan James, and Bobby Cannavale, and it improves with each episode.

Humans

Grade: A- | AMC

For me, the British series Humans, and not Westworld, is the superior show about how artificial intelligence in the form of human-realistic androids may impact the future of humanity. The cast is excellent and features Gemma Chan in a breakout performance.

I May Destroy You

Grade: A+ | HBO

I May Destroy You is an intimate and devastating portrait of the consequences of rape and various forms of sexual assault. It also provides a vibrant glimpse into the contemporary lifestyle of black millennials in London. The premise sounds heavy (and it is), but the show is instantly absorbing and not without humor. Creator Michaela Coel, who wrote all of the episodes and stars, establishes herself as a formidable creative force — and someone to keep an eye on.

In the Flesh

Grade: A- | BBC America

This British series is set after a zombie virus outbreak, but unlike most zombie stories, the dead retain their full mental faculties and integrate back into society. The show is not a thriller but instead a contemplative drama.

Invincible

Grade: B- | Amazon Prime Video

I was on the fence about whether to try the animated superhero yarn Invincible. On the plus side, the writer is Robert Kirkman — the creator of The Walking Dead. On the minus side, I usually don’t like 2D animation. Also, I wasn’t sure I wanted to plunge into yet another cynical superhero universe. I get my fill of that from The Boys and Doom Patrol. But I tried the show after a friend recommended it, and I’m glad I did.

Invincible is not the most cohesive show. It bites off more than it can chew, with more storylines than it can do justice. Also, the mystery at the core of the story is somewhat ineffective. I could see the big twist coming from miles away. Even so, the show offers popcorn entertainment and is an addicting binge-watch. It creates an immersive world with surprisingly cinematic action and engaging characters. The stupendous voice-over cast adds to the charm.

Jury Duty

Grade: B | Amazon Prime Video

This reality show follows a civil court case in Huntington Park, California. The gimmick is that the case is fake and everyone is an actor except for one unsuspecting participant. I wasn’t sure what to make of the show at first, but eventually, I found it funny and entertaining — especially after I made the mental shift to watch it as if it were an improvised Office-style mockumentary.

Kidding

Grade: A- | Showtime

After seeing mixed reviews, I didn’t expect to like this Showtime series starring Jim Carey as a beloved but deeply troubled kids TV star. But with a deeply nuanced performance from Carey and a sublime supporting cast featuring Judy Greer, Catherine Keener, and Frank Langella, the show is a masterpiece of comic melancholy. The second season is more inconsistent but also even more daring as the show steps further into magical realism.

Killing Eve

Grade: B- | BBC America

I binge-watched both seasons one and two on Hulu and really enjoyed the fast pace, intriguing characters, and cat-and-mouse antics between an MI6 operative (Sandra Oh) and an eccentric assassin (Jodie Comer). The two lead actresses are phenomenal, and both have been nominated and/or won several well-deserved awards for their performances in the show. Killing Eve is popcorn entertainment at its best but with more character depth than you might expect. I did not enjoy the third season nearly as much and feared that the series may have “jumped the shark.” The fourth and final season was a marginal improvement, but the show did not “stick the landing” in the finale for me. The series left me feeling deflated. (BBC America/streaming on Hulu)

The Larry Sanders Show

Grade: A+ | HBO

Backstage showbiz comedy does not get more sublime than The Larry Sanders Show. Garry Shandling plays a late-night TV host who competes with Jay Leno and David Letterman. In probably their most iconic roles, Jeffrey Tambor plays his nebbish sidekick and Rip Torn his bombastic producer. A gaggle of gifted comic actors is in supporting roles as writers, office staff, etc.

In each episode, the action cross-cuts between video footage of the fictitious late-night show and (filmed) behind-the-scenes shenanigans in the show’s production office and Larry’s personal life. Real-life celebrities appear as themselves as guests making appearances on the show.

The Last of Us

Grade: B+ | HBO

The Last of Us is the HBO prestige-TV version of a zombie apocalypse show. Based on a popular video game (which I have not played), it’s got a famous lead (Pedro Pascal); solid acting (including from co-star Bella Ramsey); and impressive makeup, visual effects, and production design. 

As a fan of the genre, I thoroughly enjoyed the first season. At the same time, as someone who has watched every episode of The Walking Dead (and all of its spinoffs), I can’t say that The Last Of Us adds anything particularly novel to the genre. The fungal-based, fast-moving zombies certainly differ from those in TWD, but otherwise, the themes and storylines in The Last of Us are standard genre tropes.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. With the number of zombie TV series and movies Hollywood (and other countries) have churned out over the years, any new entry in the genre would have trouble forging a new path. 

So, in the end, the success or failure of a zombie show comes down to the characters. And in this area, The Last Of Us is a resounding success. As they trek across the U.S., meeting other survivors and trying to avoid zombies and other dangers, I invested in Joel and Ellie’s journey and the growing bond between them. Their relationship arc is the beating heart of the show more so than any villain of the week or zombie action sequence. I’m eager to see how it develops in the second season.

Legion

Grade: A | FX

The first season of Legion may be my favorite entry in the entire Marvel Universe of movies and TV shows. More psychological horror-thriller than superhero yarn, the show (set loosely in the X-Men universe) is aimed squarely at adults. The second season did not quite live up to the stunning first season, but it was still excellent. The third and final season brought the show to a satisfying conclusion, but the rich supporting characters were sidelined and given too little to do compared to previous seasons. The show is weird, trippy, and psychedelic at times, but in a much more effective way than something like the Twin Peaks reboot. Surprisingly, Legion also features a genuinely compelling love story at its core.

Legit

Grade: B | FX

A comedy that follows the misadventures of a struggling stand-up comic, his muscular dystrophy-addled brother, and his recently divorced best friend. I don’t recall the series all that vividly, but I do remember increasingly appreciating the show with each new episode and desperately wanting more after its short two-season run.

Life & Beth

Grade: B- | Hulu

Amy Schumer has come a long way from the raunchy standup comic I used to hear on Howard Stern. Life & Beth is a melancholy comedy with more on its mind than laughs. Loosely based on her relationship with her real-life husband, the show portrays the challenges of having a romantic relationship with an adult on the autism spectrum. Michael Cera plays her love interest in one of his best roles. The show also includes regular flashbacks to her childhood and features a large cast of her friends and family. Standouts include Michael Rapaport as her spacy, unreliable father and Susannah Flood as her mentally ill sister. I found some of the series slow-going, but found enough of it compelling to watch both seasons.

Loki

Grade: B | Disney+

Before Loki, Wandavision impressed me, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier left me cold. So, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Marvel’s third Disney+ TV series. Happily, Loki turned out to be highly imaginative and far more engaging than I had expected.

I came into the series with no predisposition towards the Loki character. However, by the end of the first season, he emerges as a compelling (if unlikely) hero — thanks to Tom Hiddleston’s charming performance. The supporting cast enriches the show (especially Owen Wilson). The chemistry between Hiddleston and Wilson is more potent than what we saw between Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan in Falcon — a show that was supposed to be a buddy comedy.

Loki does fall down in one area. It violates the screenwriting best practice of “show, don’t tell” — relying too heavily on long discussions (and big exposition dumps) between characters. In other words, too much tell and not enough show. Nearly the entire season one finale falls into this trap, and the story momentum rapidly deflates.

Note: My recommendation is only for season one. Two episodes into the second season, I concluded that the premise was not grabbing me, and I stopped watching.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Grade: B | Amazon Prime Video

This prequel to The Lord of the Rings is touted as the most expensive TV series ever. A portion of the cost for Amazon was acquiring the rights from the Tolkien estate. Even so, the money is on the screen. The Rings of Power is gorgeous, especially on a large 4K HDR TV.

Overall, I enjoyed season one. The characters, both old and new, draw you into the story. Although I can’t say anyone in the cast gives a towering performance, the acting is solid. The story is expansive in scope but not at the cost of small character moments. While rousing, the action scenes are fewer than you might expect.

My main quibble: the pace of the storytelling is a bit too leisurely. I watched with my teenage son, and our reaction was often, “That was a slow episode.” Hopefully, the narrative momentum will increase in season two. For anyone curious about how The Rings of Power compares to The House of the Dragon, I found the latter to be even more glacially paced and full of dull characters. In my book, The Rings of Power is far more engaging.

Update: My son and I watched the first episode of season 2, and the pace again was sluggish. Also, I remembered that I don’t like a lot of the cast (a similar problem I had with House of the Dragon). We agreed that we were no longer interested in the series. Your mileage may vary depending on how invested you are in LOR mythology.

Lovecraft Country

Grade: A- | HBO

Lovecraft Country is a unique mix of horror, occult mythology, magic, social commentary, and pulp fiction. The extended black family at the center of the story must contend with not only the rampant racism of 1950s America but also powerful supernatural forces beyond their wildest imagination. Although the story is serialized, each episode has a distinct tone, including one that plays like an entry in the Indiana Jones series. I don’t gravitate toward horror, so I wasn’t sure how much I’d like this series. However, its immersive world-building, endearing characters, and solid performances quickly won me over.

Lupin

Grade: B | Netflix

While seeking revenge and retribution for an injustice from his childhood, a gentleman thief in modern-day Paris takes on the persona of Arsène Lupi, a classic character from French literature. Full of twists, turns, cons, and heists, the show provides escapist entertainment, with just enough character development and social commentary to add some substance.

The Magicians

Grade: A- | Syfy

An adult version of the Harry Potter movies mixed with a healthy dose of Narnia. That’s how I’d describe The Magicians, which follows a diverse group of horny graduate students enrolled at a university that specializes in the study of magic. The additional twist: these students discover that their favorite childhood book series about a fantastical land called Fillory is not strictly fictional. Even though the premise sounds derivative, The Magicians is wildly inventive and very much its own beast.

When I watched it during its initial run on cable TV, I enjoyed it but eventually grew tired of the soap opera twists and turns. I bailed after the first two seasons. That was a mistake — a big one.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, running low on things to watch, I decided to give the series another try and picked it back up at season 3. According to Rotten Tomatoes, The Magicians hit its stride in the subsequent seasons. In this case, Rotten Tomatoes is not wrong!

The Magicians grew and improved exponentially in seasons 3 through 5, with scripts exceptionally clever and innovative in their character development and world-building. The show became bolder as it progressed. Many episodes took big creative swings, including several musical episodes (in which characters broke out into song and dance). More often than not, the risks paid off.

Even with multi-verses, time travel, time loops, and imminent apocalypses, somehow, the storylines remained coherent and character-driven. Finally, I appreciate that despite the fantasy setting, the characters in the show very much live in our world and frequently spout fun pop culture references such as Harry Potter, Star Trek, The Avengers, The Terminator, etc.

Thanks to the charming cast and the creative team behind them, the show succeeds in concocting a truly magical potion.

