While it never succumbs to the bloat so common in the genre, there are times when the pace feels designed more for stretching out to a season than it should, but they’re just far enough apart to never completely derail momentum.
After a bit of rockiness in the early episodes, it’s a consistently funny show, one that could ultimately stand alongside Carlock’s previously acclaimed creations.
If the loose threads of this season are tied together in a way that pays off next year, Paradise will have avoided the curse of shows that never capitalized on their initial wonder. But right now it feels stuck more in TV purgatory than paradise.
“Strip Law” just isn’t funny. As with all comedies, your mileage may vary, but I couldn’t even get through the first season. Maybe you like “Hoops,” too.
The 2026 version of “Scrubs” is a pretty solid piece of escapism, a return that feels almost like what the show would look like now if it never left the air.
One of the issues with the show is that this program and its universe feels surprisingly contained and even slight. There’s too little world-building, almost no setup for Angelo as a character outside of his descriptors like “assassin,” “father,” and “patient.”
Yes, sometimes conflict can feel manufactured on “Shrinking,” but the work by the cast, especially Segel and Ford, is so nuanced and grounded that we roll with the clichés. Clichés become so because they tap into certain universal truths.
This episode moves at an excellent pace, coming in relatively short compared to bloated streaming shows and introducing us to the players and four settings—train, embassy, control center, Marsha’s cabin—that will probably shape the season. Let’s hope the pace continues or the questions about whether or not this sophomore outing justifies its existence will only grow louder.
