Category: Reviews of Television Shows
Black Mirror: Created by Charlie Brooker. With Anjana Vasan, Cristin Milioti, Jimmi Simpson, Jesse Plemons. Featuring stand-alone dramas — sharp, suspenseful, satirical tales that explore techno-paranoia — “Black Mirror” is a contemporary reworking of “The Twilight Zone” with stories that tap into the collective unease about the modern world. S7.E1 ∙ Common People When a medical emergency leaves schoolteacher Amanda fighting for her life, her desperate husband Mike signs her up for Rivermind, a high-tech system that will keep her alive. A strong opener. S7.E2 ∙ Bête Noire Confectionary whizz kid Maria is unnerved when her former schoolmate Verity joins...
Ahsoka: Created by Dave Filoni. With Rosario Dawson, David Tennant, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Mary Elizabeth Winstead. After the fall of the Galactic Empire, former Jedi Ahsoka Tano investigates an emerging threat to a vulnerable galaxy. I own this! In 4k and HDR and it’s glorious and I love every minute of it. What I can’t accept is that it’s been over 2 years since this season wrapped on one whopper of a cliffhanger and it won’t be until the end of 2026 (maybe the summer?) until we see the conclusion, or even dare we say, a continuation? Man I am...
My Neighbors the Yamadas: Directed by Isao Takahata. With Yukiji Asaoka, Tôru Masuoka, Masako Araki, Hayato Isohata. The life and misadventures of a family in contemporary Japan. A cute slice of life movie with a unique style that’s still recognizably from Studio Ghibli. Buy On Amazon!
Futurama: Created by David X. Cohen, Matt Groening. With Billy West, John DiMaggio, Katey Sagal, Tress MacNeille. Philip J. Fry, a pizza delivery boy, is accidentally frozen in 1999 and thawed out on New Year’s Eve 2999. I finally made it through this season, it was a complete slog, which honestly had nothing to do with the show itself, all ten episodes were well done and had enjoyable elements, but there wasn’t much that made me want to actively seek them out through hulu’s convoluted process. I remember when Hulu had a nice queue system, I miss those days. Buy...
Resident Alien: Created by Chris Sheridan. With Alan Tudyk, Sara Tomko, Corey Reynolds, Alice Wetterlund. A crash-landed alien takes on the identity of a small-town Colorado doctor and slowly begins to wrestle with the moral dilemma of his secret mission on Earth. Ending on an emotional high, this series never really got to a point where it was “must watch” television for me. I loved all the actors and most of the story elements were great, but the sum total of it was ok. Not overwhelming, not underwhelming, just ….whelming. I could go for another couple seasons of perfectly whelming...
Moon Knight: Created by Jeremy Slater. With Oscar Isaac, Ethan Hawke, May Calamawy, Michael Benjamin Hernandez. Steven Grant discovers he’s been granted the powers of an Egyptian moon god. But he soon finds out that these newfound powers can be both a blessing and a curse to his troubled life. I received this as a Christmas gift and have now successfully rewatched this, but this time instead of streaming it, I watched it on my overpriced 4k disk player! The story is much more palatable when consumed in just a single day, with all the hints of the giant twist...
Murderbot: With Alexander Skarsgård, Noma Dumezweni, David Dastmalchian, Sabrina Wu. A security android struggles with emotions and free will while balancing dangerous missions and desire for isolation, evading detection of its self-hacking as it finds its place. Murderbot! I received the first four or five short stories during the covid pandemic, but never got around to reading them, then they announced this television show, so I consumed the stories quickly, they’re very easy reads and had a ton of action that I loved. This television series isn’t as good as the books, but it has many of the elements of...
The Acolyte: Created by Leslye Headland. With Lee Jung-jae, Amandla Stenberg, Manny Jacinto, Charlie Barnett. An investigation into a shocking crime spree pits a respected Jedi Master against a dangerous warrior from his past. As more clues emerge, they travel down a dark path where sinister forces reveal all is not what it seems… Oh this was good, but with how it was received, I doubt we’ll see a direct sequel to it. The bad guys are cool enough that we’ll be seeing them in other series though. At least I hope! Buy On Amazon!
