Well-paced and efficient, Bad Vegan sucks you into Melngailis's personal drama and keeps you there.

[Magic and the Lakers] transformed sports in the public’s eye from just a game into show business. You’ll see how in this colorful, explosive, thoroughly entertaining series.

To some degree The Dropout is just a re-enactment of the public record — re-enactments of Elizabeth’s court deposition do a lot of the series’ expositional heavy lifting — but there is something strangely compelling about watching an actor portraying the purveyor of this audacious corporate fraud.

McKinnon embodies a down-to-earth but quirky version of Baskin, totally selling the idea that a woman this committed to saving tigers could find herself involved in a bizarre death match with the likes of Joe Exotic. Mitchell is equally convincing.

The vast audience for Vikings is clearly the target for Valhalla, and those viewers won’t be disappointed, but they also won’t be blown away; the show takes a while to find its way.

Race isn’t just an engrossing and surprisingly suspenseful docuseries about an elite athlete trying to get to the top tier of his sport. It’s also a great intro to racing and NASCAR, including a clear-eyed look at its rebel-flag-waving past.

It doesn’t help that the writing has all the subtlety of a cab ride down Ninth Avenue. Still, despite these shortcomings it’s a tidy hour with just enough strong performances and compelling scenes to keep things moving. The cops side of the hour is stronger than the courts side.

Murderville isn’t remotely a murder mystery, or even a parody of a murder mystery. But it offers a fresh take on improvisational comedy, one of the few underrepresented subgenres in today’s television landscape.

Pam & Tommy turns a notorious media moment into a captivating, if undeniably tawdry, exploration of the price of celebrity in a culture where the complete loss of privacy is considered the price of fame.

Make some popcorn and plan to watch the two-episode origin story in one sitting. It might be the most satisfying addition to the Western genre since Godless.

It verges at times on hokey melodrama. ... So, yes, I’m disappointed. But I'm recommending Dopesick anyway, because quite honestly I don’t think the show was designed for a viewer like me. ... Hulu has apparently decided that this adaptation of a nonfiction book should resemble a very long movie-of-the-week — but you know, a lot of people like to watch those.

CSI was worth watching then and you know what? It’s worth watching now. The CSI: Vegas pilot pulls you right back in with its familiar video funnel effect, moody sets and stylized killings.

The problem here is material, not money. The pilot suggested that Stewart would be shining a light on a major problem each episode, with a targeted solution that he was in a unique position to address. But how many problems are there actually like that? Judging by the glacially boring second episode, not that many. ... He drips with sanctimony toward anyone who doesn’t share his point of view.

Based on what [series creator Karin Gist] showed in the first two episodes, I doubt this series will devolve into the kind of soapy debauch seen on other Black-headlined dramas. She seems more interested in building a world, one where Black people run successful companies, hobnob in elite clubs of their own making and act as though the rest of us don't even exist.

Inside LuLaRich, directors Jenner Furst and Julia Willoughby Nason have embedded some equally compelling stories about why people get swept up by MLM fever and wind up bankrupting not only themselves but friends and family that they enthusiastically pull into the scheme with them.

Turning Point is exactly the kind of serious, searing recapitulation that this moment demands. Its five expertly compressed episodes move briskly yet with care, choosing the moments and memories that have maximum impact.

Only Murders in the Building feels fresh and interesting and you should absolutely watch every new episode as it drops on Hulu (or Disney+ if you’re reading this from outside the U.S.).

The storylines are darker, sexier. They also arc across episodes — I recommend watching at least the first two to get the full flavor. Also, Episode 2 is stronger, with the loss of intimacy explored through both comic and poignant storylines. It’s a network show, so don’t expect The Leftovers. But Fantasy Island is back and it’s in good hands.

If you don’t mind continuing to churn through a storyline that effectively adds up to one step forward and one, perhaps one-and-a-half, steps backward … then yes, watch Season 4 of The Handmaid’s Tale.

It’s better than most other recent Netflix sitcoms (Country Comfort comes to mind), and that I admire how it incorporates racial issues that are on the minds of everyone who will be watching this show in 2021. And the season is blessedly short, with just eight 22-minute episodes to get through — seven if you skip the less-than-stellar pilot. Give it a go.

This well-done childrens’ show is better than any dumbed-down E/I show I’ve ever seen, and will arguably do more to change people’s eating habits than anything the USDA thinks it can do.

Last Chance U may have found its ideal coach. ... This scrappy coach was blessed with a bumper crop of talent, each with their own Last Chance U-ready narrative. ... Watching Mosley clearly anguish over his loss, I found myself wishing, for the very first time in a year, for the true return of sports.

As as critic I would advise viewers short on time to watch only the first and last episodes. Then, if you like what you see, you can go back and watch parts two through five. If you’re a teacher, though, you may just want to carve out a week or more for your kids to watch and discuss all six hours. It's that good.

The Snoopy Show is well-paced and nicely designed to appeal to five-year-olds, teaching them about friendship and yada yada. For me, though, watching it is bittersweet in the way that watching Sesame Street, as I wrote on that show’s 50th anniversary, is bittersweet. Much as I never got the appeal of Elmo, I never saw “Peanuts” as primarily about the big-snouted dog but rather, the big-headed little boy of my youth.

Valdez was not making a film about boys or football. He was making a film about men. ... It’s probably closest to Hoop Dreams in spirit (and length), but while that classic film was about two kids and the families living their dreams vicariously, this docuseries is about something larger, what I would call the building of social capital.

Losing Alice, besides being a seductively-paced drama you may have trouble shutting off, is also a backdoor commentary on women who disappear from the entertainment business around middle age, both in front of the camera and behind it.

Painting With John is, like its predecessor, a true original. It’s about a man who has seen a lot of the world, made a good living off his art, and — with the help of producers Adam McKay and Todd Schulman — has hand-crafted yet another work for television.

Pretend It’s a City feels like a gift from the universe — a small, affectionate token that a lover might drop in the mail while traveling the world just to remind you that she’ll be back, and that she’s worth the wait. ... Watching it I felt a strange permission to imagine life returning to normal, as I know it will sometime this year. In my mind, I pretend I’m in New York, and I’m walking up Sixth Avenue, and by chance I look up from my phone — and there’s Fran Lebowitz walking the other way, judging me.