Darren Franich

The three episodes I've seen of the eight-part season evoke Lenù's expanding political conscience and Lila's boiling rage. This is still sumptuous getaway TV.

Twelve years into the lead role, Odenkirk keeps finding new shades of goofy charisma and freaky desperation, and the Saulification of Jimmy is a performance within a performance. ... Season 5 still feels tangential, juggling placeholder subplots with hysterical continuity.

Simon and Burns craft their story with remarkable texture, tracking the nation’s downward spiral from inside a besieged family’s living room. ... The final hour is one of the most breathtakingly tense episodes of television I’ve ever seen, carrying you on a dark journey through a country on fire.

Charming yet slight . ... Every other character is just too practically perfect in every way, hardscrabbling occasional setbacks with bright-eyed radiance because friendship conquers all.

Picard has flashes of eccentricity, and any science-fiction show with a Miguel de Unamuno shoutout demands a quantum of hope. But for now, this is another disappointing Star Trek. Should we give it a chance? My advice: Disengage.

Legends of Tomorrow flies high as a kite, and the kite was hit by lightning, so now it’s an omnisexual talking kite firing electric rays at sexy history. ... A little self-awareness goes a long way, but Legends has a charm that’s more old-fashioned than meta. Every adventure is a game of dress-up.

Incredible cast, dynamite opening, too-leisurely progression, overly familiar execution. Watch with care, but watch.

This year’s Golden Globes were the right blend of silly and serious. I felt good, I laughed.

The clash of tones in this first episode felt cheap in both directions, striving for moral justifications of thrilling amorality. The Mandalorian really is Disney’s Boba Fett, a mercenary safe enough for kids.

The season 4 premiere was outrageously confident, and generally outrageous. Rick and Morty is angrily funny, powered by Rick’s galactic cynicism and a tendency toward hysterical navel-gazing criticism. The self-awareness would be annoying, if there wasn’t so much self there.

It felt like watching The Little Mermaid with regular interruptions for commercials and karaoke. ... The Howard Ashman-Alan Menken tunes are still very catchy, but all the new interpretations were unmemorable.

A relentlessly clever mash-up procedural, merging psychological medical mystery with techno-crime and spiritual struggle. Its paranoia is far-reaching, and very bleak.

Like The Leftovers, it’s a vividly felt tale of generational sorrow, tapping deeper weirdness and structural experimentation as it goes along. Watchmen doesn’t overdose on nostalgia, like so many franchise extensions in our reboot-soaked decade. It’s dangerous, and invigorating. Like the proverbial Space Squid, it blew my mind.

At its best, season 3 excavates the glorious tragedy underpinning the highest camp. The colorful exuberance hides sadness, and struggle.

In the astounding third season, creator Justin Simien pushes his characters toward thrilling new beginnings. ... Dear White People really is an exploration of humanity and beauty and people and places, damn it. They should teach it in college.

Infamy falls back on horror clichés whenever Yuko shows up, but its vision of encompassing paranoia is scary enough.

This third adventure kicks off with rebooting promise. ... The early fun dwindles. This is another Very Long Movie, full of delayed plot points.

Ridiculously fun new drama. ... The scuzzy noir pleasures are invigorating. Guzmán is a desperate delight. Weaver looks like a maternal White Walker, and Kingsley is Sexy Beast-ing as one very dire wolf.

Aggressively listless season. ... All of Legion's wannabe weirdness is like that, PowerPoint surrealism hiding a total lack of imagination. [28 Jun 2019, p.54]

I worry this series will fall victim to its own provocations — and there is an ongoing threat of gorgeously filmed violence. In its quieter moments, though, this is a sensitive teen drama, digging past characters’ identities into their souls.

Creator Sebastian Gutierrez fills Jett with indulgent pulp: women fighting in prison shower, split screens, freeze-frames, cheeky sexposition. it's all a bit much, and the pacing's too glacial to qualify for Cinemaximum escapism. [14/21 Jun 2019, p.101]

The anthology trends glossier in its Netflix phase. The three episodes launching Wednesday juggle tones and genres. They’re all better than Bandersnatch. They’re experimental, and long. And they’re also a bit sentimental.

This movie is a gift, and a fond farewell. ... The scope of Deadwood: The Movie won me over.

Vida still feels torn between sudsy nude-positive melodrama and complex political dedication. Worth watching, though, just for Roberta Colindrez as a swagger-y bartender. [17/24 May 2019, p.94]

The series is a vivid and detailed retelling of the cataclysm. It begins as a near-real-time thriller. ... This miniseries doesn’t have too many flourishes, and doesn’t need them. Whenever Vasily explains the statistics involved — the scope of the environmental disaster, the possibility of a meltdown seeping into the water supply — the scares are tangible.

The possibility of a weekly fight scene with The Raid's Joe Taslim could make this show a Friday-night success, but the freshman drama is hit-or-miss so far. It's the Rockstar Games version of history. [3/10 May 2019, p.79]

Some wrap-up elements are conventional after season 1's primal scream. ... But Clifford and Waller-Bridge are a transcendent sister act. And the spiritual plotline is transgressive, even Bergman-esque. [3/10 May 2019, p.74]

Ramy is essential viewing, a family TV show about a family that TV’s never fully shown, until now.