Darren Franich

Olyphant's costume-rack theatricality signposts Daisy Jones' excessive charm. The 10-part miniseries starts absurd, turns sneakily profound, and lands in schmaltz so soapy I had to wipe tears from my eyes.

You kinda look like your younger self. That's the best thing I can say about Party Down, an amazing show that returns just fine. It's attractive, familiar, a bit flatter, not quite as emotional.

Natasha Lyonne comes off like the last pack of cigarettes in a world of vape pens. ... Poker Face rehumanizes and re-weirds TV crime, carving a third way between network franchises and prestige gloom. ... Here's a detective with no home, no gun, no phone, no supporting cast, a past to escape, and a doomed future. Hell of a hand, I'm all in.

The banter is cheerful; the will-they-or-won't-they is bit cutesy. But American Auto feels like it's closing in on something edgier.

The scope is vast, for better (soaring vistas, extensive cityscapes) and for worse (one of the premiere's two prologues is pointless). There are big-deal guest leads. The action is fine, functional. One episode completely shifts the game's canon, but some scenes get recreated shot-for-shot. That may work best for newbies, or fans who prefer adaptations barely adapted. It contributes to the feeling of watching someone else's replay.

Beyond the conceptual wow of half-century-old characters suddenly having definable traits, Velma plays out like any other prequel.

For three blissfully bleak episodes, The English comes off like a classic odyssey, less focused on the eventual destination than the windblown stops along the way. And then the wheels start to come off. ... Still, it's worth sticking with The English just for the lead performances.

The Tulsa location is distinctive. Stallone is never not interesting, so the best moments are his quiet ones. ... The question for Tulsa King going forward is whether it can complicate Dwight's archaic act or sanctify him as a boomer bull in a millennial china shop. Right now, it's a frictionless fantasy about making instant friends, attracting younger women, and instantly knowing everything about the legal pot industry.

Season 2 makes a convincing case that this heavenly-hell luxury franchise will be very pretty even when it's pretty familiar. Sicily looks lovely, but the tension is palpable.

Creator Tony Gilroy is best known for Michael Clayton, but so far this series feels more like his Bourne Legacy, another franchise offshoot where the ambient world-building is more exciting than the main characters.