History won’t save the world or anything, but it’s a pleasantly goofy romp through the history books.

We’ve got multi-animal assaults, a luxury jet that would make S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Zephyr jealous, new characters and a “Phase Two” twist that has upped the stakes, putting one hero in particular in a frightful situation.

All in all, though, it’s a breezy watch with a casually zany hangout energy, and it hits on some touchy subjects without getting too deep with them. (This is a comedy, after all.) It’s tough to talk about money sometimes, but the Home Economics crew finds a way to make it almost fun.

After three-and-a-half hours of action, The Get Down‘s tone still seems to be a work in progress--not that there’s anything inherently wrong with a “hey, there’s even a kitchen sink!” melding of genres. The good news is that Ezekiel’s poetry and Mylene’s pipes are so undeniable, you’ll relate to the former’s optimistic English teacher (Treme’s luminous Yolonda Ross).

As creepy as Ike’s obsession is, it never gets creepy enough to be truly unsettling. All in all, though, it’s worthwhile just to see Ferrell and Rudd expand their acting ranges a bit and delve deep into a story that’s so strange, it has to be true.

Starz’s Party Down revival isn’t quite as fun as the original run, but it still has a great cast and plenty of satirical bite.

Sorry, Miley, but your Black Mirror is the weakest of the bunch. [C-]... The twist [in "Striking Vipers"]is genuinely shocking and opens up a number of intriguing storytelling avenues, and the acting is solid. ... But after the initial shock wears off, the episode just kind of plods along, and the ending feels too easy for such a complicated premise. [B] ... ["Smithereens"] is Scott’s episode from start to finish: a harrowing portrait of a man pushed firmly and irretrievably over the edge. [A-]

The redo--in which Spelling plays the mom of a co-ed who’s fallen for a (gasp!) lesbian (double gasp!) vampire--is still solidly silly and spectacularly cheesy.

Lena Dunham’s Netflix rom-com Too Much has a certain charm and a great lead performance, but its central romance is too shaky to sustain it.

Overall, Season 4 is a truly mixed bag, evenly split between gems and duds.

Daryl Dixon is by no means perfect. There are some murky motivations, eyebrow-raising coincidences, and here and there dialogue that is more mystifying than it can possibly have been intended to be. .... Despite my quibbles, I never got to an installment that made me reluctant to watch the one after it.

Hulu’s intriguing but frustrating book adaptation Conversations With Friends can’t quite match the heights of Normal People.

DC’s Stargirl gets off to a rousing, high-flying start, then loses some momentum when subsequent episodes open with deep-diving, Titans-style, -centric flashbacks. But by Episode 4, the stage is set for what is both DC Universe’s and The CW’s lightest, brightest, family-friendliest live-action superhero show yet.

I like Middleditch and Ashford together enough to hope that Pennette and the writers find a way to work out the kinks and tap into this pairing’s considerable potential.

The jokes could use some polishing, and the concept could easily grow old in a hurry, but the trio of Wayans, Stevens West and Mallard nudge this one a solid notch above your average network sitcom.

It’s almost shameless how quickly Mac plows through the “classics,” including using soot and packing tape to lift a fingerprint, and I’m still unsure of what principle he uses exactly to outwit a biometric scanner. But these quick fixes remain a good part of the fun. ... It deviates from the comparatively “lone wolf” nature of the original, though that’s not necessarily to its detriment; it simply makes it more familiar, CBS procedural-y.

As a representation of an underserved demographic, and a declaration of war on lazy fat jokes, Shrill is an unquestioned success… but as a comedy series, it falls somewhere short of that.

A show like Conviction, which is fine but not terribly inspiring.

Elisabeth Moss’ spy thriller The Veil is effectively tense and provocative, but it gets derailed by unnecessary subplots.

Dune: Prophecy boasts stunning visuals and strong performances, but the story falls short of the high bar set by the Dune movies.

To be fair, the revival does begin to find its stride in later episodes, especially when it leans into the proudly pretentious tone of the original. (We even get a conversation spoken entirely in Latin!) But beyond the superficial similarities — the pithy title cards between scenes, Grammer crooning “Tossed Salad and Scrambled Eggs” over the end credits — this just isn’t Frasier.

The ensemble has held together nicely in the two decades since. ... When it comes time to take aim at today’s political landscape, Murphy Brown misses its target. ... The revival’s strongest asset, actually, is Murphy’s relationship with her now-adult son Avery (Jake McDorman).

It tries to juggle too many characters at once, and doesn’t make any of them as compelling as its core concept. It’s a noble effort, and genuinely stirring at times, but I’m still waiting for it to really take flight.