Severance: Created by Dan Erickson. With Adam Scott, Britt Lower, Zach Cherry, Tramell Tillman. Mark leads a team of office workers whose memories have been surgically divided between their work and personal lives. When a mysterious colleague appears outside of work, it begins a journey to discover the truth about their jobs. Season one was vastly better this second season, but I think I feel that way because they were asking some really cool questions and setting up some really weird situations, but hadn’t tried to answer any thing yet. The answers provided in season two don’t work for me...
Ironheart: Created by Chinaka Hodge. With Dominique Thorne, Anthony Ramos, Lyric Ross, Matthew Elam. Genius teenage inventor Riri Williams creates the most advanced suit of armor since Iron Man. There’s so many loop holes and plot points that make no sense, the return of an Iron Man suit wasn’t enough to really make me happy here. For whatever reason, Disney decided to make one of the best technological heroes from the comics into a supernatural magic weirdo that falls in with some seriously bad people. Every episode Riri makes terrible choices, does terrible things, and never learns her lessons. At...
The Last of Us: Created by Neil Druckmann, Craig Mazin. With Bella Ramsey, Pedro Pascal, Gabriel Luna, Isabela Merced. After a global pandemic destroys civilization, a hardened survivor takes charge of a 14-year-old girl who may be humanity’s last hope. If you didn’t play the second game you may have been shocked by the beginning and the end of this second season, and if you HAD played the season game, you may have been shocked that they actually went through with a couple shocking plot points. I hadn’t played the game, but had the opening spoilered long ago, but that...
Interior Chinatown: With Jimmy O. Yang, Ronny Chieng, Chloe Bennet, Sullivan Jones. Background actor Willis Wu witnesses a crime in Chinatown while working on a TV show. As he investigates, he unravels a criminal web and experiences life in the spotlight he had dreamed of. Confusing, confounding, appealing, and a masterclass in deconstructing television tropes, I first saw a clip of this on Tik Tok, then spent 10 hours watching it on Hulu. There are many familiar faces including Chloe Bennet, who I loved in Agents of SHIELD. Buy On Amazon!
The Wheel of Time: Created by Rafe Judkins. With Rosamund Pike, Daniel Henney, Zoë Robins, Madeleine Madden. The lives of five young villagers change forever when a strange and powerful woman arrives, claiming one of them is the child of an ancient prophecy with the power to tip the balance between Light and Dark forever. I forgot that I even finished this latest season, there’s way too many separate storylines going on with too many characters for me to keep it all straight. If you were to watch this, I suggest watching it all at once and not as the...
Love, Death & Robots: Created by Tim Miller. With Fred Tatasciore, Scott Whyte, Emily O’Brien, Nolan North. A collection of animated short stories that span various genres including science fiction, fantasy, horror and comedy. Season 4 is here and it brings a ton of great stuff along with a couple that are less than great, but no stinkers this season! S4.E1 ∙ Can’t Stop – Stupid concept, but excellent execution, I hope they never do this again, because again, it’s a very dumb concept. S4.E2 ∙ Close Encounters of the Mini Kind – Another entry in the tilt shifted end...
Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld: Created by Dave Filoni. With Nika Futterman, David W. Collins, Lane Factor, Corey Burton. Follows the galaxy’s criminal underworld. Asajj Ventress, a former assassin, flees with a new ally, while Cad Bane confronts his past when meeting an old friend turned Marshal. While the on the surface of things, May 4th would seem to be a great time to release new Star Wars content, it was right in the middle of Andor’s triumphant second season and imho should have been released after Andor had finished blowing everyone’s minds. Tales of the Underworld is a...
Landman: Created by Taylor Sheridan, Christian Wallace. With Billy Bob Thornton, Ali Larter, Jacob Lofland, Michelle Randolph. A modern-day tale of fortune seeking in the world of West Texas oil rigs. As a piece of Pure Petroleum Propaganda, this is an effective look at how the oil industry feels about itself, from the guys working the land to the guy that owns the entire thing. Pretty much everything you hear or see in the show needs to be taken with a huge grain of salt, but it’s an incredibly entertaining show. One thing I didn’t understand though was how everyone...
