hat it brings to mind the most? The hyperbolic sleaze of TV “newsmagazine” Hard Copy. Get Gotti is slick and sensationalist and tiptoes right up to the edge of bad taste, occasionally dipping the tip of a toe in it. It’s also tonally conflicted.

The Gilded Age Season 2 is a fine, fizzy treat. Julian Fellowes has once again crafted a perfectly elevated soap opera for the masses.

Welliver’s ability to keep the quaking emotions of his character consistently interesting – has always been a highlight of Bosch: Legacy and the series it emerged from. And with Bosch as PI existing untethered by department rules and regs, it’s enticing to consider what walls he’ll run through next.

Season three proves that the show is still as reliably funny and original as ever thanks the array of funny supporting characters and an intriguing plot refresh.

Crush is just damn good, effective journalism.

Wolf Like Me solidifies its surprisingly warm story about a family that rallies together despite some pretty significant baggage, not the least of which is the fact that one of them is a werewolf.

By flipping the perspective, Payback gives the traditional British crime thriller a somewhat fresher look, but it’s the show’s leads that really get our attention.

Bodies takes what could be a confusing premise and crafts four distinctive stories that will eventually be linked together.

The ghost hunting part is sometimes played up for camp and at tother times taken very seriously by members of the team. Listen, those parts are going to either be wildly entertaining or come off as complete horseshit, depending on what you believe about the presence of spirits. But the emotions expressed by the team and the bond they’re forging with each other and the people they help is real.

We’re giving The Ex-Wife a marginal recommendation because we’re not sure if the characters or story are going to get any deeper than what we saw in the first episode. We’re pretty sure it won’t, but at least Buckens and Montgomery are compelling enough to keep us watching.

Serrano and Searle manage to give their four main characters enough layers in the first 30 minutes to hook viewers in and see just how Santi’s story plays out.

The world doesn’t necessarily need one from Coleen Rooney’s POV in order for us to understand the situation better. If you’re a fan of football or WAG culture, you’ll certainly appreciate the level of access this series gives to the Rooneys and their inner circle, but general audiences can safely SKIP IT.

Lessons In Chemistry contains layers of ingredients that build on and play off of each other: romance, drama, history, the second wave of feminism, all snuggled neatly into a 13 x 9 pan. When combined, they’re all greater than the sum of their parts.

The Greatest Show Never Made is a fun docuseries about a scam that could only have seemed to happen in 2002, at the start of the reality TV frenzy.

The first episode of Little Bird progresses a bit slowly, but sets up a powerful story about an Indigenous woman who wants to find the family she was forcibly taken from when she was a child.

Pat’s psychiatric facility, with its generically inky green light, screaming patients strapped to gurneys, and generally depressing air is pretty over the top, and a house creaking in its joints and beckoning people through suddenly open doors doesn’t really grab us. It’s almost like Shining Vale needs to go for the horror jugular first, before it integrates its solid jokes and noteworthy themes.

While, like most anthologies, the stories are uneven, Creepshow still has good stories that combine creepy, scary and funny in the right proportions.

John Carpenter’s Suburban Screams leans far too heavily on docuseries and true crime mechanics to really consider its horror elements, which ultimately just feel like window dressing.

This version is updated with interesting plots, clever dialogue, and lots of pop culture references. While some pre-teens will enjoy it, it feels like the target audience skews a touch older thanks to some genuine creepiness throughout.

The first two episodes are off to a promising start, and we hope that the quality carries through to the end of the season. Based on what we’ve seen, we’re confident in saying that Rick and Morty is back and better than ever, broh.

Flanagan’s ability to weave this story is helped by the fact that he has regulars like Greenwood, Gugino, Thomas and others in prominent roles, and pros like McDonnell and Lumbly joining his family of players. They know what’s required in a show like this and they make the most of what Flanagan gives them.

The storytelling chaos that Loki sews can cause headaches. But this series remains worthwhile and entertaining because its cast is so great. Tom Hiddleston, Wunmi Mosaku, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Owen Wilson, and Sophia Di Martino keep us in this thing even as the premise sometimes skids along the edge of a deep, unknowable chasm.

It’s one thing to say that the new Frasier is missing the chemistry between the cast members that made the original series so special. But it also tries way too hard to parallel the original in the most crucial spots, making it painful to watch at times, and not nearly as funny as it could be.

