Ellen Gray

It’s probably not the best news to hard-core Stephen King fans that I like what I’ve seen of Castle Rock, the J.J. Abrams-produced Hulu series that’s set in one of the fictional Maine towns King has so creepily populated. Because I’m the kind of viewer who tends to like the TV adaptations of King’s stories right up until the moment the otherworldly horror really gets going.

Adams--as a woman who has pain written all over her--is the best reason to stick with Sharp Objects as it winds its way, sometimes a mite slowly, through twisted mysteries with deep roots.

Watching a man, even a man who looks terrific on a horse, trying to hold on to what he already has can take Yellowstone only so far. It’s the son who got away who could help Dutton stay interesting, and maybe even teach him something about fatherhood.

The Last Defense is good enough television not to show all its cards in the first hour. That’s also its power.

For Whom the Bell Tolls covers the things you’d expect, including his years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. But it acknowledges his flaws, including a powerful temper. And it doesn’t skip past some painful bumps in his biography.

The thing about newsrooms is that they’re full of characters, and always have been, even before Twitter made us count them. The Fourth Estate gets that and shows the people behind the bylines, the podcasts, and the tweets. ... You might see, yes, how hard they try, but also why--and even, amid their obvious exhaustion, how much fun they have doing it.

You might come to One Strange Rock for its host, Philadelphia’s Will Smith, but you’ll stay for the astronauts. ... The visuals in One Strange Rock, are beautiful, occasionally strange, sometimes even otherworldly. Rock’s true stars, though, are people like Chris Hadfield, the first Canadian to command the International Space Station.

Its casting is more diverse, its women more nuanced. Its Robot is amazing. But the story, which I liked better 10 episodes in than I did at the beginning, takes a long time to get off the launchpad.

[Seth Meyers] proved to be the right steward for what was, laughs and personal attacks aside, a more earnest than usual evening for the Globes, a show known for its almost-anything-could-happen vibe.

The pace is occasionally glacial, and there were moments when I was as impatient as the (fictional) Dr. Simon Jordan (Edward Holcroft, Wolf Hall) for Grace to get to the point of her long and twisted tale. Pay attention, though: There will be a payoff. The real attraction is the performances, particularly Gadon’s as the model inmate.

If you missed those two, and their more broadly drawn sidekicks, they’re definitely back, and pretty much the way you remember them. ... It may be unfair to expect that series to be groundbreaking. But after all these years, it’s hard not to want a little more than the same old story.

Pleasure’s often found in dialogue that has nothing to do with the business at hand.

Amazon’s Tycoon is the TV equivalent of a great beach book: a page-turner with larger-than-life characters, set in a glitzy, gossipy world of secrets. I watched the entire season over a few days, mostly because I was having too much fun to stop.

The acting is good, and Snowfall does these transformations well, but it’s not what supposedly sets it apart. If we’re not going to see more of the before picture--and of the people, like Franklin’s mother, Cissy (Michael Hyatt, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), who are doing their best to keep things together--then what is Snowfall waiting for? Snow, already.

[Broadchurch's] third and final eight-episode season, ticks all the Brit drama boxes and still manages to stand out from the mysteries some of us can’t get enough of.

However much it lingers on the dangers that lie just outside the doors of Green Gables, it’s likely to seem tame to viewers brought up on Harry Potter and The Hunger Games. ... Anne’s never been a simple character. McNulty doesn’t play her as one.

[The children's] enthusiasm for 19th-century child labor, whether it's selling watercress in the streets, sewing, or spending countless hours making artificial flowers, is contagious. They complain less than the adults--or have been edited more charitably -- and seem to appreciate that their contributions are indispensable.

Three episodes in, it looks like Hulu's best original yet. ... Offred's will to survive, and to somehow reclaim her stolen daughter, drives a narrative that might otherwise feel hopeless and that makes The Handmaid's Tale what every serialized show should be: a page-turner.

Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin are back for 13 more episodes of Netflix's Grace and Frankie, and the third season's the most charming yet.

iZombie, inspired by a comic book series, cares as much about its post-life characters as it does its pre-dead ones. And though it may serve up brains in a variety of ways, it never loses its heart.

The four episodes I've seen are action-packed but emotionally unsatisfying, possibly because Michael's motives are so far much less clear.

On Trial & Error, the answer a little too often is to lean on the fish-out-of-water moments that Josh encounters in a town full of yokels so clichéd they might have come from a bottle in the writers' room marked Southern Stereotypes: Just Add Water. ... But it's Lithgow, as the hopelessly self-centered, sneakily endearing suspect, who steals every scene he's in.

The personal and the policy stuff don't always mesh perfectly, but if adding soap gets a few more people to open their minds, it will be worth it.

The third season of ABC's outstanding American Crime manages to sidestep well-worn arguments about immigration and other hot-button topics with a set of compelling, interlocking stories that challenge viewers to see in new ways the people we so often manage not to see at all--migrant workers, teenage prostitutes, and opioid addicts--while giving a voice to others, like family farmers and small business owners, who have reason, too, to feel ignored.

As much soapy fun as Bette and Joan has with the pair's over-the-top efforts to one-up each other, it's also a smartly told tale of how sexism, ageism, and the old studio system helped turn two Oscar-winning actresses into bitter enemies.

What makes it one of the best shows on television--besides scenes like the last 10 minutes of Tuesday's episode, which are not to be missed--is its ability to show us ourselves as others see us. Dizzying as that view might be, it's as timely as ever.

It feels like a good fit for the franchise.

I watch some disturbing things in this job, but I can't remember the last time anything left me as shaken as Time: The Kalief Browder Story.