This is the new Golden Age of television. There are more high-quality television series on more different platforms than ever before. Ten years ago, I would have struggled to come up with a list of 22 great shows. Today, there are several that I’ve struggled with omitting from this list – and there may well be a few series that make your list that I haven’t seen.
In December, I am going to release my annual list of favorite television series – the top 22 of 2022. I’m including 15 here (I’m still pondering my final seven). These are briefer and more spoiler-free than my final reviews.
1883 (Paramount+ 2021/22): Country music icons and real-life couple Tim McGraw and Faith Hill star as James andMargaret Dutton, great grandparents to Yellowstone’s patriarch, John Dutton in this limited-series prequel. Isabel May is stunning as Elsa Dutton, their eldest daughter, who also serves as voiceover guide for much of the story. Hernarration is brilliantly written (by show creator, Taylor Sheridan), poetic, and riveting, as she goes from an innocent teen looking forward to a new adventure, to a hardened young woman seeing death everywhere, as she and her family fight to survive hardships unimagined only yesterday.
The series revolves around the Dutton family joining up with Civil-War veterans, Shea Brennan (Sam Elliot) and Thomas Hill (LaMonica Garrett), who are leading a wagon train of German immigrants through the Great Plains to Oregon. Yellowstone viewers know that the Dutton’s wound up settling in Montana, where in present day they run the largest contiguous ranch in the U.S. This series shows how their ancestors got there, what they went through along the way, and why they had to eventually change their final destination.
The acting is first-rate, the production is cinematic and exquisite, and the story is compelling. The series does not shy away from showing the brutal conditions, and the many ways travelers can die along the unforgiving trail. Yet despite all the hardships and travails over the 10-episodes, the series is surprisingly hopeful.
Designed as a limited series, there will be no second season. But the Dutton saga will continue with another Yellowstone prequel titled 1923, which will continue the family’s story at the time immediately following World War I, when they also have to deal with the Great Depression, and Prohibition.
Barry (HBO 2018- ): Bill Hader is superb as Barry Berkman, a disillusioned and depressed midwestern hitman. In season 1, Barry travels to L.A. to kill an actor who is sleeping with a mobster’s wife. He follows his target to an acting class, where he becomes drawn to this community of dedicated and hopeful (but hopelessly mediocre) students. He is particularly drawn to Sally Reed (Sarah Goldberg), one of the more talented but self-centered and dysfunctional students, whose goal of becoming a famous actress seem perpetually out of reach – although she’s one of the few students who actually gets acting work, albeit bit parts. They become romantically involved, which can’t possibly end well (or can it?). He remains there to take acting lessons from the pompous and eccentric washed-up former star, Gene Cousineau (brilliantly played by Henry Winkler). While Barry tries to pursue a more normal life, he finds that changing is not so easy, as gangsters he’s worked for and against come to town.
On paper, this high concept show shouldn’t work. On television, with these stellar performances, it somehow creates magic. Bill Hader’s ability to seamlessly moving between light comedy and dark drama, and transform Barry’s facial expressions from dead-eyed assassin, to manic excitement when he thinks up a spur-of-the-moment plan to redeem himself and get someone he’s wronged to forgive him, to quiet confidence that he can get an acting job despite having no experience, to sudden, uncontrollable anger, is a marvel to behold.
The supporting cast is wonderful, particularly Anthony Carrigan as the wacky and relentlessly positive mobster, Noho Hank, and Stephen Root as Barry’s “handler,” who assigns his targets (and doesn’t want his meal ticket to quit the business).
Season 1 shifts back and forth between Barry’s old world of hitmen and assassins and his new world of acting classes and his budding relationship with Sally. The major achievement of the first season is how they effectively balance these two worlds without the viewer or his fellow students seeing Barry as a monster. Starting with the first season’s pitch-perfect finale, the show gets significantly darker. I hesitate to even call it a comedy anymore.
Season 2 has moments of brilliance, but it couldn’t live up to the impossibly high standard set by the first season. That just means it was one of the top 20 TV shows of the year, rather than one of the top 5. The great third season is all about consequences and whether it is really possible to redeem yourself and start over. The pandemic-related hiatus resulted in viewers having to wait about three years between seasons 2 and 3. It was worth the wait. It’s been renewed for a fourth season.