Tulsa King: Created by Taylor Sheridan. With Sylvester Stallone, Martin Starr, Jay Will, Max Casella. After being released from prison after 25 years, New York Mafia capo Dwight “The General” Manfredi is exiled to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Sylvester Stallone is so unbelievably bad in this series, but he’s the whole reason that I’m watching the show, so I guess that gamble paid off for Paramount. The series however is pretty good, but that’s more to do with the support cast than anything else, it’s still the story of horrible people doing horrible things to other horrible people, all while ordinary reasonable...
Andor: Created by Tony Gilroy. With Diego Luna, Denise Gough, Stellan Skarsgård, Kyle Soller. In an era filled with danger, deception, and intrigue, Cassian Andor embarks on a path that is destined to turn him into a Rebel hero. The recent Star Wars content has been as varied as it has been fantastic, with Andor being on the vastly more series side of things in comparison with the equally as good but much more light hearted Skeleton Crew. Season 2 of Andor fits seamlessly with Rogue One and features some of the most dramatic and beautiful acting from some of...
The Pitt: Created by R. Scott Gemmill. With Noah Wyle, Tracy Ifeachor, Patrick Ball, Katherine LaNasa. The daily lives of healthcare professionals in a Pittsburgh hospital as they juggle personal crises, workplace politics, and the emotional toll of treating critically ill patients, revealing the resilience required in their noble calling. I’ve always thought that a 15 hour shift at a hospital was ridiculous, dangerous, and irresponsible, but it was a clever gimmick for this show to show an entire shift of a trauma center in Pittsburg. I have it on good authority that while this is a highly realistic series...
Harley Quinn: Created by Justin Halpern, Dean Lorey, Patrick Schumacker. With Kaley Cuoco, Lake Bell, Alan Tudyk, Ron Funches. The series focuses on a single Harley Quinn, who sets off to make it on her own in Gotham City. I’m not sure if the series is just bad now or if my tastes in comic book adaptations isn’t in line with the mainstream, but I’ve always thought that Brainiac storylines were goofy and barely acceptable for a Superman tale, but now I know they’re completely out of line with what I want from a Harley Quinn television series. The entire...
Daredevil: Born Again: Created by Matt Corman, Chris Ord. With Charlie Cox, Margarita Levieva, Vincent D’Onofrio, Genneya Walton. Matt Murdock finds himself on a collision course with Wilson Fisk when their past identities begin to emerge. A fantastic first entry into the MCU, it does well enough picking up the threads of the prior DD Netflix series and treats itself as serious as I would like it to, which is to say: Matt is morally torn about his decisions and has huge decisions to make, makes some of them incorrectly, and is in turn torn about his decisions. It’s all...
The Outsider: Created by Richard Price. With Ben Mendelsohn, Bill Camp, Jeremy Bobb, Mare Winningham. When an insidious supernatural force edges its way into a seemingly straightforward investigation into the gruesome murder of a young boy, it leads a seasoned cop and an unorthodox investigator to question everything they believe in. I straight up stopped watching this when one of the main characters was killed, I had assumed it was going to be all about him, but nay, it was about another character that I didn’t quite care for. The end result of the show was amazing, and I would...
Paradise: Created by Dan Fogelman. With Sterling K. Brown, Julianne Nicholson, Sarah Shahi, Nicole Brydon Bloom. A Secret Service agent investigates the murder of a former president in a seemingly peaceful community. I’m watching both “The Outsider” and “Paradise” at the same time and it was fun seeing two different sides of Julianne Nicholson. Sterling K. Brown is getting to be someone that I really enjoy seeing, regardless of the type of role. Luckily for me, it looks like there’s ample room for a second season for Paradise. The fundamental story is very familiar, a guy in a locked room...
Win or Lose: With Chanel Stewart, Winston Vengapally, Josh Thomson, Milan Elizabeth Ray. Follows a middle school softball team in the week leading up to their championship game, and each episode is told from the perspective of a different character. We’ve only watched the first few episodes, but it’s good enough to get a stamp of approval from me with only those two being seen. Buy On Amazon!
