“Succession” proves particularly engrossing when the series finds new themes to explore and forces the characters to confront new situations as it does in season four. ... Allowing the series to conclude sooner rather than later insures it will likely continue to be regarded as one of the best TV dramas of all time.

What’s great about this second season is the way Storer and co-showrunner Joanna Calo find growth in each of the characters while still staying true to who they were when viewers first met them.

A textbook example of how to write a second season that sticks to what made the show great: Complex characters, a real-time format and medical cases depicted with an unwavering dedication to authenticity.

Season two of “Andor” stands proudly alongside season one as the most sophisticated, smartest “Star Wars” storytelling to date, thanks to showrunner Tony Gilroy.

Focus on the characters brings to the fore the show’s dark humor. There are more laughs to be had watching “Succession” than most TV comedies, a testament to the show’s writers who imbue the Roy children with specific foibles and a general lack of self-awareness.

Max’s “Hacks” remains a comedy gem in its fourth season.

“It’s a Sin” offers one of the most honest, moving takes on the AIDS crisis and in its final episode delivers a searing critique of the shame that ensured the disease’s spread.

Perhaps more than past seasons, these new episodes deftly balance comedic moments with insightful dialogue that explores generational differences in grounded scenes that don’t come off as preachy.

The best supernatural, religious-themed comedic drama you’re not watching.

Two things make this series a vast improvement over the miniseries: Show runner Ron Moore and his writing staff now feel free to dig deeper into the characters, and the show's pace and tone, though still sometimes slow and somber by conventional standards, has been opened up and made more accessible. Lighter moments have been added and the show's scope has grown more epic, the way a "Battlestar Galactica" story should be. [9 Jan 2005]

“Hacks” remains in top form. ... “Hacks” finds a way to restore the frenemies dynamic between the two lead characters without ignoring the progress made in their relationship in season one.

This second outing of “Schmigadoon” pales a bit compared to season one — too many ballads, not enough big song-and-dance numbers — but, at just six half-hour episodes, there are enough fun winks at Broadway to make it worthwhile for devoted musical theater fans.

By the end of the second season, a few aspects of the mystery plot come into better focus but it’s one step forward, two steps back. Still, “Severance” remains a rare, unique and completely distinctive series.

“Pluribus” is the most original, unexpectedly thought-provoking and frequently funny series of 2025, thanks in large part to star Rhea Seehorn (“Better Call Saul”), who throws herself with gusto into almost every scene of the series.

The series is interested in serving up the fights viewers want to see, but it also peels back layers of the characters to ultimately reveal how similar Danny and Amy are. Whether it’s healthy for easily-triggered viewers to tune in to watch others get triggered, well, each viewer will have to decide on their own.

Just as a viewer might suspect the plot will go one direction, Harjo gives the story an unexpected, shocking turn. It’s a potent mix that makes “The Lowdown” a welcome addition to a short list of TV’s best current series.

In lesser hands, a series spinoff of the theatrical “Alien” franchise might seem like just another IP play — a money grab. But pair Noah Hawley, the writer behind FX’s “Fargo,” with “Alien,” and you get a show that’s significantly better than that.

Season two goes deeper as it explores the characters’ insecurities and strengths. “Ted Lasso” remains funny and focused on kindness. A wealth of compassion for its characters courses through the show’s writing.

With most episodes running around a compact 30 minutes, “I’m a Virgo” entertains with a sly sense of humor (Cootie’s reaction when he finally gets to eat a Bing Bang Burger is a realistic disappointment) and Jerome’s sweet and grounded performance. The show has a lot of Big Ideas it wants to introduce even if “I’m a Virgo” doesn’t always follow through.

The love story is perhaps the least convincing aspect of this iteration of “Shōgun,” but the rest of it feels impressive in its scope, attention to detail and storytelling that sucks viewers in by the end of episode two and holds their attention from then on.

Ahmed created the series, and he’s clearly having a blast making fun of himself and wringing laughs from the situations he puts his alter ego into, absurd as they often are.

If you have been on board already, season three proves as addictive as season two, albeit slightly more heightened because the technology of this timeline’s 1990s is advanced beyond space-faring technology then or now.

Aside from an unearned character turn in the season finale that seems to come out of nowhere, “The Diplomat” delivers another great season of political intrigue mixed with character drama.

