“The Gardener” has plenty in common with slick, dark shows like “Dexter” and “You,” though it more often feels like “Wednesday,” not only in its pop-goth vibes but also in its reliance on its protagonist’s wide-eyed stare.
The show can afford to be relaxed in its pacing because there are 52 episodes in the first season, two of which are already streaming. That is a lot of episodes, and it engenders in the viewer the same feeling the characters share: We’re in this together for the long haul.
Where “Critical” loses some ground is in how goosed its story lines are and how much it adopts the styles of generic streaming true-crime documentaries. We hear from patients’ loved ones before we hear from the patients themselves, which drags out the “Wait, did they live or die?” in ways that feel cheap and scuzzy. Talking-head segments are blue-toned and somber and appear to be filmed in abandoned warehouses. The show uses the same footage repeatedly, and its super-up-close B-roll is generic. These choices dim but do not extinguish the show’s power.
Everything on “Rage” escalates, quickly, and the behaviors are extreme — and exciting. While the characters are motivated by pain, the show itself is bright and funny, colorful and surprising.
“Too Much” is nowhere near as thorough or tricky [as "Girls"], and it seems happiest in its most pat moments. It’s as diaphanous as one of Jessica’s nightgowns, weirdly long but barely there. Though Felix and Jessica’s relationship moves at warp speed, the show itself does not. Its 10 episodes, which range in length from 31-56 minutes, meander and repeat themselves until the season re-accelerates at the very end.
Another strong cozy-nerdy procedural. .... The fun here is in the episodic aspects, and “Art Detectives” has a good time in the worlds of, for example, wine fraud and Titanic collectibles.
Season 2 of the documentary series “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders,” on Netflix, is a bit less rah-rah than Season 1 — still full of tears, high kicks and sisterhood but also more attuned to the pain of it all, the sorrow and struggle of cobbling together one’s self-worth.
“The Waterfront” seems unlikely to be as seismic as some of Williamson’s best-loved work, but it does have more bite than many other streaming dramas set in beach towns with surprisingly high murder rates. The dialogue is at least occasionally snappy, and McCallany and Bello make excellent sparring partners.
