Radiohead, lots of Robert Downey Jr.s, and more from this week in TV

How Radiohead became the soundtrack of great TV

If you watched the trailer for Netflix’s 3 Body Problem earlier this year, you might have noticed a familiar tune playing in the background. While the sci-fi epic from David Benioff and D.B. Weiss employed a (gorgeous) cover of the song rather than the original, it was still unmistakably Radiohead’s “Everything In Its Right Place,” the opener to the band’s legendary Kid A. – Emma Keates Read More

Curb Your Enthusiasm recap: Conan O’Brien steals the show

The specter of mortality has loomed large here in the twelfth season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. And why shouldn’t it? It’s the last one, and these guys are all looking discernibly older, no matter how much hair dye Jeff has tried to smear on his locks. Our dear Richard Lewis has already left us, and he continues to pop up in episodes like this one. Who knows how the rest of these guys are faring health-wise. They may soon be worn down like the cars in this episode: cursed with unshakeable odors or simply drained of battery power, so to speak. Am I paranoid now? Clinging to these familiar comedic presences, never certain that my comedy heroes aren’t out there doing their little bits and spoofs, yet all the while withering before my very eyes? – Meredith Hobbs Coons Read More

Kristen Stewart gets annoyed with Seth Meyers’ directing in a new “Day Drinking”

Tuesday’s episode of Late Night With Seth Meyers featured a new installment of “Day Drinking,” the recurring segment that may well destroy Meyers’ liver or his home life before it is retired. This time, he lamented being more hungover than guest Kristen Stewart afterwards, because he had to wake up four hours earlier than she did and walk his kids to school while they pestered him for croissants. “They can tell when I’m still a little drunk and they’re like, ‘Let’s do it whiny,’” he joked. – Mary Kate Carr Read More

Shōgun recap: “A man may go to war for many reasons, but a woman is simply at war”

If you guessed that an episode called “Ladies Of The Willow World” would primarily feature the stories of the women of Shōgun, you would be right. And they have really been through hell, man. Sure, the guys have a pretty brutal time of it, too, but at least they have agency. Even John Blackthorne, an Englishman who barely even knows Japan, has now been granted the title of hatamoto, given his own house and personal consort, command of Toranaga’s cannon artillery unit, a new position as chief admiral of the kanto, and a fief near Kanagawa with a 600 koku salary attached—not to mention a pheasant that could have been a yummy meal for him if the townspeople had just let it stink up the place so that he could age it and eat it. Command of that cannon unit, the admiral title, and that sweet, sweet land were just granted this episode, too, as Toranaga delivers an address to his remaining men following that big earthquake that killed a bunch of them. Because Anjin has saved his lord’s life a couple of times now, he keeps getting special privileges heaped upon him. (My advice: Maybe keep doing that? I’d say it’s going well for you, Blackthorne.) The ladies aren’t so lucky. – Meredith Hobbs Coons Read More

A Gentleman In Moscow review: Ewan McGregor delights as a dandy trapped in a fancy hotel

If you were waiting to hear the naturally Scottish-brogued Ewan McGregor take on a Russian accent, you’ll instantly be disappointed by A Gentleman In Moscow, the miniseries debuting March 31 on Paramount+ with Showtime. Despite its backdrop of post-revolutionary Russia, the adaptation of Amor Towles’s bestselling 2016 novel does like many other Slavic period pieces—HBO’s Chernobyl, Hulu’s The Great, Netflix’s The Last Czars—and adorns its characters with upper-crust English accents, the screen’s simplest way of signifying something is both old and fancy. When we meet him, McGregor’s Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov is not yet old, though he will age several decades over the course of eight episodes, but he is fancy—at least, he was. – Christina Izzo Read More

Palm Royale recap: Get to it already

This show is supposed to be funny, right? You don’t cast a veritable all-star team of comedic actors if you aren’t hoping to supply the laughs. And yet…I don’t find myself laughing a lot while watching Palm Royale. I am occasionally mildly amused, but I don’t think that’s what they’re going for. – Lauren Chval Read More

April 2024 TV preview: Ripley, The Sympathizer, Fallout, and 26 other shows to watch

Spring TV is in full bloom this April, with plenty of promising debuts, talent, and returning shows. Over at HBO, the Robert Downey Jr. vehicle The Sympathizer fills in for The Regime’s Sunday-night slot. Meanwhile, Prime Video gets in on the video-game-adaptation craze with its take on Fallout, and Apple TV+ drops multiple star-studded shows, from Colin Farrell’s noir Sugar to a Benjamin Franklin biopic. And let’s not forget Lily Gladstone’s first post-Oscars gig in a new Hulu true-crime series. Here is everything you need to put on your TV radar for April. – Saloni Gajjar Read More

Rosalind Chao breaks down the big twist in 3 Body Problem episode 4

[Editor’s note: This interview contains spoilers of 3 Body Problem season one.]

There’s no denying that 3 Body Problem is packed with heavy concepts about humanity and survival. Netflix’s sweeping drama, which premiered March 21, goes hard with the science in its science fiction. Yet there’s poignant character development going on here, making it easier to digest storylines about an impending alien invasion, extraterrestrials communicating via a distressing video game, a deadly cult of worshippers, and scientists who are racing against time to save everyone. – Saloni Gajjar Read More

Parish review: Giancarlo Esposito breaks bad in New Orleans

One last job. Then he’s out, to focus on the family. One can tell, because Parish, not more than a few scenes into his eponymous show (which premieres March 31 on AMC), states, “After this job I am out, focus on my family.” But of course he can’t quite help himself. Truly, he misses the times, the putting on of shades to get into character, doing parking-lot donuts with an old buddy hanging out the window and whooping in the late-night air, getting the engine revvy and punchy (he hits a heavy bag, too, for catharsis and connection and tough guy-ness), and blowing up a beater Toyota for a diversion before smoothly swiping keys to a throatily-humming Porsche Cayenne. – Todd Lazarski Read More

Robert Downey Jr., Robert Downey Jr., and Robert Downey Jr. get funky in new Sympathizer trailer

The Sympathizer, the new HBO limited series from Park Chan-Wook and Robert Downey Jr., premieres next month, and it couldn’t come at a more perfect time. Aside from Park being behind the camera for the first time since 2022’s Decision To Leave, Downey is riding high off his recent Oscar win and is apparently making a meal of being able to act again. Now that Christopher Nolan has resurrected his dwindling credibility (his words), he’s playing a host of roles for Park, including what appears to be a movie director reminiscent of a scene out of Tropic Thunder. See that? You can go home again. – Matt Schimkowitz Read More