August Binges: Ironheart, The Hunting Wives, Adolescence

Need to plop down on the couch and settle in for a summer binge? Well, I've got an action-packed Marvel show, a sexy murder mystery, and a rather distressing but brilliant British crime drama. Pick your poison.

Ironheart: Created by Chinaka Hodge, this is a six-episode series that follows Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) the young genius we first met in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Riri may be smart, but she doesn't like to follow the rules. She gets kicked out of MIT and returns home to Chicago, where she falls in with a bunch of criminals, led by Parker Robbins (Anthony Ramos) as they provide the fastest way for her to earn enough money to realize her dream of building a flying iron suit that is even fancier that the one Iron Man has. But of course, our hero is going to clash with Parker, aka The Hood, who seems to be dabbling in some sinister powers that might be a little bit more than the simple life of crime she was expecting.

Complicating all of this is the fact that Riri has built an AI to help her while she's in the suit, but that AI unexpectedly takes the form of her dead best friend, Natalie (Lyric Ross). As you can imagine, watching her best friend walk around and talk to her is a bit unnerving at first, and then becomes a massive liability towards the end. This is a show with a lot of classic Marvel jimjams, but the actors are great, the production design is solid, and the fast-paced six episodes will keep you engaged throughout.

The Hunting Wives: Created by Rebecca Cutter, based on the novel by May Cobb, Brittany Snow stars as Sophie, a woman who has moved to Texas from Boston with her husband and finds herself thrust into a community of Texas socialites that she believes she has absolutely nothing in common with. But this fish out of water is going to find out that maybe she does have a lot more in common with them than she realized. Queen of the pack is Margo (Malin Akerman, drawling her way through a bravura performance), who is married to Sophie's husband's boss (played by Dermot Mulroney, who also appears to be having the time of his life), and is therefore someone that Sophie must play nice with. But of course, turns out that maybe Sophie will cozy up to Margo for her own reasons.

There's a lot of sex on this show, both gay and straight, and there's also a lot of murder, because, lest I forget, the opening scene is of a woman getting shot and then we spend the first half of the season in flashback until we figure out who got murdered, and then the rest of the season figuring out who the murderer is. The show is insanely over-the-top and ridiculous, but it is quite fun to watch all these women swanning around and talking about guns and Jesus. The only problem is that it ends with a real cliffhanger. This is a show that would have been better off as a silly, fun, limited series - I don't know that I want a second season of this inanity. But give it a shot (pun intended), because maybe this is just the show you've been hunting (groan) for.

Adolescence: Created by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham (who also stars), this is a limited series that only consists of four hour-long episodes. But each one packs a punch. This is due to the excellent acting but also the fact that every episode was shot as one continuous take, a monumental feat that means you simply cannot tear your eyes away from the screen. The show begins with the police barging into a family's home early in the morning to arrest 13-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), who is accused of murdering a girl he knew from school the night before. That first episode plays out like a police procedural where we get a detailed insight into how a juvenile is processed and interrogated by the British police. The subsequent three episodes are at different time periods following the arrest, and each looks at the case from a slightly different viewpoint, piecing together what may have happened, what was the motivation behind the heinous crime, and how Jamie's family are ever going to recover from this ordeal.

The show is propulsive, and engaging, and enraging. It tackles a lot of hot button issues that are relevant to today's youth, including the growth of the "manosphere" and the power of the Internet in persuading young boys that they deserve more from girls and women. It's about toxic masculinity, family dynamics, police work, and everything in between. The show is simply a masterclass in storytelling and filmmaking, and there's little wonder it has a slew of Emmy nominations, almost all of which are likely to be wins. It's certainly not easy to watch, but you will devour it once you sit down to watch it because it is compelling, urgent, and incredible. 

July Comedy Binges: Murderbot, Stick, Too Much, Overcompensating

Looking for your next summer TV binge? I've got four comedies for you, all very different from each other, so there should be something for everyone!

Murderbot: Created by Paul and Chris Weitz and based on a series of novels by Martha Wells, Alexander Skarsgard stars as a SecUnit, a robot designated to protect a group of researchers who are on a mission to an uncharted planet and have been forced to hire this robot as a bodyguard for insurance reasons, even though they are a bunch of hippies who think that owning a robot is tantamount to slavery. What they don't know, however, is that the SecUnit has hacked his infrastructure so that he can be fully autonomous. But rather than going rogue and becoming some sort of violent, sentient, Terminator-esque AI, this robot is interested in far more prosaic things - he has downloaded thousands of hours worth of trashy television episodes and just wants to be left alone by the crew so he can watch reruns of his favorite space dramas.

It's a fun premise, but I'll confess, I never paid much attention to this show as I was watching it, treating it more as background noise while I did other things. The cast is great, the production design is excellent, all the right components are here, and most people have been raving about how much they love this show. But for some reason, the humor was always too one-note for me and never became much more complex and engaging than this one joke about this robot that just wants to binge TV. There's a ton of action, a lot of encounters with villains and alien creatures, and plenty of excitement for people who are genuinely looking for some science fiction adventure packed into easily digestible 30-minute episodes. It wasn't for me, but it absolutely could be for you!

Stick: Created by Jason Keller, this show stars Owen Wilson as Pryce Cahill, a washed-up golf pro who is barely getting by and still stinging from his divorce and the loss of the cushy life he used to have. However, one day he discovers Santiago Wheeler (Pete Dager), a teenager who seems to be a golf prodigy. He persuades Santi and his mother, Elena (Mariana Trevino) that they should hit up the amateur circuit, and after a lot of persuasion, they agree. The reason I watched this show, however, is because the other person joining them on this adventure is Pryce's friend and former caddy, Mitts, who is played by Marc Maron. I've been hearing Maron talk about this show for months on his podcast, so obviously I tuned in. If you're a fan of WTF, you're probably going to enjoy this performance.

This is a cute show. Watching it one week at a time was the perfect pace because you didn't get too invested but were still curious enough to see what these characters would end up doing the next week. I don't know how well it will hold up as a binge, but each episode is only 30 minutes long so it will go down easy. The writing does suffer a little from the fact that the show was created by a white guy in his 50s, so there are occasionally some painfully awkward conversations about pronouns and social justice that simply don't sound quite right when coming out of the mouths of the younger characters. But this mostly seems like a well-intentioned, sweet show about found family and picking yourself up after grief, loss, and heartbreak, all wrapped in a gentle comedy that has some very exciting golf montages, if you're into that sort of thing. Give it a try!

Too Much: This show is created by Luis Felber and Lena Dunham, so that's probably all you need to know if you're wondering if this show is for you. I am not a Dunham person by any means, but this show did still have some appeal for me, so let's discuss the good parts, i.e. the cast. Megan Stalter stars as Jessica, a woman living in New York City, who can't stop stalking her ex and his beautiful new girlfriend (played by Michael Zegen and Emily Ratajkowski), so she decides to leap at the chance to move to London for work and get a fresh start. As a romcom and Austen enthusiast, her expectations of London are mostly that she's going to be stepping into a Regency period drama and meet Mr. Darcy, but instead, she quickly discovers that it's simply another big city, just filled with people with different accents.

Jessica wastes no time in striking up a romance with Felix (the charming AF, Will Sharpe), a musician wastrel, who is extremely sweet and seems to be the polar opposite of the toxic ex she left behind in New York. Of course, Dunham can't just let things be, so we end up with a lot of drama, a lot of complications, and a lot of bad behavior. This show really gets by on the strength of Megan Stalter, the most lovable and dynamic woman on the planet that you will root for 100%. She makes Jessica such a sympathetic character, that you will never accuse this woman of doing anything wrong - it's just everyone around her who's being a tool. I did not love how the show finally ended, and while I was promised a romcom in the first episode, what I got was a little too dark and dramatic for my liking, though there is one episode that chronicles Jessica's past relationship and is a very accurate portrayal of how women can get suckered in by terrible men. Your mileage may vary, but watch this show to support Stalter, who I hope gets to be the leading lady in many more (better) things to come.