The Spencer Sisters is the type of show you might end up binging if you’re at home and not feeling great this coming fall. You’ll certainly be entertained by it, even if you don’t remember much about it after you’re done.

Though this isn't an exceptional true crime series, it does provide the ins and outs that fans of the genre look for, and it's not a huge time commitment.

Despite our misgivings about the cohesion of the story in the docuseries, Desperately Seeking Soulmate: Escaping Twin Flames Universe is still an interesting study in how easily someone can manipulate people who are vulnerable and looking for answers.

Is there an overriding plot aside from escaping the rubble? Is there any kind of character development? Not really. But a show this crazy doesn’t really need that, as long as it continues to be daring through its entire run.

Our Flag Means Death continues to emphasize story over gags, and manages to be both funny and touching at the same time.

Everything Now is a charming teen dramedy with some serious emotional issues underpinning the adventures of a teen just wanting to do teen stuff.

Lupin continues to be a very satisfying watch because of Omar Sy’s performance and the well-written and executed heist scenes.

The biggest surprise here? How entertaining this dumbass franchise is in 2023.

The Sixth Commandment lays out the true story of the Ben Field case in a deliberate but effective manner, punctuated by some fine lead performances.

If you’ve been hankering for another heaping helping of slow-moving, romantic drama a la Virgin River, then Sullivan’s Crossing should help satisfy that craving.

STREAM IT, but only if you’re a huge fan of soccer in general or Beckham in particular. There’s lots of great footage of Beckham on and off the pitch over the past three decades and just enough personal stuff to keep viewers engaged. But don’t expect too much in the way of revelations or controversy.

While Burning Body has its flaws, the performance of Úrsula Corberó helps viewers get past them and get into this very complex story.

Shining Girls takes its time to reveal the entire picture of what its story is about. But with a fine lead performance by Moss and expert direction, it’s still got enough tension to make us OK with getting only little bits of info.

If the cases of the week get a little better, and the backstories of the regular characters — especially the biggest one — are written well, Found has the potential to be an above average network procedural.

Castlevania: Nocturne is an exemplary way to take a popular game series and turn it into one of the most exciting animated adaptations yet. It remains to be seen the heights that animated Richter Belmont will reach, but we’re confident we’ll be left impressed.

Django will make for a good distraction if you’re into classic Westerns, but if you’re looking for complex morality plays, you’re probably out of luck.

The Fake Sheikh weaves an intriguing web around its central subject. It might not feature any interviews with Mazer Mahmood. But the docuseries delves into the structure and mechanics of his sting operations, tries to get at what drove his ruthless nature as a journalist, and allows space for the people who populated his scandal-dripping headlines to tell their side of the story.

We love hearing American traditions mocked from outsiders. It’s worked wonders for the careers of John Oliver, Trevor Noah and Ronny Chieng in recent years. Jay pulls it off in this hour by spending the first half of it offering her fresh perspective to heteronormative relationships, making it personal through her eyes as a “junior man” kind of lesbian.

Gen V has some well-drawn characters and a compelling young cast. Its storytelling is a bit spotty in the first episode, but the other factors are more than enough to keep us watching.

The Golden Bachelor has all the stuff Bachelor fans love. We just wish all of these sixty- and seventy-somethings acted with a touch more maturity and dignity.

The Hunt For Raoul Moat is a pretty by-the-numbers limited series about a real-life manhunt. However, the performances are compelling enough, and the runtime short enough, to keep viewers engaged.

While we wonder if the Jessie-Tom relationship cycle is getting a bit old, we still find Starstruck a warm and funny show, with Matafeo leading a confidently funny ensemble.

While its narrative structure is as dry as a bone, Who Killed Jill Dando? carries a lot of intrigue, simply because of how famous the case is and how wildly speculative the investigation got.

The Continental feels like it’s more for John Wick completists than fans of well-plotted action series.

The Irrational works mainly because of Martin and the backstory he has with Hill’s character and the bombing case. The mysteries themselves are pretty bad, but that will matter less if the continuing story is good.

While Krapopolis could be funnier, there’s more than enough character and story, as well as good voice performances, to keep us watching. Fox had to have seen something to give the show three seasons… right?

We’re going to give Still Up a shot because we like Antonia Thomas and Craig Roberts in the lead roles. But its format feels like it will get monotonous quickly, even if the chemistry between its stars is good.