Dream Productions: With Paula Pell, Richard Ayoade, Kensington Tallman, Maya Rudolph. Acclaimed director Paula Persimmon teams up with an overly confident daydream director to create the next big tween-dream hit for Riley at Dream Productions. I missed this back when it first came out and only stumbled on it because it was a recommended series after the first couple episodes of “Win or Lose” ended. It’s a well done series that gets to the point very quickly and ends on a lovely note. Buy On Amazon!
Lioness: Created by Taylor Sheridan. With Zoe Saldana, Laysla De Oliveira, Dave Annable, Jill Wagner. CIA operative Joe attempts to balance her personal and professional lives as the tip of the spear in the agency’s war on terror. As good as the first season, but without any of the surprises, but plenty of appearances by people we’ve seen in season 1. Buy On Amazon!
Hysteria!: Created by Matthew Scott Kane. With Emjay Anthony, Chiara Aurelia, Kezii Curtis, Nikki Hahn. Follows a struggling high school heavy metal band of outcasts who use the town’s sudden interest in the occult to start a reputation as a Satanic metal band, until a strange series of events triggers a witch hunt that leads back to them. This is the kind of ambiguous horror that I both love and hate, because there’s all sorts of questions about what’s real, what’s really real, and if any of that matters when you’re face to face with the true horrors of an...
Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire: With Lelethu Zulu, Khanyiswa Joyi, Lungulethu Menzi, Nomsa Winnie Koro. This action-packed animated sci-fi anthology presents ten futuristic visions from Africa imagining brave new worlds of advanced technology, aliens, spirits, and monsters. I often wonder if I’m going deaf. This show didn’t help that thought at all. First one: not really afrofutuistic, they’re goat herders in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and defeat a cybertooth tiger. I could barely understand anything they said, but the music is good and the action is easy enough to follow along. The second one: I can barely understand what they’re saying, it’s...
What If…?: With Jeffrey Wright, Terri Douglas, Matthew Wood, Fred Tatasciore. Exploring pivotal moments from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and turning them on their head, leading the audience into uncharted territory. Every television series has to continuing moving in a direction or it’s going to get stagnant, and most comic book shows or movies have to constantly one up the season that came before it. The third (and final) season of “What if” takes that to the extreme with transuniversal, omnipowerful powerleveling of characters taking to their over the top logical end points in which everyone involved has more power...
Dune: Prophecy: Created by Diane Ademu-John, Alison Schapker. With Emily Watson, Olivia Williams, Chloe Lea, Jade Anouka. Two Harkonnen sisters combat forces that threaten the future of humankind and establish the fabled sect that will become known as the Bene Gesserit. A worthy entry into the modern adaptation universe, the story is solid and the actors are all amazing, and the tv budget only peeks through infrequently and isn’t all that noticeable. Buy On Amazon!
Skeleton Crew: Created by Christopher Ford, Jon Watts. With Jude Law, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Kyriana Kratter, Robert Timothy Smith. Four kids make a mysterious discovery on their home planet that leads them to get lost in a strange and dangerous galaxy. This is, my far, the best Star Wars content to come out since the last time I said this, which admittedly is pretty often with things like The Mandalorian and Andor in the mix. Skeleton Crew is an entirely perfect mix of Goonies, The Pirates of the Carribean, and Rogue One. There’s kids lost on an adventure of their...
Star Trek: Prodigy: Created by Dan Hageman, Kevin Hageman. With Rylee Alazraqui, Dee Bradley Baker, Brett Gray, Angus Imrie. A group of enslaved teenagers steal a derelict Starfleet vessel to escape and explore the galaxy. I have the second season on disk, but I decided to watch the entire series again on Netflix to try to help their stats a little bit. Hope to see the crew again in season 3! Buy On Amazon!
