Unconditional tries to be more than it is, which is a pretty conventional thriller. But the “message-y” parts of the show don’t get in the way all that much, and the story builds tension very well.

M.I.A. offers a compelling central character to follow as it descends into the criminal world undergirding the glitz and glamour of Miami.

We’re hyped for Stevens to be the audience mirror as Pepper tries to manage inside an institution where the walls themselves seem crazy. Devil in Silver is also having a ball bucking standard convention. .... We felt as disoriented as Pepper does, all hopped up on Haloperidol, as we tried to determine what were mind games and what horrible truths are really lurking in New Hyde.

The Chestnut Man: Hide And Seek is as creepy as the original season of The Chestnut Man, with the case at hand enhanced by the now-established personal and professional relationship between Naia and Mark.

While the first episode of Legends could have fleshed out some of the main characters a little better, it does just enough — with enough restraint — to keep us watching.

The Chestnut Man has an intriguing mystery and strong lead characters. It’s a prime example of why Scandi noir is such a popular genre.

Gary does a good job of reminding fans of The Bear why the show was so compelling when it first blasted onto our screens, and we hope it’s a harbinger of a good final season.

The Other Bennet Sister is hands down the best Austen-inspired series to hit television in years, if not decades, surpassing the likes of Masterpiece on PBS’s Sanditon. Its fresh approach to classic material only enhances Austen’s enduring genius.

Sanditon Season 3 is the show at its soapiest, smartest best and it’s well worth the wait for long-time fans.

Jack Thorne has managed to make the series adaptation of Lord Of The Flies fresh by giving viewers as close to a visceral experience of being in the middle of the chaos as possible, with good performances by the actors playing the main characters.

Twenty Twenty Six is a funny take on a workplace focused on putting together one of the world’s biggest sporting events, helmed by a person who is experienced with all the craziness and somehow manages to get things done in spite of it.

Man On Fire feels like it’s going to be seven episodes of filler and tortured monologuing between action scenes, which doesn’t exactly make for entertaining television.

The House Of The Spirits is a well-acted, beautifully-shot adaptation of Allende’s classic novel that takes its time to luxuriate in the lives of Clara and Esteban but keeps things moving as the story progresses through over 50 years.

Yes, Should I Marry A Murderer? is completely one-sided. But Caroline Muirhead is so compelling to listen to as she recalls this harrowing story that we hung on her every word.

What we hope is that the level of episodic mysteries on A Taste For Murder get a little bit better than the muddled one we saw in the first episode, because everything around those episodic cases makes for an interesting show.

Another distinctive addition to Apple TV’s impressive library that delivered several agonizing jump scares, loads of laughs, and intrigued until the last second of the 10 episode season.

While Flunked isn’t as funny as other recent school-based shows, the first episode introduces some potentially funny supporting characters, and the undercover aspect adds a lot of potential funny situations to explore.

We wish After The Flood would concentrate on one story instead of the handful it has to juggle, because the talent in front and behind the camera is so good. But the show continues to be messy and muddled, and really hard to connect with.

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.

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.

As much as we like Jumbo and Capaldi, there’s nothing about Criminal Record‘s second season that holds our interest.

While This Is A Gardening Show has some degree of Zach Galifianakis’ brand of awkward comedy, it doesn’t overwhelm his enthusiasm for the subject and how much that enthusiasm informs each episode.

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?

Subtlety isn’t really a strong suit of Unchosen, but what we hope is that the show’s rough edges in that category will be smoothed down as the psychological thriller at the core of the series develops.

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.

Kevin works because it’s not just leaning on gags. It really tries to put its characters and stories in a position to be funny without leaning on gags, which makes the gags funny instead of fatiguing to watch.

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.

With this being its last season, the quality and plot twists have only gotten better and it’s a must-watch for fans of the show (anyone who hasn’t seen previous seasons will absolutely be lost).

We’re not sure the second season of Beef is going to be as satisfying as the first season was, but the story has a lot of places it can go, so we’re hopeful we can connect to it as the season goes along.

With its vibrant and unique art style, engaging psychological drama, and compelling main character, Nippon Sangoku: The Three Nations of the Crimson Sun could very well be a hidden gem of Prime Video’s spring programming slate. Give it a chance.

Margo’s Got Money Troubles has serious moments, but it’s a show that doesn’t try to take itself too seriously, and that sense of fun is going to make Margo’s journey to provide for her son very watchable.

If you want to watch Kitchen Nightmares, go to Hulu and watch the old episodes. Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service feels like a remodel of Nightmares that makes what was a pretty silly show even sillier.

While we’re still not sure The Audacity is going to be an ultimately satisfying show to watch, we are interested enough in the plot between Duncan and JoAnne to keep watching.

Malcolm In The Middle: Life’s Still Unfair brings the original series’ chaotic energy to the 2020s, taking into account that the chaos just needs to be a little bit different nowadays.