Deadlocked: How America Shaped The Supreme Court isn’t meant to be an exhaustive history of our highest court, but it does give a great perspective on just how the court went from ruling on civil rights cases in the ’50s to its conservative turn in the 2020s.

Despite the fact that Sex Education has gone through some big changes this season, it’s still very well worth a binge for the genuine laughs and heartfelt emotion that each episode brings.

Young Love is funny and heartwarming, and it doesn’t try to do more than show a young family trying their best to build their lives together, despite setbacks.

AHS: Delicate has the potential to be a good installment of American Horror Story, because of good performances from Roberts and Kim K. But there are also a lot of red flags that indicate that the season may get too weighed down in the pop culture aspect of Roberts’ character at the sacrifice of actual blood and horror.

If you’re fans of the quartet at the center of The Super Models, you’ll be fascinated at this look at their lives. If you’re looking for explosive revelations, you’re mostly going to be out of luck.

Created by Ranganathan and Benjamin Green, Avoidance is a touching, funny picture of a man trying to make himself better for the sake of his son. We don’t know how much of Jonathan’s crippling fear of confrontation is part of Ranganathan’s personal history, but he and Green have created a character that we can all relate to on some level.

If you’re interested in jumping into Neighbours, you may want to read some online wikis and other articles first. But even if you don’t, you’ll still feel like you’re somewhere warm and familiar, just by virtue of actors and characters that have been around for decades.

While there are a lot of scene of just people talking that don’t add much to the overall story, The Gold still paints an interesting picture of a massive accidental heist and its aftermath.

Wilderness isn't one of those shows that's going to challenge you with a plot full of moral dilemmas and high drama. It's a show that’s more than a bit mordant and campy, but that and the performances of Coleman and Jackson-Cohen add to its appeal.

Star Trek: Below Decks is back for more character-driven hijinks in its fourth season, and with a host of innovative new ways to assert itself alongside established canon and within the successful expanded Trek universe.

For all its manufactured conflict — the schism between Snow and Jones, the unprecedented summer tour — it’s still a largely unvarnished glimpse into a place both wonderful and strange.

The Other Black Girl definitely takes a different approach to demonstrating systemic racism, and combined with the fine performances from Daniel, Murray, Young and others, makes for a show that definitely kept us engaged.

We are hoping against hope that most of The Morning Show‘s third season will be more like the first episode’s first 45 minutes and less like the last 15. But given the evidence we’ve seen to this point, we don’t have a lot of faith that it will be that way.

The more we see of the community around the team, one that has become bigger via the series but at its core is still what binds the residents of the town together, the more we want to watch.

The first episode of The Swarm suggests that there will be a lot of throat clearing and not a whole heck of a lot of actual thrills.

Dreaming Whilst Black is a funny take on how following your ambitions is much harder when you’re Black and facing a world of institutional racism, but the show doesn’t hesitate to give its main characters their own ambition-stalling quirks, as well.

With Reedus doing his usual stellar job as the brooding but caring Daryl, TWD: Daryl Dixon is on pretty solid dramatic ground.

Thanks to a fine performance from Stanfield as well as a story that’s just starting to get spooky by the end of the first episode, The Changeling hooks in the viewer and gets them ready to follow Apollo on a journey that promises to be full of scares and surprises.

The mood is taut and tense as the final six episodes of Top Boy play out, with Dushane and Sully vying for control of the East London drug trade and the Summerhouse estate existing at the center of a changing social climate.

Never Let Him Go is an emotional, respectful, measured take on the Scott Johnson case and the forces that contributed to his killer not being found for over 30 years.

The tone and pacing of Predators is the key to what makes it a compelling watch. The cinematography is spectacular, as you might expect from a series like this. Hardy’s narration provides lots of tension without sounding foreboding.

We’re not investing in the stakes of the missions Archer and the team take on. We’re investing in all of the goofs, crass moments, and self-involved absurdities that come along with it. That’s what was funny in 2009, and it’s funny in 2023 as Archer prepares to shut it all down.

This is the triumphant return to the world of Adventure Time fans have been waiting for, and it sets the stage for one of the most interesting concepts the show has seen in some time. Whether you’re holding out to see where your favorite heroes are in this timeline or how things will shake out for our new heroines, it’s well worth settling into every week as it hits Max.

The show remains hilarious, ambitious, and binge-worthy as it carries itself to the finish line.