Overcompensating: Remember how when I watched Adults I felt like I couldn't relate to any of it because Gen Z is so foreign to me? Well Overcompensating, created by and starring Benito Skinner, is a story of a freshman who was the valedictorian, Homecoming King, and football all-star in high school, and is trying very hard to maintain that image in college. But he has been harboring a secret all his life...he might like boys? From the very beginning, when Britney Spears' "Lucky" is playing in the background and we see how little Benny's hormones were first set aflame by watching Brendan Fraser in a loincloth in George of the Jungle, it's clear that this is a show for millennials. So even if it's ostensibly about college, settle in my fellow 30-40-year-olds, because you're going to have a blast watching this show.

Besides Benny, the other main character we follow is the delightful Carmen (Wally Baram), a woman who is also trying to figure out her college identity. She and Benny become fast friends (after an initial attempt to be more than that), and it's lovely to see the two of them bumbling through college together. Then there's Benny's sister, Grace (Mary Beth Barone), an ice-cold bitch who thaws out beautifully over the course of the season as we delve deeper into her many layers. And of course, there's Peter (Adam DiMarco), Grace's horrible frat boy boyfriend who embodies the worst that the patriarchy has to offer. Every character on this show is fleshed out and complex, with everyone having some redeeming features, and plenty of flaws, and making plenty of mistakes because that's what we all do in college. It is extremely funny, but also extremely heartwarming and I binged this show with a big smile on my face all the way through. Also, this show has some wildly good cameos sprinkled throughout that will give you a real jolt as you make your way through the season. Everything ends on a massive cliffhanger, so I am definitely clamoring for Season 2. But until then, binge this first season to your heart's content. It's an absolute winner.

June Comedy Binges: Adults & #1 Happy Family USA

Need to delve into some comedy for a bit? Depending on whether you're interested in Gen Z or Muslim families, I've got you covered!

Adults: All the marketing basically posits that this is Friends for Gen Z. Which, fine? As a millennial, I have never felt more like a boomer than when watching this show and shaking my head at how incomprehensibly silly these twentysomethings seem to be. But as with all comedies, the show managed to win me over by Episode 3. There was a line of dialogue that struck me as being so brilliant and hilarious, that I instantly knew the show had found its groove. And once you love the writing on a comedy, you can forgive any number of flaws.

Created by Rebecca Shaw and Ben Kronengold, the show follows a group of five friends (played by Malik Elassal, Lucy Freyer, Jack Innanen, Amita Rao, and Owen Thiele) who live in Queens (very exciting for me, as I also live in Queens, though it was quickly apparent that this show was shot in Toronto, because the subways looked different, booooo). They all live in Samir's (Elassal) childhood home while his parents are off traveling, which is convenient as none of them seem to have jobs that would enable them to really live in NYC otherwise, except for Billie (Freyer) who loses said job pretty quickly. Over the course of eight episodes, the series follows the usual story arcs - there are work anxieties, sexual anxieties, romantic anxieties, and just the general anxiety of being a Gen Zer. The overall impression you get is that being a twentysomething is always the same, where you're perpetually struggling with your career or your love life, and the only thing that makes this Gen Z is that everyone's a little bit queer and everyone's deeply unprofessional. Give this show a chance - I was all set to cross my arms and declare that I was too old for this show, but it really won me over in the end. 

#1 Happy Family USA: Well, we're back to having another war in the Middle East, so I guess watching this show would be pretty timely? Created by Pam Brady and Ramy Youseff, who also voices the main character, this is an adult animated show about a 12-year-old Egyptian boy named Rumi Hussein who lives in New Jersey with his parents and older sister, Mona. The show begins on September 10, 2001, and we get a glimpse into Rumi's life and ordinary teenage struggles with school and family life. Adolescence is painful enough, but then, September 11 happens. And now Rumi's life is upended by the fact that he is a Muslim teenage boy.

The show is very funny but also very astute. In particular, I love how it deals with the ways in which Rumi's parents deal with the aftermath of 9/11. His mother decides she wants to don the hijab and embrace her religion and Muslim community, while his father is desperate to prove that he loves America...to the point of going on Fox News to prove he's "one of the good ones." If that made you groan and then chuckle, welcome to the vibe of this entire show. It's incisive and wonderful, a dark comedy about one of the most painful moments in America's history and the immigrants who suffered because of it. Which sadly is all too relevant today.

May Binges Part 2: The Studio, The Royals, Etoile, Your Friends & Neighbors

Are you back for more binges? I've got plenty of recommendations, let's go!

The Studio: Every week, I would desperately await the next installment of this show, and every week, it never disappointed. Created by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, this is a show about what happens when Matt Remick (Rogen) becomes the head of a major film studio in LA and had to now start making uncomfortable decisions between making the artistic cinema that he loves or a big commercial blockbuster about the Kool-Aid Man. Hey, no one said capitalism was easy.

Every episode is a standout in its own unique way, and each one features a murderer's row of cameos. Martin Scorsese shows up in the first episode and gets to do some acting; it's kind of amazing. My personal favorite is probably Episode 2 which is entirely filmed like a one-shot and is about how Sarah Polley is trying to film a one-shot for a movie that Matt keeps interrupting, and it's all so meta and silly and glorious. This is a marvelous show for people who love movies but also love to mock studio executives. The cast is incredible, featuring powerhouse performances from Kathryn Hahn, Catherine O'Hara, Ike Barinholtz, and Chase Sui Wonders, and now you can just binge it all in one big gulp. How lucky are you?!

The Royals: Created by Rangita and Ishita Pritish Nandy, this show is a Bollywood extravaganza that is way too over-the-top and inane. I ate it up with a big ol' spoon. 

Ishaan Khatter stars as Aviraj "Fizzy" Singh, a young prince who has been modelling and avoiding his family in India, but has to return when his father dies, only to discover that he has been named his father's heir instead of his older brother, "Diggy" (Vihaan Samat). Turns out the estate is massively in debt, so the family decides to strike a deal with a company that wants to turn their palace into a hotel where ordinary folks get to live alongside the royal family and get a taste of that royal life. The company's CEO is a feisty and ambitious woman named Sophia Kanmani Shekhar (Bhumi Pednekar) and of course, she and Fizzy butt heads and hate each other at first, only to end up in a tempestuous romance after. As you can well imagine, there are lots of side plots and complications. and all of it is a soapy, dramatic, silly, spectacular delight. Set in Rajasthan, the production design is elaborate and gorgeous, and the actors are fully committed to the silliness, so what more could you ask for? It's not high art, but it is total entertainment.

Etoile: If high art is what you seek, Daniel and Amy Sherman-Palladino have you covered with this show. The premise is that two struggling ballet companies in New York and Paris decide to swap some of their dancers and staff for a year as a stunt to boost ticket sales and generate some buzz. Luke Kirby plays Jack McMillan, who runs the New York Metropolitan Ballet Theater, while Charlotte Gainsbourg play Genevieve Lavigne, the artistic director of Le Ballet National. Lou de Laage also stars as Cheyenne, the etoile, aka prima ballerina of Le Ballet National, who Jack snags for New York. She is highly temperamental and opinionated, but the pain of dealing with her volatile personality is worth it when you watch her perform on stage.

There are many side characters, romantic entanglements, complications, and digressions about art. All accompanied with that trademark Sherman-Palladino dialogue that we know well from Gilmore Girls,  The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, etc. I have been to the ballet at Lincoln Center many times so it's also wonderful to get a peek behind-the-scenes, with many of the actual dancers from the New York City Ballet being featured throughout this show. The production design is impeccable, the acting is off the charts, and the choreography is sublime. I absolutely luxuriated in all eight episodes of this show, and the second season cannot come soon enough.