We’re definitely on board with watching how The Miniature Wife is going to pull things off, both technically and storywise, but mainly because we’re confident that Banks can handle the challenge of playing someone shrunk down to six inches, and Macfadyen is always so good at playing weasels.

Bad Mistakes works mostly because we like watching Levy and Ortega’s chemistry as siblings, and we’ll always be there to see Laurie Metcalf do her thing. We’re just wondering how silly things are going to get during this show’s first season.

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.

While we’re a bit disappointed in the dark turn The Boys has made as it goes into its final season, we’re looking forward to seeing how Eric Kripke and company bring the story to an end.

After watching the first three episodes of Euphoria Season 3, it’s unclear whether there’s hope for Rue and her friends, but there’s definitely a chance this polarizing HBO show might end its run on an incandescent high note.

Whipsmart, funny, and audacious from start to finish, Hacks Season 5 will keep you laughing and guessing until the last moment. .... Much like Smart, the show ends by cementing its legacy as one of the greatest comedies of the 21st century.

Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord is certainly one of the darker entries in the franchise, especially among the animated series. But there is a lot of potential to dig into the personality of one of the franchise’s most notorious villains, which is always something we look forward to seeing.

XO, Kitty is in its “well-oiled machine” phase, with characters we want to follow, a lead that continues to put in a magnetic performance, and a feeling that the show’s writers have settled on the storylines they want to follow the most.

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.

Hamm’s performance in Your Friends & Neighbors is what will keep us watching, as he transforms from a guy who has gotten too big for his britches to a guy who now knows that was the case and is doing something about it.

While the idea of hearing the story of Pablo Escobar’s son is intriguing, Dear Killer Nannies just doesn’t go deep enough into Juan Pablo Escobar’s life to make things interesting.

We’re giving Atomic a mild recommendation because there might be enough chasing through various Northern African locations to make the show a visual treat, and we’re curious about the dynamic between Max and JJ. But it also feels like show that might repeat itself too much as the two men run around with those satchels of plutonium.

Torres remains a unique and special voice not just in comedy, but in the performing arts, and we could use more voices like his.

Even though House Of David will likely appeal to faith-based audiences, it still hasn’t been able to make its Biblical characters into people 21st century audiences can connect with.

The Feud On Shelbury Drive does a fine job of spinning what seems to be a small dispute into a thriller that anyone who has an issue with their neighbors can relate to.

For All Mankind remains ever ambitious with its fifth season, where the series makes the reflection off its alternate history mirror even stronger as the lives of everyday people get squeezed between the politicians of Mars fighting with the politicians of Earth.

Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole isn’t reinventing the “troubled detective” or Nordic noir genres, but good performances by Santelmann and Kinnaman make the show very watchable.

Camila Morrone’s compelling performance in Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen isn’t enough for us to get past the cartoonish supporting characters, the foreboding with little payoff, and a plot that just seems to consist of little more than tense moments.

Bait is a mostly-funny show about a guy that finds out what it’s like when he makes himself go viral in order to advance his career, with a funny performance by Riz Ahmed.

While Daredevil: Born Again continues to be a watchable Marvel series with good performances, your enjoyment of the show may depend on how close you feel Fisk’s New York is to what is going on in real life.

Mystery Road: Origin continues to give viewers compelling mysteries combined with Jay Swan’s determination to make his work speak for itself despite the racism that he faces on a daily basis.

The second season of Deadloch continues to be a darkly funny series with a fun pair of mismatched detectives who strangely work very well together.

With a tried-and-true formula, SNL UK‘s cast most likely will find their voices and establish themselves as a separate entity, albeit with the same plusses and minuses that the American show has. Some sketches and performances will become legendary; but most, forgettable. Unless SNL UK can break out of this formula and determine what makes them special, the show may never match the heights of Monty Python, or even the Canadian alternatives from SCTV through Kids in the Hall.

The final season of The Comeback is as funny and self-aware as the first two seasons, mainly because Kudrow continues to make Valerie Cherish one of the least self-aware characters on television.

The Forsytes might be a little bit more sudsy than classic takes on the Saga, but it’s still incredibly well-acted and gorgeous to behold.

The Faithful: Women Of The Bible spins a compelling view of the book of Genesis that hasn’t been explored to this point, with performances that humanize the figures being featured, overcoming some clumsy writing.

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.

There’s an inherent charm to bowling. Born to Bowl capably channels that charm, and it’s a fun watch.

This City is Ours features a few wrinkles in its setting and approach that set it apart from the many, many similarly sprawling family crime dramas. We’ll stick with it and see what an impressively deep cast can bring to the story, which features a lot of other elements that strike us as pretty familiar.

If you’re a pre-existing fan of this series, then you’re likely to enjoy this latest installment that continues to faithfully adapt the overall hilarity, tone, and excitement of Hirohiko Araki’s beloved manga series. But even first-time viewers are likely to get swept away by the colorful characters, fast-moving plot, and absurd humor.

