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

The show takes the right risk in affording Lucy specificity as a character, and therefore a defined personality that can measure up to the wacky mayhem of the other weirdos she meets. The show’s clearly committed to being the definitive Fallout adaptation, a love letter to fans, no question, while still opening the vault door to welcome in just about everyone else brave enough to step inside.

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

Apple TV+’s Sugar is a stylish throwback to classic film noir, with a compelling turn from star Colin Farrell.

X-Men ’97 goes all-in on the requisite campiness, high-stakes action, and potent parallels that made the original, as well as the comics that inspired it, so much fun.

Despite a top-notch cast, Apple TV+’s Palm Royale is a middling soap that lacks laughs and emotional depth.

BET+’s Diarra from Detroit is an edgy and interesting mystery dramedy that is engrossing to watch but could benefit from fewer stereotypes.

Don’t throw away your vote on The Regime, a ridiculous and misguided political satire that even Kate Winslet can’t salvage.

FX’s Shōgun adaptation is a feast for the eyes with dazzling action sequences, but the muddled story falls short.

Stylishly shot and cleverly conceived, this Mr. & Mrs. Smith ultimately works so well because the two leads work together so well. In a show like this, it’s essential that Glover and Erskine have chemistry — and thankfully, they have lots of it. .... we’d be happy to watch John and Jane play spy games for years to come.

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

True Detective boldly hits the reset button in Season 4, but runs into the same problems that plagued previous seasons.

Monarch’s story does get a little dense at times with lots of scientific lingo being thrown around, leaving us lost in the weeds. Plus, I have to admit my eyes glazed over with all the talk about the shadowy corporation called Monarch that secretly monitors the beasts. But Russell’s natural charm and sly sense of humor go a long way towards cutting through all that and making the whole thing work.

Fargo is back with a throwback season packed with excellent performances and jaw-dropping action scenes.

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.

Swann makes for a solid (and tall) team leader, though it takes at least one episode too many to shine any light on the past trauma that defines Mackey/has her “shields” up, while Lasance has great fun with Dempsey’s comparatively laid-back persona. Narkle, I want to say, is the big standout as Evie — winningly sassy and arguably the “most Australian” of the bunch — while Sagar was a runner-up until his character started acting a little too free-spirited in later episodes.

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.

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

Through its first three episodes, Krapopolis provides enough giggles to put it right at the top of Fox’s recent animation efforts, a cut above the likes of Bless the Harts and Duncanville.

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.

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.

Ahsoka avoids the excessive cameos and contrived dot-connecting of other, lesser Star Wars shows, focusing instead on what makes this franchise so much fun — its characters.

Justified: City Primeval may at times leave you longing for the dingy folksiness and familiar faces of Harlan County. But it’s a welcome, tightly wound, eight-episode reunion with Raylan Givens nonetheless.

The real star here is the tension that gradually builds from episode to episode, finding genuine human drama in a confined space. Sometimes when you’re making great TV, less space is more.

In the wake of CGI-saturated, cosmic movies like Ant-Man 3 and Guardians 3, Disney+’s Secret Invasion is a welcome blast of serious, grounded MCU fare.

The whole series feels like Netflix fed Arnold’s old action movies into ChatGPT and filmed whatever came out, unedited.

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

Donald Glover proves he can do horror too with Swarm, anchored by a dazzling lead performance from Dominique Fishback.