The week in TV: Fargo roars back, and a sharp Oliver Twist spinoff

Squid Game: The Challenge should not be a thing

If you’re brave enough to press play on Netflix’s Squid Game: The Challenge, prepare to be disappointed and, even worse, bored. The reality series is an utterly dragged-out, inauthentic mess that takes all the wrong lessons from the 2021 South Korean hit that inspired it. The takeaway from Squid Game should not be “Hey, let’s make this scary shit real” or “What if we got people to sign up for a non-fatal version of a show that depicted the fear of dystopian capitalism and then treat them like garbage for the sake of entertainment?” Read More

Fargo season 5 premiere: The show comes roaring back with a lean, confident new story

It’s been almost three years since Fargo was last on TV, its fourth season representing something of a nadir for Noah Hawley’s scattered take on the Coen brothers’ classic. At its best, Fargo has been a fascinating and worthy addition to the name, borrowing mostly just “vibes” from the film, rather than a bunch of Easter eggs and character names. I’ll admit I was a little surprised to find out there would be a fifth season, but if it continues to be as good as this two-episode season premiere, I’m extremely down for another adventure in the snowy Midwest. Read More

Escaping Twin Flames is your next infuriating cult docuseries

Soulmates are a tricky concept. Most people who believe in them (for the sake of transparency, this writer does not) may understandably do so because it’s reassuring to think someone out there is willing to accept them exactly as they are. It’s as comforting a notion as any—wanting to find the one, a perfect fit, an ideal partner. Or as alleged cult leaders Jeff and Shaleia Ayan like to sell it: a twin flame. It sounds lovely on paper. However, as seen in Netflix’s jaw-dropping docuseries, Escaping Twin Flames, the couple has more diabolical plans than helping others find true love. Read More

A Murder At The End Of The World recap: For Darby Hart, the game is finally afoot

The game is finally afoot At The End Of The World, with writers Brit Marling, Zal Batmanglij, and Melanie Marnich focusing on the mystery at hand rather than the one in Darby’s book. Filling in gaps is undoubtedly essential to this story, but the dual narrative was exhausting in those exposition-filled openers. Outside of occasionally explaining exactly how Darby is feeling at a pivotal moment in the present, the silver jewelry MacGuffin hasn’t begun to shine. Until that arc come into focus, it’ll continue to be a silver albatross around this show’s neck. Read More

The Artful Dodger review: A sharp, enjoyable Oliver Twist spinoff

You remember Oliver Twist, right? The Charles Dickens novel about a poor orphan boy who famously beseeches the workhouse attendant for more gruel in a mewling English lilt, “Please, sir. I want some mooooore” and, in doing so, makes everyone all mad at him? Even if you haven’t read the book, seen the musical adaption Oliver!, or grown up with Disney’s Oliver And Company, you’ve probably heard that line before. To spoil the whole 19th-century novel for you, Twist is just a good little guy who has bad things happen to him all the time until his true lineage is later revealed and he’s adopted by a kind, rich benefactor. Jack Dawkins, nicknamed “The Artful Dodger,” is a side character, a cooler, streetwise kid who befriends the boy and teaches him how to pickpocket along the way. (In the Disney version, he’s a doggie played by Billy Joel who makes the girl doggies swoon as he swirls hot dog links around his neck like a scarf, dons sunglasses, and sings “Why should I worry?/ Why should I care?” while hopping from car to car on a busy NYC street.) Well, The Artful Dodger, a new eight-episode limited series which premieres November 29, is Dodger’s story—and brace yourselves, because it sure ain’t Disney. (Well, technically it’s on Hulu and Disney+, but you get the idea.) Read More

The Curse recap: “Either be hot or be funny”

Can a grift be socially conscious and ecologically sustainable? And if it is those latter things, can it really be called a grift at all?

These are the mental acrobatics you’d expect Asher and Whitney Siegel (Nathan Fielder and Emma Stone) to be grappling with as their plan to artificially inflate the real estate market in La Española through their not-yet-picked-up-to-series HGTV “passive home” reno show depends on the idea that they’re giving back to the community. Yet the moral quandary over their callous ways (like buying up properties in auction they will then hope to upsell in a year or so) don’t quite bother them as much as pettier things (like the fact that a test audience doesn’t really care for them as would-be hosts). But it’s in that disparity that Showtime’s The Curse mines much of its dark comedy and its biting social commentary. Asher and Whitney are textbook white saviors who, by definition, can’t think of themselves as such. Which is why they make for such fallible protagonists. Read More

Fellow Travelers has the sexiest chemistry on TV right now

“I’ll spend the afternoon picturing you kneeling in prayer,” Hawk Fuller (Matt Bomer) whispers to Tim Laughlin (Jonathan Bailey) in the premier episode of Fellow Travelers. His not-so-subtle attempt to make a pass in public—with a religious connotation, no less—is now one of the hottest lines exchanged on TV, right up there with Fleabag’s “Fuck you calling me Father like it doesn’t turn you on just to say it.” And it’s all thanks to the fiery chemistry between Fellow Travelers’ two leads. Read More

For All Mankind’s Ronald D. Moore tees up the rest of season 4

If there’s one thing For All Mankind is known for, it’s making astounding leaps in its alternate history between seasons. In that respect, the Apple TV+ drama doesn’t disappoint in its fourth season, which kicks off in 2003, when humans have already set up a successful base on the moon and on Mars and are trying to hurl asteroids into orbit to extract minerals. Read More

The Great British Bake Off recap: The final four

It’s Patisserie Week, which is just a posh way of saying it’s a week about fancy cakes and pastries. We have just four bakers left, and all are thrilled and a little in disbelief that they’re made it this far. Dan is “over the moon” to be there, and Tasha is “so proud of how far” she’s come and has a boost of confidence. Josh “never in a million years” thought he’d be in the semi-final, while Matty thinks it’s “so bizarre.” I’m sticking to my prediction of a final with Tasha, Matty and Josh (sorry, Dan!). So let’s bake! Read More