Better Call Saul (AMC 2015-2022): This Breaking Bad spin-off starts out six years before the events in that series. Former con artist Jimmy McGill is a financially struggling court-appointed attorney who lives in the back room of a nail salon, which doubles as his office. The chronicles his long slide down the slippery slope that culminates with him re-inventing himself as sleazy mob lawyer, Saul Goodman. Several parallel storylines gradually converge as the series gets closer to and eventually overlaps the Breaking Bad universe. That series aired from 2008-2013, and several of its key cast members show up here. Two major Breaking Bad characters, mob fixer Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) and drug kingpin Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) are excellent, as both characters are fleshed out and given backstories. If you haven’t yet seen Breaking Bad, I suggest watching this prequel first.
Better Call Saul is every bit as great as the show that spawned it (maybe better). Bob Odenkirk’s performance is so good that viewers familiar with Breaking Bad (who know what he eventually becomes) can still be unsure of his motives and moral compass. Rhea Seehorn is equally compelling as his colleague/girlfriend, Kim, who goes back and forth between the straight-laced attorney life and the more exciting seat-of-your-pants lawyering she gets to do with Jimmy.
As Jimmy and Mike get more drawn into the criminal world and warring drug cartels, things get considerably more dangerous – they barely manage to fend off one threat after another, often escaping by the skin of their teeth.
This is one of those rare gems that gets better in each of its six seasons. The first half of the final season is available now, the second half premieres on July 11th. As with most fans, I’m wondering about Kim’s fate – since she isn’t in Breaking Bad. Both series are available on Netflix and AMC+.
Bosch: Legacy (Amazon Freevee 2022- ): Bosch aired on Prime Video for seven successful seasons from 2014-2021. This continuation series features some of its main characters. The original series consists of 68 episodes, and is well worth watching before checking out the new show. It made my list of best series of the year in each of its seven seasons. A brief recap for the uninitiated…
In the original series, Hieronymous “Harry” Bosch is a brooding, smart, tough as nails Los Angeles homicide detective, first introduced in Michael Connelly’s 1992 crime novel, The Black Echo (there were 21 subsequent Bosch books). The jazz-loving Bosch is a sea of calm in a world filled with chaos, a renegade who believes in following procedure. He’s a legend among his peers (and his superiors), a nuisance to the higher-ups who often see him as a rogue “cowboy,” and a threat to any corrupt cop or politician in his orbit.
Bosch brings humanity to a job too often filled with tragedy – he has photos on his desk of young people who fell through the system, whose killers he knows will likely never be brought to justice (until he finally catches one). Bosch’s credo is “everybody counts or nobody counts.”
Each season focuses on one main crime that Bosch and crew need to solve, along with one or two related (or not-so-related) crimes, with some threads and characters crossing multiple seasons. There are also a few side stories each season, focusing on Bosch’s family or colleagues. These side plots never slow down the season’s main storyline – a testament to the wonderful supporting actors, who are strong enough to carry the show when Bosch is off screen.
In Bosch: Legacy, Harry Bosch is a private detective (after turning in his badge), and his daughter Maddie (Madison Lintz) has joined the LAPD. As a rookie trainee, and her father’s daughter, she is already rebelling against the rules and bureaucracy she sees as impeding her sense of justice. Unlike her father, however, she does not yet have the legendary history of catching the bad guys that enabled him to successfully buck authority for so long. Her training officer, Reyna Vasquez (Denise G. Sanchez) tries to keep her in line while teaching her the ropes. Mimi Rogers’ defense lawyer, Honey Chandler, who sometimes hires Harry to work on a case for her, is the third cast member from Bosch to be a regular here. Stephen Chang is the newbie, playing Maurice “Mo” Bassi, Harry’s tech expert, who shares his love of jazz.
On paper, Bosch is the type of character you might think is just another hard-boiled detective throwback. In the hands of Titus Welliver, however, Harry Bosch is one of the most compelling and watchable characters on television. Welliver has had so many fine guest-starring and recurring TV roles over the years, it’s nice to see him in the lead. He melts into the character (as he does with virtually everything he touches). The remarkable Madison Lintz holds her own playing his daughter, who we’ve seen grow from a naïve teenager to a strong, fiercely independent woman over eight seasons of the combined series.
As with the original series, how Bosch and his allies (and now his daughter) interact while gradually unravelling the mysteries and overcoming several dangerous characters and situations along the way is what makes this series so addicting. The season does end in a cliffhanger, and I can’t wait for the second season (it was renewed before the first season premiered).
Evil (Paramount+ 2019- ): Three very different investigators work for the Catholic Church to explore whether seemingly supernatural events are miracles, demonic possessions, or have some rational, scientific explanation.
