TV Diary
Apple TV's "Widow's Bay" is so completely up my alley, a horror comedy about a creepy New England town (I think they tiptoe around every specifying a state), created by "Parks & Recreation" writer Katie Dippold and primarily directed by "Atlanta"'s Hiro Murai. Matthew Rhys, starring as a mayor who's skeptical about the town's legends and superstitions and trying to drum up more tourism, has really growing on me as more of a cantankerous character actor type since his turn in "The Beast in Me." And the moment it transitioned from a scene with Stephen Root as a paranoid fisherman to Toby Huss as a laid back reverend, I was like yeah, this is a show for me.
AMC really changed direction after the success of "Walking Dead," it was weird to realize while watching their new series "The Audacity" that it's just about the only drama they have right now that's not on a horror/sci-fi/fantasy/thriller tip. I don't think it would lure back people who love "Mad Men" or "Breaking Bad," feels like we've seen this kind of satire of Silicon Valley hubris before. It's not even the first time I've seen Billy Magnussen play an unethical tech CEO, although his character in this isn't otherwise too similar who he played in "Made For Love." Good cast and clever premise, though, it has potential.
I was just recently griping that Michelle Pfeiffer's recent Paramount+ vehicle "The Madison" is really boring and it's a shame she doesn't star in one of her husband David E. Kelley's shows, and then what do you know, here they are finally working together. I'm only a couple episodes in and they are very slowly integrating Nick Offerman into the story, but Elle Fanning and Pfeiffer have a great complicated mother/daughter dynamic, it's a really sweet, funny, character-driven show beyond the 'broke young mom does OnlyFans' premise. And it was nice to hear Haute & Freddy's "Shy Girl" in the second episode, that's such a good song for TV syncs
The first season of "The Handmaid's Tale" was great television but I never really felt motivated to stick with it for the long haul. But they got Chase Infiniti in a spinoff for her first post-One Battle After Another role and she's just such a promising star right now, I had to check out the first couple episodes and it's pretty good.
The 2004 adaptation of the novel Man On Fire was one of Denzel Washington's great action movie roles, I think I saw that one in the theater. Putting Yahya Abdul-Mateen in that role for a series just feels like setting him up to fail or underwhelm, even if the show seems pretty solid and well made, after "Wonder Man" I'm really interested to see more of Abdul-Mateen's range now that I know he can do comedy.
I adore Deborah Ann Woll so I'm glad that she ended up being a bigger part of the "Daredevil" revival series than it seemed like she was going to be after they (sigh) killed off another major character. It's nice to see some of the other characters from the Netflix Marvel shows, too, although I still have yet to really enjoy this one as much as the old "Daredevil" show, there are fewer and less impressive action scenes.
Really glad this is back for a second season, Mindy Kaling is probably the most consistent creator in sitcoms right now after Bill Lawrence, and it's a pleasant surprise that Justin Theroux's role is now in every episode.
h) "The Boys"
I'm a little ready for "The Boys" to end, it probably didn't need five seasons. But Antony Starr as Homelander is really one of the great TV roles of this decade, I'm excited to see a bit more of that performance. And I kind of like that they gave another character a nice little redemption arc before they died.
i) "Ghosts"
I still kinda enjoy this show, but I feel like I only like half the cast and the other characters/performances are just too broad and hacky, I might finally check out on it this season.
j) "Beef"
I thought the first season of "Beef" that won 5 Emmys was a little overrated, and was skeptical about it becoming an anthology series with a different set of characters in conflict for the second season. But they got a great cast and I think a more gripping story, with Cailee Spaeny and Charles Melton as employees at a country club and Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan as their boss and his wife. The first episode that sets all the drama in motion felt a little contrived to me but just how dark and tangled the story gets is really engrossing.
I remember a little of the first season of "The Comeback" 20 years ago and being unimpressed, but I was kind of anti-mockumentary sitcoms at the time. But Lisa Kudrow is really one of her generation's best comedic actresses and this is one of her signature roles, so I decided to give it a try and watched the whole thing up to the current third and final season. And it's grown on me, but so far I don't like the third season as much, both Robert Michael Morris and his character Mickey passed away after the second season and it's just not the same without him.
