We like Wild Cards because it’s a “good silly” kind of show. The things that are ridiculous about it don’t distract from our enjoyment of it, mostly thanks to a good supporting cast and good chemistry between Morgan and Gianniotti.

While Couples Therapy: The COVID Special won’t give you as much insight into its subject couples as Season 1 of Couples Therapy does, it certainly feels like a way to see how the couples Dr. Guralnik treats are coping with lockdown just as poorly as you are.

The first episode of Territory is a bit cluttered with characters and stories, but the sweeping vistas of the Northern Territories, backed by good performances by Torv, Taylor and Dorman make the show very watchable.

The Mole isn’t quite as fun as the Anderson Cooper version, but it’s still a solid reality competition format that we’re glad is getting new life with Netflix.

Animal Control continues to be a solid workplace comedy that’s in a nice, funny groove as it enters its third season.

The Big Fib gets a whole lot of things right when it comes to the family game show genre.

In a lot of ways, the show is a workplace comedy with a lot of gender politics mixed in. If you look at it like that, and appreciate Silverman’s performance as Candy for the low-key seethe it is, Santa Inc. becomes enjoyable.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon continues to work because it puts one of the franchise’s best characters in an unfamiliar situation. But now that his partner in zombie-killing is on the way to his side, that should make things even better.

Such Brave Girls could be a little funnier than it is, but the three main characters have such well-defined personality quirks that seeing them interact with each other and the world around them is pretty entertaining.

While Martin’s gritty, skeptical, and brutal look at the genre appealed to an HBO audience, I’m not sure Jordan’s romantic, mystical, and hopeful version will be as ubiquitously embraced. The Wheel of Time can’t be the next Game of Thrones. It’s just not in the source material’s DNA. But Prime Video’s series has the chance to be the first true Wheel of Time, and that excites this all-too-earnest nerd to bits.

It’s intriguing enough to keep us watching. And, given the fact that the show gives a montage of Peacemaker’s story in The Suicide Squad, you shouldn’t need to see the film in order to get the series.

If you want to get into the mind of Jeffrey Dahmer, there’s no better way than hearing from the killer himself, and Conversations With A Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes gives viewers more than enough opportunity to hear from Dahmer about the impulses that led him to kill.

For the most part, though each episode makes a good attempt at showing exactly what the various first responders and trauma teams need to do and exactly how critical the injuries of the patients they’re treating really are.

Like most Chuck Lorre sitcoms, Leanne needs to find its way for awhile, and there are moments during the first handful of episodes that feel as cliched and “sitcommy” as it gets. But the cast starts clicking pretty quickly, especially Morgan and Johnston, and that goes a long way to upping number of genuine laughs each episode has.

Despite the distracting reenactments, Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street imparts a lot of good information about Madoff’s psyche, the structure of his Ponzi scheme, and why people invested in it in the first place.

Despite the sloppiness by the show’s producers, and some of its repetitiveness, we still appreciate Underwood’s coming out journey enough to make Coming Out Colton a worthwhile watch.

Dance 100 is guided by its ambitious and pretty novel premise, which adds population with each week of competition, but it also highlights the technical language of dance and strives to celebrate body diversity.

While we’re not convinced that Dexter: Original Sin will be as compelling as the early years of the original series, we’re hoping that the new cast develops their own chemistry instead of trying to imitate the dynamic of the original show’s cast.

The cast of Zero Day is the main reason why we’re going to keep watching, but the final moments of the first episode gave the story more intrigue than what we’ve seen from terrorism thrillers in the recent past.

Despite one of the main plotlines being a bit wonky, Heartbreak High is a funny show with well-drawn characters. They just happen to hook up a lot.

There were some parts of Crime Scene Berlin: Nightlife Killer that we wished got some more time, like the general cluelessness from the cops about LGBTQ club culture, but the show’s brief running time and straightforward storytelling is a good trade-off for the lack of self-examination.

While the procedural part of Will Trent needs a lot of improvement, the characters are so well-established from the start that the first two episodes are entertaining and make us want to see more.

Welcome To Wrexham isn’t exactly about the same plucky underdog team anymore. But as long as the show’s producers continue to emphasize the team’s connections with its fans and city, it should be a little more than just a straightforward sports docuseries.

