While not our cup of tea, we definitely see how appealing The Sandman would be to fans of Gaiman and his work. We’re just not sure it’s particularly accessible to those of us who are new to the story.

The world that Andy Greenwald has set up in Briarpatch is one that’s worth visiting, despite the heavy hand on quirk.

While the episode with McElhenny, Waters and Konkle was funny, the episode that starred Grant was funny and heartwarming.

More than ever, Doctor Who feels like an old-fashioned movie adventure serial geared more towards kids than anyone else. But because of Gatwa’s enthusiastic portrayal of The Doctor, it’s still a pleasure to watch.

Hawkeye works because of the chemistry between Renner and Steinfeld, but also because it prioritizes character slightly more than action.

The Swamp‘s biggest strength, its nuance, is potentially its weakness. Viewers are so accustomed to super biased storytelling when it comes from contemporary political docs that The Swamp‘s extremely sensitive portrayals of three controversial Republican politicians as people might actually upset some viewers.

The Mysterious Benedict Society is smart without being overly precious, but is just weird enough to keep kids’ attention. It helps that the writing and acting help keep things from flying off into Tweeland.

Patience shows that its title character’s autism is an asset rather than a problem, and while there are time when Bea is a little flummoxed by Patience’s habits and routines, the show more often than not shows what a neurodivergent person can bring to a complex job like policing.

The second season of Landman is stronger than the first, mainly because the women on the show are in a stronger position than they were last season, giving Thornton’s Tommy all he can handle.

We’re giving a recommendation of 61st Street mostly for the performances of Vance and Ellis. But we’re definitely concerned that the show will lean too hard on things we’ve seen in this genre too many times already to say anything new.

The fact that we have a solid idea of who Kim is at the outset is more than enough for us. ... While Two Weeks To Live needs to deepen a few other characters, it set up its story very well in its first episode, aided by the fine lead performance of Maisie Williams.

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

Doctor Odyssey is a pretty dumb, inessential watch, but an entertaining one, mostly due to the performances of the main cast and guest stars.

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.

Black Narcissus just doesn’t have enough story to latch onto and pay attention to for three hours. It’s slow and talky, and it doesn’t have any characters that you want to follow by the end of the first hour.

The Secrets She Keeps certainly has a bit of a Lifetime movie feel to it, but the leads bring more than enough credibility to their roles to make the series worth watching.

Murder Before Evensong is an engaging mystery that builds a world around Canon Daniel Clement as he becomes the sleuthing vicar that will likely solve murders in future series.

Wednesday continues to be a funny, scary delight because of Ortega’s performance and because Burton has gone all in with the nightmarish imagery written by Gough, Millar and the show’s writers.

There’s naturalistic acting, and then there’s mumbling. And the first episode had a lot of mumbling, especially from André Holland. The Eddy is a pretentious mess of a show, and even the expert music that is interspersed through the first episode isn’t enough to save it. In fact, it makes things worse.

Lawmen: Bass Reeves benefits from a sturdy performance by David Oyelowo at its center, effectively strikes the balance between tough talk, gunplay, and sentiment typical of a Tyler Sherdian production, and offers some perspective on a formative era of US history.

Michelle Buteau is fantastic in Survival Of The Thickest, and we’re looking forward to seeing how her character Mavis inhabits her world on her own for the first time in years.

The Reagans is obviously a partisan production, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth watching. By re-contextualizing Ronald Reagan’s presidency, the series makes a clear case for how we got to this point as a country. It didn’t just start with Donald Trump.

It’s Ortega’s star power alone that helps drive this series from the very beginning into something that could have been mediocre into a totally watchable and exciting twist on a familiar franchise. ... While this adaptation makes some strange decisions, it ends up working in a weird way, which will interest both old and new viewers.

While the first episode of The Stolen Girl is a bit too predictable, there does seem to be a really twisty story underneath the predictable premiere.

It just feels like a whole series full of toxic, near-narcissistic characters that aren’t murdering each other. We don’t want to spend our precious time on earth with people like that in real life, much less filling the cast of a young adult drama.

The main reasons to watch DI Ray are Parminda Nagra’s lead performance and the theme of her fighting against bias in her department. We just wish the case being investigated, and some of the characters surrounding Ray, were more compelling.

Friends: The Reunion completely redefines how we should view sitcom reunions moving forward, and it sets the bar so high that I truly don’t know if any other get together can ever top it.

While 4400 may need to smooth down some of its more noticeable tone hiccups, it has set up a very interesting mystery with undertones of issues that are very relevant to 2021.