Your Friends & Neighbors: Created by Jonathan Tropper, this show stars Jon Hamm as Andrew "Coop" Cooper, a man whose life is falling apart in every possible way. He got divorced after he found his wife sleeping with his best friend, and then he subsequently got fired from his high-powered hedge fund job. He and his family were accustomed to a certain lifestyle, and Coop is now scrambling to keep up with the payments for all the bougie things that have becomes necessities, like private school, tennis lessons, and country club memberships. One day, he realizes that because he and his friends all live in a gated community, everyone is very lax about security, and he could probably make a lot of money if he selectively stole from his friends. These people just stash priceless heirlooms in random drawers and forget about them, so no one will even realize they've been robbed. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, you guessed it, a lot goes wrong. Ultimately, this is a show about how money can't buy happiness, and the many ways in which people who try to keep up with Jones's will remain in a never-ending spiral of debt and unhappiness. Coop partners with a local housekeeper, Elena (Aimee Carrero), and the episodes where we get to learn more about her life and the stark contrast it makes to that of her employers are always great to ground this show and make it clear who the real villains are. The cast, featuring stalwarts like Amanda Peet and Olivia Munn, is fantastic, and the overall plot is compelling and kept me invested through all nine episodes. It was well-paced for a weekly offering, but might be too bloated for a binge, so I do recommend you savor this one over a period of time, doling it out to yourself like a little treat when you need a dash of mystery and intrigue. Or just want to mock some rich people.

May Binges Part 1: North of North, The Four Seasons, Conan O'Brien Must Go

There has been a staggering amount of new TV on streaming services lately, and I've been making my way through them all, alongside catching up on the many returning seasons of my favorite shows. Phew. It's been an onslaught of TV, but it's all so good, so dive in with me!

North of North: This is probably the buzziest show this year - everyone I have recommended it to says, "Oh yeah, I've heard of that!" But I'm here to convince you that you need to go ahead and watch it. Created by Stacey Aglok MacDonald and Alathea Arnaquq-Baril, this Canadian show stars Anna Lambe as Siaja, a young Inuk woman who lives in the fictional Arctic town of Ice Cove, in Nunavut. It may be one of the coldest places on earth, but this sweet sitcom will make your heart go warm and fuzzy. And with only eight half-hour episodes in the first season, you'll binge it all in one glorious afternoon.

The show opens with Siaja realizing that maybe she got married and had a child way too young and needs to find a new identity for herself. She gets a new job with the town manager, Helen (Mary Lynn Rajskub), who is a well-meaning white lady who neds more help providing valuable services to the local Indigenous population. Over the course of eight episodes, we also reckon with Siaja's relationship with her mother, Neevee (Maika Harper), who raised her as a single mom, and has a lot of baggage of her own. I won't spoil any further details, but let's just say Siaja meets a lot of interesting new people, while learning lessons from all the regular folk around the town, and while a lot of the subject matter is deep and painful, everything is told with a light, comic touch that makes this story sing. The beats may seem familiar, but the setting and the people represented on this show are unlike anything you've seen before. Get ready to spend an absolutely delightful time in Ice Cove.

The Four Seasons: This miniseries is based on a 1981 movie written and directed by (and also starring!) Alan Alda. As a huge Alda fan, I had already watched this movie many years ago, and had no idea Tina Fey, Lang Fisher, and Tracey Wigfield had turned it into a miniseries until my friend Laura told me about it. I figured I would check it out and then promptly binged all eight episodes in one go. Damn does this show go down easy.

The premise is simple: there are three couples who are great friends and like to go on vacation with each other four times a year, in every season. However, one year, when one of the couples goes through a divorce, this causes some significant turmoil in the subsequent vacations, as you can imagine. The show is sharply written, with each season being covered in two episodes, with a massive cliffhanger in the middle that will make it impossible to not keep watching. And the couples are played by Tina Fey and Will Forte, Steve Carell and Kerri Kenney-Silver, and Colman Domingo and Marco Calvani. That cast is just excellent, and they play off of each other beautifully, fully capturing the little foibles and annoyances between longstanding friends and their partners and their shared history over the years. It is an extremely funny show, but it can also be extremely incisive and real and sad. There is no Netflix bloat and each episode is a perfect little morsel that tells the right amount of story, develops these characters, and quits while it's ahead. I heaved a great big happy contented sigh when I finished watching, and I'm certain that you will too.

Conan O'Brian Must Go: I have always been a big Conan fan and particularly loved his travel show on TBS, Conan Without Borders. So, I was delighted when (HBO) Max decided to throw some money at him to fund this new travel show. Currently in its second season, the show features Conan visiting a new country each episode to meet fans who called into his podcast, explore the local culture, and get up to many silly shenanigans in typical Conan fashion.

Those shenanigans are obviously not to everyone's taste (certainly not my husband's, who refuses to watch this show with me!) so I understand that your mileage may vary. But man, I'm just captivated. There are only three episodes this season, so I've watched him ravage Madrid with Javier Bardem, and do the haka with Taika Waititi in New Zealand. But if you've never seen the show, you can explore the entire back catalogue (Max also will let you watch Conan Without Borders) and indulge in some absolute silliness. Conan's fans are often as weird as he is, so they can do some pretty ridiculous things when he's in town, but there are also often moments of real wonder, punctuated by Conan's deep love of world history. There was a particularly powerful episode in 2019 when he visited Ghana with Sam Richardson, but then there are also hilarious episodes in Japan or Korea when he is faced with a completely unique culture and will not be able to fit in as a 6' 4" gangly Irishman. It's the perfect show for those days when you just want to travel away to far-off climes from the comfort of your couch and chuckle.

April Binges: Dying for Sex & Dope Thief

If you're looking to settle in on the couch for a spell, I have two very different shows you could watch. A comedy about sex and death or a drama about drugs and corruption. Pick your poison.

Dying for Sex: Created by Kim Rosenstock and Elizabeth Merriwether, this show is loosely based on the podcast of the same name by Molly Kochan and Nikki Boyer, who here are played by Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate. The show kicks off when Molly receives her terminal diagnosis of Stage 4 breast cancer that has metastasized to her bones. Faced with this knowledge and the realization that she has never had an orgasm, she decides to leave her husband, Steve (Jay Duplass), and finally explore her sexuality. Which is complicated, for many reasons, as you can imagine.

While this is a show about a woman who is trying to live out some sexual fantasies, that plot is entirely secondary to the true story here, which is that of the depth of her friendship with Nikki. Molly is dying, and rather than relying on a husband or romantic partner, the person who she is depending on in her final days is her best friend. I was entirely ambivalent about the sexcapades on this show (though the introduction of Rob Delaney as Molly's neighbor and potentially something more thrilled me to no end), but what will truly make you weep is the relationship between these two women and the deep familial bond they share.

This is just a miniseries, because, spoiler alert, Molly will in fact die at the end of the eight episodes. But you will go on a stunningly moving journey that is equally funny as it is sad and embraces a very positive and wholesome view of death that more Americans need to consider. The final episode involves a character played by the magnificent Paula Pell, who is absolutely the person I want at my deathbed, explaining why death is a normal, natural bodily process, all with a big, excited smile on her face. I'm sure most people will avoid this show like the plague because of their own neuroses about the subject matter, but for those of you brave enough to wade into these waters, I promise you will be amply rewarded.

Dope Thief: Created by Peter Craig, based on the novel by Dennis Tafoya, this show stars Bryan Tyree Henry and Wagner Moura as Ray and Manny, two small-time crooks in Philadelphia who have hit upon the brilliant scheme of dressing up as DEA agents and breaking into the houses of drug dealers, pretending it's a raid. Once there, they "confiscate" all the drugs and money, which of course makes for a nice haul for them. But things quickly go south when they decide to raid a meth house that undercover DEA agents were already working in. People are killed, a lot of money goes missing, and now Ray and Manny must go on the run.

