Melissa Maerz

Somehow, just like its unfortunately tattooed protagonists, UnREAL just gets smarter the more shameless it gets.

Watching their [Alex and Laura's] relationship deepen is a highlight. [3 Jun 2016, p.102]

Chandler's performance has gotten darker and deeper alongside an intimidating turn from (Owen) Teague.... When the plot focuses on John's unraveling, it's a taught work of suspense. [27 May 2016, p.53]

It’s a mind-bendingly expansive show, packed into a tiny, 60-minute slot.

The pilot is a slog. ... Watching them drive around in a Back in the Future-style DeLorean is a cute way to illustrate how space-time works, but the lessons are basic high school physics. [20 May 2016, p.55]

Yes, anything can happen in Bamford's world, and that sense of endless possibility make Lady Dynamite a joy to watch. [20 May 2016, p.50]

Even though she’s been given a get-out-of-jail-free pass from Netflix, Handler still chooses the same conventional structure that everyone else has. There are pre-recorded bits. There are interviews. Handler plays games with guests and stages silly moments meant to create memes.

At a time when series like Transparent and Getting On have explored later-in-life identity crises with greater depth, it’s hard to watch these women’s serious problems defused with sad spinster humor. Vin Diesel aside, the problem isn’t that Grace and Frankie are old and out of touch. It’s that the show is.

There are some decent rat jokes, but the best part is the way it makes the loneliness and exhausting competitiveness of the city feel all too human. [29 Jan/5 Feb 2016, p.105]

It's a good mix of highbrow humor and silly, kick-in-the-pants laughs. [22 Jan 2016, p.66]

This is a wildly over-the-top but thoroughly entertaining soap opera, and it works because it follows the same philosophy Bobby does: If you want to succeed, you don’t have to be the smartest one in the room. You just have to be shameless.

The ensemble cast outshines the material, especially with Liotta, Drea de Matteo (The Sopranos), and Vincent Laresca (Graceland) playing Lopez’s buddies in blue.

The adults' heated conversations can feel more like textbook debates than natural dialogue. But the acting is phenomenal. [8/15 Jan 2016, p.97]

The world-building is imaginative and impressive, but the mythology is exhausting to keep up with, especially when the reward is basically just a romance-novel version of The Lord of the Rings.

Judging by the first four episodes, though, it’s not only a gripping true-crime story, it’s also the most moral one I’ve seen in a long time.

What counts most is the acting, which lends the story a naturalism that the script can’t. Nettles captures the quiet, solitary sadness of Dolly’s mother with great subtlety.... But the real breakout star is 8-year-old Lind, who delivers a performance so believable, you can imagine looking it up on YouTube 10 years from now, when she’s inevitably winning awards for some gritty Sundance drama.

Everyone served as a good reminder that, after the aerial dance numbers of Peter Pan Live! and the elaborate sets of The Sound of Music Live!, no flashy TV musical gimmicks can match the power of raw talent.

It’s a smart twist that Maura, the Pfefferman who’s changed the most on the outside, is the only one who’s certain about who she is on the inside. The kids are still figuring that out.... But not everything here feels as natural as the relationships.

Rivalries between Graham and fellow auction-house exec Roxanna (Kate Bosworth) generate suspense and it's fun to learn the history behind auction items. [20/27 Nov 2015, p.103]

The show's biggest weakness is the same as Jessica's: It starts out with extraordinary potential, but somewhere along the way, it loses what makes it special. [20/27 Nov 2015, p.99]

The show is too thoughtful to be dismissed as kitschy fun.

In its third and final season, the series is still brilliantly droll, elevating the most mundane moments into something that’s either hilariously awkward or genuinely moving--or, at its best, both.

The downside is that the storytelling can feel awfully cold. Moments that should be personally affecting are often used to illustrate historical truths instead.... But these characters are still fascinating case studies for the mind-body connections we make as viewers: They’re better appreciated with the brain than the heart.

At its worst, it's hard to tell if Red Oaks is a clever satire of dumb, fun sex comedies or just a dumb, fun sex comedy itself. But Alexandra Socha ... gives me hope that the show is something smarter. [9 Oct 2015]

The pilot's take on these lovable downers is a bit of a downer itself, but the second half hour sharpens its wit. [9 Oct 2015]

The moment we glimpse Helen’s inner life, she becomes the most fascinating character on a show that’s full of them.... When a friend asks if she knew that Noah was cheating, there are unspoken questions there: How would I know if it happened to me? And if I didn’t know, how could I move on? The fact that viewers are asking the same questions only makes this season more compelling to watch.

The Edward Snowden-inspired plot is the most compelling story line this season, which is packed with conspiratorial intrigue and complicated questions about political and journalistic ethics.... But the second that Carrie yields to her first fit of mania in years, pasting newspaper clippings all over her house and searching for connections between them--surely, there are computer programs now that allow people to do this without ruining their wallpaper!--it’s d.j. vu all over again.

At its best, Scream Queens challenges our motives for empathizing with outcasts in the first place. When it specifically targets younger generations on that front, it feels fresh.