In addition to "Full Circle," less than a week later, Timothy Olyphant also returned to his greatest role. When people talk about great TV finales, I'm fond of saying that "Justified" stuck the landing with a perfect final episode in 2015. So this new sequel miniseries spoils that a little bit, but I'm fine with it, because I'm happy see Olyphant as Raylan Givens again, in one of the Elmore Leonard stories that was never used for the original series where he winds up in Detroit (when Raylan shows up in Detroit, one of the people that sees him immediately makes a "Yellowstone" comment, which come to think of it might be a hint as to why bringing "Justified" back in 2023 was seen as a smart business move). The first two episodes are really promising, with Boyd Holbrook well cast as the skeevy villain and Keith David as a judge, and finally they have an excuse to ditch that lousy "Justified" theme song.

A pretty unusual and intriguing show, about a woman starting her life over after a 16-year prison sentence. I'm not surprised that it's based on a one-woman play and was also a successful podcast, though, it kinda feels like it might have worked better in those formats and the seams are showing a little in the translation to a TV series. 

The CW tends to pick up a lot of shows from Canada and Australia and other countries to fill up their schedule in the summer. And I've enjoyed the U.S. premiere of this show that's been on in Canada since 2021, about a squabbling family that owns a coastal resort in Nova Scotia. 

"Survival Of The Thickest" is the first real starring vehicle for comedian Michelle Bateau, who's steadily risen from VH1 talking head to ubiquitous supporting player over the past 10-15 years. And it's a pretty funny, charming show with a strong cast, it gets a little heavyhanded and clumsy with trying to make points towards the end of the season, but mostly it's a rare Netflix sitcom that hits the mark. Tone Bell is likable in this show, I'm happy for him that he's actually in a decent show after starring in some of the worst sitcoms of the past decade ("Truth Be Told," "Disjointed," "Fam," etc.). 

The episodes of "The Witcher" that Netflix is rolling out this summer will be Henry Cavill's final performances as Geralt before he hands the role over to Liam Hemsworth. Recasting the title role in a series is pretty unheard of, so who knows how the show will fare from here, but Cavill's really made the show work, so I'm skeptical that things will proceed as before. That said, it felt like the show was always trying very hard to emphasize the ensemble and the worldbuilding and not make it a show where Geralt is in every scene, but I'd be fine if it was a broader show about Geralt and his sidekick Jaskier, I kind of get bored easily when the show tries to make me care about the plot. 

I was not blown away by the first season of "Foundation," but then I haven't read the books, so I don't have a frame of reference. and I at least respect that Apple TV+ is trying to make something that's true to a sort of old-fashioned pre-Star Wars sci-fi epic tradition. But, as with "The Witcher," I like the cast more than the story so if Lee Pace or Lou Llobell is in the scene I'm paying attention, but if they're not, my mind might wander. 

"The Afterparty" is a creative little murder mystery comedy where each episode is an interview with one witness/suspect, with their flashbacks all in different genres. It was fun but kind of inconsistent in the first season, but it feels a little more dialed in now in the second season, which brings back three characters trying to solve a different case (I kinda wish one of the people in both seasons wasn't Tiffany Haddish, who doesn't seem to understand the tone of the comedy). This week's episode, with Paul Walter Hauser as a reddit-y dork whose memories are all film noir, was hilariously good, by far the best thing I've seen from Hauser to date. 

A couple months ago I said that "What We Do In The Shadows" is my favorite show of the decade so far, so the pressure is on, guys, don't fuck this up! Season 5 seems to be up their usual standard, though, I'm glad Kristen Schaal has been upgraded to a full cast member. And as much as I enjoyed the gag of Guillermo waiting forever to be turned, I'm glad they're finally moving that story forward a little. 

I was surprised to see that Adult Swim had a new Superman series because most Adult Swim shows are, well, pretty adult or otherwise absurdist and irreverent. But DC has never really allowed any kind of dark or satirical take on Superman and "My Adventures With Superman" is no exception, it's just a charming, straightforward take on Superman's early days in Metropolis with an emphasis on Clark, Lois, and Jimmy working at The Daily Planet. Not sure why Cartoon Network didn't just air this in the daytime. 