The Mandalorian

Grade: A- | Disney+

I’m not a big enough Star Wars fanatic to have watched the previous TV series in the franchise (the well-regarded animated shows Clone Wars and Rebels). However, the first live-action Star Wars TV series, from a super talent like writer/director Jon Favreau … well, that’s another matter altogether. I binge-watched the show over a few nights with my kids, and it not only lived up to its hype but exceeded my substantial expectations. The storytelling is simple, spare, impactful, and entertaining. The production values meet what you’d expect from a prestigious streaming show in the Peak TV era. The musical score is stirring. The characters are endearing, particularly “Baby Yoda” who is an amazing feat of puppetry. It’s hard to ask for much more from popcorn entertainment.

Maniac

Grade: A- | Netflix

Maybe I’m just a sucker for Emma Stone and Jonah Hill, but I fully bought into this sci-fi love story that explores themes of memory and mental illness.

A Man On The Inside

Grade: A | Netflix

A private investigator recruits a 76-year-old retired professor to go undercover at a retirement community in San Francisco to investigate a theft. Except for the San Francisco part, that doesn’t sound like a show I’d gravitate to, even with good reviews. However, two factors made it a must-see for me.

1) The show stars Ted Danson in the lead role of Charles.

I was an avid Cheers fan during its initial run on NBC. Since then, I’ve relished Danson’s roles in HBO’s Bored to Death and Curb Your Enthusiasm on HBO and his tour de force performance in NBC’s The Good Place.

2) The show was created by Mike Schur, whose pedigree as a TV producer includes The Good Place, Parks and Recreation, The Office, and more.

The show exceeded my expectations, even with these impressive collaborators at the helm. Danson continues to improve with age and turns in a remarkably self-assured and soulful performance as the lonely widower who doesn’t realize just how lonely he is until he begins his amateur sleuthing in the elder community.

Schur squeezes a surprising amount of poignancy and character depth from the gimmicky premise (which is inspired by a true story). The nursing home is full of compelling residents and staff, including standouts Stephen McKinley Henderson (as a curmudgeon who becomes Charles’s buddy) and Stephanie Beatriz (as the compassionate Chief of Staff).

The show also finds time to portray the difficult relationship between Charles and his daughter (Mary Elizabeth Ellis), who lives a couple of hours away in Sacramento with her husband and three sons. Ellis’s sensitive performance turns a potentially extraneous character into an essential catalyst for Charles’s character growth. The show has many story threads, but under Schur’s steady hand, they weave together in satisfying ways, including how the crime mystery resolves.

The show makes good use of its San Francisco setting, with the exterior scenes obviously shot in the city. As a former resident, I can say they captured the charm of the various locations with relatively good accuracy (except for the lack of homeless and an errant Ferris wheel on the waterfront).

A Man On The Inside shares some themes with Only Murderers in the Building. I grew tired of the formula in the latter show after only one season. By contrast, I am thirsty for more of Schur and Danson’s concoction.

Man Seeking Woman

Grade: A- | FXX

Originally, I gave up on this fantastical satire of love and dating after the first season, as I found it too inconsistent. After picking it back up years later and binge-watching its second and third seasons, I would now name this creative masterpiece as one of my favorite comedies of the last decade.

Maron

Grade: B | IFC

WTF podcast host Marc Maron plays himself in his first substantial (and sometimes awkward) foray into TV acting. You should like this show if you enjoy Marc’s persona from his stand-up or podcast or from his excellent performance on GLOW.

Master of None

Grade: A- | Netflix

Stand-up comic Aziz Ansari either rubs you the wrong way or not. If you are a fan of his comic persona, then this show, in which he essentially plays himself, is a comic gem about love and dating in the current age. The second season features one of the most gripping love stories I’ve ever seen on TV. Note: I have not watched the third season.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Grade: B+ | Amazon Prime Video

I usually don’t like period pieces, but The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is too charming to resist, partially because I have a predilection for showbiz stories and a soft spot for stand-up comedy. Also, the characters are larger than life (maybe sometimes too much so), and the cast is generally excellent. But the biggest revelation is Rachel Brosnahan, a force of nature (dare I say a “marvel”?) in the title role. Even if I didn’t like the rest of the show, I would watch just for her bravura performance.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Grade: B | ABC

This show provides good popcorn entertainment for fans of the Marvel cinematic universe, but it doesn’t find its footing until near the end of the first season. After that, it shifts into serial storytelling about the adventures of a ragtag team of misfits and Inhumans who battle villains of all kinds. Each season usually offers two story arcs, and some are more fun than others. By season 6, the show had long since started feeling monotonous, and I hopped off the plane.

Mo

Grade: B+ | Netflix

If you’re a fan of the TV series Ramy, you’re already familiar with Mohammed Amer, who stands out in his recurring supporting role as one of Ramy’s friends. Ditto if you’ve seen his standup comedy specials on Netflix. What you may not know is that Amer also stars in his own dramedy on Netflix, one that he co-wrote and co-produced with Ramy Youssef.

Mo (the show) has a vibe and flare distinct from Ramy. It’s set in the melting pot of Houston, and Mo’s character moves seamlessly between the city’s different cultures: his girlfriend is Mexican American, his best friend is black, and he is also a member of the Palestinian immigrant community. He and his family are refugees, and one of the plot strands follows the drama of their unusual immigration status. Many of the themes and plot incidents are from his excellent 2018 comedy special “The Vagabond.”

Like many streaming series, Mo takes time to find itself and hit its stride. But in the second half of its eight-episode first season, the show cranks up the dramatic stakes as Mo gets himself tangled up in increasingly complicated predicaments. By episode eight, I was on the edge of my seat and crossing my fingers for a second season.

Season 2 showed more confident storytelling and brought the series to a satisfying (if bittersweet) conclusion.

Modern Family

Grade: B | ABC

Modern Family is one of the few network comedies I’ve watched during the Peak TV era. The show was fresh, fun, and charming in its first few seasons. I stopped watching it after the show because too predictable and formulaic.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

Grade: B+ | Apple TV+

I grew up watching the Japanese Godzilla movies from Toho Studios. So, I have some degree of fondness and goodwill towards mega monster movies and mythology. Even so, I’ve had mixed reactions to the MonsterVerse films (Godzilla and Kong) from Legendary Pictures and Warner Brothers, liking some more than others.

The prospect of a TV series in this universe struck me as a cynical Hollywood effort to overmilk a franchise. So, I was surprised that the new TV series Monarch received strong reviews when it debuted. Turns out the accolades are well-deserved.

Monarch is an absorbing thriller that relies on character development and mystery to provide intrigue and not so much on monster mayhem. Godzilla and his fellow “titans” get significantly less screen time than you might expect.

The story takes place in two timelines: the 1950s/60s and the (almost) current day. The characters in both eras are compelling, and the international cast is uniformly appealing. The clever casting of Wyatt Russel and his real-life father Kurt Russel to play the same character across the two eras adds to the fun.

Even though the narrative momentum ebbs in some episodes, the first season offers an absorbing ride and left me hungry for more. It’s a must-see for anyone invested in the MonsterVerse mythology, but even for others, I’d recommend it as a solid sci-fi thriller.

Ms. Marvel

Grade: A- | Disney+

Ms. Marvel serves up a rich drama that revolves around a Muslim family living in the Pakistani community of Jersey City. One of the show’s central themes is how the partitioning of Pakistan from India (after the British occupation ended) caused generational trauma. It also happens to be a superhero show.

You would be correct to think Ms. Marvel doesn’t sound like your garden variety Marvel show. It’s not. And that is a good thing. Like Lovecraft Country and Watchmen, the series is another welcome milestone in representative genre storytelling.

Like any classic hero’s journey, episode one (of six) introduces us to the everyday world of our hero, 16-year-old Kamala Khan (a high school junior). I initially feared the show might be too much of a high school melodrama for me. However, high school life is not a big focus. As the plot unravels, Ms. Marvel widens its scope to include Kama’a’s family, the Muslim community they belong to, and their extended family back in Pakistan. 

The plot points about Kamala gaining her powers and learning how to use them are formulaic, as is the climactic conflict with the Department of Defence. But everything in between is vibrant and surprisingly provocative. Episodes 2-5, in particular, are riveting. I had planned to only watch a series recap of Ms. Marvel just before watching the forthcoming Marvels movie (scheduled for release in July 2023). I’m glad I decided to watch the series instead.

The Night Agent

Grade: B | Netflix

Most thrillers I watch on TV have a supernatural, sci-fi, or fantasy dimension. However, I’m starting to appreciate political conspiracy thrillers due to such excellent shows as Slow Horses and The Diplomat. After watching the first season of The Night Agent, I have another show to add to the list.

While formulaic, The Night Agent is a taut, well-crafted thriller with an appealing cast and a central mystery that leaves you guessing (up to a point) about which characters (mostly officials in the highest levels of the U.S. government) are corrupt and which are trustworthy. The cast is diverse and appealing, from the leads to the supporting roles. The show reminds me of 24, which I was a big fan of back in the day during its early seasons.

Season 2 offers more of the same, although the plot points that reunite our leads (and keep them together) sometimes feel contrived.

The OA

Grade: A- | Netflix

This slow-burn sci-fi drama gets under your skin as you get to know the characters and as the mythology slowly emerges. The first season ended on a note of delicious ambiguity, which left me frantically searching the web for the meaning of it all. The second season answered most of the core questions, expanded its world-building, and set the stage for even wilder new horizons. Unfortunately, in August 2019, Netflix canceled the show.

Obi-Wan Kenobi

Grade: B | Disney+

On the spectrum of live-action Star Wars series, Obi-Wan Kenobi falls between Boba Fett at the low end and The Mandalorian at the high end, at least in my book. While I enjoyed the series and felt the tug of Star Wars magic here and there, I preferred the first three or four episodes over the last couple.

(Spoiler alert.) Set ten years after Revenge of the Sith and ten years before A New Hope, the story involves Kenobi (played again by Ewan McGregor) flying around the galaxy to rescue a ten-year-old Princess Leia from kidnappers. Along the way, he meets new allies and adversaries and must face an old foe (Darth Vader).

While it’s fun to see McGregor reprise his iconic role from the prequels, the jewel of the show is child actress Vivien Lyra Blair as Leia. Oddly, Blair seems younger than ten, but — on the other hand — she perfectly embodies the spirit and spunkiness of the Princess Leia we know from the original trilogy. Young Leia is the heart of the show and makes the whole thing tick.

As mentioned, I liked the setup better than the payoff. Also, I found the storyline to clash with previous Star Wars canon. The plot features previously unknown encounters (and lightsaber duels) between Kenobi and Vader. For me, this retroactively diminishes the resonance of their final showdown on the Death Star just ten years later.

I could be excited for the inevitable second season of this “limited” series, but it’s hard to imagine it being as compelling without little Leia at the center of the story.

One Mississippi

Grade: A- | Amazon Prime Video

Sometimes, the best gifts come in small packages. That is certainly the case with One Mississippi, the dark comedy starring the incomparable Tig Notaro. Each of the series’ two seasons is a mere six episodes. I would have happily watched longer (or additional) seasons, but the show’s limited run made me savor every moment.

