Chris Vognar

Secrets of the Mogwai has a human touch, and a sense of humor and adventure that spans generations. It doesn’t rewrite any books, but it’s better than an animated prequel series to a 39-year-old live-action movie has any reason to be.

It’s a sad, sordid story, told here with the kinds of reality-TV tropes – on-camera apologies, tearful reunions – designed for maximum emotional impact. But the series, directed by Esther Reyes, also suggests there’s plenty of fire to go with the smoke, even if the two components don’t always connect and it remains to be seen what the end result might eventually be.

Gentle Art manages to be frank and funny with its clutterers without stooping into condescension. And the show has some great characters with which to work.

It’s back for a second season, with much of its charm intact. The uninitiated might want to hit a recap before jumping in, but otherwise Sweet Tooth remains quite welcoming, the kind of thing you might watch with your adolescent (provided you’re up for talking a little global pandemic and eugenics).

Murphy, with dark, piercing eyes, a messy bob, and a perpetually forming pout, is the star of the show, and Her performance is one reason why Obsession, adapted by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm and Benji Walters from Josephine Hart’s 1991 novel Damage, is more than mere sordid spectacle. She brings high intensity, as does Armitage. ... Obsession pays admirable attention to craft, and this makes it a lot easier to take the whole thing seriously. It’s far more cinematic than it needs to be.

Through interviews with all parties and never-before-seen footage, he wants to explore the facts, through all the fog of war and vehement disagreement. And he succeeds more often than not.

Is “The Glory” ultimately about the price of revenge? Not really. It delights in every step. Its heroine lives for vengeance. And we’re along for every turn on the ride.

Sin Eater is a case study in how to build a better true crime doc. It’s exciting, and it’s disturbing. But it’s also thrillingly journalistic, and it doesn’t take the audience’s intelligence for granted.

Is Sex/Life a little ridiculous? Sure. But it’s also a good deal of overheated fun that manages to think far more progressively than it needs to.

It provides a crash course in the scandals and deaths that have engulfed the old-money Murdaugh family for years. ... Filmmakers Jenner Furst and Julia Willoughby Nason do a fine job spinning the yarn, pulling the viewer this way and that, and letting the “Can you top this?” details slowly pile up.

By turns enraging, inconclusive and damning, Murder in Big Horn tells a story with deep roots and few easy answers.

Yes, a child shall lead them. Enter “Dear Edward” with caution if such tropes make you gag. But know that there’s plenty here to like, whether or not you’ve had the misfortune of knowing grief on an intimate basis.

The writing is steadily sharp; with the whodunit part always abundantly evident, the show can focus on the intricacies of the why and the how. And the killer guest spots just keep coming. ... Watching “Poker Face” is like seeing a bunch of old friends, realizing they’re murderers, and liking them all the more for it. They’re all here to get busted by Lyonne.

Nestled between the shenanigans, which include a fair amount of sexual frankness, is a generous and thoughtful accounting of grief.

This isn’t just a breakthrough video game adaptation. It’s a great show, period.

“Treason” could easily reach higher — John le Carré remains the gold standard for this kind of material — and it’s frustrating when it doesn’t. You can enjoy the ride, even if you wish for a more fulfilling destination.

It’s hard to tell how well “1923” will build its universe based on the one episode made available to critics. But its level of ambition is clear. ... If “1923” can manage to juggle its personal dramas, action and historical scope, it could strike another “Yellowstone”-size mother lode.

It’s a potentially star-making performance from an actor [Noah Centineo] we’ll be seeing more. A combination workplace comedy/espionage thriller, “The Recruit” zips along from place to place (Vienna, Phoenix, Langley), leaving blithe spirits and dead bodies in its wake.

“George & Tammy” may not conquer that formula in full, but it manages to breathe new life into a pair of interconnected souls who lived their art, for better and, frequently, for worse.

“Fleishman” ultimately, deceptively, has the depth of a great novel that needs to be read to the last page. Every episode is better than the one that came before.

The challenge for “Tulsa King” will be to expand beyond the “What a great idea!” stage. Right now it’s trying to be a whole lot of things at once: mob comedy; fish-out-of-water story; family drama (Dwight wants to reconnect with his estranged daughter); small-time-crooks yarn. It has plenty of time to make room for all of that, and the dynamite premise and talent pool isn’t going anywhere.

At this point the hard part is not imagining such a world, but peopling it with carefully developed characters and giving them convincing motives and arcs. “The Peripheral” does this only sporadically. It mistakes concept and spectacle for story.

There’s nothing stiff or stuffy about “Shantaram,” but the quality is high enough to qualify as prestige television, a term that gets harder to define by the day. This is a universe to get lost in, much as Lin must lose himself in his adopted home.

The darkness in “The Midnight Club” encroaches reluctantly, as if it were crashing a party. Optimism and fear can make for strange bedfellows, and “The Midnight Club “ feels caught in between these two poles, not quite sure what tone to take.

Powerfully, carefully acted by Steve Carell and Domhnall Gleeson, laden with themes of guilt, remorse and redemption, the new FX limited series streaming exclusively on Hulu deepens as it moves through its 10 episodes (at approximately 30 minutes each, they’re easily digestible). The nuances of the script come into focus along with the subtext. Even if it doesn’t quite stick the landing, it remains rewarding to the end.

For those without a dog in the hunt, “Mike” should make for compelling TV, broad but by turns compassionate and damning.

“Echoes” has a fundamental pacing problem. Its front half crams in questions, potential developments, identity games and shock reveals. These elements make promises. Then the next episode does more of the same. There’s not enough depth here to make up for the deliberate and repetitive march forward.

Great writing often begets great acting, and the new Apple TV+ limited series “Black Bird” has plenty of both. It’s a genre piece with uncommon depth.