This supernatural mystery thriller is funny, creepy, dramatic, twisty, and often intense – everything you want from a supernatural mystery thriller. Shifting from CBS to Paramount+ in season 2 allowed the series to tackle darker themes and edgier subject matter that might not get approved on an ad-supported broadcast network. Once free of network restrictions, the show got even better, and was quickly renewed for a third season.
Katja Herbers gives an extraordinary performance as Dr. Kristen Bouchard, a retired forensic psychologist who is raising four daughters. Kristen is not religious and does not believe in the supernatural, but her skepticism is constantly tested as she is confronted by numerous unexplained events. She is recruited by David Acosta (Mike Colter), a priest in training, to work with him for the Catholic Church. He is a true believer. David once experienced a vision that he and the Church believe was a message from God, and he now experiments with hallucinogens to try and replicate the experience. Aasif Mandvi rounds out this investigative team as Ben Shakir, a contractor who works with David as a technical expert. He is always looking for the scientific explanation for any unusual phenomena. He was raised a Muslim, but is now even more of a skeptic than Kristen. Despite increasing evidence to the contrary, he steadfastly holds onto his belief that everything has a rational explanation.
Michael Emerson (best known for his roles in Person of Interest and Lost) is at his creepiest best as Dr. Leland Townsend, a rival forensic psychologist of Kristen’s, who is either a psychopath or demon, and the biggest threat to our heroes. He is obsessed with trying to get others to commit evil acts. In addition to constantly trying to undermine Kristen and get into her head, he despises David, constantly taunting him and trying to get him to doubt the Catholic Church and its teachings.
Christine Lahti sizzles as Kristen’s hard-living and hot-tempered mother, Sheryl, who is not nearly as gullible as she initially seems – and may have her own involvement with the supernatural.
Andrea Martin steals every scene she’s in as Sister Andrea, a nun who sometimes gives David advice. You never know when she is going to decide to help him. She sees herself and David as two of the few equipped to fight in the war against demonic forces. Her confrontations with Leland are delicious.
The first season provides enough logical explanations for seemingly supernatural occurrences, that Kristen, David, and Ben each find enough evidence (or lack thereof) to support their own world view. As the series progresses, however, all three have reasons to question what they are experiencing and seeing with their own eyes.
Season 3 is brilliant on every level (and I’ve only seen the first three episodes). You never know when an episode will shift from family comedy to horror to CBS-type procedural, to just plain bizarreness. There’s nothing like it on television.
The Flight Attendant (HBO Max 2020-2022 ): The first season opens with alcoholic flight attendant Cassandra “Cassie” Bowden (Kaley Cuoco) waking up in a Bangkok hotel, hungover with a dead man in her bed – and no memory of what happened. It turns out she had one of her many a one-night stands with a passenger, Alex Sokolov (Michael Huisman), she met on the flight, who is now lying next to her with his throat slashed. Sounds like a forgettable B-movie plot, and nothing we haven’t seen variations of many times before. But in the hands of Kaley Cuoco, who executive produced (along with Greg Berlanti), it’s much more, and sets the stage for an intriguing and thrilling mystery.
Afraid to call the police, Cassie cleans up the crime scene and joins the rest of her flight crew on the plane back to New York City. She is met there by FBI agents who question her about her layover in Bangkok. As Cassie tries to piece together what happened, she experiences flashbacks and hallucinations where she has “conversations” with the murdered Alex. She starts to remember there was a third person with her and Alex the night he was killed (one of his female business associates). For much of the season, Cassie gets into and out of danger as she investigates.
This is Kaley Cuoco’s first live-action project since she played Penny for 12 years on The Big Bang Theory, and her acting chops (which may surprise some) are on full display here. I haven’t seen the dangers and effects of alcoholism displayed in such a visually compelling fashion (without being preachy). While there are some plot holes, the show moves along so briskly that you don’t really notice. It is often genuinely thrilling. One of the best and most original series I’ve seen in years.
Season 2 is just as good, maybe better. Cassie is now (kind of) sober and an occasional CIA asset (don’t ask). On an overseas assignment she becomes entangled in another murder mystery, and discovers there is a woman impersonating her and implicating her in various crimes, including murder. The intrigue takes her from Los Angeles to Berlin, to Reykjavik as a far-reaching conspiracy unfolds.
When confronted by particularly stressful or dangerous situations, we are taken to what Kaley Cuoco calls Cassie’s “mind palace,” where she hallucinates past (and one future) versions of herself, all giving her conflicting advice on how to proceed. It’s an expansion of the visions and conversations she has of the murder victim in the first season. It’s a uniquely fascinating way to show how her past experiences influence her current actions (and how she sometimes overcomes them).