Notaro plays a loose version of herself. The series opens with her recovering from cancer treatment and returning home (from L.A.) to a small town in Mississippi where her mother had just died. Season one focuses on death and loss and is filled with melancholy. By contrast, season two explores love and new beginnings. It’s lighter and often laugh-out-loud funny, even though it takes on tough subjects like child abuse, sexual molestation, and homophobia.

The show is full of idiosyncratic characters and standout performances, including Noah Harpster as Tig’s unlucky-at-love brother, John Rothman as her on-the-spectrum stepfather, and Stephanie Allynne as her radio producer and love interest. Sherly Lee Ralph pops up in season two in a fun role.

In recent years, I’ve become a pretty big Tig Notaro fan due to her recurring role on Star Trek: Discovery, her “Don’t Ask Tig” podcast, her Under a Rock TV series, and her supporting role in Army of the Dead. One Mississippi solidifies her as someone I’ll gladly watch in anything.

Only Murders in the Building

Grade: B | Hulu

Three strangers come together to solve a murder in their apartment complex in this fun murder mystery and true-crime podcast parody. As amateur sleuths, Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez develop real chemistry and benefit from the support of a solid (and sometimes surprising) supporting cast.

I became invested in the murder mystery as the episodes progressed, although I was disappointed by its resolution. I figured it out ahead of time; the killer is pretty obvious if you’re familiar with the genre’s conventions.

I tried watching season two and immediately realized I had lost my taste for the show.

Orange Is the New Black

Grade: B+ | Netflix

Set in a women’s prison, this show is great for its rich, diverse characters and incredibly talented cast. On the downside, the show is sometimes tough to watch, and eventually, it started feeling like homework to me. After the slow-moving fifth season, I lost my patience and abandoned the series. I sat out the sixth season but resumed watching for the seventh and final season. Season seven was a return to form and reminded me why I loved the show so much during its initial few seasons. If you similarly gave up on the show somewhere along the way, I highly recommend reading or viewing some synopses for a catch-up and then watching the final season.

Orphan Black

Grade: B- | BBC America

The main reason to watch this show is to savor the tour de force performance by Tatiana Maslany, who plays multiple characters in this sci-fi series about cloning. For me, the twists and turns of the conspiracy-mystery plot eventually grew tiresome, and I bailed out after three seasons in the show’s five-season run.

The Orville

Grade: B | FOX & Hulu

The Orville, from Seth MacFarlane, is a loving homage to Star Trek. Behind the scenes, many members of the show’s creative team are “veterans” of the Rick Berman Star Trek era. The series ran for two seasons on FOX before becoming a Hulu original in its third season in 2022.

During its first two seasons, the 42-minute episodes tried (not always successfully) to balance broad comedy with sci-fi drama. In season three (entitled “New Horizons”), The Orville adopted a more dramatic and thoughtful tone — reminiscent of Star Trek: The Next Generation. No longer confined by broadcast network runtimes and budgets, MacFarlane supersized the episodes to 60-90 minutes each and amped up the production values and visual effects. However, I don’t recommend jumping straight into season three since nearly all the storylines are “sequels” to previous episodes.

As an homage to Star Trek, The Orville is a resounding success. If you enjoyed the movie Galaxy Quest, you’ll likely dig the show. As a stand-alone sci-fi series divorced from the lens of Star Trek, I think the show also works. But, as a lifelong Star Trek fan, I can’t be sure.

Paper Girls

Grade: B+ | Amazon Prime Video

Amazon released Paper Girls without much fanfare in July 2022. I had vaguely heard about it but didn’t pay much notice. Two months later, Amazon canceled the show. Six months later, I came across the series while looking for a new show to watch and scanning over “the best shows on…” lists for my various streaming services. I decided to give it a try.

Paper Girls is a character-driven thriller that revolves around four tween girls who accidentally get mixed up in a time-travel war. The girls come from diverse backgrounds, and how they bond and become friends during their misadventures is at the heart of the story. On their jumps to the future, they also see their future selves (one of whom is played by Ali Wong) and confront how much (or how little) their childhood dreams have come to fruition.

The four leads (Sofia Rosinksy, Riley Lai Nelet, Fina Strazza, and Camryn Jones) are all standouts and easily hold their own against the adult actors in the cast. The show keeps the background mythology to a minimum and focuses more on character conflicts and personal struggles as the yarn unfolds. Even so, the story is absorbing and not without thrilling moments.

I’d recommend Paper Girls to anyone who likes either science fiction or coming-of-age stories. The eighth and final episode ends on a cliffhanger. I’m hoping the producers can find a new streaming home where they can continue the story. If not, then I’m invested in the characters enough to read the comic books to find out how it all turns out.

Parks and Recreation

Grade: B | NBC

Looking for something fun to binge during the COVID-19 pandemic, I finally decided to try Parks and Recreation, which I had heard raves about for years. I had always resisted the show, even though I was a fan of the British version of The Office as well as the early seasons of the American adaptation. More recently, I’ve become a huge fan of What We Do in the Shadows (which uses the same documentary style as all of these shows).

Even though I am generally tired of the documentary sitcom format, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Parks and Rec. The show creates a universe of people and places that is more expansive and richer than its forerunner, The Office. In some respects, Parks is like a live-action version of The Simpsons (I’m not the first to make this comparison). The amazingly talented ensemble cast is supported by a huge collection of recurring bit characters (oddball residents of the fictitious town of Pawnee, Indiana), not to mention tons of fun cameo appearances (by politicians and other celebrities).

My main knock on Parks and Recreation is that, for me, the series too frequently crossed the line from inspired caricature and satire into the realm of cheesy, cringe-worthy network sitcom exaggeration. My other criticism is that the cruelty of the Parks and Recreation staff towards their coworker Garry Gingrich was too mean-spirited and uncomfortable to watch (and would likely constitute hostile environment harassment in a real workplace). I think the relentless mockery of his character was a major misstep by the producers.

Party Down

Grade: B | Starz

This is a relatively obscure comedy that I accidentally stumbled upon, much to my delight. The show, which lasted two seasons, revolves around a bunch of wannabe Hollywood misfits who share the day job of working for the same catering company. The incredibly lovable cast included Adam Scott, Ken Marino, Jane Lynch, Martin Starr, and Lizzy Caplan, with guest-starring roles from the likes of Kristen Bell and J.K. Simmons.

Nearly 13 years after season 2 ended, as a gift to fans, most of the cast reunited for a third season of six episodes. Seeing the gang back together again was fun, and about half the episodes provided the comic inspiration I came to expect from the original run of the show in 2009-2010. The other episodes — not so much. Annoyingly, Jane Lync appears mostly via Zoom on an iPad. And, sadly, Lizzy Caplan was busy filming other projects and could not participate. I missed her presence and her chemistry with Scott. To compensate, the show introduces a new love interest played by Jennifer Gardner, who does her best to fill the void.

Penny Dreadful

Grade: B+ | Showtime

Combine Dr. Frankenstein (and his monster), werewolves, witches, and Dorian Gray in Victorian London, and you have a moody horror thriller — one focused more on character development and psychological anguish than plot machinations or blood and guts.

People of Earth

Grade: B | TBS

An understated and underrated comedy about a support group for alien abductees and a journalist assigned to write a piece about them. Their alien abductors provide much of the humor as they are essentially low-level worker bees caught up in “office politics.” The show ran for just two short seasons but creatively had enough inspiration to run for several more.

Poker Face

Grade: B | Peacock

How much you like Poker Face will likely depend on how much you like Natasha Lyonne and how much you enjoy old-school, Columbo-style TV murder mysteries. For me, that calculates to a large amount divided by not so much. So, I fall somewhere in the middle.

The show’s gimmick is that Lyonne’s character, Charlie, is a human lie detector and can sniff out bullsh*t with uncanny accuracy. This gift makes her the ultimate amateur sleuth. Charlie is on the run from some Las Vegas mobsters, and in each episode, she happens across a murder as she stops in small towns and takes on odd jobs.

The show is from Rian Johnson, and unlike his Glass Onion movie series, we, as viewers, are in on the who-done-it — and the fun is in watching Charlie put together the pieces. 

Poker Face is a showcase for Lyonne, and the role of Charlie allows her sarcasm, quirkiness, and sincerity to shine. Despite the loose thread of the mobsters trying to track down Charlie, the show is episodic, and each episode features notable guest stars. I got impatient with the formula in the middle of the season but enjoyed the first few and last few episodes quite a bit.

P-Valley

Grade: B | Starz

A popular strip club in a small Mississippi town is at the center of P-Valley. The show provides a humanizing and sympathetic portrait of the women who perform at the club — and also of its non-binary owner (the excellent Nicco Annan as Uncle Clifford). The drama was written and directed by women creators — and, as a result, its purpose is to illuminate rather than to titillate. Notably, virtually all the characters in the show are people of color.

The Queen’s Gambit

Grade: B | Netflix

I dislike period pieces, and I’m no fan of chess. Yet, I found this series surprisingly compelling, largely due to Anya Taylor‑Joy’s mesmerizing performance in the lead role.

Ramy

Grade: B | Hulu

In this Hulu original, Egyptian-American stand-up comic Ramy Youssef explores the identity confusion around being a young Muslim man in current-day America. The show is as much drama as comedy and becomes increasingly compelling as the first season progresses. Season two builds on the strengths of its predecessor and avoids the sophomore jinx.

Reboot

Grade: B | Hulu

Reboot is a behind-the-scenes comedy about the revival of a (fictitious) network TV family sitcom from the early aughts (called “Step It Up”). An up-and-coming writer (Rachel Bloom) envisions updating the cheesy show as an edgy contemporary comedy with complex, nuanced characters (with the original cast returning). As an added wrinkle, she happens to be the estranged daughter of the original showrunner (Paul Reiser). When he insists on returning as her co-producer, their family history and creative differences cause tension and jeopardize the reboot.

Showrunner Steve Levitan, the creator of Modern Family, certainly knows a thing or two about TV sitcoms. Accordingly, Reboot knowingly and lovingly skewers the eccentric Hollywood personalities involved in reviving “Step It Up,” from the actors to the crew to the writers to the studio executives.

As a fan of showbiz stories, I took to the show from the jump. It reminds me of a previous favorite, The Larry Sanders Show, although that series was far more cynical and biting — and lingered in memory longer.

By contrast, Reboot is disposable and more mainstream. It’s light and breezy popcorn entertainment that is often laugh-out-loud funny. The large cast of comedy sharpshooters has too many standouts to name them all. Keegan-Michael Key, Johnny Knoxville, Calum Worthy, Krista Marie Yu, and the incomparable Judy Greer exude charm in the key roles. Their inspired performances make for a good time, whether or not you gravitate toward backstage comedies.

Reservation Dogs

Grade: B+ | Hulu

Reservoir Dogs is unlike any other show I’ve seen — and that’s a good thing. Set in rural Oklahoma, the dramedy chronicles the misadventures of four Native American teens as they meander around their reservation and the nearby town. The show captures an authenticity of energy and spirit that could only come from an indigenous cast and crew. Some episodes feature all four leads, but others focus on a single character as they interact with the quirky residents of the community. The pace is deliberate, but the teenagers’ goal of moving to California is a loose narrative thread holding everything together.

