Television
Intriguing Culture Clashes Drive Mysterious Possessions
HBO Max’s murder thriller miniseries is all over the map—in a good way.
Flack Leans into the Cynical, Ruthless World of Celebrity PR
British import on Amazon Prime won’t exactly fill you with the warm fuzzies.
Coyote Dramatizes the Complex Politics, Dangers of Illegal Border Migration
Meanwhile, a reboot of Walker, Texas Ranger inexplicably exists.
Trickster and Call Your Mother Won't Pull You from Your Stream Binges
Say ‘meh’ to these two midseason also-rans.
Mr. Mayor Makes a Much-Deserved Mockery of Urban Politics
The spiritual successor of 30 Rock keeps its edge.
Space, the Final Smuggling Frontier
In a glimpse of a gloriously rule-breaking future, contraband has boldly gone where more is sure to follow.
Glenn Garvin's Top Television Shows of 2020
Ranking the best entertainment in the worst year
British Culture Minister Threatens a 'Health Warning' on Netflix's The Crown
The show takes plenty of creative license, but viewers are smart enough to distinguish drama from documentary.
Effigy's German Serial Killer Drama Weaves Intoxicating—and Toxic—Tale
Need an antidote to sickly sweet holiday stories?
Hollywood Still Can't Figure Out How to Adapt The Stand
If you’re looking for a coherent, compelling version of Stephen King’s pandemic opus, keep on walking.
Trip Out with Timothy Leary's Ex-Girlfriend in My Psychedelic Love Story
A documentary describes a drug-fueled countercultural romance.
Kaley Cuoco Ascends to Lead Actress in Hilarious The Flight Attendant
Now out of The Big Bang’s orbit, she’s ready to shine.
Big Sky Brings Big Thrills to the Small Screen
David E. Kelley orchestrates another excellent drama.
90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After?
The TLC show follows six couples whose marriages were the culmination of the K-1 visa process.
A Mother's Homicide Becomes a Son's Passion Project in Murder on Middle Beach
HBO docuseries a devastating look at a family’s secret dysfunctions.
Zombies Eat Academic Brains in Misbegotten PBS Documentary Exhumed
Meanwhile on CBS, B Positive offers laughs about...kidney transplants.
Perry Mason
Whether the state is merely incompetent or actively corrupt, the show suggests the burdens of its failures fall primarily on the poor and the vulnerable.
Milton Friedman's Free to Choose Proved Capitalism Is Superior to Socialism
Forty years later, the libertarian Nobel laureate's PBS series is still winning hearts and minds.
Suspense Simmers, as Does the Class Conflict, in HBO's The Undoing
Premium cable has led to a quality transformation in David E. Kelley’s storytelling.
Before TMZ and Page Six, America Turned to Walter Winchell for Gossip
PBS documentary recounts life of America’s pioneer of tawdry fame coverage.
Halloween Comes Early with Hulu's Books of Blood
Clive Barker’s anthologies of horror short stories have been adapted for streaming.
Fall Premiere Season Ends in a Bored Whimper with Devils
Not even “McDreamy” can make this financial thriller cash in.
Fun Sci-Fi Shows Next and Swamp Thing Round Out Fall Premieres
Killer AI and bayou monsters all run amok
Fargo Goes Full Gangster in Season Four
Chris Rock heads cast of mobsters in 1950s Kansas City.
Star Trek: Discovery Warp Speeds Its Way from Streaming into Network Primetime
Also, Neil deGrasse Tyson is back to condescend to us all some more.
Enjoy the Tiny Scraps of the Fall Premiere Season
At least television networks have COVID-19 to blame for the dire state of shows this year.
PBS Import Van der Valk Avoids Its Network's Stuffy Trappings
No drawing room mysteries to see in this off-beat, hard-boiled cop show.
Don't Be Afraid: Hulu Comedy Woke Is Genuinely Funny
Wit, both broad and sharp, gets a show about racism further than tirades would.
Prepare Yourselves Now for a Miserable Fall Television Rollout
Two mediocre movies highlight what little there is to look forward to.
Turn Off Your Miserable Summer and Enjoy Simple Family Caper Comedy The Sleepover
Pandemics and political fearmongering got you down? Netflix offers a diversion.
Immigration Nation Brilliantly Captures the Brutal Logic Behind America's Immigration Enforcement Regime
The new Netflix docuseries is a damning indictment of ICE.
Lovecraft Country Makes Actual Monsters Out of America's Tormented Racial History
But do the metaphors hold up?
Upload
Consumer culture continues into the afterlife in Amazon's sci-fi/mystery/romance/workplace comedy mashup.
Brit Import We Hunt Together Offers Sex, Murder, and Fun
Cops vs. criminals with psychosexual undertones
This Year, Summer Television Means Dragging in Shows from Canada, England
Coroner and Hitmen are only new to us Yanks.
The Extremely Online Are Less Informed About Political News, More Informed About Conspiracy Theories
Plus: Congress moves forward on encryption backdoors, largest school districts aren't reopening, and more...
Tell Me a Story Contemplates Moral Responsibility in Bloodcurdling Fashion
The fairy-tale foundation never materializes, but the show will rattle your bones.
A New Charles Manson Documentary Series Pulls All the Disturbing Threads Together
Helter Skelter: An American Myth doesn’t shed new light, but it’s excellent journalism.
Stateless Dramatizes Cruelty of Immigrant Detention Bureaucracies
The Australian series shows it’s not all about Trump.
Mrs. America
The show smartly grasps that there will always be competing visions for the future of feminism.
Golden State Killer's Capture Complicates Documentary I'll Be Gone in the Dark
What happens when a decades-long mystery gets solved while you’re explaining it?
Police Departments Asked Live PD To Cut Footage That Made Cops Look Bad
Perhaps this show was not the window into law enforcement transparency it claimed to be.