The supporting cast is excellent, most notably, Zosia Mamet as Annie Mouradian, a lawyer and Cassie’s best friend, who helps her as best she can, Rosie Perez as Megan Briscoe, Cassie’s friend and team flight lead (who has secrets of her own), Deniz Akdeniz as Max, Annie’s boyfriend and a hacker who helps Cassie, and T.R. Knight as Davey, Cassie’s older brother, with whom she has a complicated relationship.
Despite being designed as a limited series, its popularity led to a second season. There are no current plans for a third, but you never know.
For All Mankind (Apple TV+ 2019- ): Created by sci-fi icon Ronald D. Moore (best known for his work on Star Trek and the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica), Matt Wolpert, and Ben Nedivi, this alternate history drama delves into what might happen if the Soviet Union landed on the moon before the United States, and the space race never ended. NASA doubles down on its efforts to catch up. When the Soviet Union subsequently lands the first woman on the moon, the U.S. is forced to match them, training women and minorities (who were generally excluded in our history from the first few decades space exploration). The competition between the two superpowers leads to numerous scientific breakthroughs, as both nations ramp up their spending, and establish research bases on the moon.
The alt-history events and how they happen are intriguing. The series portrays the high-risk lives of astronauts and their families in such a way that everything seems believable, and you care about what happens to them. Entertaining and thought provoking, and since it is an alternate history, the viewer has no idea what’s going to happen next. The razor-thin line between success and catastrophe is palpable as the race to control space escalates. This is one of the best shows on television.
Women in the role of high-profile astronauts in the early 1970s, causes the country to acknowledge women can do anything men can do way before it happens in our history, which leads to the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). There are numerous other historical timeline differences, many of which are illustrated through newspaper and TV news headline montages shown before each episode begins.
Each season jumps a decade or so into the future, with the third season taking place in the early-to-mid 1990s, as humankind races to Mars. But this time, NASA and the Soviets have a third competitor, a private company called Helios and its billionaire founder.
The excellent cast includes:
Joel Kinnaman is Ed Baldwin, one of NASA’a top astronauts, who commanded the fictional versions of Apollo 10 and 15. He has mentored several other astronauts who wind up leading key missions to space. His family’s story, which includes success and tragedy, is central to the series.
Shantel VanSanten is Ed’s wife, Karen Baldwin. She manages The Outpost restaurant in Houston, a main watering hole for astronauts. She eventually heads up the first space hotel.
Michael Dorman is Gordon “Gordo” Stevens, Ed Baldwin’s best friend and fellow astronaut. He’s had a troubled life and a major mishap on the Moon. He returns to the moon 10 years later, and puts his life on the line to prevent a nuclear meltdown after the Soviets attack their base.
Sarah Jones is Tracy Stevens, Gordo’s wife, and one of the first astronauts selected for the Apollo program. When a mishap occurs during the Apollo 25 mission, Tracy saves her commander’s life, becoming a hero and the new face of the space program. She helps Gordo prevent disaster when the Soviets attack their moon base. Whether they survive, you’ll have to see for yourself.
Jodi Balfour is Ellen Wilson, one of the first female astronaut candidates. She has gone from a space pioneer to a leader on Earth, first as NASA’a chief administrator, then as a Senator who runs for President against Bill Clinton. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, she has had to hide her sexual identity to further her career. When suspicions arise that she might be gay, which could ruin her career, she marries her good friend and NASA engineer Larry Wilson (Nate Corddry ), who is also hiding the fact that he is gay.
Sonya Wagner is Molly Cobb, the first American woman on the moon. She commands the fictional Apollo 21 and 24 missions, and then becomes head of NASA’s astronaut office, where she assigns other astronauts to various missions.
Krys Marshall is Danielle Poole, another of the first female astronaut recruits, who becomes the first Black astronaut to go into space and land on the moon. She is eventually chosen to command the first U.S. flight to Mars.
Wren Schmidt is Margo Madison, who starts out as a NASA engineer and gets promoted to lead administrator.
The first three episodes of season 3 are available now, with a new episode dropping every week. No word yet on a fourth season, but it seems likely.