The Righteous Gemstones

Grade: A- | HBO

Danny McBride strikes again with a black comedy about a family of famous televangelists in South Carolina. McBride assembles many of his regulars (e.g., Walter Goggins) and several newcomers (e.g., John Goodman) to spin a delicious tale of blackmail and family squabbling. As with many of McBride’s series, the show improves significantly as the season progresses. So, keep watching if you’re unsure after the first episode or two.

Russian Doll

Grade: B | Netflix

In a variation of Groundhog Day, Natasha Lyonne keeps reliving the last few hours of her life in a continual loop and must figure out how to break the cycle. Despite the well-worn premise, the show feels fresh and inventive — and offers a compelling character study of a woman trying to find herself. Note: My recommendation is only for season one, which has a self-contained storyline. Lyonne tried to continue the story in the second season by introducing a time travel theme. I disliked season two enough that if I could go back in time … I’d skip it.

The Sandman

Grade: B | Netflix

The Sandman is a beloved comic book series by Neil Gaiman that ran for 75 issues from 1989 to 1996. Back then, I was a recent college graduate, and except for a few outliers (like The Watchmen), I was oblivious to current-day comic books and graphic novels. So, I approached the Netflix screen adaptation as a newbie to Sandman mythology. I’m also unfamiliar with Gaiman, except for his Amazon original series, Good Omens.

The two shows share similar DNA. Both build an intricate web of supernatural and spiritual mythology — full of gods, demons, witches, and more. Both shows straddle the line between episodic and serialized. Both have disparate but interlocking storylines. The core difference: whereas Good Omens is light and whimsical, The Sandman is dark and brooding.

The Sandman drew me into its world-building, but not so much into its main character (the lord of dreams). I had trouble warming up to Morpheus (aka Dream) and the actor who plays him (Tom Sturridge). I place most of the blame on the writing. Dream is so stoic and subdued that I wanted to jump into the screen, grab him by the shoulders, and wake him up from his stupor. Fortunately, everything around him (including the supporting characters, the imagined worlds, the visual effects, etc.) offers intrigue and compels attention.

Schitt’s Creek

Grade: A- | CBC/Pop TV

Schitt’s Creek is a fun and tasty trifle; the twenty-minute episodes go by in a flash. The talented cast, from the leads down to the supporting roles, consistently creates inspired lunacy (although, for me, a little of Catherine O’Hara’s cartoonish character goes a long way). Over the six seasons, the characters become more nuanced and endearing, and they all grow substantially.

Search Party

Grade: B- | Max

For its first 2-3 seasons, Search Party is a super dark comedy about four twenty-something friends in NYC who get in way over their heads while looking for a missing acquaintance. Arguably, all four characters are unlikable in various ways. Usually, I’m not a big fan of TV shows with anti-heroes, but the device works in this show due to the quality of the performances. In seasons 4 and 5, the storyline’s twists and turns grow increasingly outlandish. The show devolves into a wild soap opera while still trying to provide biting social satire. As a result, I enjoyed the series less and less over time. You might consider checking out after season 3.

Severance

Grade: B | Apple TV+

Along with Squid Game, Severance may be the most original (and deliciously bizarre) series I’ve watched in the past few years. Also, like Squid Game, Severance is audacious in concept and provocative in its social commentary. But by comparison, Severance is slower-burning and more deliberate in its storytelling. Normally, I prefer faster-paced shows, but Severance got under my skin with its mythology, mysteries, and quirky characters.

The show imagines a world where a company called Lumon has pioneered a brain implant technology that enables complete work/life separation for its employees. Their “severed” minions have “innies” who, while at the office, cannot remember anything about the personal lives of their “outies.” Likewise, after work, the outies can’t remember anything about their jobs, even what they do. Beyond this core premise, the less you know about the plot, the better, as it contains numerous twists and turns.

Compared to his previous parts, Adam Scott gives a subdued performance in the lead role (which is apropos for his character). The supporting cast (including Britt Lower, Patricia Arquette, John Turturro, Zach Cherry, and Christopher Walken) get to have more fun with their parts. Tramell Tillman pops off the screen as the pleasant yet ominous office manager.

Season one ends on a cliffhanger and whets your appetite for more.

Season 2 Update

Unfortunately, Season 2 was a big letdown. The show gets so sluggish that watching it sometimes becomes more frustrating than entertaining. Also, the entirety of one of the precious 8 episodes is wasted on a tangent that could have been 15 minutes instead of 60. On the bright side, the disjointed plot strands finally come together in the faster-moving, high-impact season finale. I’m excited for the next season, but I hope it’s more cohesive and satisfying.

Sex and the City

Grade: A- | HBO

I’m not sure if this comedy about four thirty-something girlfriends living and dating in New York City will become a timeless classic or whether it will feel dated to future generations. Either way, the show was great fun to watch and a must-see, water cooler show in its day.

Sex Education

Grade: A- | Netflix

This Netflix original chronicles the lives and loves of students at a rural British high school and features plenty of classic coming-of-age themes (especially around sexual maturity). The premise sounds generic, but the series is 1,000 times more inspired than you might expect it to be. The characters are quirky and endearing, and the young, diverse cast is immensely appealing. The icing on the cake: Gillian Anderson in one of her juiciest roles as the sex therapist mother of the show’s main protagonist.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law

Grade: B | Disney+

I’ve been a fan of Tatiana Maslany since she blasted onto the scene in the sci-fi series Orphan Black, where she played multiple distinct characters. I soured on the plot shenanigans after about three seasons (and bailed on the show), but I never tired of Maslany. So, I was curious to see what she would do with the role of She-Hulk. Not surprisingly, she knocks it out of the park with her charismatic performance and comic flair.

Maslany plays Jennifer Walters, an attorney in L.A. who also happens to be the cousin of Bruce Banner (better known as The Hulk). After she becomes infected with his blood, she becomes a Hulk herself.
But unlike Banner, she maintains control over her rage, effortlessly shifting between her two forms at will. Over the course of the season, she strives to continue her law career and have a romantic life as she struggles to integrate her two identities.

She-Hulk is an unabashed comedy and prioritizes laughs over traditional superhero action. The show frequently breaks the fourth wall and includes a lot of knowing meta-commentary about (and takes plenty of jabs at) the Marvel superhero genre. Maslany is not the least bit self-conscious when talking directly to viewers, and her charm sells the storytelling device. She-Hulk is a welcome addition to the Marvel family and further illustrates Marvel’s ability to tell superhero stories effectively in nearly any genre. 

Like any TV comedy, the episodes are hit-and-miss — some grabbed me more than others. But throughout, Maslany is a magnetic on-screen presence. In addition to Mark Ruffalo as Hulk, standouts in the supporting cast include Jameela Jamil (as a rival), Ginger Gonzaga (as Jessica’s paralegal assistant), Renée Elise Goldsberry (as a fellow attorney), Tim Roth (reprising his role as Abonimation), Griffin Matthews (who was also standout in The Flight Attendant), and a few other familiar faces from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

I wouldn’t disagree with anyone who thinks we are drowning in a glut of superhero stories, but I do credit Marvel with taking bold chances and breaking from formula with shows like Wandavision, She-Hulk, and Ms. Marvel.

Sherlock

Grade: B- | PBS

The cast is outstanding in this modern adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic mystery series, but I have found most of the storylines disappointing.

Shrinking

Grade: B- | Apple TV+

The joy of watching Harrison Ford do comedy is enough reason to watch Shrinking. The comedy — about a trio of shrinks and their community of patients, families, and friends — has a large and appealing ensemble cast that includes Jason Segel, Jessica Williams, Christa Miller, Lukita Maxwell, and Luke Tennie. All are game performers, but Ford is the standout as the senior psychotherapist who’s gruff on the surface but a big softie inside (and who’s also suffering from the early stages of Parkinson’s disease).

My daughter, who watched a couple of episodes with me, remarked, “Why are the characters so stupid, like they’re in a Disney Channel sitcom?” Her query was valid, and I don’t entirely disagree with her observation. The comedy and situations in Shrinking can be a bit broad for my taste. On the plus side, it’s from the creators of Ted Lasso and shares some of that show’s charm and pathos. One of the panelists on NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour noted that the characters’ lives are so intertwined and storylines so insular that the show starts to feel claustrophobic. I agree with this criticism, and it’s one reason I enjoyed Shrinking less as the season unfolded.

Other than Ford, my favorite part of Shrinking is the evocative theme song (which was co-written by Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard). It’s often my favorite part of an episode.

Silo

Grade: B | Apple TV+

If you can imagine the post-apocalyptic drama Snowpiercer set in a missile silo instead of on a train, you’d get something like Silo. Based on a sci-fi book series, the premise is intriguing: the possibly lone survivors of humanity are living in a silo with 144 levels of everything a society needs to survive. The various levels include living quarters, greenhouses, livestock, marketplaces, restaurants, medical facilities, a police force, etc.

The silo’s residents have lost all recorded history, so they don’t know how long people have lived inside, what caused the environmental collapse, or when it might be safe again to venture outdoors. The story follows a mechanical engineer who’s unexpectedly appointed as the new Sheriff, allowing her to investigate the suspicious murder of her secret lover (and possibly unravel a larger conspiracy about the inner working of the silo).

Both Silo and Snowpiercer explore how humans have found inventive ways to survive after environmental collapse. Both shows include mysteries and duplicitous characters. Both shows explore how class divides cause friction in the population.

If I had to choose between these similar shows, I’d pick Snowpiercer for two key reasons.

First, Showpiercer is a non-stop thriller where the tension never lets up whereas Silo is more of a slow-burn potboiler that sometimes struggles to maintain narrative momentum.

Second, Snowpiercer features a significantly greater number of recurring characters and more memorable performances from the cast (both lead and supporting).

Even so, I did enjoy season one of Silo. I invested in the show’s underlying mysteries and am excited for the second season. Happily, there’s no reason to choose between the two shows. And if you like one, I suspect you’ll also like the other.

Note: The second season was similarly paced, expanded the world-building, and offered more questions than answers. Apple has renewed the series for two more seasons so that its creators can tell the whole storyline from the novels.

Silicon Valley

Grade: A- | HBO

A spot-on satire of tech industry culture about a start-up competing with a Google-like competitor for talent and technological supremacy. The show features a cast of inspired comic actors, both young and old.

Slow Horses

Grade: B | Apple TV+

Based on a series of novels (that I haven’t read), Slow Horses follows a group of down-on-their-luck M15 Agents who have been assigned to the dog house of the British Secret Service. Unlike the sleek, modern headquarters at Regent’s Park, Slough House is a ramshackle and dreary office building where f*ck-up agents bide their time doing menial intelligence work.

The gimmick of the show is that these agents (sometimes inadvertently) end up getting involved in high-stakes intrigue and usually save the day even though their counterparts at “The “Park” take all the credit. Gary Oldman anchors the cast as the disheveled head of Slough House and Kristin Scott Thomas is deliciously dour and conniving as his more polished counterpart (the “second desk” back at headquarters). 

