Laura Bogart

The Pitt sometimes struggles under the heft of its obligation to all of them [characters], especially in this first episode. The show is best when it’s in motion and when it uses patient encounters to provoke more meaningful character moments and growth. .... Yet The Pitt is, ultimately, Wiley’s series, a showcase for him to shade layers of brilliance, fatigue, anger, compassion, and despair into a lead performance that feels truly lived-in.

The tonal flatness of the writing gives scenes that should be absolute socks in the gut the emotional impact of light swats on the cheek.

Though the quality and consistency of "Ratched'"s writing dramatically deteriorates around its midpoint, Paulson’s dedication to finding the pulse inside the brittleness of the ice queen archetype makes her compulsively watchable—and the first four episodes, at least, give her a main through-line that is worthy of that performance. ... The show takes a hard pivot, as if it’s auditioning to be some secret season of "American Horror Story" and indulges in that series’ worse impulses.

Hitmen has a broad sense of humor, but this lack of sophistication is one of its charms. ... It’s highly enjoyable.

The show layers on various conspiracies and intrigues that aren’t as interesting as the characters occupying them—and which leave characters, most specifically, Marissa, treading water for long swathes of episodes. Still, this second season of Hanna holds a tantalizing promise of realizing some of its source material’s dark dreaminess and emotional intensity.

Narrative bagginess swallows all the story’s oxygen and blows it out as stale air: It squanders precious opportunities to develop compelling antagonists—and that lack of complexity is even more unfortunate given that the three leads are so charismatic and well-cast.