Rebecca Onion

With 10 hourlong episodes of miniseries to fill (eight of which critics were given to screen ahead of the premiere) there is simply time for too much to happen in Apple’s adaptation, and it can’t all be gold. .... Worst of all, this new Max Cady has all kinds of new backstory, and the show inserts you into his subjectivity far too often. .... You risk a lot when you do this much explaining of a man who should feel like a terrifying act of God.

The Other Bennet Sister is so breezy and full of heart, most viewers will fall for it right away.

Purists may not like how much Thorne has added to this story, and how these additions dilute the sense of archetype that drove the story of Golding’s novel. .... There is something in these backstories that softens the dark message of Lord of the Flies. These boys broke bad, the adaptation seems to say. But it doesn’t mean we all will.

Happily for those fans still interested in this singularly irreverent and bloody show, something feels different this time around. .... For the first time in a long time, The Boys has me unable to look away.

These are the interesting parts of The Testaments. .... Unfortunately, in its execution, the show struggles not to embellish, adding cheesy lingo—the girls tell one another to “plum up”—and inserting unfortunately on-the-nose needle drops.

Nancy marries “up.” Both her friends are jealous (Mary, of her money; Eleanor, of her broad-shouldered Kennedy of a man), and they hide their jealousy for years, staying friends with Nancy because it’s to their advantage, but unable to properly support their actual friend because of their envy. There is something to this idea, but this kind of thriller—compellingly watchable as it may be—is a hard place to explore it well.

If Scarpetta has a flaw, it’s that the identification of the killer feels like a bit of an afterthought. All the mysteries surrounding that mystery—the undercurrents in Kay’s family and the way the past haunts its members—have become much more intriguing. Or is this a flaw? In a genre rife with shopworn tropes, it’s the detective series that captivates while breaking the mold that is the most worth celebrating.

It comes as a surprising disappointment that the adaptation, a newly released eight-episode miniseries created by the book’s author and starring Rachel Weisz as the narrator (here given the initial “M.”), Leo Woodall (The White Lotus) as the eponymous Vladimir, and John Slattery (Mad Men) as the narrator’s husband John, is a pretty husk of the novel.

Paint-by-numbers show, full of beautiful actors and actresses wearing black tactical gear and shooting weapons at crooks.

All these aspects of the main couple’s relationship are quite promising—chemistry! Cross-class love! A heroine who can take us places we haven’t gone! The problem is, everything related to Benedict and Sophie is padded out by A, B, C, and D plots ad infinitum.