A Japanese series on Netflix, about a woman who takes a job under an assumed name to plot revenge over her mother being wrongfully blamed for burning a house down many years ago. Some nice moody, cinematic direction in this. 

Another Netflix import, this one from India, with some impressive cinematography, opens with a chilling scene of a guy being found dead in a field a few days before his wedding, but I haven't gotten far enough in the series to find out what's really going on yet. 

Fatal Attraction was the name of an iconic 1987 erotic thriller, and Fatal Instinct was the name of a 1993 comedy parodying the genre. So the title "Fatal Seduction" had me primed for a bunch of erotic thriller cliches, and that's pretty much what this South African series delivers. 

Seems like a bad idea to make a show about a lawyer called "Devil's Advocate" that has nothing to do with the Pacino movie, but this Kuwaiti thriller seems decent. 

I'm not too into home renovation shows, but this Netflix show is geared a little more toward tech innovation and creative solutions to old issues of maximizing storage space or given rooms a new use, it's interesting. 

A lot of reality competition shows suffer from the fact that the prize everyone is vying for is some vague opportunity and/or chunk of money that may or may not have any real impact on their career. So the stakes feel a little more real on "Five Star Chef" because the winner actually becomes the head chef of a prestigious London restaurant. And the co-host Ravneet Gill is so gorgeous. 

Not a football fan at all, but this Netflix docuseries where each episode profiles a different NFL quarterback is pretty well made and shows the daily reality of the job from an angle I haaven't seen before. 

The whole Ashley Madison fracas was a media circus at the time, but it feels even more insane looking back in this Hulu series 10-20 years later. I didn't even realize that there suicides linked to the hack that exposed the data of everyone that had an account. 

Apparently a member of the Italian royal family was involved in the murder of a German teenager in 1978, wild story but I didn't get that into the Netflix doc, kinda hope someone does a scripted dramatization of this story at some point. 

This miniseries on The CW starts from the premise that the year of my birth is the nexus of 'geek' culture...it feels a little like an arbitrary year to me, but I enjoy any opportunity to sort through '80s pop culture detritus. 

I watched a little of the first season of "Is It Cake?" when it came out and was like, okay, I get it, I don't need to see every episode. But when the second season came out, my 8-year-old son took an interest in it, and this is definitely more fun to watch with a child. 

"Project Greenlight" has always been an interesting but frustrating show to watch, just watching how the sausage gets made in the creation of a director's debut feature. In the first season, the contest winner was picked by the screenplay they submitted, and I kinda wish they kept looking for writer/directors, but they've mostly separated those roles in the next four seasons (season four they picked a guy to direct a particular screenplay, but then they switched up and made a feature version of his short film submission). The new season, sort of a reboot with Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani as the celeb producers instead of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, starts with the premise that they need to pick a woman to direct a "Project Greenlight" film for the first time. And the director, Meko Winbush, seems really smart, but it's always so hard to tell whether she cares about the screenplay she was given to work on at all and I just feel like it'd be a much better show, and probably a better film, if they picked a writer/director's passion project that they've been waiting their whole life to make. 

Some of the animated shows on Netflix are really kind of out there and psychedelic and absurdist, and I'm a little impressed sometimes when my 8-year-old is into them, like "Centaurworld" or this weird Brazilian show "Wake Up, Carlo!" about a kid who sleeps for 22 years and wakes up in a completely different world. 

"Ask The StoryBots" is one of the best educational kid's shows I've seen since I became a parent, my 8-year-old has genuinely picked up some useful knowledge of the world from the show. There haven't been any new episodes of "Ask The StoryBoys" since 2019, but there was recently a new season of the spinoff "Answer Time," which is like a lower budget version with less fancy animation. Some fun celebrity cameos, though.