The pilot episode starts with a fast-moving action sequence and then slows down to introduce the characters and do some world-building. In episode 2, the show picks up and starts speeding like a bullet train as the main storyline kicks in — it involves MI5’s efforts to thwart some white nationalists who have kidnapped a Pakistani hostage and set a countdown clock to execute him on YouTube. Although the story does not take place in real-time, the relentless tension reminded me of the show 24 (which I was a fan of during its first few seasons).

Season 2, which revolves around intrigue with various Russian agents, does not have quite the same narrative momentum. On the plus side, we get to know the Slough House agents more deeply, especially some supporting characters. The plot is a bit convoluted, and to follow the story, you have to keep track of a few too many names. But in the balance, it’s still great fun and left me hungry for more. Happily, Apple has already renewed the show not only for season 3 but also for season 4.

Snowpiercer

Grade: B | TNT & AMC

Snowpiercer is an American TV adaptation of the 2013 South Korean movie from director Bong Joon Ho (Parasite). As a fan of post-apocalyptic drama, the premise intrigued me.

[An] ice age forces humanity’s last survivors aboard a globe-spanning super train. One man will risk everything to lead a revolt for control of the engine and the future of the world. (Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

Despite my predisposition, I thought the movie was mediocre (for reasons I can no longer remember).

Since I wasn’t a fan of the movie, I initially skipped the TV show (also because TV critics gave season 1 mixed reviews). But then, a friend who has similar tastes recommended it to me. After watching the first two seasons, I can say that I like the TV series decidedly more than the movie.

Snowpiercer is gripping with relentless edge-of-your-seat tension. The characters rarely get a respite as they move from one crisis to another. Consequently, Snowpiercer may be too intense for some viewers; violence, cruelty, and suffering are recurring themes. Yet, as with The Walking Dead, I find the show compelling and insanely addictive.

Season 2 adds a new wrinkle: a riveting villain who engages the protagonists in cat-and-mouse tactics to gain control of the train. The large cast is diverse and uniformly appealing — standouts include Daveed Diggs, Jennifer Connelly, Alison Wright (The Americans), Sean Bean, Steven Ogg (The Walking Dead), and Mike O’Malley (Glee).

Season 3 expanded the world-building, and season 4 wrapped up the story with a satisfying series finale.

The Sopranos

Grade: A | HBO

Many TV critics and fans would probably put this series in the top five Hall of Fame. Mafia stories are not my cup of tea, so it took me two tries to get into The Sopranos. It’s a great show that adeptly mixes comedy and drama, but your mileage may vary depending on how much you invest in the anti-hero characters.

Star Trek: Discovery

Grade: B | Paramount+

As a lifelong fan, I have a hard time being objective about Star Trek. Even so, I can easily recognize that the first season of Discovery was a deeply flawed show with a dubious premise (inconsistent with previous canon) and oftentimes sloppy storytelling. On the plus side, the debut season was entertaining with cinematic production values, lovable characters, and a diverse and talented cast. Happily, the series improved quite a bit in season 2 before taking a quantum leap in season 3 (and finally became the show it should have been from the start).

Star Trek: Picard (Season 3)

Paramount+

Season 1

Grade: B-

Star Trek: Picard is a gift for fans of The Next Generation. The series revisits one of the most beloved characters in Star Trek history and updates his story and character arc in satisfying ways. Patrick Stewart is at the top of his game and everything you would expect (and more) in the title role. The series introduces several intriguing new characters and features guest-starring roles for some familiar faces. Although the episodes are uneven, the villains are cartoonish, and some of the storylines are questionable, the journey is worth taking, and the final destination is one that most fans should greatly appreciate.

Season 2

Grade: B

Season 2 was a slight improvement over season one but not the quantum leap forward that I hoped for based on the trailers. While the time-travel premise was compelling in theory, the storyline was disjointed and sloppy. As a Star Trek fan, I can’t complain too much about seeing iconic legacy characters (Picard, Seven of Nine, Q, Guinan) on an adventure together. However, more generally, as a fan of serialized TV, the series simply doesn’t hold up so far. Even so, I still look forward to season three, as it will bring a brand new storyline and reunite the entire TNG cast (sans Wil Wheaton) for a final adventure together.

Season 3

Grade: A-

The third and final season of Star Trek: Picard was almost a complete reboot of the series and featured a new showrunner and a different tone. 

Terry Matalas (the mastermind behind the excellent time travel series 12 Monkeys) took the reigns and reunited the entire Next Generation cast for a final adventure and proper sendoff. He wrote off most of the series-regular characters from the first two seasons (except for Raffi and Seven). That change created space for him to reintroduce Beverly Crusher, Worf, Jordi LaForge, Data (sort of), William Riker, and Deanna Troi (those last two appeared as guest stars in the previous seasons) — as well as to introduce several new supporting characters. The result is a rich mix of legacy characters (who have evolved in unexpected ways) and fresh faces (who may carry the franchise forward). Plus, as a bonus, we get several impactful cameos from the Rick Berman era of Star Trek.

Season 3 leaves behind most of the plot strands from seasons 1 and 2 and revolves around a new galactic threat with the potential to obliterate the Federation — a threat that may or may not have its roots in earlier Star Trek lore. The plot is consistently gripping, with an intriguing mystery at its core and compelling character arcs. Unfortunately, it does retain some of the storytelling sloppiness from the previous seasons (e.g., loose ends and plot points that don’t hold up to scrutiny).

Storyline quibbles aside, the cast is in peak form. Matalas gives each cast member plenty of meat to chew on — and each character gets ample opportunity to shine. For me, the most delightful surprise is Worf (Michael Dorn). Worf was never my favorite character in TNG (or DS9), but he has evolved in fascinating ways and provides a good portion of the comic relief in the otherwise dramatically intense series. Dorn has great chemistry with Michelle Hurd (as Raffi), who he teams up with during the early episodes of the season. Also noteworthy: a novel plot twist gives Spiner some new dimensions to play on a familiar character. New cast members include standouts Todd Stashwick (as the uptight Captain of the Titan) and Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut as Ensign LaForge (a Helmsman on the Titan bridge). 

The season is cinematic, with big villains, high stakes, a rousing score, and plenty of suspense and action. It lives up to the streaming cliche of a “ten-hour movie.” As with Star Trek: Discovery, Picard finally became the show it always should have been in its third season. Better late than never, but I’m sad we won’t see more of this type of storytelling (unless Matalas gets his wish for a Star Trek: Legacy spinoff series).

Note: If you skipped or aborted seasons 1 and 2, you can jump right into season 3 without missing any critically important context.

Star Trek: Prodigy

Grade: A | Paramount+/Netflix

The core mission of Star Trek: Prodigy is to introduce kids (and even adult newbies) to Star Trek mythology. The show follows six misfit teens who commandeer an abandoned starship and have all sorts of misadventures as they slowly learn about Starfleet and the Federation of Planets. Their guide and mentor is a holographic training advisor in the form of Kathryn Janeway (the captain in Star Trek: Voyager). Kate Mulgrew reprises the role to perform the voice.

But Prodigy isn’t just for newbies. It’s also great fun for long-time fans due to the numerous tie-ins with Voyager and Next Generation characters. As the storyline progresses, the show emerges as a de facto sequel to Voyager, but one that doesn’t rely on having watched a single minute of that earlier series.

From episode one, Prodigy fires on all cylinders. Stunning computer animation. Endearing characters. Enthralling storylines. Stirring music. The Hageman brothers (Ninjago, Trollhunters) are master storytellers and know how to craft thrilling adventures for all ages.

Prodigy avoids a sophomore slump with a second season that, if anything, is even stronger than the first. The storyline is compelling and far more cohesive than most seasons of other modern-era Star Trek series (which I also like).

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Grade: B+ | Paramount

Season 1 of Strange New Worlds was the most satisfying modern-era Star Trek series. At least among the live-action shows (I’d put the animated Prodigy in the same league). For the uninitiated, SNW chronicles the adventures of Captain Pike, Science Officer Spock, and a crew of new and familiar faces aboard the Starship Enterprise — about seven years before Kirk’s five-year mission. This makes it a spin-off from Discovery and a prequel to the original series.

Unlike Discovery or Picard, the storyline isn’t serialized, and its producers have pitched it as a return to episodic storytelling. In reality, it’s more of a hybrid. Each episode is mostly self-contained. However, the character arcs are serialized over the course of the season. This approach offers the best of both worlds, allowing the show to adopt different genres from week to week.

The series features an appealing cast, cutting-edge production design (thanks to AR wall technology), top-notch visual effects, and a stirring musical score. It all adds up to a show that should satisfy everyone, from old-school curmudgeons (who only worship at the altar of the original series) to Trek newbies.

I enjoyed nearly every episode of the first season. The only major misstep, in my book, was the finale (episode 10). No spoilers, but the episode fell flat due to some unfortunate storytelling decisions and casting choices.

Season 2 was much more hit-or-miss and not as satisfying. However, on a positive note, Carol Cane joined the cast as the new Chief Engineer.

Stranger Things

Grade: A- | Netflix

A creepy horror tale and loving homage to the 1980s set in a small town that turns upside down when supernatural disruptions start happening. (Netflix)

Succession

Grade: B+ | HBO

I usually shy away from shows where most (if not all) of the characters are unlikable. Succession is an exception. This tale of an uber-rich family that runs a media conglomerate (think the Murdochs and Fox) is strangely compelling. Over its first two seasons, the constant corporate maneuvering grew a bit tiresome, but the family dynamics remained riveting. I binge-watched the show, but I think I would have enjoyed it more in smaller doses had I watched week to week as it initially aired. Update: For season 3, I did watch week to week, and I savored the show more.

Suits

Grade: B | USA Network

I didn’t become aware of Suits until it became a streaming sensation in 2023. Legal drama is a genre I typically avoid, and USA Network (where it first aired) is a channel I rarely (if ever) watched when I had cable.

In the summer of 2024, I hit a TV drought while waiting for my current shows to return with new seasons. I considered checking out Suits. However, watching a show with 9 seasons and 134 episodes seemed daunting, especially since I had also started binging The 100 around the same time (100 episodes over seven seasons).

Still, I decided to stick my toe in the water. I’m glad I did.

Suits initially annoyed me as much as it entertained me. The early seasons rely heavily on formula and feel repetitive. Also, some characters seemed cartoonish (e.g., Louis and Donna). Yet I enjoyed each episode just enough to keep watching.

Over time, the show immensely improved. Suits is the rare show that is better in the second half of its run (when most shows are getting tired) than in the first half. It becomes more serialized, with deeper character development and more engaging storylines.

When two key characters left the show at the end of season 7, I worried Suits would lose some of its appeal. Instead, it gained a couple of important things. First, Amanda Schull (whom I first saw in 12 Monkeys) was promoted from recurring character to series regular. Schull excels at playing vulnerability, and her storylines are compelling. Second, Katherine Heigl joined the cast and invigorated the show. The actress has tremendous chemistry with the rest of the cast and elevates the performances of her scene mates.