Seth Rogen’s showbiz satire The Studio has lots of cool cameos, but gets too caught up in Hollywood lore to be consistently entertaining.

If you can get past the lack of originality--and lines like “We have to be more pure than the Virgin Mary before her first period”--Billions does offer a nasty but fun escape into a world that brings to life the title of the Notorious B.I.G.’s old hit, “Mo Money, Mo Problems.”

There are a few consistent bright spots, including party-girl Stephanie’s interactions with DJ’s annoying (sorry!) kids; the original series’ now-twentysomething fans will likely identify with her more than any other character.

Jude Law and Jason Bateman make Netflix’s grim crime drama Black Rabbit worth watching, even when the story crumbles around them.

While it’s not entirely successful, the directing team’s approach is certainly skillful, and McMillions is definitely a fun watch.

[Sharp Objects] is frustratingly opaque, and it moves like molasses. It’s such a slow burn, it nearly fizzles out. ... At the very least, it’s still an artfully shot showcase for some fine acting, which isn’t the worst thing in the world. But considering the big names involved and the promising source material, it can’t help but feel like a letdown.

I’m hoping Superstore lasts long enough that its writers begin to feel less reliant on jokey situations and trust that there’s more than enough organic humor to be found just by letting their characters live in the peculiar, seldom-seen world they’ve created.

When the series gets too far away from the Bancroft investigation, Altered Carbon stumbles.

It’s tough, because there’s so much about this show that I like, but I can’t shake the feeling that I wanted to see something more ambitious and boundary-breaking (and funny!) from a creative team of this caliber. Though there’s still time for Loot to find its footing and take a harder look at its main character, so far it goes down as a missed opportunity.

The Sinner does have a nicely lyrical visual style: It’s shot with a keen eye for detail, with an appropriately gloomy, unsettling musical score. But strangely, the more we learn about Cora’s complicated past, the less interesting her story becomes. The answers we do get are either too pat--the flashbacks to her childhood, with a young Cora being tormented by her fanatically religious mother, are painfully overwrought-- or they’re simply erased by the latest plot twists.

It’s safe to say that Season 3 improves on that mess [Vince Vaughn’s Season 2 performance], but it still registers as a mild disappointment, all things considered.

AMC’s beautiful new take on Interview With the Vampire is certainly bold and seductive, but it too often tips over into camp.

If you stick with the show, a sorta Law & Order: Forensic Linguistics, you’ll find that, OK, at times, it’s a little heavy-handed. ... Bettany is so compelling, in fact, that you’ll wish we got more of him sooner. Ditto Jane Lynch, who does fine, subtle work as Attorney General Janet Reno.

Locke & Key isn’t at all shy about revealing Key House’s incredible secrets; it just struggles to then do much with them, instead tending to hit pause on any acquired momentum to dive back into high school dating/movie club drama. As such, things don’t really get crackling until Episode 5 or so.

There are a few genuinely poignant moments scattered through Disclaimer’s run, but taken as a whole, it’s a rough watch, putting its characters through the wringer and wallowing in overheated melodrama with lots of wailing and crying.

For those in need of a serialized, compelling storyline, the fact that two episodes in we have no idea what Eliot will be up to on a weekly basis, and only a half of a hint of a whisper about Tyrell’s fate, has to make one wary.

Jen’s She-Hulk origin story, which unspools in the first episode, gets a bit repetitive — another case of an unwitting someone not wanting the gift of superpowers — but Maslany and Ruffalo enjoy a wonderful sibling-like banter that transcends the VFX they’re often hidden under. Once Jen accepts her duality, things get much more zippy and She-Hulk transforms into “Lawyer Show!”

Unfortunately, The Detour too often confuses the obvious for the outrageous, and mistakes hacky-ness for hilarity.

It has all the elements of a comedy, but it’d rather see us squirm than laugh, which makes it an intriguing but oddly uneven and unsatisfying series.

It doesn’t always hit on all cylinders, but it delivers the fireworks we’re looking for from a show like this. It’s like a battering ram slamming through a screen door: not very subtle, but undeniably effective.

Netflix’s Wednesday has a ghoulish tone and a superb lead performance, but the story is strictly cookie-cutter YA mystery.

Rachel Sennott's "I Love LA" feels like a mash-up of earlier HBO comedies about young people, but it never quite finds a voice of its own.

With too many new characters and not enough family togetherness, Hulu's "Malcolm in the Middle" revival can't recreate the anarchic thrill of the original.

