It’s definitely a story that’s worth following, even as it goes back and forth in time, thanks to the fine performances by Kingsley and Karanja as the older and younger Washington Black. It’s surprising how much continuity there is between the two performances.

Wolf Like Me is more drama than comedy, but it works either way, despite its strange premise. Much of that is thanks to Gad and Fisher, but it’s also because Forsythe has ground the show’s more supernatural elements in reality.

Little Fires Everywhere has issues, but it’s a very watchable show that should be buoyed by Witherspoon’s and Washington’s performances.

A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder rides on the charm of Emma Myers, but there’s also a solid mystery to get to the bottom of, which isn’t always the case in shows like this.

You certainly need to be in the mood to laugh at slapstick in order to enjoy Man Vs. Bee. But there is no one on the planet who does slapstick better than Rowan Atkinson, and this series shows off all the skills that have made his career so successful.

Hazbin Hotel is very queer, raunchy, and fun. The animated comedy is filled with memorable songs, exciting character arcs, and a thrilling story. The episodes will have you on the edge of your seat, while filling your heart with equal parts joy and angst. Even if it doesn’t sound like it’s fit for you, get it a try.

Our mild recommendation for Loot continues from its first season to its second. The relationships between the characters are growing, which is great, but the show is just not as funny as it should be, and that’s always disappointing.

Red Alert tries its best to show the harrowing experience of October 7 in southern Israel while concentrating on the heroic acts that happened that day. It’s a balance that’s at times hard to maintain but it is also worth watching.

We still appreciate Wiig’s performance as Maxine, as well as the performances of Janney, Duffy and more. But Palm Royale is so in love with its own sense of late-’60s, early-’70s kitsch and piling on characters and plotlines, that those performances often get lost under a blizzard of words.

Legendary feels completely immersive. Everywhere you look, it’s a ball. And when Legendary gets into the competition gig, it slays. The performances in the first episode are, well, legendary. ... The show’s called Legendary for a reason.

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.

The Seduction is a good looking series with fine performances and enough kinkiness to satisfy fans of boddice-ripping period dramas.

Land Of Women is a pleasant-enough show that has a story that will go down easy, with good performances sprinkled throughout.

The Pale Horse looks great, and has fine performances. But Sewell’s slimy protagonist is the lynchpin that makes this one of Amazon’s better Christie adaptations.

One Night Only finds Adele personally refreshed and professionally primed, a place her legions of adoring fans will certainly enjoy hearing about in both performance and interview.

Despite the fact that the interview portions of African Queens: Njinga feel more like window dressing than anything else, the dramatic segments are well-written and acted, making those talking head segments less intrusive.

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.

We’re suckers for the “howdunit” format of Elsbeth, and Preston has such a good handle on the character that we are looking forward to watching her catch wily killers week after week.

Sure, The Night Agent could get better. But the first episode established that it’s a show with a lot of stock characters and a conspiracy that doesn’t start in a particularly interesting way.

The show still tends to bog itself down with too many characters and stories, as well as the gimmickry of Coop’s narration intruding on what’s going on. .... The addition of Marsden is promising, though. .... We hope his presence focuses the story in a way that we didn’t see previously.

We’re concerned about the pacing of 1883 and how it depicts Indigenous people, but the story is compelling, and Sam Elliott’s multi-layered lead performance is more than enough to keep us interested.

Squid Games takes a fresh idea and spins it into a thrilling drama; we hope it continues to build the tension we saw in the last 20 minutes throughout the season.

Steeltown Murders has the potential to be a really intriguing mystery that spans 30 years, as long as the scenes from the Seventies flow well into the scenes from the Aughties and vice versa.

It feels that Trying is going to try (pun intended) to get the emotional wringer of the adoption process right instead of falling back on TV cliches about it. It also helps that Smith and Spall play a couple that are great together and you want to see get what they’ve been hoping for.

Year Of The Rabbit has Berry hitting the right comedic notes, helped by a funny supporting cast and a setting that’s always ripe for comedy.

Sunny presents an interesting near-future scenario where a woman questions everything she knew about her marriage and life. The mystery she investigates may end up being mundane, but the performances of Jones and Sotomura — and the relatively brief episode run times — make it a fun ride to go on.

