TV: Deadloch (Season 1)
What a great trick the Australian series Deadloch pulls off: it grabs the sinister reins of Nordic noir, then steers …
Film: Game Night
The surprisingly delightful Game Night (2018) throws a number of ideas and influences into its hopper. A fairly conventional comedy …
TV: What We Do in the Shadows (Season 5)
At times during its run What We Do in the Shadows has threatened to overplay its bag of tricks, but somehow …
TV: The Afterparty (Season 2)
Having pulled off something extraordinary once, The Afterparty faced, upon its renewal, the steep challenge of doing something extraordinary again. …
TV: Hijack
On The Wire, Idris Elba made an early mark as Stringer Bell, one of TV history’s most fascinating, memorable schemers. Apple’s …
Film: Confess, Fletch
Positive buzz drew me to Confess, Fletch (2022), an appealing, throwback comedy reminiscent of simpler times. Jon Hamm takes up …
TV: The Haunting of Hill House
Based on the deeply impressive Midnight Mass, I went into Mike Flanagan’s earlier limited series The Haunting of Hill House (2018) …
TV: Creamerie (Season 2)
New Zealand’s Creamerie was already weird after one season; impressively, the second gets even weirder. Set in a post-plague future in …
TV: Full Circle
Full of herky-jerky camera motion and walking pans, Steven Soderbergh’s limited series Full Circle may look like it was shot …
TV: Dead Ringers
It’s a testament to the draw of Rachel Weisz that Dead Ringers pinged my radar, despite my having long forgotten …
Film: You’re Next
There’s an unrealistic, if eye-catching, hook at the center of slasher film You’re Next (2011): the killers paint those very …
Novel: Red London by Alma Katsu
If there were any doubts after Red Widow that Alma Katsu wasn’t the real-deal in spy fiction, Red London (2023) should put them …
TV: Love & Death
As early as the first episode, I was questioning the point of Love & Death. A competent true-crime drama with …
Film: Smoking Causes Coughing
French humor is a peculiar business, and one need look no farther than the outlandish Smoking Causes Coughing (2022) for …
TV: Avenue 5 (Seasons 1 & 2)
Given the pedigree—a series led by Armando Iannucci, with Hugh Laurie in the lead—Avenue 5 should have really worked. Instead, …
TV: The Witcher (Season 3)
As season three of The Witcher fades rapidly from memory, I’ll acknowledge there’s still plenty to admire about the series: …