Category: Reviews of Television Shows
In the 1950s, Elizabeth Zott’s dream of being a scientist is challenged by a society that says women belong in the domestic sphere. She accepts a job on a TV cooking show and sets out to teach a nation of overlooked housewives way more than recipes. I was hoping for a light hearted story when I first started watching this with my wife, but there are some very heavy topics covered in the first 3 episodes and it made us put the entire thing on the “maybe when we have time” list. I finally watched it solo and the end...
In a retro-futuristic world, charismatic salesman Jack Billings leads a team of fellow sales associates determined to revitalize their customers’ lives by hawking timeshares on the moon. I spent half the series wondering if any of the technology, promises, or even the basic premise was fake, but it turns out that’s the core of what this story is trying to tell. I think one season of it was enough, but they left the end open enough for another season to come along and continue the shenanigans. Buy On Amazon!
David Jung, a mysterious former US intelligence operative living in hiding in South Korea, has his life blown to pieces when the consequences of an impossible decision from his past come back to haunt him, and he finds himself hunted by Rebecca, a deadly young assassin, and Caddis, the sinister spy organization she works for. I have no idea where I got the idea this was going to be a fun comedy about spies in the family, because it is decidedly not that. It’s a highly competent spy thriller about choices from the past coming back to haunt the future....
Night Visions: Created by Dan Angel, Billy Brown. With Henry Rollins, Johnny Cuthbert, Meghan Black, Emily Holmes. “Night Visions” was a hosted anthology series similar to “The Twilight Zone” – some tales are supernatural, others are just commentaries on twisted human nature. Each hour show is made up of two half-hour stories aired back-to-back. I think I watched about 3 full episodes of this on TikTok before I found it streaming on the Roku channel, it’s a 2001 suspense / horror show in the style of The Twilight Zone, but instead of Rod Serling doing book end statements for each...
The Witcher: Created by Lauren Schmidt Hissrich. With Freya Allan, Anya Chalotra, Eamon Farren, Henry Cavill. Geralt of Rivia, a solitary monster hunter, struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove more wicked than beasts. I believe this is the first season we have with Liam Hemsworth as The Witcher and while it’s obviously a different actor in the role, the handoff from Henry Cavill was much less painful than I was expecting. The writing is still goofy, the lighting and horrendous, the special effects are still great, the cinematography is bafflingly bad, and if you...
Lazarus: Created by Shin’ichirô Watanabe. With Mamoru Miyano, Makoto Furukawa, Maaya Uchida, Yuma Uchida. In 2052, an emergency task force is assembled when a miracle cure is hijacked for purging populations. The concept is a good one, the animation is top notch, the music is fantastic, but somehow all the perfect pieces didn’t come together to make a superior product at the end of the day. I think my main complaint is how silly nearly ever detour was that the team took, every one of the felt like padding to a story that was relatively straight to the point and...
Landman: Created by Taylor Sheridan, Christian Wallace. With Billy Bob Thornton, Ali Larter, Demi Moore, Jacob Lofland. A modern-day tale of fortune seeking in the world of West Texas oil rigs. I felt like I watched half this season on TikTok before I actually go around to watching the official release on Paramount+, it’s just as rediculous and over the top as the first season, but I’m still in love with everything about it, sans the two ladies played by Ali Larter and Michelle Randolph. They’re the most vapid and unrealistic characters that I’ve seen on tv in a while...
Fallout: Created by Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Graham Wagner. With Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, Walton Goggins, Moises Arias. In a future, post-apocalyptic Los Angeles brought about by nuclear decimation, citizens must live in underground bunkers to protect themselves from radiation, mutants and bandits. One of the best media adaptions on television right now, this season was just as good as the first one. I’m not a huge fan of the games, the gameplay loop isn’t for me, but the lore and world they built for it is great and I’ve followed along with that aspect and from what I can tell with...
The Muppet Show: Directed by Alex Timbers. With Bill Barretta, Dave Goelz, Eric Jacobson, Peter Linz. Kermit and friends return in a modern take on their classic variety show format, mixing nostalgic charm with new comedy bits while staying true to the Muppets’ timeless spirit. A solid test pilot with an odd choice in guests, this one featured Sabrina Carpenter who has an executive producer credit on the episode, which really makes me wonder what the story is there. I get Seth Rogan having a Producer credit, he’s been doing that for a while. Did she accept the credit in...
Wonder Man: Created by Destin Daniel Cretton, Andrew Guest. With Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Ben Kingsley, Arian Moayed, X Mayo. Hollywood actor Simon Williams is thrust into the world of superheroes as he gets powers of his own, and becomes the new superhero Wonder Man. It’s difficult to explain how much I enjoyed this show, but I hesitate to really pump it up. It’s not going to be for everyone and if you’ve really really enjoyed the standard MCU movie format of 2 hours of moderatly interesting plot followed by 45-60 minutes of a cgi battle for the third art, this...
At Deep Space Nine, a space station located next to a wormhole in the vicinity of the liberated planet of Bajor, Commander Sisko and crew welcome alien visitors, root out evildoers and solve all types of unexpected problems that come their way. I didn’t watch all 7 seasons, but I think the last two are enough that I can count it as enough to say I saw it again. Season six was on Pluto so we watched it there, but then had to go to bed, and I picked up season 7 via the bundle I purchased on Fandango a...
The Dropout: Created by Elizabeth Meriwether. With Amanda Seyfried, Naveen Andrews, Michel Gill, William H. Macy. TV series that chronicles Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes’ attempt to revolutionize the healthcare industry after dropping out of college and starting a technology company. A fascinating story of the uprising of a technology company that aimed to disrupt the entire health care industry, just to crash and burn with the inability to realize the hopes and promises of it’s overpromising founder, Elizabeth Holmes. Buy On Amazon!