All told, the “new-ish” Designated Survivor seems serviceable, if not (though understandably) in the same league as the venerable White House drama it aims to emulate.

"Star Trek" tries to get a fresh start with "Starfleet Academy," but it's dogged by the same pitfalls that have hampered recent "Trek."

Garland’s singular vision is in full effect — Devs contains some of the most stunning imagery I’ve seen on TV in recent years — but unfortunately, the story gets stuck at the starting gate, bogged down by dense tech jargon and a frustratingly cryptic conspiracy plot.

While Episode 1 overexerts itself juggling multiple storylines (there’s a B-story involving a young tailie that simply vanishes for long stretches), the episodes that follow are more tightly wound as the murder case, which dominates half of the 10-episode season, takes frightful turns.

Until Jack Ryan finds a way to make its drama as compelling as its action scenes, it’ll go down as a mission not quite accomplished.

It’s crass and formulaic, and a lot of the jokes boil down to “Hey, that old guy sure doesn’t act old!” But these seasoned sitcom veterans know how to sell a punchline to a live studio audience.

The Young Pope feels more like an eccentric foreign film than a TV series. Except it is a TV series--and little quirks that might seem charming in a 90-minute movie can begin to grate across several episodes.

If The Great Indoors can maintain a balance of smart, and not tired, barbs lobbed between “the human version of dial-up” and the “stupid twentysomethings” with whom he must now work, there surely is a show here.

Reiser and Hunt’s veteran presence and the nostalgia factor help nudge it slightly above your standard sitcom, and maybe that’s enough to earn a spot on your holiday watch list.

The new Password is… not bad? And even a lot of fun at times. No, I’m still not a fan of the set, which has none of the coziness from the (deep cut alert!) Allen Ludden-hosted era, but instead seems dictated by the law that every primetime game show since 1999 has to evoke Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. ... But the gameplay is faithful to that which we all know (save for a flourish or two), and the proceedings are overseen by a pretty perfect host.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow remains an odd bird. ... The better news is that once aboard the ship, the ensuing backstory on the Legends’ predicament tees up a rollicking, rat-a-tat recap of their off-season flitting through time.

Tim Allen and Kat Dennings make an entertainingly feisty duo as father and daughter in ABC’s new family sitcom Shifting Gears.

NBC’s Quantum Leap reboot has a charming star and slick action scenes, but gets bogged down by corny dialogue and dead-end mysteries.

The show’s supporting players--in particular, D.B. Woodside’s Amenadiel, sent down from Heaven to insist Lucifer go back from where he came, Rachael Harris as Lucifer’s shrink, and Lesley-Ann Brandt as Maze, Lucifer’s ass-kicking assistant--hint at the possibility of a more interesting show (as does a closing twist in “Favorite Son”). Until or unless the show’s writing staff digs down and explore those darker instincts, however, Lucifer feels stuck in creative purgatory.

The result is a show that’s far too scattered, and never builds any narrative momentum because it’s always cutting away to another plotline.

Despite the presence of Krause, Enos and Walger--all of whom have been standouts in modern TV classics--The Catch is barely worth investigating.

Rockwell and Williams are shoo-ins for Emmy nominations this summer, it’s true, but the material they’re given here never quite rises to meet their level.

This is all perfectly interesting. It just isn’t... compelling.

It’s frustrating because all of the elements are there but Interrogation unknowingly sacrifices its own quality by allowing us to choose where to go.

The hour is stylishly directed by Adam Wingard (V/H/S). But there just isn’t much here that we--or at least I--haven’t seen before.

After three episodes, we’re no closer to figuring out what is really going on than when we started. The Changeling is ultimately a missed opportunity: eerie moments that don’t build up to anything, and random philosophical musings that don’t add up to much.

Hulu’s How to Die Alone is a dark comedy that is perhaps a little too dark.

It just feels like Simien was eager to expand the universe of his original film, and ended up overextending himself. The result feels more like a series of self-contained short films than a TV show. That puts the burden on the cast of mostly newcomers to command our attention in their solo showcases, and unfortunately, they largely come up short.

The whole thing has decent energy, and boasts enough interesting visual flourishes that it’s tempting to let it slide by purely on style points. But it’s hard to locate the humanity buried underneath all this style. Like fellow oddballs Claws and On Becoming a God in Central Florida, Briarpatch tries to get by solely on quirk at times — but, sadly, man cannot live on quirk alone.

As interesting as Bull‘s juror-research aspects are, the actual courtroom scenes are over-the-top, with witnesses arguing with lawyers (and, in one case, assaulting them) from the stand.