I could list several gripes I had with Suits. The main one is that the endless politics and backstabbing between lawyers inside (and outside) of the firm became tiresome (especially the sub-plots with recurring villain Daniel Hardman). I would have preferred to see more lawyering and courtroom drama.

Supacell

Grade: A- | Netflix

Supacell portrays the struggles and challenges of five black residents living in modern-day London. A delivery driver who’s planning to propose to his social worker girlfriend. A drug dealer who’s trying to expand his business. A gang member who’s in the middle of a vicious turf war. An ex-con who’s trying to find work and gain partial custody of his son. A nurse who’s angling for a big promotion at work.

The show also happens to be a superhero origin story. Therein lies the strength of Supacell. The superhero antics and action are secondary; the show is more interested in character drama. 

At just six episodes, the first season is lean and efficient. Similar to a Robert Altman or John Sayles movie, the plot involves overlapping storylines that come together in clever ways and culminate in a satisfying payoff (that sets up the second season). The less plot detail you know, the better, so I won’t divulge any more particulars.

Squid Game

Grade: A+ | Netflix

Bold. Audacious. Daring. I wish I could think of even more synonyms to describe Squid Game.

The drama from South Korea is wildly unpredictable — full of unexpected twists and turns. The less you know about the plot, the better. So, I won’t reveal much except to mention that the series explores people in poverty and the extremes they’ll go to to escape their desperate straits.

The storytelling is clever and imaginative, not to mention riveting and gruesome. The showrunners could have executed the basic premise as a superficial high-concept thriller. Instead, they take a more sophisticated approach and add more complexity and heart than you’d expect.

Squid Game has some congruity with the movies Snowpiercer, Parasite, and The Platform. But even so, it feels like something I’ve never seen before.

Warning: You should avoid the show if violence and gore trigger you.

Season 2 continues the story in mostly satisfying ways. The pace is sluggish for the first couple of episodes. However, once the focus returns to the island, the show recaptures the winning formula of season 1 by combining compelling characters with devious games. The secondary story following a team trying to find the island is less intriguing but will likely pay off in season 3. Unfortunately, the season ends abruptly with a dramatic turn, making it feel more like a mid-season finale than a true season finale.

Ted Lasso

Grade: A- | Apple TV+

Ted Lasso is a quirky comedy about an American football coach who moves to the U.K. to coach a London football (“soccer”) team. The series received a ton of buzz during the COVID-19 pandemic as a feel-good tonic for troubled times. I got around to it late, well after the hype and a couple of months before its second-season premiere date. My reaction: The show easily lived up to its reputation. The characters are lovable, including the bit parts and even the ostensible villain. The show has fun with its fish-out-of-water themes. And the protagonist is relentlessly positive without becoming cloying. Plus, the show offers just enough sports drama for football fans but not too much for viewers who tune in for the comedy.

This Way Up

Grade: B | Channel 4 (U.K.)

A British character dramedy similar in sensibility to Fleabag.

Titans

Grade: B- | Max

I don’t have a history of watching DC Comics television shows. I read DC Comics as a kid, but on screen, I’ve tended to prefer the Marvel cinematic universe. One exception is the gritty made-for-adults series on Max. A friend recommended Doom Patrol to me (see separate review). And that led me to Titans — the first live-action adaption of the famous DC title. I read some Teen Titans as a kid, but I’m not too conversant with the Titans mythology, which is long and deep.

I generally like the series, especially the cast, but I do have numerous quibbles. The show puts too much weight on the Dick Grayson character. I get it. He’s the leader of the Titans and the most famous hero of the bunch. (Grayson’s best-known alter ego is Robin, Batman’s first sidekick.) I could understand if his character got 30% of the screen time. But it seems closer to 50%, which sucks the oxygen out of the room for the other characters. I’d like to see more of them and a better balance.

Of the four seasons, the first is my favorite. The central storyline is compelling, and it slowly but effectively introduces the various Titans. Season 2’s storytelling is more disjointed, with several loose ends. On the plus side, it does have a great villain (played by Esai Morales). It also introduces Jason Todd, my least favorite character in Titans. The is-he-good-or-is-he-evil storyline, which spans seasons 2 and 3, grows tiresome fast.

Season 3 introduces a new villain (Scarecrow) who is more tedious than scary. He nearly sinks the season, but luckily, the secondary storylines are more interesting. Season 3 also disappointed me by relying so heavily on Batman mythology and relocating the characters from San Francisco to Gotham. Enough with Gotham — give us something fresh.

Sadly, the fourth and final season is a big step backward. The plot revolves around magic villains who are not engaging, and the season is a slog to watch. If it weren’t the final season, I would have aborted the season four mid-stream.

Overall, Titans is a series I can barely recommend, and I think the best viewing experience would be to watch only seasons 1 and 2.

Togetherness

Grade: B | HBO

A comic drama from the Duplass brothers that explored marriage, family, friendship, and love. Not a top-tier HBO show, but one that was consistently improving before HBO canceled it after two seasons.

True Detective

Grade: B | HBO

Despite my usual aversion to crime dramas, I watched and enjoyed the first season of this anthology series. The abysmal reviews of season 2 scared me off, and I had insufficient motivation to check out the reportedly improved third season. Good reviews and Jodie Foster drew me back for season 4 (“Night Country”), which I found compelling, absorbing, and satisfying.

Undone

Grade: B | Amazon Prime Video

The first few episodes of Undone were a bit slow-moving for me. But eventually, I got hooked on the characters and story. The show features rotoscope animation where live-action actors are overlayed by animation. The technique is particularly effective for the story, which explores the thin boundary between mental illness and mystic abilities as a young woman (Rosa Salazar) tries to solve the mystery behind her father’s death (Bob Odenkirk). Season two also started sluggishly for me. But it eventually expands the word-building and raises the emotional stakes in satisfying ways.

UnREAL

Grade: B- | Lifetime

I’m a little embarrassed to admit that over the years, I’ve watched a few seasons of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette as guilty pleasures. For anyone who is a fan of those shows, UnREAL is great fun and highly entertaining. The show provides a humorous (and sometimes dramatic) behind-the-scenes look at “Everlasting” — a fictionalized version of The Bachelor. I tremendously enjoyed the first season (particularly Constance Zimmer’s performance as the main showrunner). The second season was less inspired, and I jumped ship after the first episode of season three.

Upload

Grade: B- | Amazon Prime Video

In order of success, the series Upload is one part romance, one part satirical vision of the future, and one part murder mystery. The show (from Greg Daniels, one of the creative forces behind The Office and Parks and Recreation) has an engaging and novel premise: people can choose to upload to virtual worlds before they die and stay in communication with friends and family who are still alive in the real world. In the lead roles, Robbie Amell and Andy Allo have genuine chemistry. Allo, in particular, is immensely appealing and gives a breakout performance. The supporting cast is also fun, even though some of their characters are rather one-dimensional. Unfortunately, through three seasons, this is a show with diminishing returns, with each season being worse than the previous. If the upcoming fourth season were not the last, I’d probably abort the show.

Veep

Grade: B | HBO

Veep is a well-crafted and funny workplace comedy. However, for two reasons, I don’t rate the show higher: 1) I don’t gravitate towards shows set in the political milieu; 2) I think the show “jumped the shark” to some extent in the sixth season after Selina Meyer left office and the characters dispersed to separate (but overlapping) storylines. Even so, the large ensemble cast gives uniformly inspired comic performances (particularly Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tony Hale in iconic roles).

Vice Principals

Grade: A- | HBO

Danny Bride and Walter Goggins play rival school administrators and frenemies in this audacious and inspired comedy about greed, ambition, and love.

The Walking Dead

Grade: A+ | AMC

Few critics would classify The Walking Dead (TWD) as a television classic, but I would. I have no special affinity for the zombie movie genre (or graphic novel) that inspired TWD. Even so, I find the show to be a gripping survival tale in which the secret sauce is not the zombies but the compelling living characters (both heroic and villainous). I like the show despite the zombies, not because of them, although I have come to appreciate walkers as a persistent threat.

TWD is an addicting serial, and its creators do a masterful job of varying the pace, mixing fast-paced, action-packed episodes with more leisurely-paced ones that focus on character development. The show is more suspenseful than most because any character can die at any time (even fan favorites). The high mortality rate in the zombie apocalypse means the show has frequent cast turnover, and the producers keep the show fresh by regularly introducing new characters.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon

Grade: A- | AMC

Daryl Dixon is the second spinoff sequel to The Walking Dead (after Dead City). This installment finds Daryl mysteriously in France, separated from everyone he knows. The new setting helps the series feel fresh and allows room for new characters, themes, and production design. Seeing how another country and culture have adjusted to the zombie apocalypse is novel and intriguing.

The Walking Dead: Dead City

Grade: B | AMC

Since the original flagship series in The Walking Dead Universe concluded with its eleventh season, I’ve started to worry that the franchise has grown tired and lost its mojo. I know some viewers (and many critics) feel this happened long ago, but I’ve been a dedicated (and hopelessly addicted) fan of the franchise.

The cracks in the foundation started to show with The World Beyond, a two-season spin-off that was good but decidedly not great. Then, Fear the Walking Dead started going off the rails. During its peak, I’d argue that Fear was possibly more inventive and inspired than the original, with characters who became nearly as iconic. But once the show introduced the nuclear missile fallout storyline, the show started to drag. Then came the anthology series Tales of the Walking Dead, which I found to be altogether unnecessary and unwatchable.

As a result, I’ll admit to having some trepidation about the upcoming next wave of titles coming in the franchise: the Daryl Dixon spinoff, the Rick & Michonne limited series, and the Maggie & Negan vehicle, Dead City.

With that in mind, I’m relieved to report that Dead City is not a disaster; in fact, it’s an exciting new chapter that has reinvigorated my interest in the franchise. The story involves Maggie recruiting Negan to help her rescue her son in New York City where kidnappers are holding him hostage.

The skyscrapers of Manhattan provide a novel visual setting and opportunities for action scenes (mostly) unlike anything we’ve seen before in The Walking Dead. Given their tortured history, the pairing of Maggie and Negan (who are frenemies at best) leads to combustible character tension.

Despite Negan’s heroic contributions in the concluding seasons of The Walking Dead, Maggie can’t forget (or forgive) his horrific deeds as the former leader of The Sanctuary (actions that forever changed the course of her life). Negan, on the other hand, firmly believes he’s not that person anymore, even if he can still turn on the charm and bravado when needed. This friction makes trust between them nearly impossible at a time when they most need it.

I enjoyed the first three episodes more than the second three. Maggie’s character increasingly frustrated me, as she’s more subdued than normal and has surprisingly few lines of dialogue. Overall, however, these are two characters (and actors in Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohen) who I find eminently watchable. I’m glad their story didn’t end with the original series.

