Lisa Weidenfeld

“The Other Bennet Sister” is best when it tries to imagine the very human person whose older sisters are Jane and Elizabeth Bennet. Ella Bruccoleri is a real asset as Mary.

Piquant, and bewildering. Further delights await.

On the whole across the first season, it seems like the show is still finding its footing. The spotty clues about who Jack is to Book and Trottie are handled with less grace than the murder mysteries, but are inherently more compelling, which can make it frustrating that the show takes so long to prioritize them.

As I watched the episodes that make up the first half, I found myself getting caught up despite the lack of emotional depth, if straining to remember some of the finer details of what was going on. .... I found the final moments of the final episode coming out this month both genuinely thrilling and genuinely moving. Almost despite itself, Season 5 pulls off a scene of impressive emotional payoff, pushing past all of the action of the earlier episodes to say something profound about being young.

There’s little in here that rises to the heights of “The Good Place” or “Parks and Recreation,” though I’ll admit that I laughed pretty much nonstop throughout the scene where Jason Mantzoukas’s (minor) character is introduced. Still, it’s both endearing and well-made, and there aren’t enough pleasant comedies like that out in the world.

The whole thing is fine but thin. Morgan is sharper in her standup than she is here, which may be another casualty of the character’s emotional state. .... But the humor is generally good-natured (it comes late in the season, but there’s a joke about an armadillo that really got me), and the episodes are short and move swiftly, allowing them to slip by even when the plotting can’t keep up.

It’s extremely silly, and yet this week, despite having a lot to do, I somehow watched all eight episodes. Enjoy.

“Too Much” is often just the right amount of a compelling romance, but with too much of a sense of loyalty to the conventions of the genre.

It’s the parallel close bonds between Nancy and Diana, and Unity and Jessica, that provide much of the dramatic meat of the series. .... The Mitford family, for all their wealth and distance from the present day, may bear more familiarity than we’d like.

The term used to describe this kind of show is often “cozy,” but it doesn’t quite fit here. No one is getting bundled up in a warm blanket and having a cup of tea to discuss the case. But there is something cozy about its vision of a world of people who strive so much to appreciate and understand someone who’s different from them.