Season 16 of "Bob's Burgers" has had a weird schedule with a long midseason break from December to April, I don't know if that's just a delayed reaction to the strikes. But man, this show is still at peak form, Sunday's episode was the funniest yet for Will Forte's recurring teacher character Mr. Forte.
m) "Kevin"
Aubrey Plaza co-created this Amazon Prime show about a cat named Kevin, voiced by Jason Schwartzman. I have pretty low expectations for animated sitcoms these days but this is growing on me, partly because John Waters plays a Persian cat and it definitely feels like they work to give him the best lines.
n) "Molang"
A weird little cartoon about a rabbit that's been on Netflix for a decade now and has over 300 episodes, my younger son just got into it and it's amusingly silly, I like the animation style.
The Chilean novel The House of the Spirits was apparently a huge hit in the '80s that sold tens of millions and was translated into over 20 languages. I enjoyed the first episode I watched but I'm curious to see how they tell a story that spans a century in 8 episodes, considering that shows like "The Crown" and "For All Mankind" have had to really leap through the chronology to tell stories that span a few decades over multiple seasons of television.
p) "Flunked"
This French sitcom on Netflix has a fairly absurd premise with a con man being forced to go undercover as a substitute math teacher at the high school he went to in order to avoid prison time. Pretty charming cast and reasonably snappy dialogue, though, it's not bad.
This is a South Korean show about eight filmmakers who became friends in college and stayed in touch, and the main character is the one guy in the group who still hasn't made his debut film. Definitely one of the best imports I've seen on Netflix lately, kind of a black comedy, I think a lot of people would enjoy it.
r) "Pro Bono"
Another South Korean show on Netflix about an ex-judge who becomes a lawyer at a nonprofit, reminds me of like a '90s David E. Kelley show.
This docuseries is about the director of the new Femicide Bureau in Mexico that investigates violence against women, some pretty sobering subject matter, partly just realizing that America is probably far behind Mexico on making something like this a law enforcement priority.
Zach Galifianakis's new show for Netflix feels like an indulgent little passion project where he just tries to turn his genuine interest in gardening into entertainment with mixed results. It's pleasant, though, reminds me of times of his very underrated first TV vehicle, "Late World with Zach."
This Netflix talent search show doesn't feel hugely different from stuff like "Last Comic Standing" that's been done before, but I like that Kevin Hart is having everybody perform in these famous little comedy clubs instead of in a big TV studio, it gives it a different vibe and maybe feels a little more true to the live comedy experience. A few pretty funny contestants that I'm rooting for and Hart and the other judges sometimes give a little insight into what impresses them or what they think makes a set work. The weirdest thing about this show is that Keegan-Michael Key and Tom Segura are both on it, and in the dim comedy club lighting I keep mistaking one for the other.
Jimmy Kimmel created this weed-themed Hulu riff on ESPN's "30 for 30," four 20-minute documentaries about things like High Times Magazine released on 4/20. I liked the one about the making of Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, it was interesting to get the whole unlikely tale of how that screenplay was thought up and got produced and kind of became a sleeper hit on DVD. It was a little odd, though, that they barely mentioned director Danny Leiner and then just quickly note at the end that he passed away in 2017.
I know that Brazilian footballer Ronaldinho de Assis Moreira is one of the greatest soccer players of all time, but I didn't know anything beyond that, so it was fun to get into his story a bit with this Netflix docuseries.
Hulk Hogan was interviewed for this Netflix docuseries before he died, I'd probably avoid watching it if he was still alive, but now I feel like okay, let's see what this thing has to say about his complicated legacy. I haven't gotten to later episodes yet to see if they deal with Hogan's flaws and controversies in a responsible way, but the perspective on his early career was pretty interesting.
I've seen enough documentaries about boy bands and Lou Pearlman that I went into this expecting not to hear anything I hadn't heard before. But they ended up getting some fresh angles, it was especially fascinating to hear from Jason Galasso from the original lineup of N Sync about why he left, and his replacement Lance Bass spoke more frankly about what it was like for him to be in the closet during the group's run than I'd ever heard before. I also like that this one features members of Boyz II Men and gets into the very different expectations and attitudes towards Black boy bands and white boy bands. They even managed to make the 98 Degrees story interesting.
I've been watching "The Late Show" a little more lately as Colbert gets ready to go off the air in a few weeks, and of course the circumstances of the show ending are ridiculous and infuriating. But I've also just been left with an odd taste in my mouth, remembering how much funnier he was 'in character' on "The Colbert Report" and what he lost in that transition to CBS. He is one of the best interviewers in late night, though, I like that he's almost always genuinely engaged with the guests and their work.
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on Thursday, April 30, 2026 at 7:05 PM.
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