Obviously this isn’t necessarily something to jump into completely cold. But fans of the MonsterVerse should enjoy this deeper dive into the lore of those films, with more room (and necessity) for emotional nuance than those big-budget adventures.

The Tattooist Of Auschwitz shows that there can be a glimmer of hope in even the most horrific situations.

While the lack of laughs in the first episode is a bit concerning, we think Bloods still has promise because of the ensemble that settles into a good rhythm almost immediately.

The Dark Wizard profiles an interesting, somewhat mysterious character in rock climber and thrill-seeker Dean Potter. Where did his tremendous, death-defying skill end and his zen and the art of climber’s mental maintenance begin?

Filthy Rich isn’t exactly high art, but it’s satisfyingly soapy, with some decent performances and a couple of chuckles that show us that it’s not taking itself at all seriously.

Despite how slow and disjointed the first episode of Hellbound is, it sets up an interesting story that could go just about anywhere.

As long as the episodes of Trigger Point‘s second season continue to show Lana and the rest of the expo squad escape one tense situation after the other — and occasionally fail — the show will continue to be entertaining, even if the overall terrorist plot is just meh.

Just like its parent show, Vikings: Valhalla is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. But for fans of the genre, Valhalla does a good job of continuing the story established in Vikings.

Fire Country has more story and stronger characters at the outset than a CBS procedural like this usually has, and that’ll carry the show when the fires start looking all the same as each other.

Lopez Vs. Lopez isn’t the “next great sitcom” or anything close. But the dynamic between George and Mayan Lopez is fun to watch, making up for the more generic parts of the series.

We really wish Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives. was less one-sided, but at least the side we see makes for an entertaining story.

In many ways, My Life With The Walter Boys is typical teen romance fare. But it’s pleasant enough, and Nikki Rodriguez’ lead performance is compelling enough, to keep us watching.

Noughts + Crosses has its issues, but the cast is compelling to watch and we hope that some of its obviousness will get smoothed out as we get more into the actual story.

Fool Me Once has enough potential for some intriguing plot twists, and more than enough solid performances, to make up for some awkward dialogue and plot points that feel like they’re going to unnecessarily complicate things.

While Sanctuary moves a bit slowly at times, it’s a fascinating look inside sumo wrestling that should be of interest to anyone who has an interest in Japanese sports culture.

Despite the length and dodgy pacing of the first episode, Portobello is an entertainingly detailed retelling of one of the strangest stories in recent Italian history.

Poppa’s House works because both Wayans Sr. and Jr. lean into what makes each of them funny, and are great together. The more standard sitcommy parts will get better the longer the show stays on the air.

Murder Among The Mormons is a fascinating look at some of the inner workings of the Mormon Church, even if the filmmakers were more interested in the story around the document trade than the church itself.

Running Point settles into a nice comedic groove in its second season, with an ensemble that works well together and new additions to the cast that fit in pretty well.

While Glamorous has a pretty standard fish out of water story at its core, Miss Benny’s lead performance is so magnetic that they command a viewer’s attention.

Landman is pretty much a standard-grade Taylor Sheridan production, but Thornton makes it very watchable, even as he spends half of the first episode making speeches.

We think with the introduction of some new characters, Sullivan’s Crossing will get past the lost of Patterson and the full drift into Maggie’s love life, a plotline that just makes us shrug.

There’s certainly information in the first episode that we either didn’t know or forgot, and Having historians like Stryker and Jules Gill-Peterson give their perspectives of that history helps contextualize things. We hope that as the episodes move towards more modern times, the reliance on recreations will subside.

We get the feeling that Black Rabbit is going to be problematic and overstuffed as the series moves along, but Law and Bateman are so compelling as Jake and Vince, we’ll keep watching, just to see how far Vince pushes his brother’s goodwill.

While we have some issues with how The Testaments is structured, given how depressing the world of Gilead continues to be, we are looking forward to seeing Agnes and Daisy starting to agitate for change as the show goes forward.

Just like in Season 1, there’s a lot going on, but it’s not as clear that these stories will flow together as well as they did during season 1.

Twisted Metal has improved because it remembered that character development is as important as anything else, and it makes the show a lot less mentally tiring to watch.