That premise sounds exciting, and the cast is excellent, but I could NOT get into this show at all. I begrudgingly binged my way through all eight episodes, sort of hoping that maybe something would happen that would hook me, but that moment of revelation never came. This is a dark, gritty, serious affair, occasionally lightened up with the Henry's deadpan comic timing or Moura's frantic confusion, but this felt like the kind of involved plot about drugs, prisons, and vengeance that makes for a fantastic read, but a thoroughly dull TV show. If each episode was a tight half hour, maybe I would have resented it less, but I got really tired of sitting down for 45 minutes to an hour each week. Perhaps others who love crime shows would enjoy it, but this show was emphatically not made for me. It easily slots into the category of Apple TV+ shows that have great actors, high budgets, and are thoroughly forgettable. You are welcome to convince me otherwise, but for now, I am not planning on tuning into Season 2; I have suffered enough.

March Binges Part 2: Deli Boys, The Pitt, Apple Cider Vinegar, The Residence

I binged way more shows than I thought I would this month so here are some more recommendations coming your way if you feel the need to get solidly acquainted with your couch cushions!

Deli Boys: Created by Abdullah Saeed, this show is a thoroughly delightful binge. Asif Ali and Saagar Shaikh star as Mir and Raj, two brothers in Philadelphia who discover in the wake of their father's death that he was actually a criminal. And they must now take over his drug empire with the help of his right-hand woman, Lucky (the indomitably great Poorna Jagannathan), and annoyed CFO, Ahmad (Brian Geroge). These two spoiled Pakistani-American men must quickly figure out how they are going to get back to making this business a profitable enterprise that can help them sustain the lavish lifestyle to which they have become accustomed, all while dodging a persistent FBI agent and negotiating with hardened criminals who would only be too happy to see them permanently put out of business.

It's a wild and wacky premise, and every episode ends on an amazing cliffhanger that makes this impossible not to binge. Trust me on this - my ordinarily "I can only watch one episode at a time!" husband was the one clamoring for us to hit Play Next Episode every day until we polished off the ten episodes that make up the first season of this show. It is funny, smart, full of desi jokes, a little bit bloody, and genuinely exciting and intriguing. Bring on the second season ASAP, but until then, just rewatch this first season on a loop. 

The Pitt: There are still a few episodes left to air to finish out the 15-episode first season, but just start bingeing already, OK? This is one of the best shows airing on TV right now, and unless you are already a doctor who cannot bear to watch a medical show, your eyeballs should be glued to Max as you soak in this ambitious and remarkable televisual feat. Created by R. Scott Gemmill, the show follows one shift in the Emergency Room of the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital. Each episode features one hour in this most nightmarish of shifts and you're following the various doctors, nurses, students, social workers, and other support staff that keep this place running. As well as a varied mix of patients who are presenting with a number of complaints, some of which might be resolved within an hour, and others of which you'll be tracking over several episodes until they finally leave the ER (for either good or bad reasons). 

Noah Wyle stars as Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch, the senior attending who has to preside over this motley crew and ensure they do no harm while working under horrendous administrative pressures. The man is brilliant, but he is also exceedingly human, and he is still reeling from the PTSD of working in the ER during the COVID pandemic. This day, in particular, is a hard one for him, and as the day progresses, things just keep getting worse. A breakdown is imminent, but oh man, it's not clear who is going to snap first, because every single character on this show is going through some gnarly shit. Also, this is the day that the new medical students and interns have rotated into this department, so we quickly get to see who will survive this trial by fire, and who is going to suffer (one of the students faints during a gruesome procedure, and let's just say that I felt very seen.) 

Every actor on this show is doing phenomenal work, and the writers are simply geniuses, effortlessly doling out backstory as they simultaneously cover every medical complication known to man. Keep an eye on anyone you think might be a background actor - someone might seem like they're just an extra in the waiting room on Episode 1, but then they get admitted in Episode 5 and get to have a whole story arc of their own. The production design is incredible, and you will get to see hyper-realistic depictions of everything that goes on in a trauma center. This show is certainly not for the faint of heart, but if you can stomach all those bodily fluids, you are in for an emotional and thrilling ride.

Apple Cider Vinegar: From realistic medicine, we go to absolute quackery. Created by Samatha Strauss, who adapted this from the book, The Woman Who Fooled the World, by Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano, this miniseries is the true story of Australian influencer, Belle Gibson (played with an amazing accent by the always reliable Kaitlyn Dever). Belle was an entrepreneur and wellness guru, who faked having brain cancer in order to amass a social media following and tout her wellness recipes via an app and cookbook. Over the course of six episodes, we see how this woman got to this point, and the various institutions and people that enabled her to get away with it. 

In parallel, we also get the story of Milla Blake (a fictional character, though based on a real woman, played by Alycia Debnam-Carey), a young woman who truly does have a rare cancer in her arm, but chooses to pursue alternative medicine instead of listening to her doctors who say amputation or an experimental treatment might be her only options. She also becomes an inspirational figure in the wellness industry, with a popular blog touting her alternative medicine approach that consists of juicing and coffee enemas. All of which, of course, is dangerous and leads many people astray who need proper medical attention. 

The series is a little uneven and at times it can feel like this didn't need to be extended out into six hour-long episodes. But at its core, it's a fascinating and remarkable look at the very real dangers that these so-called wellness experts pose, particularly during a time when our society is fond of attacking and questioning scientists and medical professionals more than ever. Medical misinformation can have truly devastating consequences, and following the trajectory of these two very different but oddly similar women offers up a compelling vision of why we must always remain vigilant.

The Residence: Ready for a complete pivot? Binge all eight episodes of this murder mystery instead! Created by Paul William Davies, Uzo Aduba stars as Detective Cordelia Cupp, an avid birder who also happens to be one of the best detectives in the world, who is called in to investigate what happened when the Chief Usher of the White House (played by none other than Giancarlo Esposito) is found dead in the game room. Who could have done it?!

Turns out, a lot of people could have done it. The White House was hosting a state dinner that night, so a bunch of Australians are present (including some famous ones!), but more importantly, the White House employs a lot of staff members, a number of whom had intricate relationships with the Chief Usher and various motives and agendas that may or may not have resulted in his murder. If that wasn't enough, the President's own family members and friends are behaving awfully suspiciously as well. As Cordelia interviews all these people and runs around the White House looking for clues, she finds a very tangled web.

This show definitely suffers from Netflix bloat, constantly re-hashing the plot and re-summarizing what we have learned so far instead of just getting on with it. It could have been a lean six episodes, but instead is a very long eight episodes, that will occasionally wear on you. But the actors are charming, and the mystery itself is quite elegant when you finally unravel it all. This is one of those shows that might have been better as a novel than a series, but with Shonda Rhimes as an executive producer, you are least guaranteed sumptuous production design and a visual spectacle to keep you engaged in the duller moments. It's like watching a Poirot novel come to life, so if that's your jam, have at it.

March Binges Part 1: The Agency, Paradise, Running Point

Now that the Oscars are over, do you need recommendations of some new shows to binge? Well don't fret, I've got you covered!

The Agency: Created by Jez and John-Henry Butterworth, the cast of this show is a veritable who's who of Hollywood, featuring folks like Michael Fassbender, Jodie Tuner-Smith, Jeffrey Wright, and Richard Gere. With the occasional cameo from other famous folk. Fassbender stars as Brandon Colby (though he usually is only referred to by his CIA code name of Martian). He was deep undercover in Africa for six years, but when he is suddenly recalled back to London Station, he has to abandon the woman he has fallen in love with, Dr. Samia Zahir (Turner-Smith). He becomes a senior case officer, dealing with various shenanigans involving a missing agent in Belarus and a new field officer who could be deployed to Iran. But when Samia shows up in London, Martian is desperate to somehow win this woman back, under the guise of his old cover. As you can imagine, trying to juggle his undercover love life with all of his important case work proves to be a challenging task. Particularly as Samia starts to get mixed up in something the CIA might want some intel on.