Hawke mesmerizes as Brown — excellent casting for a wild-eyed character — and Johnson brings a mix of a child’s innocence and a young man’s recognition of the craziness of the world around him to his sometimes heartbreaking performance as Onion.

There are grittier, hipper, more popular crime dramas coursing through the TV/streaming ecosystem – “Tulsa King,” “Presumed Innocent,” “The Rookie” — but none of those shows can match the quality of AMC’s “Dark Winds.” .... “Dark Winds” continues to feel taut and rightsized.

“The Last of Us” turns out to be a terrific series despite its thematic similarities to “The Walking Dead.”

Even though this is a procedural, it’s more elevated, more cinematic and more entertaining than most. ... Lyonne is perfectly suited to this milieu.

“Evil” is the rare show that’s both frequently scary — one jump-scare was enough that my reaction scared my dog sitting next to me on the couch — but in a generally sophisticated way. ... Episodes three and four of “Evil’s” second season, particularly three, are less commendable, splitting up the lead trio for too long and sending characters on paths that lack clear motivation.

Aside from a few repetitive cat-and-mouse moments between Leaphorn and the new Big Bad, “Dark Winds” benefits from its short run because it’s not bloated like so many streaming series are these days. The show makes every episode matter and keeps up a breakneck pace that relentlessly drives the story forward.

The show is not a downer but a welcome look at an under-represented culture through Waititi’s and Harjo’s cracked lens. It’s a series full of oddball characters with a likeable quartet at its center.

“English Teacher” delivers consistent laughs, evincing a sunny disposition even in the face of complex and complicated societal issues that constantly — and usually hilariously — encroach on its high school classrooms.

This season of “Picard” doesn’t feel like fan fiction; it feels legit.

It’s not a somber re-telling of a familiar story but a sensitive, humanistic approach that allows room for humor and happiness even as viewers know the story will inevitably take a tragic turn.

Serious and sobering, the six-episode limited series “We Own This City” delivers a worthy and worthwhile follow-up to “The Wire.”

It takes a few episodes for a lot of the new season’s setup – more politics than space exploration, really — to pay off but when it finally does, it proves worth the wait.

There’s a dark humor, absurdist vibe that, alongside the mysteries (What are the workers doing at Lumon? Why does Mark’s boss live next door to him?), makes “Severance” appealing. But some of that interest gets undone by over-long episodes and a thudding pace.

Themes include the use of government propaganda on Earth to frame events on Mars in a negative light, also relevant to real-world current events. Science fiction is often at its best when it reflects the here-and-now, which “For All Mankind” has done from the start, contributing to the strength of the show’s dramatic storytelling.

The show’s fly-on-the-wall intimacy – surely it will make some viewers uncomfortable — combined with Carmichael’s winning but deeply flawed nature makes this series a viewing experience that’s hard to tune out.

FX’s latest half-hour comedy won’t be for everyone because of the graphic depiction of a woman. .... But “Dying for Sex” — all eight episodes stream April 4 on Hulu — inspires a lot of laughs, too, thanks to Molly’s voiceover observations and her interactions with scattered best friend Nikki (Jenny Slate).

“The White Lotus” plods through its first episode — a cringe-worthy luau of misery — but the longer viewers sit with the show, the better and more engrossing it becomes.

“The Other Two” remains frequently screamingly funny, but it’s the rare TV comedy that also allows itself to show some heart, particularly when it comes to the relationships among the core family.

HBO Max’s best series since “The Flight Attendant” and easily the funniest new TV/streaming comedy of the year.

Overall “Maid” is a quality series with a pro-social message that brings to mind Netflix’s 2019 limited series “Unbelievable,” another worthwhile story of a woman’s empowerment and recovery from difficult circumstances.

That remains true in the revival, which is funny and clever in the way the first episode’s script, by Daniels, Judge and new showrunner Saladin K. Patterson, updates viewers on the characters and what they’ve been up to.

Tim Robinson returns with another hilarious cringe comedy, but the emphasis is on cringe, which makes “The Chair Company” an acquired taste that not everyone will want to acquire.

The show excels as both an intimate character study — this year’s most affecting theme: how each generation of parents screws up but tries to incrementally improve on how they were parented — and an action-packed adventure.

Even if the plotting is less urgent and the comedy, when it flares up (not often enough), is less biting, “White Lotus” remains consistently watchable for White’s finely-drawn characters, whether it’s Daphne’s sunny disposition that masks uncomfortable truths or Dominic’s justification/excuse for his cheating ways.