While the start of Réunions leans a little on the silly, the performances are generally good and there’s real potential for a heartwarming story about two brothers who never knew each other existed to become real family.

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.

It stuck close to the original formula, with some updates. And that makes for a much more entertaining show.

Summertide is a show that you need to be in for the long haul, because the storytelling isn’t going to move that quickly. What should carry you, though, is the South African scenery, the warm multigenerational drama, and the occasional penguin spotting.

If you’re a West Wing fan, you’ll love this special. If you’re not, you won’t even go find this on HBO Max. And that’s what makes us wonder about if the special’s message will actually land with the people with whom they’re trying to communicate.

We’re tempted to say SKIP IT, mainly because we hate that Beast Games takes advantage of people’s greed and/or desperation for drama. But the second episode shows that the game will start getting really fun as we get down to a manageable group of contestants, and a lot of that is thanks to the enthusiasm of MrBeast and his hoodie-wearing buddies.

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.

There are certainly funny moments in the first episode of Government Cheese, and we like the potential of the story, plus the performances of Oyelowo and Missick. But the first episode didn’t grab us as much as we thought it would. There’s enough good stuff there, though, to encourage us to stay with this show.

The first episode of Had I Not Seen The Sun sets up an interesting dual story about a serial killer’s high school years and how a filmmaker connects with one of his victims years later.

A novel approach to the usual Norse legend story, and should be fun to watch.

Soulmates boasts a ton of great actors putting in fine performances, but you may want to look at the episode descriptions first before plowing forward. There are some that we think will be way more satisfying than others.

We see Crutch‘s potential as a fun family sitcom, but we hope the writers realize that Morgan needs to be unleashed a little more in order for it to succeed.

The Salisbury Poisonings should hold your interest, especially if you don’t know a lot about the case on which this show is based. But even if you do, the show’s concentration on the people affected instead of the investigation itself helps keep the story moving.

Holding tweaks the small-town murder formula a bit by giving the mystery to a middle-aged, out-of-shape cop who is self-medicating with food instead of booze or drugs. Between that tweak and the performances of the main characters, it makes for an enjoyable, lightly comedic mystery.

There were a bunch of lines in the first episode of All’s Fair that we rolled our eyes at, but there were some that made us laugh out loud. Much of that has to do with who’s delivering those lines, but some of that also has to do with the general outlandishness of the show in general. .... The cases themselves are entertaining, and haven’t entered the realm of 9-1-1-level ridiculousness yet.

It’s a series with a whole that is far more fascinating than its slow-paced parts. If you give it the space of a few episodes, this new drama promises great things.

It’s not the funniest sitcom out there, but there’s a lot of warmth and a lot of character-driven stories and humor.

While The Real World Homecoming: New York may be a nostalgia trip for people who started their adult years in the grunge era [raises hand], the perspectives of the now middle-aged first cast are so much more welcomed than what we’ve seen from younger, very hyper-aware casts of late.

If you’re expecting full-on Brooks in History Of The World, Part II, you’ll likely be disappointed, but there’s enough of his comedy DNA in each episode to keep fans watching. Plus, most of the sketches have at least one big laugh, and that’s always a good thing.

The Larkins is a good-natured bit of British comfort TV that is a great antidote to the heaviness of most current dramas.

The novelty of the approach here is worth a viewing, and they do sneak a STREAM IT for me just for keeping me intrigued as to what they were going do to next. It didn’t make me want to stop watching after 20 minutes like Death to 2020 did.

Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 is good enough that franchise completists aren’t going to cringe while watching it, and it may be a good way to introduce younger kids to the franchise. But we just wish it was a little scarier, and the character animation a little less weird.

If you’re a fan of the Slow Burn podcast, or if you’ve never heard it before, you’ll find out new information about Watergate during this docuseries. You just have to get past the aren’t-we-clever podcast shtick first.

While the stories in Star Wars: Tales Of The Underground are a little skimpy, they help to deepen the characters of two well-known franchise villains.

The performances of both the young and middle-aged versions of the main characters in The Woods are a good reason to keep watching. But the mystery is just complex and intriguing enough to justify watching those performances.

