This Is Us
Randall's actions hint at the dark side of people who are just trying to make things better for everyone—regardless of whether their victims want the help.
Television
SNL to Liberals: It's OK To Question Nonsensical Mask Mandates
Mocking COVID public health theater is finally going mainstream.
Budget Horror Movie Hellbender Gives Viewers Plenty To Chew On
Watch out for those tequila worms.
Dopesick
The new Hulu miniseries promotes pernicious misconceptions about opioids, addiction, and pain treatment.
Arcane
The show details friction between the privileged innovators of a steampunk city and the impoverished slums underneath it.
Enjoy the Wild Ride of The Endgame While It Lasts
Can this crazy, fast-paced NBC crime drama actually reach its promised destination?
Impeachment: American Crime Story
Ryan Murphy's take on the Clinton impeachment has a bipartisan message about the corrupting nature of power.
Tech-Noir Thriller The Girl Before Glitches With Muddled Storytelling
Novel adaptation struggles to separate two parallel tales.
Pot Won't Be Advertised at Super Bowl, Though Players Will Probably Use It After
A proposed commercial by dispensary-locator company Weedmaps was sacked by NFL and NBC suits.
Celebrate Your Right To Ignore (or Watch) the Olympics
Born in nationalism, the Olympic games are fading into a niche entertainment option.
Jackass Embodied Gen X's Casual Indifference to Authority
Beneath all the harm, humiliation, and non-consensual hair-shaving was a love of freedom.
Reacher Drifts Onto Television, Ready To Punch Through Some Mysteries
Fans of the books will enjoy Amazon Prime’s series.
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Larry David isn't afraid to lay bare how much of politics is about appeasing the masses.
The Real-World Conflicts in Yellowstone Can Be Solved by Markets, Not Drama
Media elites ignore the heartland-themed show, and the real issues behind it, at their own peril.
Succession
The show eschews simplistic political commentary, choosing instead to spoof America's self-obsessed, self-dealing elites.
For Better or Worse, Television Schedules Are Recovering from COVID
Two January premieres offer a narcodrama and a tiresomely predictable medical procedural.
Even if Modern Star Trek Doesn't Think So, the World Is Getting Better
Star Trek used to dare to say that things were getting better.
White Lotus
The true villains of Mike White's new show are two Gen Z college students practicing militant wokeness.
Foundation
The TV adaptation of Isaac Asimov's classic trilogy is still fundamentally about the ways in which politics and objective truth inevitably clash.
Glenn Garvin's Top 10 Television Shows for 2021
The pandemic wreaked havoc on schedules, but the medium’s still faring better than the movie industry.
Squid Game
The dystopian show portrays people caught up in South Korea's massive consumer debt culture.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
For the most part, the series' characters revere due process rights rather than seeing them as something to be trampled in pursuit of justice.
HBO's Station Eleven Imagines a Plague Much Harder to Recover from than COVID-19
Also reviewed: Two new NBC sitcoms, American Auto and Grand Crew
Squid Game Says More About Communism Than Capitalism
The breakout Netflix series contains critiques of a decidedly "anti-capitalist" political and economic system that's haunted the Korean Peninsula.
Familiar School Comedy Hijinks Updated for Today in Abbott Elementary
Also intact: The whipsawing between cynicism and earnestness
Is Dr. Oz Fit To Join the U.S. Senate?
The TV personality's extensive history of promoting dubious nostrums suggests that he isn't.
Spy Shows for Adults and Kids Alike Sneak onto Streaming Services
Glória and Harriet the Spy target different demographics for surveillance fun.
Dopesick Reinforces These Pernicious Misconceptions About Opioids, Addiction, and Pain Treatment
The Hulu miniseries portrays opioid pain medication as unacceptably dangerous in nearly every context.
Yellowjackets Wrings Thrills and Mystery Out of Tragedy and Survival
Showtime series follows the lives of teen girls who survived a plane crash.
Dexter Is Back, But Is He Back to His Old Tricks?
Showtime orders another round of serial killer suspense years after the original series ended.
Dead & Beautiful Stretches Vampire Metaphors to the Breaking Point
A film as lifeless as its characters
Loki
Even the most powerful cosmic demigod can be foiled by the even-more-powerful machinations of bureaucracy.
Netflix Says Algorithm Is Protected by First Amendment in 13 Reasons Why Suicide Lawsuit
Is a required content warning or algorithm change a violation of the First Amendment?
Dopesick Resurrects an Opioid Narrative That Is 'Neat, Plausible, and Wrong'
Prohibition forces doctors to cut patients off from essential pain-killing medication.
The Spinning Wheel of Confusing Television Reboots Lands on 4400
Just like the characters, this short-lived sci-fi show makes a mysterious return years later.
Queens Is a Highly Entertaining Hip-Hop Soap Opera
Chock full of drama, the show is a wry and often endearing commentary on both the wisdom and the decrepitude of advancing age.
The Chosen
Christian media has a track record of creating hopelessly bad productions, but Dallas Jenkins' TV series is a cut above.
Squid Game Is a Bloody Commentary on Consumer Debt
Would you risk your life to write off your loans?
Legends of the Hidden Temple: the Reboot Nobody Asked for or Wanted
This Nickelodeon nostalgia is strictly for the millennials—and nobody else.
For Halloween, CBS Unearths CSI: Vegas to Stalk the World Once More
Also, a sitcom about ghosts!
La Brea Is a Sucking Sinkhole of a Sci-Fi Mystery Show
Both literally and in terms of quality
The Wonder Years Is a Remake Actually Worth Your Attention
In an era of cynical nostalgia-fueled reboots, a racial reframing creates a new experience.
Our Kind of People Serves Up an All-Too-Familiar Class War Soap Opera
Fox drama doesn’t rise—or sink—to the right level for the genre.
Primetime Television Struggles to Launch a New Fall Season
There are only a dozen new shows hitting the airwaves this month.
Strong Talent Elevates the Despair Porn of American Rust
Prestige television flogs another round of working-class misery.
Documentary on CIA's Hunt for Bin Laden Doesn't Truly Pull Back the Curtain
As the 20th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, prepare for the many, many looks back.
Bo Burnham: Inside
The Netflix comedy special deals with the loneliness brought on by the pandemic.
40 Ways Things Are Getting Better
"What has gotten materially better in America in, say, the last twenty years?" So! Much!