By cramming a Gen Z worldview into a pre-Y2K sitcom format, Happy’s Place is trying to straddle two eras… and is all the more shaky because of it.

Apple TV+’s WWII epic Masters of the Air is gorgeously filmed but dull, with a distinct lack of narrative urgency.

Ripley boasts beautiful cinematography and a strong lead performance, but it stretches its story out so thin, it ruins the thrills.

NBC’s The Irrational puts a fun spin on the procedural formula, but it’s dragged down by clichés and convenient plot twists.

The Old Man seems to be shooting for something tense and riveting like Homeland or The Americans, but it doesn’t deliver the depth or nuance needed to bring us along for the ride.

What’s fascinating--and disappointing--about Confirmation is that we somehow manage to learn more about Hill in the recreation of scenes that are essentially dramatic re-enactments of C-Span clips you can watch right now on YouTube. That leaves about an hour and a half of bloodless storytelling that ping-pongs from law offices to congressional corridors to Thomas’ living room.

A lot of his [Nate Bargatze's] jokes felt weirdly dismissive of the very industry the Emmys are supposed to be honoring. I’m all for taking the hot air out of a self-important awards show, but this actually ruined the vibe of the whole show. .... But the ceremony also threw in a few quick nostalgia hits to keep us entertained, like Gilmore Girls stars Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel reuniting on their Stars Hollow porch. These kind of moments are what the Emmys do best.

Overwritten and underbaked, Your Friends & Neighbors borrows from other, better shows — notably star Jon Hamm’s Mad Men — but falls short by comparison.

Hollywood comes as a disappointment, then, in spite of its stellar cast and admirable ambitions. It’s kind of like some of the big-screen icons that rose to fame in the early days of Hollywood: plenty of gloss, but not enough substance.

Michael Cudlitz has a few nice moments as gruff but tenderhearted dad Mike, but ultimately, the show isn’t funny or heartwarming enough to overcome how familiar it feels.

Sirens tries to follow in The White Lotus’ footsteps with soapy drama in a luxury setting, but the satire falls flat, and the tone is hopelessly jumbled.

All told, the new Battle feels more like a skirmish.

I do appreciate the effort to highlight some of the stories the film didn’t tell. But the fun is conspicuously missing, and the muddled and labored end result is a far cry from the movie that inspired it.

This detachment from reality effectively neuters the show’s myriad soapy storylines — ranging from financial woes to extramarital escapades — giving the whole thing an unfortunately low-stakes vibe.

If The White Lotus is 30 Rock, then Nine Perfect Strangers is Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: not “good,” exactly, and definitely way overblown, but still watchable in its own strange way.

It was a mostly safe, by-the-numbers affair that was woefully short on buzzy watercooler moments.

Despite some nice touches and performances, Kidding gets stuck somewhere between comedy and drama, and isn’t entirely successful at either.

Little Fires Everywhere, I realized, must be what watching Big Little Lies is like for people who don’t like Big Little Lies. In my eyes, though, that show managed to find a way to elevate this kind of soapy, pulpy material into something great. Little Fires Everywhere, sadly, does not.

Hulu’s How I Met Your Father has a strong cast, but lame jokes and an excess of schmaltz make it fall short of the original.

Really, it looks like all of the actors are having a blast filming Zoey‘s big musical numbers... but that fun never fully translates to us at home.

It’s hard not to root for the Codys to get busted--or worse. And that seems like it could be a big problem for the series going forward.

The absence of Lecter and his indelible dynamic with Clarice leaves a huge void that Clarice struggles to fill. The result is a disappointingly run-of-the-mill procedural — another dark, grim Criminal Minds clone with a shiny brand name slapped on the front of it.

So, is Firefly Lane good? Alas, no. But is it entertaining? Kinda — and not even in a mean way. It’s an adequate time-passer till the shows for which you’re really jonesing are back on. There’s no more shame in indulging in it than there is in equating sex to ice cream.

The Gilded Age is a feast for the eyes, and its aesthetic pleasures are undeniable — but those are the only pleasures to be found here.

Nothing particularly clever happens as the heroes endeavor to extricate themselves from their respective predicaments in the second half; you keep waiting for it, but aside from a bit of pickpocketing... nope.

A thoroughly mild, easily digestible sitcom that unfortunately dips into Disney Channel levels of saccharine too often to merit a recommendation. It’s a hard show to hate, but without Elba to anchor it, it’d be so lightweight, it’d disintegrate in the air like a dandelion.

Paramount+’s Fatal Attraction takes all the thrills out of the classic thriller, with leaden flash-forwards and stilted dialogue.