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live

Grade: A | AMC

The Ones Who Live is the most satisfying of the Walking Dead sequel series. The show provides closure to the stories of Rick and Michonne, characters who disappeared from the storyline when Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira left the cast of the mothership show. The Ones Who Live also picks up and pays off all the CRM (Civic Republic Military) storyline threads that Scott Gimple and his showrunners sprinkled into the original series, Fear, and The World Beyond. The show makes the smart decision of bringing back a classic villain: Pollyanna McIntosh as Jadis Stokes, who long-time viewers know has equal potential for good and evil.

Billed as a limited series, The Ones Who Live reaches a definitive conclusion that doesn’t leave much unresolved. I’d love to see more, but I won’t feel disappointed if this turns out to be the final chapter for Rick and Michonne.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond

Grade: B- | AMC

The limited series, World Beyond, is worth watching if you’re a hardcore fan of The Walking Dead. As the third series in the franchise, it’s the least original and isn’t on the same level as its predecessors. Even so, I warmed up to most of the new characters and ultimately invested in their stories. The first season, which can be slow going, is mostly a setup for big payoffs in season two.

The show’s main appeal is that it expands the world-building of the universe. Notably, it provides a deep look into the Civic Republic and its military arm, the CRM. This huge survivor society interconnects to plot strands in both the original “mothership” show and its first spinoff, Fear The Walking Dead. World Beyond introduces characters and plot points that will likely be significant in future series.

Another reason I’d recommend the show is for the performance of Annet Mahendru — who made a big impression on me as Nina on The Americans. In the ensemble of characters, her role of Huck is the most complex and conflicted, and she has the largest arc. Plus, she gets to square off against someone who crosses over from the original Walking Dead show. I won’t spoil the surprise, but it’s a great twist.

WandaVision

Grade: B | Disney+

WandaVision is the first Marvel TV series that integrates with the Marvel cinematic universe. The story follows the events of the last Marvel movie (End Game) and sets the stage for future Marvel movies (e.g. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness). The good news is that the show is great fun and lives up to the production values of the Marvel movies. Another bonus: casual fans may enjoy the show as much as die-hards since its core premise (gimmick) involves paying homage to classic TV sitcoms from the 1950s to today. So, if you’re a fan of situation comedies, you’ll likely enjoy the show, even if you don’t pick up on all the canonical references. The bad news? Well, none really. However, I did enjoy the early and middle episodes better than the final few, during which the plot became more traditional.

Watchmen

Grade: A+ | HBO

If you’re not intimately familiar with the source material (the 1986 graphic novel), Watchmen might be a confusing viewing experience. However, if you’re already steeped in Watchmen mythology, the show is an ambitious, thrilling, and ultimately satisfying “sequel” to the original story. In the early episodes, the show seems only remotely connected to the original mythology. However, as the story unfolds, the series integrates more and more elements from the original in clever and unexpected ways. Regina King is riveting in the lead role.

We Are Lady Parts

Grade: A+ | Peacock

For most of history, shows from white, heteronormative creators dominated the TV landscape. But in recent years, the industry has entered a new era of representation where it produces series from a far more diverse group of storytellers (whether from overseas or from minority groups in the U.S.).

The cost of progress taking so long has become abundantly clear. We’ve missed many potentially great series from creators who couldn’t find platforms for their voices.

Now we have Squid Game, Lovecraft Country, Reservation Dogs, P-Valley, Ms. Marvel, Ramy, Mo — to name just a few shows that illustrate the riches available to TV viewers today. To the front of this list, I would add We Are Lady Parts — a comedy about a punk rock band in London whose members are all Muslim women.

Many comedies take a season (or more) to find themselves and hit their stride. We Are Lady Parts is an exception. It’s fully formed from its first moment and blasts off with a huge jolt of energy, chemistry, and charm.

“Pure joy” is how I’d describe watching the six 25-minute episodes of the first season. The show moves like a rocket ship but somehow finds time to include an impressive amount of character development. While each band member may be Muslim, they are diverse in their personalities and backgrounds and face unique challenges in their personal lives. Some of the themes and storylines may be well-worn, but everything about the show feels fresh and vibrant. I can’t wait for more.

p.s. The music (which features both original songs and covers) is fun and infectious.

Season 2

While still excellent, Season 2 is darker and less joyous. The show digs deeper into its characters, with less focus on Amina (Anjana Vasan). As a result, the show becomes a true ensemble. The band runs into some adversity and conflict that makes the episodes richer at the cost of pure fun. Even so, I wouldn’t have wanted a regurgitation of season 1, and I appreciate how the show is evolving.

Weeds

Grade: B | Showtime

A struggling widow living in a cookie-cutter housing community with her two sons becomes a marijuana dealer in this comedy. The first two seasons were fabulous before the show spun wildly and increasingly out of control. Still, I watched until the end because I had invested in the characters and enjoyed the cast.

Welcome To Wrexham

Grade: A+ | FX

Ted Lasso was the gateway drug that led me to Welcome To Wrexham. Before watching the Lasso, I was indifferent to (and mostly ignorant about) the English Football League. I didn’t know the Premier League from the Championship League or any of the numerous leagues below those, let alone much about “soccer” in general. 

Then, Ted Lasso drew me into the drama of promotion and relegation in the English football system and offered an entertaining glimpse into the inner workings of a fictional football club. Were it not for that introduction, I might not have had the curiosity to check out Welcome To Wrexham, which I started bingeing shortly before its second-season premiere.

Welcome to Wrexham is a whimsical, inventive, and supremely entertaining documentary series that chronicles the unlikely story of Hollywood movie star Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool) and TV star Rob McElhenney (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) buying and running Wrexham A.F.C. — a struggling football club in Wales. 

The Red Dragons play in the National League, the lowest level of professional football in the U.K. — where the team has languished for around 12 years as they try futilely to get promoted to League Two. They play in a historic football stadium that desperately needs an upgrade in a city whose mostly blue-collar residents have struggled for prosperity since most industries have left town. 

The show deftly mixes several ingredients into a delicious cocktail. The football match footage provides game-day highlights and heartbreak. The behind-the-scenes footage in the locker room, at the practice field, and in the players’ homes gets us invested in the players, coaches, and crew. The frequent interviews with community members offer insight into why the club is so important to the town of 45,000. Finally, Reynolds, McElhenney, and their industry friends provide a dose of show business pizzaz. 

As a casual sports fan, at best, I never thought I’d count myself as a devoted fan of a relatively unknown Welsh football club. But thanks to this endlessly charming show, that’s just what I’ve become.

Wellington Paranormal

Grade: B- | Max

Wellington Paranormal is a spinoff of What We Do in the Shadows, a 2014 movie mockumentary about New Zealand vampires. The show follows two minor characters from the film, bumbling police officers O’Leary and Minogue.

Unfortunately, the series didn’t become available in the U.S. until after FX had released the first two seasons of its American TV adaptation of What We Do in the Shadows. That show quickly established itself as a comedy gem. By comparison, Wellington Paranormal is a light trifle — easy to digest but easy to forget.

The show chronicles the misadventures of the two officers as they investigate supernatural events in Wellington, with the help of their eager beaver Police Chief. After watching the first season, I’d categorize the show as mildly amusing. It’s not bad as filler while in-between seasons of Shadows, but also not must-see TV.

Westworld

Grade: B+ | HBO

Based on the Michael Crichton novel, Westworld revolves around an amusement park where lifelike androids engage human visitors in Wild West cowboys and Indians fantasies. Morality becomes a central theme for both the hedonistic human patrons and their android hosts, especially when the latter begins to exceed the intended limits of their programming. The show is sometimes a bit ponderous and pretentious, but it’s also incredibly ambitious in the scope and spectacle of its storytelling.

What We Do in the Shadows

Grade: A | FX

The first season of this vampire mockumentary (based on the 2014 movie of the same name) was uneven but offered inspired satire and juicy characters. In its second season, the series hit its stride and offered consistently delicious lunacy throughout all ten episodes (not a clunker among them). To its benefit, season two expanded the presence of human familiar Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) and energy vampire Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch). The third season introduced fun new story twists and remained remarkably consistent. TV comedies modeled after The Office have become a tired trope. But rather than sucking the genre dry, What We Do in the Shadows breathes vital new life into it.

The White Lotus

Grade: B | HBO

Writer-director Mike White vacillates between commercial Hollywood projects and quirky independent fare. His well-known hits include School of Rock and Pitch Perfect 3. His hidden gems include many indie films and HBO’s all-too-brief TV series, Enlightened. His new series, The White Lotus, falls somewhere in the middle. The soapy and satirical story is set at an exclusive Hawaiian resort where the beleaguered hotel staff serves wealthy white guests. It’s got a big cast and glossy production values, but feels unconventional. The show straddles the line between comedy and drama and serves up a healthy dollop of social commentary. Most of the characters are spoiled and unlikeable (much like Succession, which explores similar themes). But watching their selfish dramas is like a car wreck; you can’t look away. The performances are solid, especially those of Murray Bartlett and Natasha Rothwell. But for me, the most memorable aspect of the show is the moody musical score.

I liked season two (set at a coastal resort in Sicily) even more than season 1.

Set in Thailand, the shockingly poor third season fails to recapture the magic of the prior seasons. Riddled with plot contrivances, unresolved threads, and implausible character choices, White’s script feels messy and unpolished. It seems like a rough first draft. Few, if any, of the characters are appealing or compel emotional investment. The local resort staff is especially bland and dull, a disappointment after the spiciness of the Hawaii and Italy seasons. The season has entire characters you could eliminate without impacting the story.

The Wire

Grade: A | HBO

I’m usually not interested in crime dramas. However, The Wire (from genius TV producer David Simon) is an extraordinarily nuanced and realistic portrayal of the lives of criminals and law enforcement officers in an inner-city (Baltimore). Nothing is black and white in The Wire. The cop characters are not all “good guys,” and the gang members are not all “bad guys.”

Each of the five seasons focuses on a different theme. The first season examined Baltimore’s illegal drug trade. The following seasons explored the seaport system, the city government and bureaucracy, the school system (maybe my favorite), and the print news media (my least favorite). Many characters appeared in multiple seasons, and the show’s cast was uniformly outstanding. Idris Elba is particularly memorable as Striker Bell, the second-in-command to a drug kingpin who’s whip-smart with ambitious plans of his own.

Wynonna Earp

Grade: B- | Syfy

Wynonna Earp had long been on my backlog of shows to try out on a rainy day. That day finally came during the WGA and SAG strikes when I ran low on content to watch. I binged the series over about a month.

The show (a Syfy original that ran from 2016 to 2021) is a mashup of genres — part modern-day Western, part horror, and part romantic melodrama. The high-concept premise is that the heir of Wyatt Earp must protect her town and loved ones from her great-grandfather’s victims, who have resurrected as demons.

The show’s mythology and world-building are overly cluttered. In addition to demons, it also gives us a secret government agency and a potpourri of other supernatural entities (vampires, witches, werewolves, etc.).

I generally like fast-moving storylines in my TV Shows, but Wynonna Earp’s constant plot machinations and character turns became tiresome and a bit monotonous. The abrupt twists and turns sometimes made me feel that the writers were making up the story as they went along, especially in the fourth and final season when the show seemed to run out of story.

