Seth Rogen has been producing some great TV series for a while now ("The Boys," "Preacher," "Invincible"), but 2023's "Platonic" was the first time he'd actually starred in a live action series since "Freaks & Geeks" and "Undeclared," and apparently that's coming back for a second season on Apple TV+ along with his new series, "The Studio." A cameo-filled satire of modern Hollywood could so easily be smug and unfunny or, I don't know, an "Entourage" retread, but "The Studio" really succeeds on the execution, it has a genuinely funny perspective and a strong creative vision, including lots of scenes consisting of one long shot that would probably be more impressive if the show hadn't debuted 2 weeks after "Adolescence," which is full of even more staggering oners. The percussion-heavy score is composed by Antonio Sanchez, who also scored Birdman, which I think tips off Rogen and Evan Goldberg's biggest influence for their directorial style on "The Studio" (one character also straight up mentions Birdman in an episode). All three episodes so far have climaxed with Rogen's character upsetting a well known director, so there's certain a formula emerging, but it's really good and the stories involving Martin Scorsese and Ron Howard had particularly good payoffs. And the great ensemble includes Kathryn Hahn kind of being ridiculous in the same way she was on "Parks & Recreation," and Chase Sui Wonders, who is really fulfilling the potential I saw in her as a comedic actress on the great short-lived series "Generation" a few years ago. 

I'm fascinated with how at some point Kevin Bacon made this pivot from being the Footloose guy and a pretty conventional likeable leading man to all sorts of villain and antihero roles in horror flicks and dark comedies. In this new Blumhouse-produced series, he plays a bounty hunter who is killed, and then comes back from the dead under orders from the devil to hunt down demons, a good fun pulpy premise. 

Computer animation that emulates the look of stop motion animation can be really beautiful, but this new Netflix fantasy cartoon really looks like dogshit. 

HBO is starting to get more into international shows that aren't in English, and this is the first Spanish-language Max series. It's about the investigation of of a suspicious suicide and has very artful direction, builds up a somber atomosphere very well. 

This Korean series on Netflix imagines a near future with space tourists going up to spend time on a space station, which is a pretty interesting premise that hasn't really been done much on American TV, and the visual effects are pretty good for something without a huge budget. 

I just thought it would be funny to put all these shows with "When..." titles in a row because they look funny together. Another Korean show, a sweet romantic show that kind of spans generations, starting the story in the '50s. 

Another Korean show, this one on Amazon Prime, a zombie outbreak story that really feels kind of distinctive and fast-paced compared to the deluge of American zombie shows. 

So many good stories are driven by the deaths of wealthy people and questions about inheritance and possible foul play so this is a great premise for a series, you get to explore that old trope from a different angle in every episode. 

This Norwegian show about people on a volcanic island that's on the verge of eruption really feels like a very mediocre derivative disaster movie-type thing with bad acting, bad visual effects. 

"1992" from Spain probably is just ahead of "La Palma" as the worst foreign language show I've seen on Netflix lately, just a very cheesy murder mystery with some gross scenes of burned bodies and a murderer who leaves a colorful little doll with their victims as a signature. 

This Polish show is pretty good, it's about a novelist who's being blackmailed and returns to his hometown where he has a lot of complicated history. Good cast, good acting.