Hacks (HBO Max 2021- ): Comedy-drama starring Jean Smart as Deborah Vance, a legendary comic trying to maintain her dignity while treading water at her lucrative but stale Las Vegas casino theater residency. Hannah Einbinder plays Ava Daniels, an up-and-coming 25-year-old bi-sexual television comedy writer, who is suddenly an industry outcast due to a nasty social-media joke she posted about a right-wing Senator and his gay son. Ava is forced on Deborah by their mutual agent (Paul W. Downs) to help modernize her material. Their vastly different comedy styles and perspectives immediately clash.
Jean Smart is masterful as the manipulative Deborah Vance, a long-time star whose residency dates at the casino (in season 1) are in danger of being reduced to make way for younger, more contemporary talent. She’s used to getting her own way and is set in her beliefs about what makes good comedy. She initially has no interest in collaborating with the young writer, Ava Daniels (Einbinder), who has substantially different comedic sensibilities. Ava needs a job, but has no interest punching up the material of a past-her-prime stand-up.
The writing is superb, as both Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder brilliantly bring these characters to life. The generational back-and-forth pulls no punches, but also takes no sides, which is both uncommon and refreshing. It would have been too easy to simply make Deborah seem old-fashioned, outdated, and foolish. Baby Boomers and their parents might recognize shades of groundbreaking female comedians Phyllis Diller and Joan Rivers in Deborah, but Jean Smart is so good that she stands on her own as a fresh character.
This odd couple has a love-hate relationship throughout most of the first season, but eventually each realizes how incredibly talented the other is, and how well they complement one another.
After her final Las Vegas show, Deborah decides to go on tour, taking Ava along to help punch up her new material. The tour takes up the entire second season, as Deborah comes to terms with some of the bad things she’s done in the past to get ahead. As several of her tour dates bomb, she tries to figure out how much of her personal baggage to include in her act. She eventually decides to self-fund a streaming comeback comedy special. Meanwhile, Ava is dealing with her own baggage, from her focus on nothing but her professional life, to her choice of sexual partners. She’s also starting to realize that she is more like Deborah than she cares to admit.
Hacks has been renewed for a third season.
Killing Eve (BBCA/AMC 2018-2022): Sandra Oh has justifiably received acclaim and awards for her brilliant turn as the title character, Eve Polastri, an ambitious and insightful mid-level MI5 security officer. But Jodie Comer (who also won an Emmy for her performance) is every bit her equal as the mercurial and brutal international female assassin, Villanelle, with whom she plays a dangerous game of cat and mouse through four thrilling seasons.
Eve is recruited by a secret intelligence division within MI6 on an off-the-books basis, to help track down Villanelle and the secret organization that employs her (known as The Twelve). Fiona Shaw is excellent as Carolyn Martens, head of the Russia section of MI6 (and Eve’s sometimes boss), whose real agenda remains a mystery. Kim Bodnia is dangerously humorous as Konstantin, Villanelle’s handler, who trained her to become an assassin. Carolyn and Konstantin share a mysterious past.
In season 1, Eve is tasked with hunting down the sociopathic Villanelle. As they become obsessed with one another (admiration, fear, love?), a fierce game of cat and mouse ensues. Men are the peripheral characters here, and most of the victims.
Season 2 picks up immediately following the shocking season 1 finale. The chase and head games between the two adversaries continue for another eight addicting episodes. The second season lacked some of the magic of the first, no doubt because the great Phoebe Waller-Bridge was no longer the head writer, and there were a few extra (and unnecessary) storylines, as Eve and Villanelle become even more obsessed with and attracted to one another. But it was still better than almost anything else on TV.
Season 3, with its third consecutive female showrunner, amps up the stakes as both Eve and Villanelle start to question their career paths and come to terms with how they feel and why they are drawn to one another. And, of course, more bodies drop in Villanelle’s wake, as she comes up with ever more innovative ways to dispense with her targets.
Each of the first three seasons has an almost perfect ending setting up the next installment. In the fourth and final season, both Eve and Villanelle are trying to convince themselves and one other that they have changed – until they each realize neither really wants to. As they each go on their separate missions of revenge against members of The Twelve, they may actually be on the same side. Virtually every scene involving both Eve and Villanelle is riveting. You never know what’s going to happen next. Things come to a head in their conflict, as one of Konstantin’s newly minted assassins (Anjana Vasan) joins the fray. The show’s controversial finale delivers a brilliant and exciting end to a brilliant and exciting series.
