Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya

The series twists its horror kaleidoscope well. It falters in places when it comes to character motivation and overwrought relationship drama, but Chapelwaite manages to be both uncomplicated and surprising.

Its second season, also just six episodes, is just as richly textured and even more ambitious in its storytelling. Martin’s comedic voice is original and sharp, and the show unflinchingly embraces discomfort and mess.

While the ending isn’t perfect, it doesn’t need to be. Moments In Love burrows into mundanity, discomfort, and grief and still finds humor and joy along the way. It’s beautifully captured but also messy. The only perfect marriage here is the one between the show’s aesthetics and its narrative.

It’s the good kind of mess—mess that feels deeply human. Euphoria lets Jules brim with contradictions. Her monologues have specificity but also manage to touch on so many things at once. The writing does a lot with a little, and that’s not Euphoria’s usual speed.

Euphoria presents a layered story about addiction here. Rue and Ali can relate about a lot of their experiences, and there’s power in that connection.

The comedic rhythm of the show is strong even when the overall structure sags. But Frayed is middling a lot of the time, especially when it comes to its emotional stakes and the more dramatic tensions that surface and then quickly flatten into an easy joke.

Character development is strong across the board, with each of the teens feeling real and specific beyond their teen comedy tropes. ... Love, Victor makes good on its promise to expand beyond the narrow confines of Simon’s story, but it doesn’t get very far.

Outer Banks slots many of its characters into specific boxes and keeps them there. The series’ lack of nuance sometimes takes away from the emotional stakes, but it still does manage to craft a very exciting mystery-thriller with touches of teen romance. It’s a fun ride, but tighter character work would sell Outer Banks’ biggest moments much harder.

Feel Good manages to do all this intricate story work about gender, sexuality, addiction, and relationships while establishing a clear comedic voice right from the start. ... It doesn’t always feel good to watch it, but that’s part of Feel Good’s magic. It tells a story full of discomfort and insecurity with self-assuredness, empathy, and charm.

Visible intertwines politics and pop culture with intelligence and clarity. Like any good story, it has heroes, villains, triumphs, obstacles, conflict, and catharsis. It contains many messages at once, but there’s one that stands out across it all: Television still needs more LGBTQ stories, and it needs LGBTQ people creating them.