David Sims

The impressive production values, however, can’t cover up a relatively skimpy plot. “Chapter 1” of The Mandalorian is a thin piece of set-up stretched over 38 minutes, barely introducing its hero and then dangling a tantalizing twist at the end. ... For a Star Wars nerd looking to fill in some arcane details, it’s a cozy watch; but one episode in, The Mandalorian has yet to prove it can stand on its own.

It’s a perfect, long-delayed swan song that offers satisfying endings for almost every member of the cast while still managing to tell a story that stands on its own: an examination of how American civilization formed a thin veneer over the ruthlessness that helped create it. As such, Deadwood: The Movie feels like an elegy for the “golden age of TV.”

Fyre Fraud leans on montages and step-by-step explanations of how Instagram celebrities monetize their sponsored posts and how easily McFarland could use that network to create an event he had no qualifications to run. The Hulu film also has a strange animus toward millennials and is fond of using pop-culture clips to explain simple concepts. ... [Billy McFarland's] involvement gives the Hulu documentary a particularly icky edge.

True Detective Season 3 is a little more workmanlike and less baroque, perhaps too eager to prove that it can tell a legible story again. But it’s anchored by Ali’s terrific work in the lead role--a little more restrained than stars past, though just as captivating.

With every click of a button, the story begins to snowball in weird and confusing directions, and the panicked sense of making the wrong pick every time increases the stakes. ... I’m sure there are many more rabbit holes for me to tumble down, but the overall darkness of the story (Stefan is frequently being pushed towards madness) might make it a slog to watch over and over again.

Kidding has an exceptional ensemble to work with, but drowns it in rote domestic plotting.

For now, the show doesn’t do enough to stand out among TV’s mostly flimsy class of political satirists.

Erlich’s absence lets Richard’s emerging dark side become more of a central focus for the series. For years, Silicon Valley seemed almost afraid of having Richard succeed, throwing narrative roadblocks in his way to stop him from becoming an all-powerful CEO and to perhaps maintain dramatic tension. The blundering Erlich helped the series in that regard, but now Richard gets to be his own worst enemy. If Season 5’s first episode is any indication, Silicon Valley will be more exciting--and painfully realistic--this way.

What’s disappointing about Spielberg is that it does far less digging into the intriguing later acts of his career; it doesn’t strive to move past the mythos and into the mind of an iconic artist who continues to make bold, challenging work. Spielberg isn’t quite a hagiography, nor does it completely lack insight into the man who became such an unstoppable pop-cultural force in the 1970s. But it does feel like a story many cineastes will have heard before, with just a little more detail shaded in.

The Opposition could use a little more of that sense of extreme paranoia. For now, it’s an adequate, if watered-down, Fox News parody--not irrelevant, but a little less vital than the times call for.

Discovery is action-packed, has its main narrative set around a Federation-Klingon war, and heavily borrows from the visual style of J.J. Abrams’s rebooted Trek films, replete with lens flares and metallic set dressings, far from the day-glo delights of the original show.

Halt and Catch Fire succeeds by making its tech narrative not a dry history lesson, but rather a battle of wills between four very flawed, compelling characters, each possessed of the kinds of manic ambition and tendency toward self-destruction that make for the best television drama.

Gone are dumb adolescent antics; replacing them are jokes about careerism, the fear of settling down, and the perils of being young parents. It’s as staid as it sounds, and the show isn’t helped by the fact that many jokes referencing the movie have only grown more stale.

These episodes scattered a lot of fascinating imagery, disconnected story ideas, and inter-dimensional nightmare antics in front of its audience; it’s up to viewers to try and put the pieces together, or (my preferred method) simply soak in every bizarre tableau with glee. ... Twin Peaks (subtitled The Return) is a worthy new entry in his canon.

The show still has its usual wacky appeal, dialed-up performances, and rapid-fire jokes that come and go so quickly that they all but require a rewatch. ... But through the first half of Season 3, there’s just the sense that the show could use a shake-up—some dramatic turns to keep its core dynamics interesting.

The Wizard of Lies doesn’t try to either understand or humanize Madoff, but all the same it manages to be an intimate, unsettling portrait of a borderline sociopath.

It can lead to indulgent storytelling, but in the case of a series like Sense8, real artistry, too.

Television is the medium that grants auteurs the most creativity. It can lead to indulgent storytelling, but in the case of a series like Sense8, real artistry, too.

Considering the gimmick factor, The President Show looks to be a surprisingly robust, well-produced work with ambitions greater than scoring cheap hits.

Silicon Valley remains one of the funniest, darkest, smartest shows about the attraction, and limitations, of the American Dream, but by resetting itself, it also manages to stay strangely gripping.

It’s an impressive return--and a further indication that the hour-long comedy special is an art form with plenty of life left in it.

Five Came Back is, in the end, a compelling examination of propaganda--its purpose, its effectiveness, and its drawbacks.

Though they’re wildly different shows, the strengths and weaknesses of Chappelle’s comedy comeback are consistent in each.

Though they’re wildly different shows, the strengths and weaknesses of Chappelle’s comedy comeback are consistent in each.

Daly’s tightly wound performance is so pitch-perfect, and the world around him so meticulously crafted, that the show works almost as well as a drama as it does as a comedy. Its final episodes are particularly loaded with gripping twists and turns.

Stevens (probably best known as the handsome heir of Downton Abbey) is doing fine work at the center of all this, holding the camera’s focus even when Hawley’s dialogue feels like it’s going nowhere.

A Year in the Life won’t necessarily convert new viewers—like any revival, it’s making a play for a loyal fanbase, which should be more than enough to justify Netflix’s investment in the show. But as a salvage attempt after Gilmore Girls’ original bittersweet ending, it feels wholly justified.

The Crown is sometimes too somber, and slow-moving to a fault (it intends to cover Elizabeth’s entire reign over six seasons). But if you’re looking for an immersive history lesson with all the royal trimmings (ermine and purple velvet among them), it’s an extremely engrossing watch.