The recreations on A Wilderness of Error are irritating, and it doesn’t really feel like it’s going to answer any questions or break new ground in the 50-year old MacDonald case.

This show is equally as fun as its bright young cast, and it depicts enough of a twist on the classic coming out story that you’ll want to watch more.

The Witcher Season 2 is the best kind of adaptation. It takes something known and creates something wholly unique while always respecting its source material. No matter if you’ve read and played everything or if you’re entirely new to this world, you’re going to have a blast.

House of the Dragon isn’t good; it’s great. ... House of the Dragon is definitely the show Game of Thrones fans want, full of drama, fire, and blood. Oh, and lots of dragons.

In The Know is a quirky, funny series that works on a few different levels, and it effectively combines animation and live action.

If the show does start to lose you, it won’t be for long. (Unless, perhaps, you’re a real therapist.) Breezy episodes and clever writing ripe with undeniable jokes and razor-sharp relatability help anchor Shrinking‘s effective execution. But its greatest strength lies in a charming cast with excellent chemistry and characters you can’t help but root for.

Dopesick will certainly be a slow burn in spots. But it deals with a subject whose depth most people aren’t aware of, and the performances are so good that it should keep viewers interested.

Animal Control‘s first couple of episodes elicited some big laughs and has already established an ensemble with some good chemistry. There’s nowhere to go here but up.

As with every anthology series, Black Mirror‘s episodes will vary in quality, but they’re always entertaining, and the first episode gives the new season a good start.

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.

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.

In its second season, Gossip Girl has morphed into exactly what you want from a reboot. The costumes and directorial work are more refined and swoon-worthy than the original, and even though the drama is new, it feels familiar. There is a real sense that this is a new chapter in a beloved story.

The series has a sly, puckish humor and inexhaustible bravado that more than makes up for some of the more ridiculous aspects of the plot. Reacher succeeds thanks to an abundance of charm, an interesting central mystery, a slew of exhilarating fight scenes, and dynamic performances and undeniable chemistry from Ritchson, Goodwin, and Fitzgerald.

Even with the lofty stories it’s woven throughout the years there’s nothing quite as ambitious, intense, or grand as Fargo Season 4. Whether or not that’s a good thing will depend on what draws you to Fargo in the first place.

It may seem crazy to think that professional mermaiding is a thing, but after you watch MerPeople and see the happiness coming from the people who are doing this work, you way want to do that work, too.

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.

Chris Hemsworth is personally engaging and does seem genuinely engaged as he undertakes a new round of mental and physical challenges in Limitless: Live Better Now.

Shadow and Bone delivers pure escapism with timely social commentary and good old fashioned soapy storytelling. It is the next big fantasy sensation. ... This show is extremely dense. ... For Grishaverse virgins, Shadow and Bone could prove to be overwhelming.

Even without Rob and John Owen Lowe’s father-son dynamic, Unstable would be an above average workplace sitcom. But they are the main attraction, and their scenes together really make the show fun to watch.

While we hope the show, and Obama, stay as grounded as it does in the first episode, Working: What We Do All Day is still a good glimpse at just what work is like in America, especially in these post-pandemic times.

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.

Mr. McMahon isn’t the whole story, and it’s not reasonable to expect it to be given the financial conflict of interest between Netflix and WWE. It’s still a fascinating story, though, and there’s a lot to be taken from Mr. McMahon, even if you take it with a grain of salt on the side. (Or perhaps in the eyes.)

XO, Kitty works because Cathcart knows Kitty very well at this point, the story takes turns that aren’t the usual artificial romcom plot contrivances, and there’s enough layers to make the show more than just about its central romance.

Its breakneck pace and flashy mix of genre-bending elements combine to craft a series that’s difficult to look away from and impossible to ignore. HBO’s latest Sunday night offering isn’t so much of a layup as it is a slam dunk, delivering a fun, glitzy origin story of an iconic NBA dynasty.

All five of the leads put in fine performances. ... But the show lacks focus, at least at the outset.

Milioti and Romano put in really great work in the series, and have good chemistry with each other. It’s the other elements of the show that we’re not sure about yet.

Tales From The Loop feels like something that should be hung on a wall, admired and interpreted rather than a show that a viewer can lean in, watch, and get involved in.

