The Curse Damns ItselfNathan Fielder and Benny Safdie’s Showtime series will plunge you into doom-filled unease. Then it gets stuck there.
ByKathryn VanArendonk
tv review
Good Sex Can’t Save Fellow TravelersThe Showtime limited series spends too little time with its messy, fascinating characters and far too much time on Gay U.S. History 101.
ByJackson McHenry
close read
The Beckham BentFisher Stevens’s doc never questions the footballer’s choices. With its subject serving as executive producer, how could it?
ByNicholas Quah
tv review
Mike Flanagan Brings the House DownWith The Fall of the House of Usher, the horror auteur slams the door on his Netflix era with giddy, gory delight.
ByRoxana Hadadi
finales
Wheel of Time Found Its GrooveIn its second season, Amazon’s other epic fantasy series figured out what kind of show it wants to be.
Telemarketers Calls It Like It Sees ItThe scrappy, compulsively watchable series upends a corrupt industry — and what we expect from documentaries in the first place.
ByRoxana Hadadi
tv review
Painkiller Wants This to HurtNetflix’s righteously angry opioid-epidemic miniseries refuses to humanize its villains.
Twisted Metal Runs on EmptyPeacock’s adaptation of the car-combat video-game series says “yes” to guns, wisecracks, and shit that looks dope, and “no” to thinking too hard.
ByKathryn VanArendonk
merkin at work
Minx Unleashes a Tantalizing PairNow on Starz, the erotica-mag workplace comedy gets a fluff from two standout secondary performances.
Last Call Sees What Most True Crime MissesLoving yet full of palpable fury, HBO’s docuseries will make you deeply sad, then even sadder that more true-crime stories aren’t told this way.
Siren Goes OffNetflix’s brutal new K-reality competition elevates strategic gameplay to an art form.
ByNicholas Quah
endings
Succession Made You Decide“Who will win?” is a question as appealing and empty as Tom and Shiv’s apartment. The much harder one has always been “What kind of show is this?”
Universes Collide in American Born ChineseThere’s a tender, vibrant coming-of-age story in Disney+’s new series, if you can find it beneath all the tiresome celestial conflict.
Swarm’s Most Dangerous DevotionThe Prime Video series about a murderous stan falls short in exploring the ways female companionship can be amplified into something more sinister.
Perry Mason Has Solved the Case of Perry MasonSeason two of the HBO revival moves beyond its protagonist’s origin story and into the courtroom, and becomes the show it was meant to be.
Party Down Has Time on Its SideThe cultishly beloved cater-waiter comedy returns in peak form, using the 13-year gap between seasons to its best advantage.
The Last of Us Will Invade Your PsycheThe HBO video-game adaptation is a reminder of how effective postapocalyptic storytelling can be no matter how well trod the territory.