Solar Opposites: Created by Mike McMahan, Justin Roiland. With Thomas Middleditch, Sean Giambrone, Mary Mack, Sagan McMahan. A family of aliens move to middle America, where they debate whether life is better there or on their home planet. A fun ending to a fun series that had entirely way too many subplots going on, I think it got up to about…10? 15? sets of characters doing their own things in their own universes that only sparingly interacted with each other. I’d love to see a series of just the SilverCops doing their thing. Buy On Amazon!
Stranger Things: Created by Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer. With Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Winona Ryder, David Harbour. In 1980s Indiana, a group of young friends witness supernatural forces and secret government exploits. As they search for answers, the children unravel a series of extraordinary mysteries. We’ve finally seen the end of this series that was well past its expiration date years ago. With a cast that was doing a fine job at acting, but being saddled with the impossible task of playing characters that were at least 5 years younger than any of them could possibly look. There were...
Discontinued: With Bruce Campbell, Andre Meadows, Andrea Lopez, Chris Porter. Bruce Campbell hosts this series that takes a comically nostalgic look at pop culture phenomena that have long since been discontinued. I watched this during 2025 and was gravely disappointed that it wasn’t a scripted show about bonkers things, but instead ended up being just a VH1 style goofy show with people talking about nostalgic stuff that was once cool and is no longer being sold. Buy On Amazon!
Pluribus: Created by Vince Gilligan. With Rhea Seehorn, Karolina Wydra, Carlos-Manuel Vesga, Miriam Shor. In a world overtaken by a mysterious wave of forced happiness, Carol Sturka, one of the immune few, must uncover what’s really going on – and save humanity from its artificial bliss. Vince Gilligan is back to form with this short form streaming series asking some really big questions through a truly flawed woman that’s just doing her best in an impossible situation. This is the type of hard science fiction that I really love to see on television. Buy On Amazon!
Upload: Created by Greg Daniels. With Robbie Amell, Andy Allo, Allegra Edwards, Zainab Johnson. After his premature death, a man’s consciousness is uploaded into a virtual world. As he gets comfortable with his surroundings, questions about his death arise. it’s a shorter season than it’s normally short season, so in the couple episodes we get the dangling threads from the previous seasons are all mostly tied up with some open threads left dangling because apparently we’re allergic to just finishing stories. It was a pleasurable set of dangling threads though, so if you’ve watched everything up to this point, these...
Foundation: Created by David S. Goyer, Josh Friedman. With Jared Harris, Lou Llobell, Lee Pace, Terrence Mann. A complex saga of humans scattered on planets throughout the galaxy all living under the rule of the Galactic Empire. It’s interesting to me that two series I’ve finished in the last week have had the same exact twitch, this one done much less as well as the other series, which I’m not going to name because it would run the risk of spoiling one show over this one. The story progresses on it’s long scale galactic “psychohistory” story and we’ve finally arrived...
Marvel Zombies: Created by Zeb Wells. With Iman Vellani, Todd Williams, David Boat, Robin Atkin Downes. After the Avengers are overtaken by a zombie plague, a group of survivors discover the key to bringing an end to the super-powered undead, racing across a dystopian landscape and risking their lives to save their world. A blink and you’ll miss it show, I don’t think I saw much advertising for this and after I watched the first episode it disappeared from the “Featured Shows” slideshow that D+ has. I think I made a mistake by signing up for the combined Hulu/D+/ESPN subscription...
Star Wars: Visions: With Michael Sinterniklaas, Adam Sietz, Patrick Seitz, Yuuki Shin. An anthology of animated shorts from around the world celebrating the mythology of Star Wars through unique cultural perspectives. A much weaker season than the previous two, the book end episodes are downright terrible with stylistically gross art styles and stories that were less than interesting. There’s some good meat in this moldy sandwich though, so if you can get through the first episode, you’ll enjoy everything except the last one. Maybe just skip those and watch them after you see the others. Buy On Amazon!
Gen V: Created by Craig Rosenberg, Evan Goldberg, Eric Kripke, Seth Rogen. With Jaz Sinclair, Lizze Broadway, Maddie Phillips, London Thor. From the world of “The Boys” comes “Gen V,” which explores the first generation of superheroes to know that their super powers are from Compound V. These heroes put their physical and moral boundaries to the test competing for the school’s top ranking. Gen V works best when it’s not tied up with it’s older sibling “The Boys”, but this second season is pretty great, even with the couple of tie in episodes that weigh it down to it’s...
Alien: Earth: Created by Noah Hawley. With Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther, Essie Davis, Samuel Blenkin. When a mysterious space vessel crash-lands on Earth, a young woman and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat. Better than the worse Alien film, but not as good as the best Alien film, this series takes the familiar xenomorph and expands on the universe they live in, which is just utterly fantastic. The special effects are much better than I thought they were going to be for a television series too! Buy...
Peacemaker: Created by James Gunn. With John Cena, Danielle Brooks, Freddie Stroma, Jennifer Holland. Picking up where The Suicide Squad (2021) left off, Peacemaker returns home after recovering from his encounter with Bloodsport – only to discover that his freedom comes at a price. A fun but meandering season that slightly changes the prior season so that this season (but not the prior season) fits in the new DCCU that James Gunn is running. There’s plenty of goofy stuff that doesn’t work, but there’s also plenty of goofy stuff that does work. Not much about this character (or the series...
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...