This show is twisty and complex and will always keep you on your toes. There are multiple threads and characters that don't always seem to be interrelated, and by the end of the ten episodes, you do get the sense that maybe what you've watched is a very long prologue to set up a more satisfying Season 2 climax. But it's well worth a watch if spy thrillers are your thing, and this cast is firing on all cylinders. John Magaro offers up a lot of comic relief as a junior case officer who always seems to be in over his head, while Jeffrey Wright and Richard Gere are fascinating as Martian's bosses who have to maneuver through all the bureaucracy of managing the CIA. Fassbender's accent is definitely questionable (I had to remind someone multiple times that he was meant to be American in this show), but overall, this is quite an indulgent, high-budget TV treat if you're looking forward to a long, riveting binge. 

Paradise: For a truly riveting binge, however, might I introduce you to Paradise? Created by Dan Fogelman, this show stars Sterling K. Brown as Xavier Collins, the lead Secret Service agent on the President's detail. The President is Cal Bradford (James Marsden), and spoiler alert, he dies in the very first episode. What follows is a murder mystery, with plenty of flashbacks so we get to spend more time with Marsden. But, if that's not enough, there's a whole other twist to this show that is revealed at the very end of Episode 1. I absolutely refuse to spoil that, so you're going to have to watch to find out what the more mind-blowing aspect of this show is that makes every subsequent episode of its eight-episode run so fun to watch.

There are some great performances from Julianne Nicholson, Krys Marshall, and Sarah Shahi, but I won't get into any details about who they're playing as you need all of that to unfurl over time. Suffice to say, this show has a thoroughly engaging and intriguing premise that never gets stale, and with Sterling K. Brown at the helm, how could you possibly take your eyes off the screen? The production design is also spectacular, for reasons that will become apparent. This is a high-concept and highly entertaining show that I eagerly watched week to week, but now you can gobble up the first season in one fell swoop and wait with me desperately for the second.

Running Point: Speaking of gobbling up a season in one fell swoop, I devoured the ten episodes of this show over two days and it was utterly delicious. Created by Elaine Ko, Mindy Kaling, Ike Barinholtz, and David Stassen, this show stars Kate Hudson as Isla Gordon, a woman who unexpectedly becomes the CEO of the professional basketball team her family owns, the LA Waves, when her older brother (played by Justin Theroux!) has to step down to go to rehab. She has her other brothers Sandy and Ness (Drew Tarver and Scott MacArthur) beside her as the CFO and general manager, respectively, as well as her best friend and fiercely competent chief of staff, Ali Lee (Brenda Song). And she's engaged to a lovely man, played by Max Greenfield! I mean, the number of charming actors in this show just keeps growing and growing. If that's not enough, Chet Hanks plays one of the obnoxious basketball players on the team, and it is by far the most exquisite casting I could have ever imagined for that singular man.

This show is absolutely chock-full of plot and every single episode ends with an insane cliffhanger that is designed to have you hitting Play Next Episode on repeat. Isla's work life is an endless barrage, but there's also plenty of relationship drama to go around for everybody, and it's impossible to get bored for a second while you watch this engaging cast of characters play off of each other in increasingly wild and wonderful ways. It's like a big bag of candy that has something for everyone, and the impeccable costumes and production design certainly make it easy on the eyes as well. This is a gem of a comedy; the only thing wrong with it is that it's all over too soon and we now have to wait for Season 2. Alas.

January Binges: Black Doves, The Sticky, Laid, St. Denis Medical

I didn't just watch a bazillion movies in January. I also watched a bazillion TV shows. So if you're looking for your next great binge, might I tempt you with the following?

Black Doves: Written and created by Joe Barton, this is a splendid show starring Keira Knightley as Helen, a deep undercover spy who happens to be married to the UK's Defense Secretary. She is in a prime position to spy on the government and pass along critical information to her handlers, who run a mysterious organization called the Black Doves. This organization is not affiliated with any government - instead, they just sell their information to the highest bidder. Talk about a spy agency that is best suited to our capitalist times. Unfortunately, when Helen has an affair and her lover is subsequently murdered, she goes off on a vengeance spree to unravel what happened to him and deliver justice. All of which is tangled up in some other plots that might involve the Chinese, the Americans, and the British.

Ben Whishaw also stars as Sam, an assassin who returns to London to help Helen in her current predicament. The two of them have a lot of history; over the course of six episodes, you will slowly piece together their backstory and watch these two figure out if they have dug themselves in way too deep or if they truly can salvage the lives they built for themselves whilst still being elite spies. It's the ultimate test of work-life balance, and the show is an incredibly dark comedy, dealing with serious themes but approaching them with a deftly comedic touch that will always prompt an unexpected laugh from you. All the events of this first season take place during Christmas, so if you're still seeking a return to the holiday cheer of December, this could be a wonderful holiday watch. Though perhaps with a little bit more gore than Santa would recommend.

The Sticky: From 2011-12, the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist took place, when 3,000 tonnes of maple syrup were found to have been stolen from Quebec's Maple Syrup Producers Reserve. This syrup was worth millions of dollars, and this theft was the most Canadian crime ever. Well now, creators Brian Donovan and Ed Herro bring us a comical series inspired by that heist that does not purport to be a true story in the slightest.

Margo Martindale stars as Ruth, a maple syrup farmer who is feuding with Leonard (Guy Nadon), the man who runs the Quebec Reserve and has imposed all manner of arduous regulations and limits on the local farmers to curb their supply and reduce how much money they can make. Ruth is struggling financially, so when she is approached by Mike (Chris Diamantopoulos) with a scheme to steal some syrup from the reserve, she reluctantly agrees. Mike is a member of a Boston crime family, desperately trying to prove himself, and he got the idea from Remy (Guillaume Cyr), the lone security guard of the Reserve who has his own reasons for lashing out against Leonard embarking on this heist. What follows is a six-episode series that is kinda silly but perfectly entertaining and will probably end with you making yourself a big stack of pancakes and waffles. Settle in for a delightful brunch!

Laid: Developed by Nahnatchka Khan and Sally Bradford McKenna, based off an Australian series, this is a supremely weird but charming show about Ruby (the delightful Stephanie Hsu), a woman who is shocked to discover that all the people she has slept with suddenly seem to be dying. Her best friend, AJ (Zosia Mamet), is a true crime afficionado who starts to investigate what's happening and realizes that these people seem to be dying in the order in which Ruby slept with them. What follows is a desperate scramble to figure out whether this is just a coincidence, and if not, why this is happening, and what on earth can be done to stop it.

Obviously, I don't want to spoil what happens over the course of eight episodes, but let me reassure you that there is in fact a twisted logic to everything, and also a bit of a cliffhanger towards the end that was sufficiently intriguing for a second series. Ruby is an interesting lead, because she is charming but also quite terrible, a selfish woman who has to learn how to put her own neuroses aside to actually think about others for a change. Her friendship with AJ is heartwarming, though complicated, and it's fun to see the two of them banter and evolve over the course of the series. Because of the cliffhanger, you are definitely left wanting more, but the journey is well worth a watch, even if we're still waiting to get to the destination.

St. Denis Medical: Created by Erid Ledgin and Justin Spitzer, this show is currently airing on NBC as a weekly sitcom. So, I binged the first six episodes in a week but can now enjoy a weekly dose of this charming comedy every Tuesday. Set in a small hospital in Oregon, this is a mockumentary where we follow the doctors, nurses, and administrators as they deal with the daily trials and tribulations of their jobs. 

Allison Tolman is charming as Alex, a dedicated nurse who has recently been promoted and is feeling overwhelmed with her new supervisory responsibilities. Wendi McLendon-Covey plays Joyce, a former oncologist who now runs the hospital and is constantly trying to come up with ways to make the hospital more prestigious so it can make more money (alas, that's the capitalism of the American healthcare system for you). You've got David Alan Grier and Josh Lawson, as the cranky emergency physician and blustering trauma surgeon, and Mekki Leeper as a newly-minted nurse who really does not know what he's doing, while Kahyun Kim plays Serena, a confident nurse who also has a bit of a social media obsession. And if you were a fan of Superstore, you will see plenty of supporting actors from that show pop up in this one as part of the Justin Spitzer Television Universe.

