Tokyo Vice Goes to PressJake’s big exposé, and what it took to publish it, cements the series as a great gangster show that’s also a great journalism show.
3 Body Problem’s Imagination ProblemIn ignoring humanity’s wider reaction to the end of the world, the Netflix adaptation fails to find gravity in its final scene.
ByRoxana Hadadi
achievement in tv yelling
Shōgun’s Class ClownAs the volatile John Blackthorne, Cosmo Jarvis is high-key giving the comedic performance of the year.
ByNicholas Quah
close read
Shōgun Explodes Into the FutureCannon fire soundtracks a polite society being ushered into a new, more indiscriminately brutal age.
ByRoxana Hadadi
close read
How The Traitors Gamed the EditSeason two’s strategy of moments-based storytelling helped it win over reality-TV veterans and newbies alike.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith’s Faux Love StoryThe series’ open ending amounts to little more than anticlimax thanks its misrepresentation of what John and Jane really care about.
ByRoxana Hadadi
close read
Don’t Come for the Housewives, HoneyThe Traitors’ oversimplified gamers-vs.-non-gamers divide overlooks what the best Bravo stars to ever do it are capable of on an individual level.
Rami and RamyTwo American series dare to depict the reality of Palestinian life under occupation.
ByRoxana Hadadi
remembrance
Matthew Perry Couldn’t Be Boxed InAs the jokester who wears snarkiness as emotional armor, Chandler stole every Friends scene — even ones where he was theoretically absent.
Sex Education Makes an Asexual MessSeason four’s O bucks certain stereotypes, falls into others, and generally challenges our expectations of representation.
ByJulie Kliegman
endings
Reservation Dogs Looks Beyond Good-byeThe series signs off with a reminder that farewells don’t have to be forever and new journeys are always beginning.
ByRoxana Hadadi
close read
The Other Black Girl Reads Better OnscreenWith a few key changes to Zakiya Dalila Harris’s story, the TV adaptation is able to address some of the novel’s missed opportunities.
ByIle-Ife Okantah
close read
The Cool Girl Gets Lost in WildernessWith its own version of the famous Gone Girl monologue, Prime Video’s scorned-woman survival thriller undermines its attempt at empowerment.
ByRoxana Hadadi
close read
Where Does Dark Winds Go From Here?Season two ends with a subversion of one of the series’ guiding principles — and opens up all kinds of avenues for another season.
How Zadie Smith Lost Her TeethSince her audacious debut, she has been moving toward character-driven realism. In the process, she’s become the least interesting version of herself.
Full Circle’s Artful EndBy opening and closing on the same two images, the Solomon/Soderbergh series examines the lies that fueled two families’ decades of delusions.
ByRoxana Hadadi
close read
The Donna EffectThe Bear’s chaotic matriarch is the Berzatto family’s foundational world, cracks and all.
ByNicholas Quah
close read
This Should Have Been a No-BrainerThe Weeknd and Sam Levinson aimed for greatness with The Idol. The result was as subtle as a Lifetime film.
Class of ’09 Leaves Its Biggest Case UnsolvedIn its pursuit of the threat AI poses to the criminal-justice system, the miniseries stumbles into an indictment of that threat’s root cause.
ByRoxana Hadadi
close read
The Bear’s Suitcases“Honeydew” and “Forks” may appear to be bottle episodes, but they’re something else. (Mad Men’s greatest hour provides a clue.)