Blue Eye Samurai: Created by Michael Green, Amber Noizumi. With Maya Erskine, George Takei, Masi Oka, Brenda Song. Driven by a dream of revenge against those who made her an outcast in Edo-period Japan, a young warrior cuts a bloody path toward her destiny. Fantastic series with all the necessary elements for me to recommend it to you. Do you like Samurai? Do you like tales of racial injustice being ever so slightly set right? Here you go! Buy On Amazon!
Kite Man: Hell Yeah!: Created by Justin Halpern, Dean Lorey, Patrick Schumacker. With Matt Oberg, Stephanie Hsu, James Adomian, Jonathan Banks. The adventures of the minor villain Kite Man as he commits crimes to support the purchase of Noonan’s, Gotham’s seediest dive bar. I didn’t know this was being done and I ended up not really caring that I watched the entire first season. It was good enough that if you really really liked the Harley Quinn cartoon then you’ll likely like this, but I wasn’t such a huge fan that this show is necessary for me. I’m going to...
Superman & Lois: Created by Greg Berlanti, Todd Helbing. With Tyler Hoechlin, Elizabeth Tulloch, Alex Garfin, Inde Navarrette. The world’s most famous superhero and comic books’ most famous journalist face the pressures and complexities that come with balancing work, justice, and parenthood in today’s society. This show obviously has to get out of the way of the upcoming Superman movie (which the first trailer looked about as good as this tv show was in the first season) and they did justice to the characters and their storylines and wrapped everything up as neatly as I could hope for. My one...
Secret Level: With Keanu Reeves, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emily Swallow, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. Original stories set within the worlds of iconic video games are featured in this animated anthology series. The episodes are short, but wow do each of them pack a punch. It’s a familiar format and one that i would gladly and happily like to see more of, short and to the point with very little fat left to waffle over. Buy On Amazon!
Lioness: Created by Taylor Sheridan. With Zoe Saldana, Laysla De Oliveira, Dave Annable, Jill Wagner. CIA operative Joe attempts to balance her personal and professional lives as the tip of the spear in the agency’s war on terror. Moves quickly right out the gate and sets a captivating scene of spy work, confidence games, bad asses with guns, political tension, and sexual confusion. It does all that and wraps up a tightly woven story in just 8 episodes! I can’t wait to see what season 2 will bring. Buy On Amazon!
A Man on the Inside: With Ted Danson, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Lilah Richcreek Estrada, Stephanie Beatriz. Charles, a retired man, gets a new lease on life when he answers an ad from a private investigator and becomes a mole in a secret investigation in a nursing home. Starts off feeling like a sappy low budget comedy, but quickly moves past that in the first 15 minutes. It quickly evolved into a show with deep emotion, dealing with some pretty heavy topics that the cast easily take on. There’s plenty of familiar faces here from the Director of the residence to...
Sunny: Created by Katie Robbins. With Rashida Jones, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Joanna Sotomura, Judy Ongg. Follows Suzie, an American woman living in Japan, and Sunny, a domestic robot made by her husband’s company, as they uncover the dark truth of what really happened to Suzie’s husband and son, who disappeared in a mysterious plane crash. A great series exploring grief, loneliness, and love, all set in a normal feeling Japanese town, until you start scratching the surface and all sorts of fun and weird things are going on. Rashida Jones is pretty darn good here. I’m not sure how I feel...
Agatha All Along: Created by Jac Schaeffer. With Kathryn Hahn, Joe Locke, Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn. A spell-bound Agatha Harkness regains freedom thanks to a teen’s help. Intrigued by his plea, she embarks on the Witches’ Road trials to reclaim her powers and discover the teen’s motivations. I finished this back when it originally aired and set aside the review for a few weeks to try to sort my feelings, and I think I’ve come down to the fact that I just didn’t like how they (didn’t) end it with an ending that was more of a non-ending vague start...
Space: Above and Beyond: Created by Glen Morgan, James Wong. With Morgan Weisser, Kristen Cloke, Rodney Rowland, Joel de la Fuente. The Earth is embroiled in a desperate war against alien invaders, and this series focuses on one squadron of Marine pilots involved in it. I had a strong memory of really liking this show, but I knew that it was military science fiction from a time when scifi on TV was pretty hokey at times, so I was happy to see that the first episode opened so strongly with the drill sergeant from “Full Metal Jacket” making an appearance. ...
