The 6-episode Western epic miniseries "The English" is both a romantic melodrama and a gorey, violent story featuring a massacre, people ravaged by syphilis, and a woman whose eyelids have been cut off. Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer are great leads but the rambling story features a lot of great supporting turns. And Rafe Spall, who I'd previously mostly seen in lightweight romcom roles, is surprisingly fantastic as one of the best, most entertainingly loathsome scenery-chewing villains in recent memory. 

Following thousands of other writers on Twitter is fun because you get to occasionally passively witness someone's career take off, like Taffy Brodesser-Akner publishing her first novel and adapting it into this FX miniseries. I haven't read Fleishman Is In Trouble, but the series definitely has the feel of being adopted from a novel, but it works because there's a strong cast of people like Jesse Eisenberg and Lizzy Caplan who can handle some fairly wordy dialogue (and, in the latter's case, narration as well). I like it a lot, I think it may be Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris's best directorial work outside of music videos, but it's a bit stressful watching a very detailed and excruciating depiction of a bad marriage falling apart and an ugly divorce.

I guess it's kind of weird that an iconic Italian tough guy actor like Sylvester Stallone was never in any mafia movies, and apparently he mentioned to "Yellowstone" creator Taylor Sheridan that he'd always wanted to play a gangster, and Sheridan immediately wrote a pilot for him. "Tulsa King" is sort of a double fish-out-of-water premise, because Stallone plays a mob guy who finished a long prison bid and is then banished by his family to work in Oklahoma, so he's an old guy adjusting to the modern world and a New Yorker out in the midwest. And it's a lot of fun to watch Stallone throw his weight around and kick some ass, has some of the same appeal as "The Old Man" with Jeff Bridges from earlier this year. The choice to have him end up in a one night stand in the first episode with a woman who turns out to be a federal agent investigating him is a little corny, but having a comedic actress like Andrea Savage play the character was a good idea, that and her awkward but genuine chemistry with Stallone really gives that storyline potential. 

This miniseries is based on a book called Deadly Dance: The Chippendales Murders, and I had no idea that the history of the male striptease franchise was so sordid and violent. It's an interesting story and a strong cast, but I feel like the writing is really clumsy and dumbed-down, it has that biopic disease of turning real life events into a series of implausibly simple or coincidental moments. 

The Peacock police procedural "The Calling" is another show that feels like it'd be ten times better if the leads had just a little bit of charisma. Noel Fisher is really great in a recurring role as a suspect, but I get the impression he just has an arc for a few episodes. I was also amused that the first episode opens with a guy in a hot dog costume being interrogated, felt like an accidental tip of the hat to "I Think You Should Leave." 

A couple weeks ago I raved about the movie Significant Other and lamented that it's on Paramount+, where nobody will see it. And now I have another bone to pick with Paramount+, because I've been subscribing since the spring and had no clue that they released a new mockumentary series from the creator of "American Vandal" back in June. "Players" starts off a little slower with dryer comedy than "American Vandal," but it's really good, shame to see it get so little traction. 

A Steven Moffat miniseries on Netflix with a great cast including David Tennant, Stanley Tucci, and Dylan Baker. I found the first episode to be an intriguing start but I haven't gotten around to finishing it yet. 

"Mood" is based on star Nicole Lecky's one-woman play, and is about a woman who dreams of being a pop star, with frequent fantasy segments where she and the people around her burst into song. The musical parts are sometimes pretty inspired and Lecky is a really promising talent, but sometimes I find shows about aspiring entertainers to be a little predictable and bland. 

My wife loves the Pitch Perfect movies and watches them often, and I've developed a soft spot for them myself. And while Adam DeVine is technically one of the bigger names from those movies, it feels kind of weird to build a spinoff around his character -- those movies were full of cute girls but let's do a show about the obnoxious comic relief dude character! And making the DeVine character the protagonist just feels like a big ask. Still, it's silly in a knowing way and there are some good laughs here and there. 

Guillermo del Toro hosting an anthology series and featuring the work of likeminded directors and writers is a great idea, and there's a high bar of quality for these (and I was amused that the first installment starred Tim Blake Nelson, just like the Coen Bros' Netflix anthology). That said, the first three installments felt almost too similar to each other, and the first one that felt like a change of pace, the fourth, was also the only one I disliked. 

Charlie Hunnam needed a lot of great acting talent around him in "Sons of Anarchy" for the show to work, but "Shantaram" rests a bit more squarely on his shoulders. And a show about an Australian bank robber who lives on the lam in India just feels like it'd be pretty compelling with a better actor in the lead role, but it's just so-so. 

I feel like I should watch the movie or I guess read the novel at some point, but this newest version on Starz is pretty good. 

The second season of "The White Lotus" takes place at another hotel with mostly different characters, but it has the same structure -- the appearance of a dead body, and then a cut back to the events of the previous week so that you're wondering the entire time who dies. I thought it was a decent hook to help make the show a hit the first time around, but I rolled my eyes at Mike White going for the same structure here -- is this gonna be a "Murder She Wrote" thing where people keep dying when Jennifer Coolidge goes on vacation, but she never solves the crime? Still, I think this show is pretty consistently entertaining, works better as an absurd and cynical sex comedy than as a 'social satire,' and the season 2 cast is possibly even better than season 1. Also, I appreciate that they went to Italy and found one of the hottest women I've ever seen and her name is Simona Tabasco, what a name. 

Between "Cabinet of Curiosities," "The White Lotus," and the return of "Mythic Quest," I've been watching a lot of F. Murray Abraham lately. Excellent show, I like that they seem to change the dynamic between the characters a bit with every new season, kind of keeps the conflicts that drive the comedy from getting repetitive and stale.