This “Muppet Show” is the sincerest effort yet to re-create the manic lunacy and charm of the original and feels of a piece with the series that started it all.

This import from New Zealand charms from start to finish.

Your next crime fiction obsession arrives with the fourth season of HBO’s True Detective,” this time subtitled “Night Country” (9 p.m. Jan. 14). It’s far superior to the show’s disappointing second season.

Ultimately, “Telemarketers” succeeds more as a character study of a passel of shady individuals who don’t normally turn up on TV than it does as any sort of expose.

The series gets off to a somewhat sluggish start but by the end of the first hour, “Mare of Easttown” gets its hooks into viewers, building tension around the murder investigation that engulfs Mare’s life. Episode two ratchets up the mystery further as multiple suspects come into focus.

“The Studio” becomes an often screamingly funny series through the course of its first season, making it the best new comedy series of 2025 so far.

By the last hour, the more serious tone takes over again, but it’s earned given what we’ve seen Garfield endure (though I could have done without Garfield’s widow visiting Guiteau in prison, which never happened in real life and seems designed to unnecessarily juice the drama quotient). Still, for fans of historical fiction, “Death by Lightning” remains worthwhile.

Sure, this latest season also stars Jon Hamm (“Mad Men”), Jennifer Jason Leigh (“Hunters”) and Joe Keery (“Stranger Things”), but this is unequivocally Temple’s season and yeah, sure, you betcha, she shines.

This is a show that knows what viewers want and gives it to them. “Interview” is not precious about its subject matter. ... Through the first five (of eight) episodes, it’s got all the makings of a deserving cult hit.

Patinkin is always fun to watch but through the first four episodes his arc as a disruptor to the judicial system is more entertaining than driving a dramatic storyline with stakes, something “The Good Fight” seems to be having some difficulty finding in a post-Trump environment.

“Dark Winds” is at its best when focusing on aspects of Navajo culture that give “Dark Winds” a unique flavor and at its most TV-unreal when officers wander into dangerous situations without calling for backup.

She’s still funny, sometimes foolish and still prone to malapropisms. .... In a season as upbeat as Valerie herself, “The Comeback” allows itself some moments of earned emotion.

This Marvel-ous treat from writer/director James Gunn proves an entertaining enough diversion regardless of the degree of your devotion to the MCU.

Sure, some of the characters are stereotypes – painfully woke, white teacher Jacob (Chris Perfetti); ziti-making Melissa “I know a guy” Schemmenti (Lisa Ann Walter, another scene-stealer) – but they’re all uniformly funny.

It’s effortlessly entertaining and frequently funny; an easy, breezy eight-episode binge.

Although the new fourth season lacks a defining episode like season three’s sixth episode, “Abidooniidee (What We Had Been Told),” featuring lead character Joe Leaphorn on an emotional, hallucinatory journey, season four manages to advance all its characters’ stories, even as they spend more time than ever off the reservation.

The best ones [reboots and sequel series] take what’s great about the original and layer in something new. That’s just what FX’s “Justified: City Primeval” delivers.

Even with some wayward storytelling, “Fleishman” remains appealing for viewers whose primary interest is in complex characters (nobody is black or white, they’re all shades of gray) rather than plot. And while several characters make questionable choices, the ending defies expectations in a way that seems true-to-life.

As much a love story between Susan and Chris as it is a true-crime caper, viewers expecting a straightforward tale may be baffled by what “Landscapers” delivers, which is sometimes interesting and different, other times overwrought and pretentious.

The good news is the show’s second season, streaming Tuesday, is more like the back half of season one: funnier and more involved because we’re dealing with established characters and because the writers, led by showrunner John Hoffman (“Grace and Frankie”), have a firmer grasp on the show’s tone and a more confident hand in its plotting.

“Diarra from Detroit,” furthers the niche streamer’s reputation for quality shows after last summer’s Pittsburgh-set “Average Joe,” which had a similarly well-balanced tone of comedic drama.

Easily the fall’s best original scripted series.

An engrossing, character-driven thriller.

What makes “The Pitt” worth watching are its characters. .... Creatively, “The Pitt” succeeds by any measure.

A true original that’s completely strange, “Mrs. Davis” is a breath of fresh air in a reboot-happy medium.

