Strip back the worst parts of "Fubar" and all you'll find are more bad parts.

"Chinese" has a lot of substance to back up its fancy style, in particular, with Jin's internal battle over assimilating into his largely white American high school or embracing his immigrant parents and Chinese community.

"Charlotte" more than rises to the occasion. It's got the glitz, the gorgeous people and the gleefully seductive looks.

Season 2 [is] an even more enjoyable affair with better music and a cheekily absurdist tone that makes the series just silly enough to be serious.

A pointless prequel to the 1978 classic "Grease," it is the worst kind of offender in Hollywood's obsession with franchising existing stories: too much and too little, all at once.

"Beef" is magnificent and maniacal, an utterly unique story that spins the everyday into the epic. Anchored by outstanding performances by Steven Yeun and Ali Wong as the feuding drivers who gleefully trash their own lives in pursuit of revenge, "Beef" is depraved without being heartless.

It's possible the series eventually will rise to its lofty ambitions, with a good cast and solid source material. You can see flickers of it in scenes of Tatiana's bloody rebellion or Allie's fervent followers or Margot's violently expressed anger.

The second season reaches the heights of the first, with a negligible bump here or there. The new episodes are packed with more of what fans want: Maybe-mystical mysteries, big Melanie Lynskey monologues, and, of course, cannibalism.

Perhaps I'm expecting too much from the Oscars, but it feels dissonant to award best picture to a timely, incisive film like "Everything Everywhere All at Once" with one hand and wave away the problems of the world with the other. It all led to a broadcast that was bland, uncontroversial and mildly entertaining, sure, but also felt terribly fake.

It remains reliably the same: funny, heartwarming, occasionally deep and full of romantic comedy references. That's not a bug, it's a feature, and an accomplishment just to maintain its unique tone, top-notch performances and bold physical comedy that coalesces into a tight and effervescent series.

A flimsy, flaccid special that gained nothing from being live, other than providing publicity for Netflix with his long-awaited comments about Will Smith slapping him at last year's Oscars. ... Rock did not get into his rhythm until the show was practically over, when he began a blazing rant about Smith and adamantly denied being a victim. But then he sure reached for sympathy like one.

The music – and there is a whole album's worth of original songs – is fun if lacking depth, like everything else in the series. Try as it might, "Daisy" can't create an evocative story out of nostalgia, electric guitars and pretty people.

[True Lies] takes the 1994 action comedy, strips it for parts, and tries to sell you on a hollow, meaningless shell.

The rare nostalgia trip that doesn't actually feel like it's lamely wistful for the past. The cater waiters are as stuck in the unhappy present as the rest of us, and their misery is our hilarity. That recognition of the passage of time and understanding what life is like in 2023 is the key to the new season's success.

"Company" seems familiar enough to draw you in, but it's not a knockoff of all the other shows you've seen before. The series may have just the right mix of romantic, sultry drama and thrilling capers to go the distance.

Season 4 just doesn't feel quite as sharp as its previous seasons. ... It doesn't help that the "eat the rich" subgenre has been done and redone on TV and film lately, much better than "You" manages here, at least in the first part of the season.

The appeal of "Poker" is in its nostalgia and simplicity. The series is unpretentious, the scripts aren't rushed and Charlie makes a rather lackadaisical hero. Those looking for the fiery chaos of "Glass Onion" might be disappointed, but the series scratches a different itch. A leisurely, yawning itch on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

Forced, unfunny and lacking any kind of charm, "’90s" feels like a parody of a sitcom rather than an actual TV show. The jokes don't land, the actors are miscast and all the Kutcher and Kunis cameos in the world can't make a bad script good.

"Us" isn't really a groundbreaking series, but it is well done, compelling and gripping, a superb example of a zombie story done the right way.

With a “zoinks” here and a “jeepers” there, “Velma” looks out for the grownups and crafts something new and, yes, groovy from the familiar. It also sets a template for retooling other aging properties to entertain everyone from Gen X to Millennials. (Looking right at you, “G.I. Joe,” "Snorks" and “Jem.”) Because what they’ve baked into these Scooby Snacks definitely needs to be shared.

Tuesday's broadcast was an awkward affair, hosted by comedian Jerrod Carmichael, a huge talent who was completely out of place on the stage of the Beverly Hilton Hotel. He popped up too frequently all night, making barbs at the expense of Cruise and "The Little Mermaid" a bit too casually. ... It all felt more fake and more hollow than the already curated, gilded production of other awards shows.

It is a haunting, horrific story, told with nuance, care and excellent timing by creator Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.

The series rarely feels derivative, and the predictable plot doesn't mean it's not entertaining. "Wednesday" may aspire to the greatness of "Buffy," but comes across on the agreeably kitschy side of "Teen Wolf."

Marriage is not simple or easy, and neither is watching "Fleishman," a contradictory series that's addictively watchable in one moment and difficult to get through in another. At points the dialogue is too pretentious, at others it is riveting. The acting is Emmy-worthy, but the characters are often tiresome.

Every plot point is so absurd, each line of dialogue so corny that "Tulsa" is a compounding engine of cringe, at least in the first two episodes made available for review out of nine in total. It's like one of those cheesy direct-to-video "Geezer Teaser" action films, but longer to sit through.

Even as "Yellowstone" remains the entertainment equivalent of a nice steak dinner – always good, always predictable, no real need to fuss with the formula – there is just the slightest hint that things are going stale in Season 5. New characters and conflicts are introduced, but they feel just a shade too repetitive of seasons past.

The new season of "The Crown", which covers this tumultuous time in the Windsor clan, is more fine than good, blandly agreeable rather than stirringly risk-taking.

Last year's six episodes were near flawless television, and returning ran the risk of losing the expectations game. But the new seven-episode season is comparable, and most importantly keeps the tone alive. If more sophomore seasons could learn from the "Lotus" example, television would be better for it.