Category: Reviews of Television Shows
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...
Scavengers Reign: Created by Joe Bennett, Charles Huettner. With Sunita Mani, Wunmi Mosaku, Bob Stephenson, Alia Shawkat. The crew of a damaged deep space freighter strands on a beautiful but dangerous planet. The second of two shows that were recommended to me that I missed on their initial airing, this is the less grounded but just as interesting of the two, with the crew of a marooned ship finding their way through a fantastically alien environment with creatures that absolutely blew my mind in nearly every episode. Buy On Amazon!
Pantheon: Created by Craig Silverstein. With Katie Chang, Paul Dano, Aaron Eckhart, Rosemarie DeWitt. A young woman starts to get messages from an unknown number that claims to be her deceased father. Trying to uncover the truth, she stumbles upon a larger conspiracy involving the singularity. One of two shows that I missed completely when they first aired, this is the more grounded one with a look into the possibilities of uploading consciousness into near future technology and the ethical, political, and spiritual consequences of the entire situation. The story doesn’t make many missteps and moves quickly from easily understood...
The Mandalorian: Created by Jon Favreau. With Pedro Pascal, Chris Bartlett, Katee Sackhoff, Carl Weathers. The travels of a lone bounty hunter in the outer reaches of the galaxy, far from the authority of the New Republic. I bought this on Steelbook months and months ago and it’s sat on a pile until a couple weeks ago when I watched all of season one and two, then book of boba fett, then rested on the 7th day. The special features on the season one set spoil huge story elements for season two, and honestly the special features aren’t really all...
Extraordinary: Created by Emma Moran. With Máiréad Tyers, Sofia Oxenham, Bilal Hasna, Luke Rollason. Jen is a self-aware young woman who lives in a world where everybody except her has a superpower. I had no clue this was up for a second season, so I was pleasantly surprised to see it show up and see that it’s more of the same great stuff we got in the first season. Buy On Amazon!
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities: Created by Guillermo del Toro. With Lize Johnston, Kevin Keppy, Tim Blake Nelson, F. Murray Abraham. Bizarre nightmares unfold in eight tales of terror in a visually stunning, spine-tingling horror collection curated by Guillermo del Toro. Considered by many as one of the best curators of horror and suspense, Guillermo del Toro didn’t write all these stories, I think he only penned one of them, but they all feel like they’re right up his alley. Every story is fantastic in it’s own way and most of them are so good that I would recommend...
Knuckles: With Adam Pally, Idris Elba, Stockard Channing, Edi Patterson. Knuckles the Echidna teaches deputy Wade Whipple the techniques of the Echidna warrior. The first two episodes of this “streaming event” are pretty ok but after that point the series drifts off into some pretty mediocre content with storylines involving a vaguely racist Jewish dinner, a missing father dealt with in the most cringeworthy possible way, and a bowling competition as announced by “The Ocho”, which was the same concept from the movie “Dodgeball”. There’s not much to like after the first 2 episodes are done and much more could...
Star Wars: The Bad Batch: Created by Jennifer Corbett, Dave Filoni. With Dee Bradley Baker, Michelle Ang, Noshir Dalal, Ben Diskin. The “Bad Batch” of elite and experimental clones make their way through an ever-changing galaxy. The final episode aired today and while it was a bittersweet ending, this series has had one hell of a journey from it’s humble beginnings of just following some genetic oddities from Batch 99 to seeing how they’ve effected the wider galaxy and the burgeoning rebellion against the Empire. There’s a neat ‘flash forward’ at the end that lays the groundwork for some future...
Archer: Created by Adam Reed. With H. Jon Benjamin, Judy Greer, Amber Nash, Chris Parnell. Covert black ops and espionage take a back seat to zany personalities and relationships between secret agents and drones. I gave up on this show when they started straying from the spy agency concept and it was all dream state illusions that had no impact or made any sense within the world that they had previously created and I completely missed it when they brought it all back to the basic formula that worked so well. I’ve finally caught up with the series and I’m...
