TV Review: The Good Fight, season 6

TV #53 of 2022: The Good Fight, season 6 A relatively strong end to a perpetually-messy series that nevertheless captured a lot of the tension of life in a time of rising American fascism. Did Andre Braugher need to get brought in as the firm’s latest named partner? No, not particularly. Was the season weakened …

TV Review: Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, season 1

TV #52 of 2022: Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, season 1 Despite carrying the novelist’s name prominently appended to the title, this is one of those curious adaptations that alters or completely jettisons nearly all of its source material, for better or for worse. The difference is immediately apparent, since in the original book …

TV Review: Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi, season 1

TV #51 of 2022: Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi, season 1 I don’t quite see the point of this latest Star Wars anthology series — and I’m not sure that Disney does either, given their decision to drop the entire first season in the middle of the ongoing Andor release schedule. Theoretically I think …

TV Review: She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, season 1

TV #48 of 2022: She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, season 1 Origin story. Spinoff. Legal comedy. Rom-com. Fourth-wall-breaking commentary on typical TV and comic-book tropes. Straightforward MCU entry itself. Feminist critique of chauvinism in fandom. This first season of She-Hulk is trying to be a lot of different things all at once, and they unfortunately cut …

TV Review: What We Do in the Shadows, season 4

TV #43 of 2022: What We Do in the Shadows, season 4 Probably the strongest run of this supernatural comedy yet, with clear arcs for just about every major character except the Guide. Colin Robinson has been replaced by a rapidly-growing junior version of himself — a concept allowing fresh new jokes for his different …

TV Review: Better Call Saul, season 6

TV #39 of 2022: Better Call Saul, season 6 An utterly masterful end to one of the great modern dramas of our time. This Breaking Bad prequel about Walter White’s shady lawyer has always been stronger than anyone could have predicted, and its final outing is truly one of its best. At long last we …

TV Review: The Lincoln Lawyer, season 1

TV #37 of 2022: The Lincoln Lawyer, season 1 Netflix’s adaptation of this twisty legal thriller is a lot of fun, aptly capturing and balancing the protagonist’s brilliance in court and vulnerability outside it. I’m particularly impressed with how the program has turned out, given some of the unusual production constraints placed upon it. This …

TV Review: Ms. Marvel, season 1

TV #33 of 2022: Ms. Marvel, season 1 The back half of this season stumbles a bit, both in setting up / dealing with its various villains and in the messy narrative transition from Jersey to Karachi to an episode-long Partition flashback and back, at which point a few dropped plot threads have to be …

TV Review: Stranger Things, season 4

TV #31 of 2022: Stranger Things, season 4 Late-stage Stranger Things has a character problem, in that there are simply too many of them at this point for the narrative to function remotely efficiently. Even with the cast (somewhat clumsily) split into four or five geographically separate storylines, this season often finds six or more …

TV Review: Abbott Elementary, season 1

TV #30 of 2022: Abbott Elementary, season 1 A really strong and funny sitcom debut! I have a couple critiques that are holding me back from an utterly glowing five-star review, but this mockumentary series about teachers at an underfunded, majority-Black, inner-city Philadelphia school is generally sweet and hilarious alike. It also feels fresh in …

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