It's always hard to come up with a competent network sitcom, but when you do find one that's excellent, you want to ensure it stays on TV for a good long while. So please start watching this show - I need more regular weekly comfort watches in my life and this promises to be a good one. 

December Binges Part 2: Interior Chinatown, The Madness, No Good Deed

It's getting colder so why bother leaving the house when your TV beckons with so much entertainment? We just got our first snowfall in NYC and I'm planning on hunkering down on the couch with a cup of cocoa as the Arctic winds rage outside. If you have similar plans, consider the following three shows to hunker down with!

Interior Chinatown: I was a big fan of the novel by Charles Yu, but now he has translated that book into this twisty and extremely meta ten-part series. Jimmy O. Yang stars as Willis Wu, an unassuming Chinese waiter who works in his uncle's restaurant in Chinatown, alongside his best friend Fatty (Ronny Chieng, playing a typically Ronny Chieng character). However, when some cops start investigating various crimes in the neighborhood, Willis is drawn into their investigations. He initially serves as a background character of this police procedural, but he then teams up with an Asian detective, Lana Lee (Chloe Bennet), who is also hustling as a supporting character in this show. As the two of them start to investigate the disappearance of Willis's brother, Johnny (Chris Pang), they further delve into what exactly is going on with their lives and what it takes for minorities to get to star in their own show.

I know that description may not make much sense, but believe me, you'll get it once you start watching this show. It serves as a meta commentary on television and who gets to be a leading actor, as well as what types of stories are allowed to air. It is confounding and perplexing at times, but if you don't think too hard about it, it's a thoroughly enjoyable ride and Yang is doing some great work as a leading man. And special shout-out to Diana Lin who plays Willis's mother and probably does the most affecting work on the series. It's an intriguing and fun show that will lead to plenty of discussion after you're done watching.

The Madness: Created by Stephen Belber, this is a show about what happens when a news anchor named Muncie Daniels (the brilliant Colman Domingo) is on vacation and then discovers the murdered corpse of his neighbor. C'mon, doesn't that rope you right in? What follows is a classic man-on-the-run thriller, almost a throwback to the 70s and 80s, where you have one lone man fighting the system as multiple conspiracies and shadowy figures abound. Except this show is firmly rooted in 2024 where a Black man goes to the police to report a crime and then has to go on the run himself as he is framed for the murder and becomes the prime suspect. Sigh.

With stalwart support from actors like Marsha Stephanie Blake, John Ortiz, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Deon Cole, and even Bradley freakin' Whitford, you will spend eight twisty episodes delving into all sorts of topics like white supremacist groups and corrupt billionaires, as well as watching Muncie try to mend various relationships and discover who he can truly count on. The story is definitely convoluted but overall, this is a pulpy engaging show that keeps up a relentless pace until the very end.

No Good Deed: Created by Liz Feldman, who also gave us the fantastic Dead to Me, this is an intriguing and wonderful show with an absolutely stacked cast. Lisa Kudrow and Ray Romano star as Paul and Lydia, a Los Angeles couple looking to sell their family home. You can sense there's some tension there, and maybe Lydia is not as into this sale as Paul, but as the series unfurls, you will start to get flashbacks and bits of story to clue you into what happened in this house and why selling it might be a good idea. In the meantime, we are also following the various potential buyers from the open house, who include actors like Linda Cardellini, Luke Wilson, O-T Fagbenle, and Abbi Jacobson. All of these people have their own stories and little secrets they're carrying around, and as the show progresses, we spend time with all of them to understand what they're hiding and what they're going to eventually reveal.

I'm not giving away any more plot because this show is a comedy mystery gem that also has a great deal of heart. It has genuinely tense and ridiculous moments, and then moments of great catharsis and warmth. It's a story about couples and families, and the things people do to protect their loved ones that can sometimes just lead to driving an even bigger wedge between them. And I promise, at the end, you will get a happy ending, with only the deserving villains receiving their appropriate comeuppance. It's beautifully written and well told, the perfect miniseries for the holidays. 

December Binges Part 1: Say Nothing, A Man on the Inside, The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh

As always, I have spent much time on the couch over the past month and have been catching up on a slew of streaming shows. If you’re hibernating this month, why not fire up one of these shows to keep you engaged?

Say Nothing: Created by Joshua Zetumer, based on the nonfiction book by Patrick Radden Keefe, this is a searing miniseries about the Troubles in Northern Ireland that spans the 1960s to the 90s. The series focuses on Dolours Price (Lola Petticrew/Maxine Peake) and her sister Marian (Hazel Doupe/Helen Behan), two young women who were initially pacifists who protested for peace, but who then joined the provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and tunred to a more violent path.

This is also a story about the Disappeared, people who were suspected of being informants and were secretly killed and buried by the IRA over the years; we specifically follow the story of a widow with ten children named Jean McConville, who was suddenly taken from her family and never seen again. And this is also a story about Gerry Adams, a man who led the IRA but then went on to become a politician and the president of Sinn Fein, who tried to broker a peace deal while claiming he was never a member of the IRA. 

These stories may seem disparate, but they are interwoven and culminate in tremendous fashion in the series finale. Over nine episodes, I was captivated by this show, on the edge of my seat to see what exactly would happen next. The series showcases the Belfast Project by Boston College, which helped former IRA members, like Dolours Price, record an oral history of what they had done, so every episode winds back and forth as you see the older version of these characters re-live their past in vivid flashbacks. It’s a masterful piece of television that outlines a dark and dangerous period of history and makes it feel urgent and relevant today. 

A Man on the Inside: If you don’t want drama but a comedy that will still make you periodically tear up, creator Michael Schur has you covered. In this show (based on the 2020 Oscar-nominated documentary, The Mole Agent), Ted Danson stars as Charles, a lonely man who decides to answer a classified ad that Julie (Lilah Richcreek Estrada)put in the paper. Julie runs a private detective agency and has a client who wants to investigate the retirement community his mother is in; her necklace is missing, and he thinks there’s a thief in her midst. Charles seems to be a perfect candidate to pose as a new retiree in this community, so Julie hires him, trains him up on how to be a spy, and sends him in.

The supporting cast includes Stephanie Beatriz as Didi, the extremely dedicated and competent woman who runs the community, and Mary Elizabeth Ellis as Charles' daughter, Emily, who is worried about her father, but somewhat relieved that he has found a hobby. As you can imagine, Charles is not a natural spy, and his first few days at the home are a bit of a disaster as he tries to figure out how to fit in with the residents without blowing his cover. But as the days go on, he starts to find his way with this motley crew and also starts to hone his spy craft (well kind of). 

This is a beautiful show that is about old folks and how much more they have going on in their lives than Hollywood ordinarily wants to acknowledge. It also reflects the very real challenges of growing older and the strain it can put on families as they try to navigate how best to take care of their elderly relatives. It's a very funny show and has an engaging mystery element, but it's also incredibly heartfelt and sweet, so keep a box of tissues handy at all times.

The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh: If you don't want to cry at all, then settle in for a typical American sitcom about a rather atypical family. Creator Vijal Patel gives us this show about a family that moved from India to Pennsylvania. But when we first meet them, they are being interviewed by two immigration officers who are trying to figure out who burned down their neighbors' house. What follows are eight episodes of interrogations where we get their story in flashbacks.

Sindhu Vee (a comedian I absolutely adore), plays Sudha (my mother's name!), a doctor who is mad at being uprooted to the US where no hospital will even accept her medical license. Naveen Andrews plays her husband Mahesh, a man filled with bright-eyed optimism about the land of opportunity, who has a SpaceX contract and thinks he's going to make it big by launching a rocket factory in PA. They have three children, Bhanu (Sahana Srinivasan), a very horny teenager who has her sights set on the hot boy next door (Nicholas Hamilton), Kamal (Arjun Sriram), a very neurotic teenager who has somehow developed an infatuation for the mother of the hot boy next door (Megan Hilty), and Vinod (Ashwin Sakthivel), a cheerful, upbeat kid who is obsessed with the garbage truck. 

