The production value and acting are far better than anything we’ve seen before, and the return of Sardo, if written and performed well, should balance out the screams with some chortles. Pacing may be a bit of an issue, though.

Sophisticated, gripping, and full of perspectives usually absent in the genre, Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel is an expertly-paced mystery and a thought-provoking discussion on classism, mental health, and the ethics of true crime. It’s also remarkably cinematic in terms of aesthetics, thriving with atmospheric visuals and clever pacing that create a murky, engrossing atmosphere. You’ll finish it in one sitting.

What we get is a nuanced portrait of trauma and survival.

Though the show’s first three episodes don’t make a ton of headway in terms of plot development, WandaVision is so dedicated to being its own bizarre entity that it’s difficult to be upset that nothing Marvel-y is going down. Wandavison merges the disorienting and the mundane so effortlessly.

This is Search Party’s most-morbid season to be certain. It’s recommendable to die-hard enthusiasts of the show’s willy-nilly grotesqueries, but people looking for this fan fave’s true-crime comedy may feel like they’re searching for something missing themselves.

While Night Stalker does many things well, namely its insistence on presenting the victims with compassion, the docuseries fails to answer the question, “Why?” What was Ramirez’s motive and how can we use this knowledge to prevent future crimes? What lessons can we take from community involvement in policing from this story and use it to make our neighborhoods safer? What is the purpose of telling this horrendous story if not to make a statement about it that can be used going forward?

Three seasons in, creators Heald, Hurwitz, and Schlossberg preside over a scorching hot sandbox that’s as complex as it is cluttered. Characters keep emerging from the shadows, beats zig and zag at a rapid clip, and the action gets more and more ludicrous. But, clutter can be good for a series, particularly when it’s maintained, and the three showrunners happen to keep a clean dojo.

The Stand is still blockbuster television, and when it’s good, it’s damn good. Despite the aforementioned limitations, Boone and Cavell still thrive in their sequestered sandbox. The performances are strong, the set pieces are cinematic, and, most importantly, the commitment to King’s prose is stonier than a man’s heart.

This reboot of the Animaniacs is still a ton of fun. While it stumbles at times and doesn’t quite capture the magic of the original, there is enough wit to remind fans of the heyday of Saturday morning cartoons.

While Season 4 offers magnificent opulence, magnetic performances, and flawless execution, it’s underlying theme asks if the time for change has finally come.

Krisel and the cast delight in finding ways to mine subtle comedy from the folly of earnest but bumbling men who’ve got the spirit, but not the talent, to escape their own gravity.

While the season premiere feels like a story even the show has already tackled in its scant eight episodes, the show’s stripped-down space adventures are still here in fine form.

It wants to read like Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, but forgets to include what made those such show-stopping game-changers in genre comedy. Like the ghosts the Truth Seekers seek, this show feels half-alive, translucent, and intangible.

Flanagan explores these relationships while delivering a powerful and poignant message about moving on in the face of grief. Bly Manor is not Hill House, but left to its own devices, this Haunting offers a beautiful examination of love and the ways we hold onto what we’ve lost.

Too early to call, but Season 4 may be Fargo’s best run yet given its larger scope and more ambitious message. It helps that Fargo never preaches to its audience; instead, it embraces its strengths and trusts viewers to connect the dots on their own.

If there’s one thing Guadagnino knows how to do, it’s capture the feeling of characters in limbo, whether by age or circumstance; if spending eight hours in that kind of gorgeously fitful purgatory appeals to you, there’s a lot to appreciate in We Are Who We Are.

Put simply, it’s the purest expression of the classic 1960s science fiction allegories of Clarke, Amisov, and Walter Miller Jr.: show us the inevitable destruction of mankind in the unimaginably far future, and dramatize its last gasps at survival. It may not be for everyone, but if you like your sci-fi more thoughtful than spectacular, Raised by Wolves is ready to scratch that itch.

Season 2 shows a greater willingness to sit down with its characters, and its presumably bigger budget makes for more assured effects and a slightly wider scope than before. There’s plenty of fun to be had in the chunky crimson mess; that is, if you have the eight hours to spare to look for it.

Green’s characters are not perfect. Bolstered by fantastic performances across the board, they are living breathing humans who often struggle to do the right thing. Because when power is reclaimed, there’s a temptation to become the oppressor rather than to reset (or finally achieve) balance. Lovecraft Country expertly lets its characters wrestle with this complexity, exploring competing narratives and balancing justice with the understandable desire for revenge and need for catharsis.

The Umbrella Academy feels like it’s found its footing in season 2. ... It’s easier to follow, and far less dour — actors like Page, Gallagher, and Sheehan get to ply their trade in entertaining fashion.

For The Muppets, putting on the show has always been as entertaining as the show itself (often more so), and this format loses much of that element. ... Luckily, the characters, even those that have been entertaining us for decades, are so fleshed out and timeless in their personalities and quirks and silliness that they can make a project like Muppets Now work for both old fans and, hopefully, a few new ones.

Out of the three, the only one we’d take with us is “Meet Me in the Middle”. Chang and Amini make every minute count in this story about a man (Simpson) who connects with another woman (Gillian Jacobs) subconsciously. ... Elsewhere, Perkins gives a messy sequel to “To Serve Man” (and a modern twist on “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street”) with “You Might Also Like”, while Rosenfeld tries on too many faces in the aforementioned “The Who of You”.

Legalize Everything isn’t the complete success the best of Andre’s work is, but as a first look at what Andre can do to this format, it’s a breath-taking experiment, and more often than not, painfully hilarious.

The experimentation that Jones and Fitzgerald have done here shows their love for the original but also their desire for expansion and their trust that the solidity of the foundation could hold up a story with more layers. Beyond that, it could be just downright entertaining, too.

Filthy Rich effectively shows the vast systemic failure that allowed these girls to be victimized for so long. ... The series is at its best when amplifying the voices of Epstein’s survivors. One by one, they tell their stories revealing the painful details and providing important insight into the experience of surviving sexual assault and trauma.

The good news for anyone familiar with Bob’s Burgers is that it also stumbled in its short first season. There’s every chance that Central Park can get funnier. (When the show was announced, Apple TV+ picked it up for two 13-episode seasons.) But the first four episodes only prove that the pieces for a good show are present. The good show has yet to arrive.

It takes a special kind of project to make Steve Carrell unfunny. ... Think of the Simpsons episode where NASA puts Homer in the cockpit to drum of some PR and hot ink. There’s your damned Space Force. Here’s a comedy for people either desperate for new Office content, or who still find “covfefe” funny.

While Homecoming’s second season lacks the intensity and mystery that made season one a hot watch, the acting, the craft, the expansive world building, and the ensuing themes of corporate greed and military malfeasance make this newest installment a worthwhile albeit unrealized capper.