Warrior Nun: Created by Simon Barry. With Alba Baptista, Kristina Tonteri-Young, Lorena Andrea, Tristán Ulloa. After waking up in a morgue, an orphaned teen discovers she now possesses superpowers as the chosen Halo Bearer for a secret sect of demon-hunting nuns. Sadly I believe this is the end for the warrior nuns, as I do not believe Netflix is going to continue it past this season. The story (mostly) wraps up all the dangling threads from the first season and all the characters given their moment to shine. I’m a fan of the world they’ve built here and I adore...
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. About as perfect of a video game adaptation that could be possibly made, I think it helps that the universe lends itself to unique settings and characters for each vault that opens on it’s own schedule, so while they were able to accurately capture the humor and visual style of the games, they were also free to create their...
11 Minutes: With Jonathan Smith, Dee Jay Silver, Kelly Pollard, Jason Aldean. Through emotional first-hand accounts and never-before-seen archival footage, this documentary immerses viewers inside the largest mass shooting in our country’s history, at what was supposed to be a festival celebrating country music. This is both one of the most difficult documentaries to watch, but also one of the most maddening, with all the real terror of the night hidden and censored, only the hallways scenes at the hospital were really showing the full depths of the insanity, the rest of it feels like a sanitized and nearly bloodless...
3 Body Problem: Created by David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Alexander Woo. With Jovan Adepo, Liam Cunningham, Eiza González, Jess Hong. A fateful decision made in 1960s China reverberates in the present, where a group of scientists partner with a detective to confront an existential planetary threat. A fun hard science fiction series that doesn’t stay very jovial for very long and gets right into the hard truths portion fast enough to turn off those that don’t enjoy such things but kept my attention the entire time. I’ve heard so much about the book that I was expecting something much more...
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters: With Anna Sawai, Kiersey Clemons, Ren Watabe, Joe Tippett. Set after the battle between Godzilla and the Titans, revealing that monsters are real, follows one family’s journey to uncover its buried secrets and a legacy linking them to Monarch. I somehow neglected to mention that I watched “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters”, so here it is, my review: This is a perfectly fine series that wasn’t necessary and spent way too much time on the people instead of the monsters or their legacies. In fact, the “legacy of monsters” here might be a reference to some of...
Halo: Created by Steven Kane, Kyle Killen. With Pablo Schreiber, Shabana Azmi, Natasha Culzac, Olive Gray. With the galaxy on the brink of destruction, Master Chief John-117 leads his team of Spartans against the alien threat known as the Covenant. The general consensus is that season one of the show was pretty rough and nearly every art of it was either straight up bad or could have been done better. Season two sanded off some of those rough edges and nipped some of the more strange or silly plot elements that weren’t working, but it still has worlds to go...
Shadow and Bone: Created by Eric Heisserer. With Jessie Mei Li, Archie Renaux, Freddy Carter, Amita Suman. Dark forces conspire against orphan mapmaker Alina Starkov when she unleashes an extraordinary power that could change the fate of her war-torn world. As with the first season, this series works best when it’s not worried about the B-story and whatever shenanigans they’re up to in a completely different part of the world from the A-story, usually with less interesting characters and much less interesting story elements. Everyone is very pretty with amazing costumes and utterly fantastic special effects that made me drop...
Avatar: The Last Airbender: Created by Albert Kim. With Gordon Cormier, Kiawentiio, Ian Ousley, Dallas Liu. A young boy known as the Avatar must master the four elemental powers to save the world, and fight against an enemy bent on stopping him. Jamming 20 episodes worth of animated content into 8 episodes of live action television is a daunting task, but one that was successfully achieved with this latest adaptation of the The Last Airbender. The costumes are perfect, the story is tight, and the air bisons fly in a fantastic and believable fashion. The casting for this is so...