This is definitely the broadest of comedies, but it contains fun jokes about white people and Americans and the challenges of fitting in as foreigners. There's plenty of material about Indian traditions and customs, but at the end of the day, this is a pretty standard sitcom that is easy to binge through in an afternoon. If you're Indian, you may enjoy it for the representation, and if you're not Indian, maybe you'll learn something?

November Binges: The Franchise, Three Women, Disclaimer, The Penguin

The following shows have all been airing week-to-week (such a novelty in this day and age!) so I have been delighting in them in installments over the past few months. However, they are now all done, so are available to you for an epic binge if that's how you consume your entertainment. There's quite the range of genres and themes here, but all are excellent in their own way, so prepare yourself to spend a lot of time on your couch.

The Franchise: Created by Jon Brown, a man who has written for Succession and Veep, this is a biting comedy about the machinations of making a big-budget superhero film. Set on a studio lot in London, Himesh Patel stars as Daniel the much-beleaguered first assistant director on a movie called Tecto: Eye of the Storm. He has to support the neurotic German director, Eric (Daniel Bruhl), an auteur who is trying to impose his unique artistic vision on this mass market movie, with the support of his sycophantic script supervisor, Steph(Jessica Hynes). Daniel also has a brand-new third assistant director, Dag (Lolly Adefope) who joins the crew filled with wide-eyed excitement, but quickly comes to realize that showbiz is a slog. The superhero movie's protagonist, Tecto, is played by an anxious actor named Adam (Billy Magnussen), an insecure man who is desperately trying to break into the A-list, even though he knows his character is not in the top tier of superheroes in this particular franchise. His co-star, Peter (the diabolically hilarious Richard E. Grant), is a wry British actor who is just doing this for the paycheck, is an HR nightmare, and finds the whole enterprise to be inane.

Throw in the studio bigwigs and producers who are there to make money not art, and you have a recipe for delicious disaster. Every episode is scored with this pulse-pounding techno beat that ratchets up your blood pressure as Daniel and the crew try to avoid an infinite series of disasters and petty squabbles, and try to keep within budget and timelines in an increasingly futile effort to make a movie they might actually like to watch. It's a perfect commentary on the current state of filmmaking, and a thoroughly excellent British comedy.

Three Women: Based on the nonfiction book by Lisa Taddeo that told the story of the sex lives of three different American women, the first thing you should know about this show is that it is extremely racy. If you are not into explicit content, this is not the show for you, a feeling that was shared by the network that originally paid for this show, Showtime, who then did not want to air it and sold it to Starz for distribution instead. Consider yourself pre-warned. 

In this show, we follow Gia (Shailene Woodley), a sort of stand-in for the book's original author, as she's interviewing different women to write her book, but also going through some personal turmoil in her own love life. We then get three separate stories about three women - there's Lina (Betty Gilpin), a midwestern housewife in Indiana who yearns to be touched but has a thoroughly uninterested husband; Sloane (DeWanda Wise), a rich and successful event planner who has an open relationship with her handsome husband, Richard (Blair Underwood), and is always keeping an eye out for a new man or woman to recruit into their polyamorous trysts; and Maggie, a young high schooler, who has an affair with a married teacher and a few years later decides to file a formal complaint against him.

This show can be very hard to watch at times and will be quite triggering if you have any history of sexual violence or assault. But it is also an incisive and cutting portrait of how these different women navigate their sex lives, and the ramifications when they either demand or don't know how to ask for what they want. Each actress is doing phenomenal work, offering up brutally honest and wrenching performances that make you thoroughly understand why they're doing what they're doing, even if you think what they're doing is a mistake. I cannot recommend this show as a feel-good watch, but it's unlike anything I've seen on TV. I was captivated by Taddeo's book when I read it years ago, and while the show struggles to come up with a coherent narrative, it still captures the essence of her book and its attempt to navigate the complexities of being an American woman in our modern world. 

Disclaimer: Written and directed by Alfonso Cuaron, based on the novel by Renee Knight, I will have to warn you again about this show being insanely explicit. Seriously, do not watch this show if any young children (or conservative adults) are around. Once you get them out of the way, however, hunker down for a thoroughly twisty and disturbing story that unfolds with absolute precision. Cate Blanchett stars as Catherine, a successful documentary journalist who is married to Robert (Sacha Baron Cohen, in a very somber dramatic role). They have a 25-year-old son, Nicholas (Kodi Smit-McPhee), who has struggled with addiction but is trying to get back on his feet. Overall, they are a typical rich British family - some problems, but nothing that money can't solve. Until a mysterious novel called The Perfect Stranger enters their life.

This novel was self-published by a retired teacher named Stephen (Kevin Kline), and the rest of this miniseries is a story about what that book is about and why Stephen is using it to destroy Catherine and her family. I am loath to give away much more information, because the whole point of this show is to watch the mystery slowly unfold and twist upon itself like a mesmerizing Mobius strip, so all I'll say is that Catherine did something in her past that involved Stephen's son, and now that event is coming back to haunt her. You will think you know what's happening for six episodes, and then the final Episode 7 will turn everything on its head. It's a remarkable and propulsive piece of storytelling that had me on the edge of my seat every week and now can have you in the throes of a manic binge for seven hours straight. Enjoy!

The Penguin: While I'm not a DC person, I have always enjoyed Christopher Nolan's Batman movies and found myself quite enjoying The Batman with Robert Pattinson in 2022. In that film, Colin Farrell had a supporting role as Oswald "Oz" Cobb, aka The Penguin, one of Batman's many nemeses, and I absolutely could not recognize him under all those prosthetics, limp, and strong Brooklyn/Gotham accent. Well now, he has his own spin-off show, and every single week, I would watch it and say, "I still can't believe that's Colin Farrell!"

This show is really firing on all cylinders. Created by Lauren LeFranc, the production design is epic, the writing is superb, offering up cliffhangers that kept me riveted throughout, and the performances by the supporting cast are excellent. There's Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, a woman who was betrayed by Oz but might team up with him again to defy her evil family. Their relationship takes many twists and turns that you can revel in for eight episodes. There's also Deirdre O'Connell as Oz's mother, Francis, a woman who has an extremely weird, almost Oedipal relationship with Oz, but also has an incredible backstory that we flesh out during those final episodes. And there's Rhenzy Feliz as Vic, a nervous young boy from the wrong side of tracks who has to team up with Oz in an emergency but then seems poised to maybe make a life for himself after all. 

This show is like watching a superhero version of The Godfather, with shifting loyalties, many betrayals, and insanely compelling characters that have many layers of evil within them that you will have to dig through. Don't forget, this is a story about a villain, and by the end of the show, you won't have any sympathy for The Penguin, but you will probably be horrifically impressed at what he has managed to accomplish. While this was meant to be a one-off miniseries, the show has done so well that it could come back for another season, and there is a teaser about what new characters we could see then. Fingers crossed, but even as a single season, it is a true delight.

Fall Binges Part 2: Rivals, English Teacher, Kaos, Agatha All Along

There has been an explosion of TV over the past month as I try to juggle new series with returning ones. Here are some reviews of the new shows that have kept me occupied and might suck you in too!

Rivals: I binged this show in one giant gulp and it's the best thing I've watched in ages. Based on the 1988 novel by Jilly Cooper, it is a raucous and over-the-top British delight. Insanely raunchy (there's nudity from the very first scene, so be forewarned), and hysterically devious, this is the story of what happens when Lord Tony Baddingham (played by David Tennant, who relishes in putting the "Bad" in Baddingham), the owner of a TV studio in the idyllic English countryside, hires Declan O'Hara (Aidan Turner, who I last drooled over in Poldark), a feisty journalist, to host his own chat show on his network. Declan moves down with his family, which includes his bored wife, Maud (Victoria Smurfit), and two daughters, the oldest of whom, Taggie (Bella Maclean), catches the eye of the local bad boy aristocrat, Lord Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell). Rupert is cartoonishly horny, and has quite the reputation, but as the series progresses, there's the sense that perhaps this rake can be reformed. But maybe not, because man, he shags a lot of women over the course of eight episodes.