Fellowes has attempted to recapture the magic of Downton Abbey in other projects, like Doctor Thorne and Belgravia. Here, though, he actually pulls it off. Each new episode left me more ravenous for more. ... It has all the escapist charm of the historic costume drama blended with the savage energy of most evening soaps. It is the show Downton Abbey fans have been waiting for.

Muppets Now gives us the purest Muppet content in a very long time. ... Muppets Now is the total spiritual successor to the groundbreaking and iconic ’70s Muppet Show. Truly, the variety show of yesteryear would be a playlist of totally bonkers YouTube vids today.

The story doesn’t particularly move quickly. Maybe as we dig into the back stories of the other passengers, things will pick up. But we get wary of shows that choose long shots of an abandoned ship over character development or plot movement, and 1899 will very easily slip into a too-languid pace if it’s not careful.

Despite his reluctance, Eugene Levy makes a charming and easygoing host and narrator in The Reluctant Traveler. Even if the reluctance is relatively mild, it does connect with people who are less inclined to be adventurous than the average travel show host.

There’s no magic bullet in this hour to change your mind about Minhaj. As he even jokes in reference to his foibles: “breaking news: comedians aren’t wizards.” But his thoughts about class and race and how our relationships to boundaries have deep meanings both inside the family home as well as on the global map, those are illusions worth shattering.

Matthew Rhys’ powerful performance is the main reason to watch this reboot of Perry Mason, but the mystery is intriguing enough to justify watching all of the show’s fine performances.

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.

There are plenty of funny character-based situations, and the cast is displaying good chemistry in the first two episodes. But the “been there, done that” feeling of American Auto is pervasive, even if the first two episodes have some funny moments.

Good Omens returns after a four-year hiatus with a good story and the same funny chemistry between its stars.

Not his best work but certainly his most ambitious and audacious endeavor yet, so it’s worth the effort to applaud his effort.

While there isn’t a ton of character development as The Rig starts, the acting is excellent, and it makes the tension that’s building on the Kinloch Bravo feel palpable.

Big Mouth Season 7 is still treading the same worn-out waters as it has across the rest of its runtime, and the only positive thing that can really be said here is that next season is its final set of episodes.

Despite our reservations about Delevingne as the host of Planet Sex With Cara Delevingne, the show manages to cover a lot of ground and still be informative about topics we thought we already knew a lot about.

The Mortician effectively shows just how ghoulish the things David Sconce did to people’s loved ones really was, and does so mostly through Sconce’s own words.

Win Or Lose manages to tell detailed stories about each of its characters, with emotions rooted in reality while taking advantage of Pixar’s ability to create a fascinating visual landscape.

If you don’t care about the MonsterVerse movies, this show probably won’t change your mind. However, if you’re into Godzilla, Kong, or the various Titans who square off against them, Monarch is a lot of fun.

Black Cake works best when it concentrates on how Covey became Eleanor and managed to make a life for herself despite the secrets she kept. The impact of those secrets on the present day feel like more of a punctuation on the story instead of part of the story itself.

Star Trek: Prodigy sets up a fun story that’s only somewhat connected to the greater canon of the Trek franchise, but with the addition of Mulgrew, makes the show accessible to newcomers and Trek fans alike.

Break Point is not a serious examination of the state of tennis going into 2023, but it is a pulpy binge-watch that will introduce you to the next generation of tennis stars. To put it bluntly, Break Point gives pro tennis the Kardashian treatment.

Stargirl is a fun ride, and the performances by Bassinger and Wilson make the first episode keep a lively pace.

Heist is a change of pace from the usual Netflix true crime docuseries, which by itself warrants a recommendation. Whether you think that these heists and the people who pulled them off deserve such an upbeat spotlight is up to you, but the series itself is visually interesting and well-executed.

Manuel Garcia-Rulfo thrives in the courtroom scenes that pepper Lincoln Lawyer. .... Lincoln Lawyer is also at its best when its centerpiece attorney is in reaction mode to the moves being made by the people in his personal and professional lives, which increasingly overlap.

Even though it may not touch the heights of the original Jury Duty, Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat is a pretty funny workplace sitcom wrapped around the conceit that one of the people there have no idea he’s in a sitcom, and he’s buying into all of it.

Though the series strikes the creator’s signature balance of humor and emotional depth, Rooster has yet to rival Shrinking, Ted Lasso, or The Office. That’s not to say the six of ten episodes made available for review weren’t a genuinely fun ride; rather, it’s a testament to the incredible heights we’ve seen both men reach.