The Lady makes a compelling true crime story into a compelling drama through the performances by both McKenna-Bruce and Dormer, who try hard to make their famous characters nuanced and real.

Invincible continues to give viewers one of the more nuanced superhero stories we’ve ever seen, and while the show finds itself in a dark place in Season 4, it’s still a compelling show to watch.

While we’re skeptical that the twists and turns of Imperfect Women are really going to surprise us, we are curious enough about those twists and turns to keep watching.

The seventh season of Virgin River isn’t doing much more than keeping the story moving at the pace it set back in its first season in 2019. But that’s what fans want, which is why the show will go as long as Netflix and the producers want it to go.

We were happy to take in the contemplative pace of The Madison as well as watching Pfeiffer’s performance. But we’re also concerned that Sheridan’s penchant for leaden dialogue and sketchy portrayals of female characters are going to ultimately drag this show down.

Like the original series, Mystery Road: Origin layers lots of stories into a slow-burn story involving Jay Swan’s very complicated life.

While not hilarious, Sunny Nights works because of Carden’s performance, the premise’s clash of sensibilities, and its ability to give viewers a glimpse at Sydney’s seedier side.

Age Of Attraction seems to have a positive message about love knowing no age, but we’re wondering how the show is going to separate itself from other dating shows once it leaves the retreat.

We would be happier if Scarpetta was a period piece with its main characters’ younger versions instead of its current time-jumping format, but we’re hoping that the present-day storyline comes around as Kay and company revisit the serial killer case from the ’90s.

One Piece’s storytelling compass remains pointed in the right direction.

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.

As good as Weisz and the cast of Vladimir is, they’re trapped in a story that’s smothered in gimmickry instead of character development.

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.

It’s gratifying to see Chris Fleming stay true to the vision he had starting out in stand-up two decades ago and be richly rewarded for it. Strap in and enjoy the ride!

While Young Sherlock is certainly stylish, it doesn’t forsake substance for that style, setting up Sherlock Holmes’ first big case in a way that digs into the characters of Sherlock, Moriarty and others that are familiar to Holmes fans.

We’re not completely sure that The Hunt will get any deeper than what we saw in the first episode. But there are signs that, at the very least, it will be a tense thriller, even if it’s not a very character-driven one.

Once the awkwardness of setting up R.J. Decker‘s puzzle pieces ends, we see the potential for it to be a fun, quirky case-of-the-week detective series that will concentrate on its characters’ stories as much if not more than the weekly case.

Luke Grimes is up to the challenge of leading a Yellowstone spin-off as Kayce Dutton, as Marshals inserts his character and all that family lore into an action-procedural, very familiar CBS-type series.

American Classic isn’t going to make you laugh out loud, but its excellent cast and warm small-town-and-family feeling will be more than enough to keep you watching.

DTF St. Louis is definitely a little weird at the start, but viewers’ patience will be rewarded with a quirky but interesting mystery starting in Episode 2.

The Gray House is surprisingly engaging for such a sprawling historical drama, aided mostly by a good mix of characters and a strong lead performance by Daisy Head.

The return of Scrubs works because it acknowledges that its characters have changed with age, and while it struggles to integrate its new generation of characters, there’s still more than enough laughs to satisfy the original’s most ardent fans.

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.

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 Fall And Rise Of Reggie Dinkins is as reliably funny as any Fey/Carlock production, with smart writing and a great cast.

STREAM IT if you like FBI or are a big Tom Ellis fan; CIA should scratch the itch of both sets of viewers. If you’re looking for an interesting procedural, SKIP IT.

While Strip Law has its moments, it’s most a loud, gag-heavy comedy that doesn’t really take its time to make its main characters into real people.

We’re still a little annoyed that the second season of The Last Thing He Told Me seems to serve up a thrill-light nothingburger of a story, but we still want to see the chemistry between Garner and Rice, which is the best thing about the series.

While Kwabena isn’t in a dead-end job anymore, Dreaming Whilst Black shows how much of a struggle it will be to get his voice heard in the entertainment industry, which may even be more insular than the outside world.

The thought-provoking new direction will challenge, confuse, and likely divide viewers, but it will also deepen the show’s sci-fi roots and evoke more comparisons to Silo Season 2, LOST, and The Last of Us than ever before.

The story behind Wild Boys: Strangers In Town is pretty compelling, even if you have much less sympathy for those “wild boys” at the end of the docuseries than you had at the beginning.

The Night Agent is still perfectly good “watch while doing laundry” TV, but it feels like the third season is even more lunkheaded than the first two, and the absence of Buchanan is huge.

Ten Pound Poms works because its characters are easy to root for as they try to make new lives for themselves in Australia. And the fact that the show is working towards a conclusion ensures that the stories will stay focused.

Unless you’re a Gordon Ramsay completist, Being Gordon Ramsay feels like it’s going to be six episodes of of the same pleasant but dull Ramsay promotional material that we saw in the first episode.