While the stories themselves are pretty fully told in their 11-15 minute runtimes, it’s definitely to the viewer’s advantage to watch all six episodes to get the full picture. ... Tales Of The Jedi brings some familiar prequel trilogy characters back to our screens, in stories that fill in more Clone Wars canon, which is always a plus.

Has Criminal Minds: Evolution changed the tried and true formula that carried its original show to over 320 episodes? Not really. But with an extended storyline and most of the cast back, it’ll feel like a refresh to the show’s longtime fans, while feeling familiar enough to keep them very happy.

The first episode of Extraordinary sets up a pretty funny premise; we just hope that the joke that everyone in the world has powers except Jen doesn’t quickly wear out when the novelty of it does.

It might not be for everyone, but it’s hard to imagine who wouldn’t be charmed by the dulcet tones of beloved actors lulling you to a place of desperately needed tranquility.

This miniseries isn’t quite the War Of The Worlds you’re familiar with, but it does seem to be looking like a fine apocalyptic survival story that at least has an ending, unlike some others that we’ve been watching on other cable channels for the past ten years.

Stream It, perhaps with an ounce or two of patience. While a pedigree that includes the creator or Cowboy Bebop’s creator and the fight maven from John Wick is impressive, It feels like there is a lot of story still to develop with Lazarus.

The first episode of Washington, despite being almost 90 minutes without commercials, moves along nicely, the battle scenes are done reasonably well and Rowe does a good job filling the shoes of the great George Washington.

Let’s just say timeline-jumping isn’t the only storytelling method Fogelman borrowed from his most successful series. It certainly sets up some intriguing possibilities, but let’s hope that it’s not the main driver of the story Fogleman and company want to tell. They’ve done a good job of setting up the personal relationships at the center of Paradise, as well as the timeline, and that’s where they should concentrate things.

At this point Only Murders In The Building rides on the chemistry among Martin, Short and Gomez, and in Season 4, that chemistry is well-established. We just hope that Charles, Mabel and Oliver are as much fun running around Hollywood solving murders as they are running around New York.

After Baywatch: Moment In The Sun is one of those documentaries that perhaps doesn’t reveal all that much that’s new, but it’s fun to see everyone again and — yes, we’re just that basic — see what everyone looks like these days.

Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials is a well-paced, traditional Christie adaptation with a fun-to-watch young protagonist at its center, which is rare in the world of the classic mystery novelist’s stories.

The Signal does a good job of splitting its story into two storylines that are well-defined, bringing the viewer along on the show’s central mystery in a way that keeps them interested without jerking them around.

With its TV-G rating, Prep & Landing: The Snowball Protocol is great, kid-friendly holiday entertainment. While it’s likely not going to enter the pantheon of annual holiday re-watches, it’s the ideal show for the under-10 crowd.

Does Mr. Throwback have the potential to fly off the rails? Absolutely. But the show’s creators have decided to keep the goings on relatively low-key, which actually makes the show funnier than it should be.

It’s a well-done drama that will keep you guessing and entertained and thinking about it even when you’re not watching it.

Capital One College Bowl is well-paced with questions that aren’t super hard, but not super easy either. Here’s hoping that Peyton Manning loosens up a bit as the tournament goes along, and that he doesn’t need to force throwing things to Cooper in order to get some laughs.

Alice & Jack sometimes feels like one of the most interesting love stories we’ve seen in ages, and at others it’s infuriatingly annoying. But Gleeson and Riseborough have undeniable chemistry, which is enough for us to want to see this decade-and-a-half romance play out.

If you don’t expect a lot of conflict or high drama, you should be able to sit back and enjoy Julia for the light, fun biography it’s intended to

Love You To Death has the potential to be a sweet, occasionally funny, mostly emotional story of two people getting together at a strange time in each of their lives.

The new version has more than enough to like about it, and it gives us hope that as the writers figure out the supporting characters, the show will take off, just like the original one did.

While we still enjoy High Potential, especially now that Olson and the rest of the cast have settled into a nice rhythm with each other, we hope that the continuing Game Maker storyline doesn’t disrupt the show’s flow as much as it does in the first episode of Season 2.

Sheriff Country has already set up some good stories and rivalries in its first episode, and Baccarin strikes the right tone as a person who wants to keep her hometown safe.

It’s not a new classic, but it’s nice that Star Wars fans finally have something watchable to put on during the holiday season.