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 Nest is twisty enough to keep our interest, but we just wish the first episode didn’t have so many eye-rolling coincidences.

A quality supporting cast and a light sense of humor also helps. Not every aspect of the show is light and airy, but it seems to know when it needs to be serious and when it needs to lighten things up. Because of this, Three Pines give viewers an interesting murder case to follow, quirky small-town folks with secrets, and a more serious case that tests its main character’s abilities.

Somehow, Boy Swallows Universe pulls off a pretty dark coming-of-age story without being depressing or hopeless, thanks to some deft writing and fantastic performances by the cast.

The 9-1-1 franchise wears its ridiculousness like a badge of honor, and that gives them the freedom to put their first responders into pretty much any situation, which is why 9-1-1: Nashville might be silly, but at least it’s entertainingly silly.

Whether you were a fan or not, Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model is a fascinating and thorough look at one of the biggest reality franchises ever—warts and all.

Ted is definitely more watchable in Season 2, more interested in character and story than it was in Season 1. But we just wish that, while Ted himself is pretty irredeemable, we got more growth out of John rather than just a series of gross shennanigans.

Daniels has succeeded to make the afterlife look like hell in Upload, even if it’s a hell with colorful foliage. And that’s just the kind of show we want to see right about now. But we also know he knows how to build a funny ensemble we’ll care about, and he’s on the way to doing that after the first episode.

While we wish Clean Slate was funnier and took a bit longer to have Harry accept that Desiree is now a woman, it feels like it’s going to be a warm show about rebuilding relationships and Southern small town life. Given the presence of Cox, Wallace and Hopkins, we’re on board for this one.

Whether you’re a true crime junkie or a casual viewer there’s plenty in Heaven’s Gate to interest you. Robert Balch and David Taylor’s accounts of going undercover into the organization are especially compelling.

The presence of Lowe and Tyler helps offset the silliness that goes on around them.

Viewers who aren’t familiar with the facts surrounding the killing will find them well-presented in John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial, buttressed by eyewitness interviews. But ultimately, this docuseries is a SKIP IT. Conspiracy theories alluded to don’t materialize, and we’re left with a docuseries that wants to apply the structure of generic true crime to a momentous celebrity death.

There is some goofiness to the show, especially Wrecker’s desire to “blow stuff up,” but The Bad Batch feels like a worthy spinoff to the very popular Clone Wars series.

The only reasons we’re recommending The Perfect Couple are Hewson, Fanning, and our fervent hope that the series continues to be more irreverent than most shows in this annoyingly persistent genre.

Stream it, if only for the presence of Ford and Mirren, and the fact that we know that Sheridan’s shows get better as they go along. But the first episode of 1923 does not do the presence of its stars justice, has disjointed stories and a glacial pace.

Rutherford Falls is a smart comedy that takes a view of indigenous people that most TV shows, even recent ones, have just not made the effort to take. It helps that Helms and Schmieding are appealing leads and have good chemistry as lifelong friends Nathan and Reagan.

Cartel gets a lot of use out of reenactments, with actors in big black Aviators and cowboy boots driving around Texas in a government-issue Impala, or trying to stay incognito as they surveil their persons of interest at horse auctions. And while that stuff is effective in building tension – Lawson and the FBI were targeting a criminal group known for killing indiscriminately, always wary of being made – it’s the case itself that’s the most interesting thing here.

While the subject matter of Heated Rivalry is somewhat daring, the first episode plays out like something that used to be shown late nights on Cinemax instead of story with well-drawn characters and romantic chemistry between its leads.

Beyond the visceral thrill of watching zombies chow down on their unfortunate victims, All Of Us Are Dead puts social hierarchies and human beings’ mechanisms for survival under a microscope.

Perhaps Half Man‘s biggest flaw is the heavy-handed way in which Ruben menaces over the entire series. There are moments when Gadd is so ominous as Ruben it almost takes you out of the show’s dramatic atmosphere. .... Niall and Ruben’s journey together is worth sticking around for.

The first two episodes feel like a missed opportunity, given the cast. But what we’re hoping is that things will get better as its first season goes along, and there’s enough there to keep us interested while hoping it gets better.