Genevieve Valentine

While Houdini And Doyle is exactly as light as that sounds, and is a little uneven in its early episodes, it also wisely aspires to nothing greater than a good time.

It would be impossible to deliver something as bleak, unsettling, and compelling as [David Bowie's] “Blackstar” has posthumously become, but more often than not, when it counts, The Last Panthers delivers.

If it all sounds a little by-the-numbers, it is. But part of the fun of both Westerns and pulp revenge stories is setting up the tropes to play with them later, so Wynonna Earp could just be getting a few things out of the way before the shenanigans really get started.

From its first golden images of drowning to the drawing-room showdowns on a dark and stormy night, And Then There Were None is a triumph of atmosphere and an adaptation bold enough to make you uncomfortable to the very last.

Though there’s plenty of reasons to mourn a show that’s covering up its central emptiness with so much narrative busy work, there are glimmers of hope that maybe, if the show gains some footing in its second act, it might still find itself in time.

A key to the series’ success and longevity will be how well it’s able to balance the insider spoof with the satire and offer moments that do more than just painstakingly re-create; moments that remind us of the absurdities of the form and the ways we’ve been trained to see through a story.

Skillfully directed, impeccably designed, and brilliantly cast, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is as charming, and as dark, as it could ever hope to be.

Deutschland 83 is a stylish take on the spy genre that carefully balances its humor with high stakes, and with Nay as an anchor, promises that this is a spy caper worth a few summer weeks.

There’s a lack of early hooks, even in moments that stood out in Lily Koppel’s source biography.... That’s too bad, since whenever The Astronaut Wives Club does manage to bring its veteran cast, summer-pastel aesthetics, and its historical context together, there are glimpses of a very interesting show.

On the strength of its cast, the beauty of its design, and the sheer joy it gets from its homages, it’s the sort of dreadful that’s mostly a delight.