The Bear (Season 4): Good, not great. If they can wrap this up with one last season, still has a chance to be my favorite show of the last few years. Stick the landing, please.
The Chair Company (Season 1): Insane, but perfectly executed. Treats conflict not as misunderstanding, but as multiple, “true” perspectives coexisting without agreement. Each character acts from a private logic that makes perfect sense from within themselves (and only themselves), so no one is wrong, just incomplete. Also: hilarious.
Friends from College (Seasons 1-2): Very funny and well-cast, but its misstep was asking for sincerity about deeply shitty people being deeply shitty. As a sharper, more contained movie or miniseries, it likely would have landed better.
Nobody Wants This (Season 2): I might take back what I said last year about this just being a movie.
Platonic (Seasons 1-2): Warm, relatable, and sincere. But mostly just funny.
Reservation Dogs (Seasons 1-3): So great. Applies the Louie, Atlanta, Master of None, and Better Things model of loose, episodic storytelling that prioritizes mood, interior life, and lived experience over plot to coming of age and history, while genuinely helping both its characters and its audience process something real. All love and respect to Elora Danan, Cheese and Willie Jack.
Severance (Seasons 1-2): No thank you. Slick production and a clever premise doing a lot of work while the writing spins its wheels. Fan of the egg bar, though.
Shrinking (Seasons 1-2): Don’t think I ever cared about a cast of characters so quickly. Maybe I just like sitcoms?
South Park (Seasons 27-28, apparently): Doing the Lord’s work.
The Studio (Season 1): Seth Rogen is my hero.
Stranger Things (Season 5): I only ever loved the first season, but I love these kids.
White Lotus (Seasons 1-3): This is the king of “should be a movie.” Or in this case, movies. Every season seemed slow and uneven. Don’t completely get it, even if it has its moments.