The way I grouped yesterday’s series–Man in the High Castle, Fleabag, One Mississippi, Sneaky Pete, Patriot–may have felt more than a little random, but today has a distinct theme: anti-heroes. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, I actually enjoy even the weakest of these series during their worst episodes more than most series. Even if “Hand of God”…
Category: TV Reviews
Amazon Series Reviewed: Sneaky Pete, Patriot, One Mississippi, Fleabag, Man in High Castle
After reviewing Amazon’s Pilot Season and upcoming shows, why not take a look back at several series they’ve had recently…[And a handful more tomorrow too]… Sneaky Pete…This con artist-set series has already been renewed for a second season, but I found it to be a mixed-bag overall. There are certainly great things to recommend like…
Amazon’s Upcoming Series: The Tick, I Love Dick, Last Tycoon, and Jean Claude Van Johnson
While I reviewed this current crop of Amazon’s pilots yesterday, it might be time to take a look at the series they greenlit from last year’s pilot season… The Tick…A dedicated group will love this update of “The Tick” but I wasn’t encouraged by the pilot. The lead character/actor (Griffin Newman playing an accountant with…
Odds on Which Amazon Prime Pilot Season Series Will Get Picked Up
Amazon Prime’s pilot seasons—in which viewers watch a handful or so of TV pilots and pick which ones they want to see made into series—started out revolutionary and often invoked the praise “Finally! Why don’t more networks do this?” Well, partly because cable series and our bingeable culture (Amazon itself releases all episodes of its…
TV Reviews: “Crashing,” “Legion,” and “Big Little Lies”
HBO debuted two very different series this past Sunday that both show promise, while FX’s “Legion” may already be slightly overrated… Legion…Blame it on Marvel, but even top TV talent like Noah Hawley (“Fargo”) has been snapped up to adapt their decades-old second-tier characters. The title character is supposedly a powerful mutant in the X-Men…
The Reason White Racists Love FX’s “Atlanta”
Opening Defense: I know the pushback I’ll most likely receive is “but wait–black people love ‘Atlanta’ too.” Sure, but this year saw a variety of black-starring and created TV shows from “Loosely Exactly Nicole” to “Insecure” to “Luke Cage” to “Queen Sugar” and none of them received the universal adoration from white critics that “Atlanta” did….
The 10 Best TV Shows of 2016
You’ve seen the Best (and Worst) Characters, and the Best Scenes or Episodes, but still, there can be only one true list of the year’s 10 Best TV Shows… Honorable Mention: “Real Time with Bill Maher” is about to become the most important voice for “The Resistance.” Let’s quit kidding ourselves that Trumpers will ever listen to…
The Best TV Scenes or Episodes of 2016
Note: This is a combination of TV episodes, scenes, moments, shots, or whatever you want to call it. This is not to be confused with “The Best TV series of 2016” which ranks an entire season, and will be posted shortly… Honorable Mention: “The Good Wife” Iowa episode…”The Good Wife” gave us a lot of good…
The BEST TV Characters of 2016
People Vs. OJ…Veep…Westworld…The Night Of… Best Self: Campbell Scott as himself in “Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll”…Having a celebrity play themselves rarely leads to anything other than smiles or a soft chuckle, but “Sex” gave Scott his most interesting role since “Roger Dodger,” as a manipulative, hilarious genius trying to stage a Hamilton-rip-off. He has only…
The WORST TV Characters of 2016
Note: As always, these are bad characters in otherwise good shows. There has to be a certain element of “ruining a good series” present, otherwise I could just list participants at an RNC debate… Have to Include It: The “Sand Snakes” and Ellaria Sand (Indira Varma) in “Game of Thrones”…Actually, they didn’t get on my nerves so much,…
The Five Best TV Shows You’re Not Watching…
What are the best shows currently on television that don’t have “Game” or “Thrones” in the title? I’m glad you asked… 5. [Tie] Turn and Hell on Wheels…AMC’s two all-but-forgotten, mostly buzz-less historical dramas are in different places in their runs. “Turn” has finally realized its potential with its best season so far, and has discovered a…
“Banshee” Finale Review, and Ranking the Seasons
It was the end of times, and—as is so often the case with TV finales–it was the worst of times. Cinemax’s “Banshee” was one of the most consistently underrated shows on television, and in fact many readers of this article may not have even heard of the series, let alone watched it. I want to…
TV Review: I’m Glad The Good Wife is Ending…And Wish It Would Have Sooner
The worst thing for a television series is not getting cancelled too son. The worst thing is actually that it will last too long. As much as we like to grumble about the cases of a show getting axed prematurely, it’s now become much, much more common for a series to live long past the…