Proma Khosla

“The Girlfriend” is exactly the kind of psychological and soapy binge to kick off the fall TV season, easily devoured in one indulgent sitting with a cheeky drink and lots of yelling at the screen. The twists vary in actual shock value, but the tension provides enough of a hook to follow this warped love story to its conclusion.

The bingeable first season will leave everyone from “Office” diehards to new viewers wanting more — which is just as well, since Peacock ordered a second season a day before its debut. While we hope for a bigger episode order and quick turnaround, the “Truth Teller” staff will be reporting for duty, available to stream and make us laugh any time.

It’s not prestige TV, but it’s unapologetically entertaining, and Season 5 delivers on everything that got audiences obsessed with this series.

“Deli Boys” is not too dark, too violent, or too explicit to immediately watch all the way through. It’s bizarre and hilarious and fun enough to keep a viewer hooked, and hopefully to merit a second season

Cox slides back into playing the “really good lawyer” like he never left. .... Fisk’s own arc is notably slower, and both are fairly obvious, but they intertwine while making engaging detours.

The series from Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson, and Jonathan Lisco isn’t as confident as it was in previous outings, leaving the cast stranded in narrative wilderness and awaiting rescue that may never come.

All of it comes together mainly thanks to a terrific performance from Dever, Australian accent and all, whose take on Gibson is instantly familiar and unnerving.

Once Ruby exhibits actual personal growth and Hsu gets to capably play it, the stakes and story deepen around her, and the show even finds legs as an ensemble outside of the main two leads. If there is a second season — and the ending certainly requests as much — a little generosity for Ruby and her crew could go a long way.

The show was written and filmed before the 2024 election, but the cultural fractures examined here were no less present a few months ago (or years, or even decades). But it never really commits to unpacking these power structures outside of the show’s universe, where things spiral and stray too far from the pilot’s inciting incidents.

Only five episodes were screened for critics, but they ended up exactly where you’d want to be halfway through the season, with the storytelling growing more confident with every installment and the experiment atmosphere growing more immersive.