Every single character on this show is having an illicit affair or lusting after someone, and the soundtrack is filled with some great 80s pop tunes, with some heavy breathing thrown in. There are a LOT of characters, who all have their own agendas, but everything weaves together seamlessly and entertainingly and there is just oodles of plot to keep you occupied in between sex scenes. The whole thing also ends on an enormous cliffhanger, so I will be first in line to binge all of Series 2 as soon as it's available. Until then, treat yourself to Series 1, and then maybe, watch it all over again. 

English Teacher: Created by Brian Jordan Alvarez who also stars, this show is like the anti-Abbott Elementary. Alvarez plays Evan, a gay English teacher in Austin who is disenchanted by the profession but still going through the motions and trying to get his life together. His love life is a mess, and he constantly seems to be choosing the wrong men to sleep with or find attractive. In the meantime, his fellow colleagues have their own little dramas, including his best friend, Gwen (Stephanie Koenig), and their hapless principal Grant (Enrico Colantoni). Over the course of eight episodes, we get to follow the adventures of this motley crew as they try to navigate the modern world of teaching and grow up themselves while they're trying to help their students grow up too. I wouldn't say this show is "heartwarming," but it's definitely silly and fun, and it's worth a binge when you need a good laugh on a lazy afternoon.

Kaos: If you're a fan of Greek mythology (and who isn't?!) then this is the show for you. Created by Charlie Covell, this is a sprawling series that is set in a modern-day version of Mount Olympus, where the gods still hold sway over humans but also have their own petty squabbles. Meanwhile, there's an ominous prophecy that binds several mortals together, and if they achieve their destiny, they might topple Zeus, which naturally makes him very antsy. It's all very cryptic, and there are many threads to unravel, but as the eight episodes progress, you'll start to see how all the disparate pieces come together despite Zeus's best efforts to thwart all anarchy. The production design is excellent, the actors are superb, the cinematography is splendid, but Netflix decided to cancel the show, so all we have is this one glorious season. It's still worth a viewing, because the season does feel like we get a bit of a resolution, even though there certainly would have been plenty of story to cover in future seasons. But if you simply want to indulge in one tight season of inventive and audacious Greek lore, start watching this show. You won't be disappointed.

Agatha All Along: Do you remember everything that happened in WandaVision? Yeah, me neither. Anyway, at the end of that show, it turned out a witch named Agatha Harkness (the glorious Kathryn Hahn) was the big bad who wanted to steal the Scarlet Witch's powers. So now, in this show created by Jac Schaeffer, we follow what happened to Agatha after the events of WandaVision. The supporting cast features all-stars like Aubrey Plaza, Patti LuPone, Ali Ahn, Sasheer Zamata, and Debra Jo Rupp, as fellow witches who accompany Agatha on a quest to follow the Witches' Road, a Wizard of Oz-style endeavor that is meant to help each of these women regain something that they have lost. But they are also accompanied by a mysterious teen (played by Joe Locke), who seems fascinated by magic and this quest, but can't explain to anyone what he's doing there. 

Unravelling the teen's identity and Agatha's ultimate endgame is the point of this show, and it is appropriately eerie and spooky, with quite a few jump scares thrown in to make it perfect for Halloween. However, as is typical of much of the Marvel Televisual Universe, it was so stuffed with lore and jimjams that I found myself wildly confused most of the time and decided to just watch for vibes rather than any understanding of the plot. The first episode has a great conceit, and then Episode 7 is a standout that has some great narrative devices that truly kept my eyeballs glued to the screen. But can I tell you what happened on the rest of this show and whether it all got satisfyingly resolved? No, I cannot.

Fall Binges Part 1: How to Die Alone, Ludwig, Nobody Wants This

It's getting colder and it's time to spend more time on the couch bingeing TV (OK fine, I do that regardless of the weather). Over the past month I have been making my way through some quality fare, so if you've missed out on the following shows, might I suggest you get all caught up?

How to Die Alone: If you saw Natasha Rothwell in the first season of The White Lotus and thought, "that lady needs her own show!" then this is the answer to your prayers. Here, Rothwell stars (and also created the show!) as Mel, a 35-year-old "broke, fat, Black woman" who works at JFK airport. She is currently single, has one best friend, Rory (Conrad Ricamora), and her boss, Alex (Jocko Sims), also happens to be her ex, who is about to get married to the woman who was meant to be his rebound. Mel doesn't have a lot going on in her life, but when she has a near-death experience, she is determined to make some changes. Including how to find someone to serve as her emergency contact.

Over the course of eight episodes, you are going to watch this woman attempt to evolve but in such a frustrating manner that you know it's all going to fall apart. The show can feel like very broad comedy at times, but then it gets incredibly sharp and incisive. The Thanksgiving episode where she goes to her brother's house for Thanksgiving is a particular standout, managing to be deeply uncomfortable and thrilling, showcasing all the many ways in which families can be infuriating and loving, often at the same time. Mel's life is extremely chaotic, and while it was sometimes hard to watch her be the architect of her own destruction, I binged this show in two days, compelled by Rothwell's riveting central performance and all the fascinating supporting characters. The airport setting is definitely engaging; JFK can be one of the most irritating places to visit as a traveler, but maybe on my next trip, I will amuse myself by imagining what Mel and her colleagues are getting up to behind-the-scenes.

Nobody Wants This: Looking for a delightful romcom that you can binge in one delightful sitting? Then this is the show you seek. Created by Erin Foster and starring the charming pair of Kristen Bell and Adam Brody, this is a story of what happens when Joanne (Bell), a woman who co-hosts a podcast with her sister about her sex and dating life, ends up dating Noah (Brody), who is...a rabbi. 

As broad and ridiculous as that premise sounds, the show is sublime. The writing is pitch perfect, and rather than just leaning into a bunch of jokes about Jews or sex-positive millennials, it deftly manages to highlight the very real issues that are keeping these two people apart, but more importantly, the very real chemistry that keeps pulling them together. It also doesn't hurt that the supporting cast consists of Judith Lupe and Timothy Simons as Joanne's sister, Morgan, and Noah's brother, Sasha. Those two are up to some craziness on the sidelines, and watching the antics of this couple's friends and family members is almost as delightful as watching the couple themselves.

While this first season offers up a complete and delicious romance to satisfy all of your cravings, I am desperate to find out what happens next. And if the writing and acting wasn't enough, the show's soundtrack is full of absolute bangers that always brought a smile to my face. This is the perfect comedy: funny, charming, and brimming with heart. I defy you to not be instantly bowled over by it - everybody wants this!

Ludwig: When my friend sent me the trailer of this show, I couldn't have been more excited. A BBC show starring David Mitchell, my favorite British comedian, as a puzzle creator who is trying to figure out the disappearance of his twin brother, a police detective, and ends up solving a bunch of murder mysteries as though they were different types of puzzles? Inject that directly into my veins!

Written by Mark Brotherhood, this show is a delightful comedy mystery series, and I binged all six episodes in a flash. Every episode features a unique murder that John "Ludwig" Taylor (Mitchell) needs to solve, but there's also the overarching mystery of why his twin brother James has disappeared that he is investigating with James's wife, Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin), and son, Henry (Dylan Hughes). Meanwhile, no one at the police station has figured out he is not his brother James, so he needs to keep bumbling about James's colleagues at the police station while he looks for clues, whilst accidentally solving all their murder cases in brilliant fashion. The tone is deftly comic but intriguing, the murders are all intricate and satisfyingly solved, and I instantly wanted to go buy a big book of logic puzzles when I was all done. If you like reading cozy mysteries, this show is the TV equivalent and is the perfect fall treat. Unfortunately, it does end on a bit of a cliffhanger, so Series 2 had better be filming right now.