Vinnie Mancuso

I'm telling you it's occasionally a laborious, frustrating undertaking (except when it's not), and, it absolutely must be mentioned, you're about to experience some truly ill-advised old age makeup (it serves a purpose, but big yeesh). But I'm also telling you to dive in anyway, because what you'll find on the other side is worth it.

Funny, dramatic, occasionally very stupid, and equally as often incredibly moving, Heels touches every corner, and if you can keep popping up after the bumps, you'll understand how addicting those bright lights can be.

It's effective TV horror, it's a recognizable dystopia story, but almost nothing hits as hard as it could.

Bly Manor might not be scary but it certainly sticks in your brain long after it’s over, because stories—like houses, like people—don’t have to horrify to be haunting.

Warrior Nun‘s main issue is that one half of its story is just infinitely more engaging than the other. ... The saving grace of Warrior Nun‘s more tedious aspects is Baptista herself, whose performance as Ava looks effortlessly charming while still doing a ton of heavy lifting.

Doom Patrol remains as effortlessly odd-ball in its sophomore season, but also improves itself by leaning even harder into the tragedy of it all at the same time.

City of Angels is so scattershot. Bouncing around between separate character studies isn’t inherently a bad thing—early Game of Thrones turned it into a phenomenon—but City of Angels stretches itself so thin you can’t really care about any place it lands.

Story-wise, Stargirl isn’t breaking many molds; the villains introduced in the first three episodes are mostly indistinguishable from a lot of the Arrowverse’s rogues gallery, and the drama between a freshly-moved teen and their step-parent is a tale as old as time. But a lot of the charm comes straight from the cast.

As is, it’s a perfectly fun, flighty dark fantasy that hasn’t quite unlocked its full potential.

Malkovich carries the bulk of the show’s episodes and absolutely devours the role. ... But The New Pope often meanders in its excess too long without staying put. It’s less a story than a sermon with too many subjects, taking on greed, and sex, and faith, and corruption but only in general, arms-length terms.