Television

The Ghost of a Once Era-Defining Show

In its second season, And Just Like That seems constrained by its fear of being conventional.

• Sophie Gilbert
• June 22, 2023

When a Show About the Future Is Stuck in Place

The newest season of Black Mirror is a stale collection of shallow, unfulfilling stories.

• Shirley Li
• June 17, 2023

A Master Class in How Not to Act at Work

I Think You Should Leave reveals the absurdity of office culture.

• Amanda Wicks
• June 17, 2023

Never Have I Ever Cleverly Solves TV’s College Problem

The final season of Netflix’s sparkly teen comedy acknowledges that transitioning to higher education isn’t always an easy or automatic process.

• Shirley Li
• June 10, 2023

How the Daytime Soap Opera Took Over Prestige Television

Daytime soaps, unfairly maligned for too long, might seem in danger of extinction. But prime-time prestige television has absorbed their DNA.

• Mayukh Sen
• June 9, 2023

The Reality Show That’s Tackling the Toxic Workplace

Top Chef has spent the past 20 seasons redefining what it means to be a chef—and a leader.

• Megan Garber
• June 8, 2023

Will We Remember Succession or Ted Lasso More?

What to make of two strikingly different series finales—and worldviews

• Sophie Gilbert
• June 2, 2023

The Succession Plot Point That Explained the Whole Series

In Shiv, what is often a cliché storyline became both poignant and tragic in the HBO show’s finale.

• Nina Li Coomes
• May 31, 2023

The Most Compelling Female Character on Television

Happy Valley’s Catherine Cawood is that rarest of TV unicorns: an ordinary woman written with such care that she becomes extraordinary.

• Sophie Gilbert
• May 30, 2023

Barry Finally Gave Up Its Delusions

The finale of HBO’s hit-man-turned-actor series stripped away its characters’ fantasies of redemption, and found that they had little else left.

• Jeremy Gordon
• May 29, 2023

Succession Ends as It Began

The show’s epic finale gave us drama, cruelty, and the cold thud of reality.

• Shirley Li
• May 28, 2023

The 400-Year-Old Tragedy That Captures Our Chaos

Pop culture is finding new currency in the tale of a king beset by madness.

• Megan Garber
• May 26, 2023

Yellowjackets, How Could You?

On the terrible mistake of the show’s Season 2 finale

• Shirley Li
• May 26, 2023

A Chinese American Show That Doesn’t Bother to Explain Itself

Disney+’s American Born Chinese, based on the best-selling graphic novel, offers a confident take on the second-generation experience.

• Shirley Li
• May 25, 2023

We Still Don’t Know Anna Nicole Smith

A new Netflix documentary offers glimpses of the tabloid star but fails to reckon with the forces that ruined her.

• Sophie Gilbert
• May 24, 2023

The Roys Stumble Into the Real World

In the penultimate episode of Succession, the warring siblings find themselves exposed to the chaos they stoked.

• Sophie Gilbert
• May 21, 2023

When a Hapless Villain Somehow Takes Down a Presidency

HBO’s new limited series White House Plumbers explores the banal oafishness behind the Watergate scandal.

• Megan Garber
• May 18, 2023

TV Isn’t About to Get Worse. It Already Is.

The problems that Hollywood’s writers are protesting can be seen on our screens.

• Caroline Framke
• May 17, 2023

Jury Duty Is Terrific TV. It Shouldn’t Get Another Season.

The magic of the show is that it doesn’t yet have a formula.

• Shirley Li
• May 15, 2023