This version of One Piece is off the wall without being over the top, a highly necessary distinction illustrating that it’s far more watchable than not.

Live to 100 leans away from woo-woo and self-promotion, and gives us a reasonably compelling investigation into longevity.

With a wealth of archival performance footage and an intriguing visual style, Wayne Shorter: Zero Gravity is an open door to exploring the saxophonist’s legacy, but also creativity as a beacon of light.

Wanted: The Escape Of Carlos Ghosn is slightly padded, with a couple of interludes about Ghosn’s family history that don’t connect by the end of the series. But it’s mostly riveting, showing just how Ghosn managed to get the better of the Japanese justice system, for better or for worse.

Despite some plot contrivances in the first episode, we’re still recommending Who Is Erin Carter? because Evin Ahmad does a good job making Erin a bit more credible.

The early going of Invasion season two definitely has fun with the idea that a tech mogul disruptor-in-chief could one day enter a mind meld with encroaching aliens. Nikhil will be one to watch as his motives become more clear.

Nothing in Ahsoka matches the level of technical proficiency we got to lap up in Andor. Nevertheless, it is a must-watch for true Star Wars stans. It’s not just that Dave Filoni has finally brought his most beloved animated characters to life; he is potentially rewriting the rules of the Star Wars universe with them.

Fans of Nailed It! will enjoy The Big Nailed It Baking Challenge, but we wonder if they’ll start tuning out once the contestants actually start nailing their challenges for real.

Fleming shares with the audience a photo of his family, with him as a child, the youngest of the flock, the only one staring into the camera. At points during the special, he's also well of where the stage cameras are. This comedian is ready for his close up.

We wish Harlan Coben’s Shelter gave us a bit more of a cohesive story in its early going instead of what feels like taking all of its mysteries and putting them in a storytelling blender. But the charm of the leads and the fact that the mystery has multiple layers give us hope that as things are revealed, the storytelling will become a bit less frenzied.

While the pacing is still inconsistent, the second season of Killing It continues to mine the chemistry between Robinson and O’Doherty as well as how tough it is these days to come from nothing and achieve success.

We’re recommending Depp V. Heard for the edited-together trial footage, especially the back-and-forth testimony from Depp and Heard themselves. The rest of it is just irritating, but not irritating enough to keep us from watching.

Down For Love is warm and funny, and shows yet another example of how universal the concept of looking for love is.

Solar Opposites Season 4 is another round of madcap, nihilistic comedy that doesn’t stop at anything to make you laugh. It’s irreverent, foul, and unmistakably Adult Swim fodder that’s found a home on Hulu, but that’s part of what makes it so good.

Telemarketers made us laugh just as much as it made us outraged. We were eager to see just where Lipman-Stern and Pespas go with their mission to expose all charity fundraising companies.

My eyes roll at the thought of another road-trip series to far-flung locales, but Men in Kilts has just enough personality and lighthearted spirit to warrant your time.

Billions pushes into its seventh and final season with as much quippy verve as ever, a fleet of existing grudges, new and interesting allyships, and the welcome return of Damian Lewis as Bobby “Axe” Axelrod. Let the demons run free.

It feels like Painkiller wants to say something profound bout how the opioid crisis was started, but does so in a way that feels completely tone-deaf.

The show has maintained its likeability and goofy comedic tone after four seasons, and it’s impressive just how many levels it manages to operate on.

Strange Planet has the potential to be one of the most human animated series we’ve seen this year, despite the fact that none of the characters are actually human.

The first eight (of ten) episodes of Only Murders in the Building Season 3 left me feeling decidedly “meh.” Sure, you can’t really snub your nose at Meryl Streep bantering with Martin Short — even I have to admit that watching the show’s stars collide is worth the price of admission — but the storytelling kept letting me down.

The stylistic flourishes of Winning Time: The Rise Of The Lakers Dynasty can be distracting at times, but the story is still solid (even if it’s not fully factual) and the performances are still across-the-board excellent.

The Lost Flowers Of Alice Hart is a portrayal of domestic abuse that starts out a bit obtuse, but given the intense subject matter, that obtuseness is an effective way to bring people into Alice’s story.

Physical‘s third season is as dark as ever, but thanks to the (darkly funny and decidedly not adorkable) addition of Deschanel, we’re invested and can’t wait to see how Sheila’s story ends.