Through seven episodes made available for review, this season of “Only Murders” hangs together quite well thanks to both viewer familiarity with the returnees and the influx of Hollywood characters that add humor and a multitude of new suspects.

A jaunty spy thriller score set the tone for what the fast-paced show becomes in episode two once Cassie regularly imagines conversations with the dead guy (Michiel Huisman, “Game of Thrones”) as her way of coping. “The Flight Attendant” becomes a comedic mystery-thriller and Cuoco’s presence and performance capably sell its delicately balanced tone.

It plays immaculately. Some of the appreciation for this special can be chalked up to nostalgia – for the show and its idealism about public service; for a simpler, comparatively chaos-free time in American politics – but this “West Wing” special also delivers a patriotic balm with entertaining calls to vote, delivered with clever word play, that substitute for commercials.

Through clever re-creations of sitcom theme songs, sets and tropes, “WandaVision” proves a unique entry in a genre that’s too often overly similar.

“North of North” is an easy, entertaining watch that’s improved by its cultural specificity.

Much of the acting is masterful, but Parker Posey proves the revelation. .... White’s attention to local details, from visual close-ups of flora and fauna to the use of regional music, give “White Lotus” a vibe unlike any other series.

A winning, offbeat animated comedy.

The show barely develops its adult characters. One hopes that will come in future episodes but in the meantime the vibe coming off the kids who want to be more worldly than they actually are proves alternately alluring, dispiriting and fascinating, which makes “We Are Who We Are” a tough show to embrace — and impossible to entirely dismiss.

A best drama nomination for “Yellowjackets,” which was nominated for its first season in last year’s Emmy race, seems pretty likely if the first six episodes made available for review are indicative of the season as a whole.

The season is worth watching for Streep and the show’s ode to Broadway showmanship; just prepare to be disappointed when she and the music are not part of an episode.

“Task” proves engrossing and propulsive throughout, a smart, generally sophisticated crime drama, although there are a few too many moles and turncoats that detract from a story that otherwise feels authentic.

Superior to a Disney Channel, three-camera sitcom, each episode features a couple of original tunes that should get toes tapping.

Co-created by Sadfie and Fielder, “The Curse” accomplishes what it sets out to do with gusto – amuse through embarrassments that make “Curb Your Enthusiasm” seem staid – but I could only make it through three episodes before deciding I didn’t need to subject myself to more.

Equal parts political thriller and steamy, doomed romance, “Fellow Travelers” proves to be an addictive yarn that, despite its period setting, feels vital and relevant in 2023 America.

“The Serpent Queen” offers juicier period drama than either of the ballyhooed fantasy epics [“House of the Dragon” and “The Rings of Power”]. ... [Samantha] Morton mesmerizes.

Returning drama “The Diplomat” is that Netflix rarity: A great show.

“Julia” is by no means a must-see series but it will be a want-to-see show for a segment of the audience that’s historically been undervalued by ad-supported TV networks.

“Pose” seems to be sprinting through story — the seven-episode season begins in 1994 and ends in 1998 — to fit everything in in its final season. It’s a little all over the place but entertaining enough in the soapy way “Pose” always is.

There are few revelations that justify the four-hour running time. ... The fourth hour is the strongest, showing how members of the investigation commission used “bureaucratic jujitsu” to thwart efforts to protect NASA’s image.

The results improve on the original.

“Murder on Middle Beach” proves affecting in its portrayal of a grieving family and a questioning son seeking to root out the truth. But it doesn’t have enough germane material for four installments – the second episode goes off on a tangent that proves largely fruitless – and it ends at a seemingly premature juncture.

“Strange New Worlds” is at its best in its fifth episode, which delivers more cheeky fun and short bursts of character development with economy that are more meaningful than the paragraphs of breathless character exposition found in the first four episodes.

“Reggie Dinkins” uses quick cuts and cartoon-like tangents in a manner that will feel familiar/comfortable to “30 Rock” fans. The return of “Scrubs” and the debut of “Reggie” offer solid evidence that with the right talent involved, comedies still have a place on broadcast TV.

Other than unnecessarily elongating the story and filming it in black and white, Netflix’s adaptation does nothing to improve on the Oscar-nominated film that already exists.

Mel is a great friend. She’s smart, funny and has a great personality but her insecurities lead to bad choices that make “How to Die Alone” less fun and enjoyable than it could be.

It’s a cute, novel trifle that could have used some punching up but worth watching for its comedy legend stars.