In the ’90s, TV’s stunt-filled “American Gladiators” thrilled fans. This docuseries explores the show’s success and how it almost ended before it began. I really enjoyed this look back at a series that only ran for a few years on a single channel, but somehow managed to become one of my personal core memories of tv from the 90s. There’s a lot of heart to this documentary and I loved seeing how well everyone treated each other, both in the past and in the current modern era. Buy On Amazon!
A nerf-herder discovers an artifact that twists the Star Wars universe, swapping the roles of heroes and villains. He embarks on an adventure to restore order and emerge as the savior who reassembles the fractured galaxy. A cute mini series that’s about 2 hours long total, I hope Disney does more of these types of short form stories with heart! Buy On Amazon!
A family of aliens move to middle America, where they debate whether life is better there or on their home planet. Season 5 is here and there’s so many storylines and completely different sets of “main” characters that I wish they would double or triple the episode count. Maybe even split off a few of them into their own shows? Regardless of what they end up doing, the main characters are the least interesting part of this series, but if you’re looking for a storyline about a degenerate gambler and his hedgehog or about a guy trying to change a...
Yakitori: Soldiers of Misfortune: With Ron Bottitta, Frankie Kevich, Cherami Leigh, J. Michael Tatum. A young man’s rebel against authorities on a future version of Earth, after he has been recruited into an interplanetary military unit that suffers a 70% casualty rate. The action scenes, character designs, and base story concept are mindblowing and Iove everything about them. The voice Acting and writing however leave a lot to be desired with some pretty silly story elements being introduced in the middle of combat scenes that completely took me out of my appreciation of the glorious military science fiction. Buy On...
A young girl is destined to liberate her world from the grip of the Magisterium which represses people’s ties to magic and their animal spirits known as daemons. The second season of this sat on my “to watch” list for a few years and I’m happy to report that I’m fully disgusted in myself for waiting this long to watch it, it’s a fulfilling conclusion to the story and I loved everything about it. Buy On Amazon!
After a family tragedy, affluent philanthropist Bruce Wayne transforms into The Batman, where his crusade for justice spawns unforeseen ramifications. A pleasant mashup of The Batman and The Animated Series, it’s only 10 episodes long, but there’s enough here to enjoy. Hamish Linklater is the new voice of Batman and he works very well in context of the above mashup. He does a different enough voice from both Kevin Conroy and Robert Pattinson that’s both familiar and unique and again, works very well. It’s a shame that television has shrunk to such a degree that all we’re getting in our...
Mech Cadets: Created by Aaron Lam, Eileen Shim. With Brandon Soo Hoo, Aparna Brielle, Victoria Grace, Josh Sundquist. An underdog teen joins a group of young Cadets who’ve been chosen to bond with Robo Mechs from space and defend Earth against alien invaders. A delightful mix of Iron Giant, Starship Troopers, and Pacific Rim, I fully enjoyed the comic series and enjoyed this adaptation just as much. The scope is slightly scaled down, but it’s all the better for that, with a clearer focus on the singular character and the limited world view that he possesses. We get hints of...
A group of enslaved teenagers steal a derelict Starfleet vessel to escape and explore the galaxy. This is about as good as Trek gets, with a cast of characters that are extremely diversified and non-human and a cast of actors that give it their all. I’m somewhat miffed that we’re once again doing time travel shenanigans, but this is time travel done right. Buy On Amazon!
Star Trek: Discovery: Created by Bryan Fuller, Alex Kurtzman. With Sonequa Martin-Green, Anthony Rapp, Doug Jones, Mary Wiseman. Ten years before Kirk, Spock, and the Enterprise, the USS Discovery discovers new worlds and lifeforms as one Starfleet officer learns to understand all things alien. I know I said I wasn’t going to watch this season as it came out, but the seasons are so short and the show is so ephemeral that I stayed with it until the bitter end. The show never changed it’s course and stayed true to concepts of emotional self discovery that so many Trek fans...
