Alan Sepinwall

On the one hand, the more time spent focusing on the two leads, the better. On the other, there comes a point where he doesn’t quite seem worth all the fighting, in the emotional or physical sense. But Wright and Cooke both understand the assignment, and the payoff to the rivalry feels worth the build-up. Not a deep story, but a fun one.

The Lowdown very much feels like a good crime novel. The hardboiled works of Jim Thompson are a recurring plot point, but Harjo and company are operating more like they’re in Elmore Leonard or Donald E. Westlake country, mixing self-aware humor(*) with genuine intrigue and menace, along with a scuzzy atmosphere and a rich, detailed sense of place.

The Paper doesn’t really work as a direct Office replacement, since even at its strongest, it never remotely approaches the comedic levels of its parent show. But it may at least function as a methadone-like substitute for fans who love the original but feel like they need to stop rewatching “Casino Night” and “The Lover” over and over again.

It’s a feedback loop of gloominess, that turns the process of watching early episodes feel like trying to walk up a muddy hill in the middle of a downpour. .... That said, just as Mare came together satisfyingly in the end, the last three episodes of Task are very strong as both suspense and character studies.

Bob-Waksberg and his collaborators retain their impressive gift for devising ludicrous comic set pieces to go alongside the heavier material.

The cast still has good chemistry. But there’s definitely a tone shift. And it remains to be seen in the concluding episodes whether Peacemaker is fully built to get more serious, or if Gunn would have been better off leaving the series primarily as an outlet for the kind of humor he can’t really put into movies about Superman or Batman.

Every now and then, Platonic leans a bit too hard on scenes where Will and Sylvia panic and begin screaming at each other about their latest catastrophe. But even some of those louder gags are terrific.

Hawley, like he did with Fargo, ultimately finds a way to make Alien: Earth feel like it belongs as part of this fictional universe.

The character designs are all visually striking, with exaggerated facial features presented at extreme angles, and every person clearly delineated from one another, no matter their background or how prominent they are in the story. And the fight scenes — of which there are thankfully many — are fluid, clear, and thrilling.

A series with sluggish pacing, a mostly flat collection of characters, and a compulsion to restate the same handful of ideas again and again. .... So that leaves the show’s action sequences to carry things. When they come, they’re usually excellent.