On the plus side, I loved the characters and performances. The charismatic cast includes Melanie Scrofano as Wynonna, Dominique Provost-Chalkley as her sister Waverly, Tim Rozon as the immortal Doc Holliday, Katherine Barrell as the town deputy, and Shamier Anderson as a special agent. The supporting cast includes Varun Saranga, Greg Lawson, and Michael Eklund. The draw for me to continue watching each episode was my investment in the characters, not the plot.

Criticisms aside, the show is more often entertaining than frustrating.

Years And Years

Grade: A+ | HBO

This series projects how the world might change in the next twenty years if the worst of today’s trends continue (e.g., climate change, xenophobia, government corruption, social conservatism, etc.). The story is filtered through the lens of one extended family living in Manchester, England, and chronicles how local, national, and world events impact their everyday lives. The limited six-episode series is absolutely stunning, gripping, and horrifying, but — thankfully — it ends on a hopeful note. The large cast is outstanding from top to bottom, and the evocative musical score is haunting.

Yellowjackets

Grade: B- | Showtime

Yellowjackets is a survival tale that chronicles how a girl’s high school soccer team survives in the wilderness for 19 months after a plane crash. But that’s only half of each episode. The show also crosscuts to the current day, where it explores the aftermath of the tragedy 25 years later — and how the ordeal still affects the characters who survived.

The show nails the casting — the older versions of the characters convincingly match their younger counterparts. The performances in both timelines are natural and assured.

How much you like the show will depend on how compelling you find each timeline. I’m all in on the survival tale (which may or may not involve the occult and supernatural). The current-day storylines, which play more like a melodrama or soap opera, grabbed me less.

Season two was more of the same, but not in a good way. The survival tale was still compelling, though events unfolded at a snail’s pace. The modern-day plot grew more outlandish and became a slog to watch. The show didn’t “jump the shark,” but the payoff diminished enough that I won’t be back for more when it returns for its third season.

You’re the Worst

Grade: B- | FXX

I wanted to love this show, but I enjoyed it only in fits and starts. While some episodes are brilliant, too many are forced, and eventually, the characters wore thin for me.

Rejects

These are shows that I have found overrated after watching a substantial number of episodes or which I rejected after sampling just a few.

American Vandal

👎 | Netflix

Precocious high school students investigate an indecent graffiti crime in this satire. For me, the premise would have worked better as a comedy sketch or short film. After three episodes, the joke wore thin, and I lost interest in the series.

Arrested Development

👎 | FOX & Netflix

A show I liked more in spirit than execution. This zany comedy was occasionally brilliant but hit the mark only about 10-20% of the time and was often tedious to watch during the rest.

Atlanta

👎 | FX

What can I say? I expected to like Donald Glover’s critically acclaimed comedy about life on the streets in Atlanta. As hard as I tried, the show did not click for me, and I could not make it to the end of the first season.

Brand New Cherry Flavor

👎 | Netflix

I’m not a big horror fan, but I watched this series for two reasons. 1) I like Hollywood showbiz stories. 2) I’m a fan of Rosa Salazar from her work on Man Seeking Woman, Undone, and Alita: Battle Angel.

Unfortunately, this trippy Netflix limited series goes in the loss column for me. I did watch it to the end, but I found very little to like. My biggest problem is that none of the characters are likable. For example, I had a hard time rooting for the lead character, an aspiring filmmaker played by Salazar.

My other annoyance was the baffling behavior of the supporting characters. The show seems to be set in the “real world” where witches, curses, demons, and zombies aren’t commonplace. And yet, most characters barely raise an eyebrow upon encountering supernatural entities and events. For example, in one scene, a mother encounters her catatonic (and zombified) son for the first time. A normal reaction would be to have him medically checked out immediately. And how convenient for her: they’re already at a hospital. Instead, she decides to take him home and feed him dinner.

Counterpart

👎 | Starz

This sci-fi thriller seemingly had all the ingredients to pique my interest: an intriguing premise, a compelling actor in the lead role (J.K. Simmons), ample critical acclaim, and a cult following. I watched two episodes before the Starz channel dropped from my DIRECTV contract. Surprisingly, the first two episodes left me cold and unmotivated to seek out the rest of the series.

Dark

👎 | Netflix

My brother and nephew highly recommended Dark, especially since I like Stranger Things. Unfortunately, I found the first two episodes tedious to watch and the characters unappealing. Sometimes, I give a show more time to win me over, but in this case, I trusted my instincts and aborted.

Extraordinary

👎 | Hulu

In the world of Extraordinary, nearly everyone in the human population gains superpowers at the age of 18. Except for Jen, a 25-year-old Londoner who is the extraordinary exception with no supernatural ability whatsoever. Her flatmates include Sofia, who can channel the dead; Kash, who can turn back time about 30 seconds; and “Jizzlord,” a shapeshifter who, until recently, was stuck in the form of a cat (and forgot nearly everything about being human).

The show (mostly) revolves around Jen’s quest to find her special ability, with subplots about Kash’s misguided attempts to form a vigilante superhero squad and Sofia’s growing dissatisfaction with Kash as a romantic partner. The only story thread I cared about was Jizzlord’s efforts to regain human habits. As the former feline, Luke Rollason is the standout in the cast — centering the show on his comical performance (and his character’s funny predicament) might have been a more inspired choice for Extraordinary.

The show has an extraordinary 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, which baffles me. Extraordinary is cute and sometimes mildly amusing, but I didn’t find the characters or the storylines particularly gripping (except for Jizzlord). I made it to the end of the eight-episode first season only out of curiosity — to see whether it would get better as it went along (it didn’t) and discover what all the fuss was about. Much ado about nothing, in my book.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

👎 | Disney+

I am, at best, lukewarm on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the second Marvel TV series on Disney+. I found half the episodes gripping and half of them somewhat tedious. I appreciated some of the show’s themes (especially around race), but most of the storylines didn’t quite gel for me. Some of the action sequences were effective (and impressive for television), but others seemed perfunctory and were tiresome. Your mileage may vary depending on how much you already care about these characters from their film adventures. For context, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is one of my least favorite entries in the Marvel cinematic universe. Finally, one last bias: I watched this series right after WandaVision and concurrent with Doom Patrol, both of which have far more personality and quirkiness by comparison.

Girls

👎 | HBO

I stuck with this show for two seasons before concluding that Lena Dunham’s sensibility isn’t for me. I wanted to like the show but couldn’t glom onto it. That said, I don’t think I was remotely in the show’s intended demographic.

Hawkeye

👎 | Disney+

At best, I was on the fence about watching Hawkeye. While a fan of the Marvel cinematic universe, I’m indifferent about the character and had been debating whether watching every series is necessary. (I had already skipped Moon Knight.)

However, a friend of mine liked Hawkeye, so I tried it out. And regretted it. For me, nothing about the show is appealing, except for its connection to the Black Widow movie (a secondary storyline). Hawkeye is not bad, just bland. It feels rote and perfunctory.

House of the Dragon

👎 | HBO

Meetings. Bedchamber talk. More meetings. Incest. More meetings. A bit of leprosy. More meetings. Family squabbles. More meetings. Some dragon foo. More meetings.

That about sums up House of the Dragon (HOTD), a remarkably tedious and lethargic prequel to Game of Thrones (GOT). The original series was a rich tapestry of politics, sex, supernatural menace, iconic characters, and expansive storylines. By contrast, House of the Dragon tells a contained, narrow tale full of dull characters. I had trouble finding anyone in HOTD to root for or against with any real zeal. Even the show’s most intriguing characters would struggle to stand out if you threw them into the original series, which was chock full of memorable heroes and villains (and everything in between).

I could have easily dropped HOTD after two or three episodes. But I persevered through all ten episodes to participate in the cultural zeitgeist and for rare moments of GOT magic. The final two episodes set up “the dance of the dragons,” which should result in more drama and conflict in season two. I’ll take a cautious look, but I’m more excited about other GOT spinoffs that HBO has in development.

Update: HOTD season 2 came and went, and I felt no motivation to watch it. The tepid reviews and audience response helped me to confirm this decision.

I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson

👎 | Netflix

What am I missing here? I don’t get it. Why does this show have scores above 95% on Rotten Tomatoes for its first two seasons? I’m a fan of sketch comedy, but I must admit that I’m pretty hard to please and haven’t gravitated toward many shows in this genre in recent years. I do like the premises of many of the sketches, but I find their execution irritating and tiresome — and I rarely laugh at them. Also, as is the bane of most sketch comedy shows, the sketches often go on for far too long.

Mr. Robot

👎 | USA

I watched the first season but generally found the show pretentious and over-clever. Plus, the big plot twist at the end completely turned me off.

Platonic

👎 | Apple TV+

Platonic stars Rose Byrne and Seth Rogan as college chums who reunite ten years after falling out of touch. She’s a restless stay-at-home mom. He’s recovering from a bitter divorce. Each of them is going through a mid-life crisis. I’m usually a fan of both leads, but in this inconsistent and only mildly amusing show, I grew tired of their unappealing characters and bailed out after watching 6 of the 10 episodes in season 1.

Ray Donovan

👎 | Showtime

Somehow, I made it through the first five seasons of this show despite conflicting feelings about whether I liked or hated it. The performances are outstanding even though most of the characters are unappealing. In particular, the central character of Ray learns so little from the consequences of his alcoholism and violent temper that he becomes completely repulsive.

The Returned

👎 | Canal+

An atmospheric French zombie mystery that moved too slowly and did not offer enough payoff for those who had the patience to make it to the end of its second and final season.

Revolution

👎 | NBC

This post-apocalyptic drama portrays life in the former United States after a permanent worldwide power outage. The mystery thriller was fun at first but eventually became repetitive and monotonous.

Tales of the Walking Dead

Grade: F | AMC

1. Okay.
2. Hated it.
3. Boring / don’t care.
4. Meh.
5. I’d rather play Angry Birds.
6. Yawn – fast forward.

Those are my reactions to the six episodes in season one of the anthology series Tales of the Walking Dead. I usually gobble up anything in the Walking Dead Universe, even lesser entries like World Beyond. But I found Tales to be a complete waste of time.

The series features new characters we’ve never seen before, except for one episode — a prequel with Alpha (who I was thoroughly tired of and never wanted to see again). The modest, contained storylines do nothing to advance the overall mythology or to shed light on what might be happening in other areas of the country or world. My overall reaction is a word I thought I’d never associate with The Walking Dead: BORING!

Transparent

👎 | Amazon Prime Video

This acclaimed comedy never lived up to its hype for me, and I stopped watching after the first two of its five seasons.

Twin Peaks: The Return

👎 | Showtime

The original incarnation of this show was one of my all-time favorites when it initially aired on ABC (even the maligned second season). I enjoyed only about 25% of the Showtime sequel, which was incoherent and tedious.

Your Turn

I’d love to hear your comments about any agreements or disagreements you have with my list, as well as suggestions for any shows you think I should check out. (Please note: I moderate all comments.)