Ozark (Netflix 2017-2022 ): In his best and most nuanced performance, Jason Bateman is Marty Byrde, a brilliant Chicago financial advisor whose partner is killed (in the first episode) after stealing money from a drug lord client (Esai Morales). To avoid a similar fate, Marty is forced to move to a summer resort community in the Missouri Ozarks with his wife Wendy (Laura Linney), and their two teenage kids, to launder money for a Mexican drug cartel. When they get there they also have to deal with some local gangsters and corrupt politicians. Quirky and gritty, with dangerous characters and situations everywhere. An unusual but very effective mix of humor and violence (which is often sudden and jarring).
Multiple Emmy winner Julia Garner is a revelation as Ruth, a tough-as-nails young woman who lives in a trailer with her dysfunctional and often violent family. Her cousin Wyatt (Charlie Tahan) is her lone friend and link to sanity. After initially clashing with Marty, she winds up working for him until they have a falling out – their evolving relationship is one of the show’s driving forces.
Season 3 reaches several boiling points (and new heights), as Marty and Wendy clash with one another, with Ruth, and with local mobsters, while trying to stay one step ahead of the FBI – all while continuing a dangerous alliance with the Mexican drug cartel leader (Felix Solis), who is involved in his own war with a rival drug gang. Tom Pelphrey is Wendy’s brother Ben, whose bipolar disorder and reckless behavior threatens to put the family in peril. How Wendy decides to deal with him has major ramifications going forward. There’s also the potential threat from the cartel’s sinister attorney (the always excellent Janet McTeer), who doesn’t trust the Byrdes, and wants the cartel to eliminate them. Protecting their family has become more complicated than ever.
Over the course of four seasons, as Marty and Wendy descend further into criminality, Laura Linney’s gradual shift from reluctant tag-along wife to political mastermind and ruthless take-charge protector of her family is chilling (and compelling to watch). Their daughter Charlotte (Sofia Hublitz) is excellent as she evolves from frightened teenager to being all in with the family’s criminal enterprise. Their son Jonah (Skylar Gaertner) goes from an innocent 10-year-old to a 14-year old computer whiz and money launderer. Of all the characters, only Jason Bateman’s Marty Byrde seems to not dramatically change his demeanor or motivation as the show progresses (until the final few episodes). His veneer of calm in light of the increasing danger surrounding his family, is one of the more interesting aspects of the series.
The fourth and final season dropped in two seven-episode segments in 2022. The violence quotient continues unabated and the tension level reaches new heights as Ruth seeks revenge against the cartel leader’s hotheaded nephew (Alfonso Herrera) for an attack on her family, and the Byrdes devise a dangerous plan to finally free themselves from the clutches of the drug cartel (and the FBI). The final resolution and fates of the main characters are sure to satisfy some, while infuriating others.
Peaky Blinders (Netflix 2013-2022): After World War I, returning soldiers, revolutionaries, and criminal gangs are struggling to survive in a 1919 Britain rocked by economic upheaval and shifting social mores. Returning war hero, Thomas Shelby (Cillian Murphy) is the cunning, charismatic, and ambitious young leader of one of the more powerful gangs of the time, the Peaky Blinders, which he runs with his family. They are so named because of the razor blades sewn into the peaks of the newsboy caps they wear, and are loosely based on a real urban street gang of the time.
The series is stylish, suspenseful, moody, beautifully shot, and filled with superb actors. It contains many of the family dynamics of great gangster dramas, while at the same time redefining the genre. There’s family loyalty and betrayal, rising up from poverty to build a criminal empire, trying to legitimize the family business, brutally violent gangs both at home and abroad, the start and end of prohibition, shifting alliances, and the evolution of Thomas Shelby into a triumphant but ultimately tragic figure. And it has perhaps the coolest theme song of all time (Red Right Hand, sung by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds), which is pitch perfect for the show.
Peaky Blinders has a remarkable large ensemble cast of regular and recurring characters, some of whom cross multiple seasons. The series has won multiple international awards for acting, directing, music, various craft and production elements, and for the show itself.
The Shelby family includes: Helen McCrory as Thomas Shelby’s aunt, Elizabeth “Polly” Gray, the tough and clever heart of the family (seasons 1-5); Paul Anderson as Thomas’s unstable and violent older brother and best friend, Arthur Shelby; Sophie Rundle as the only female sibling, Ada – smart and tough, she eventually helps Thomas Shelby run his business; Finn Cole as Helen’s son and Thomas’s younger cousin Michael Gray, who starts out being Thomas’s protégé but eventually tries to take over the business; Annabelle Wallis as Grace Shelby, Thomas’s girlfriend, a former undercover agent who becomes his first wife and mother of his son, Charles (seasons 1-3, 5); Natasha O’Keefe as Lizzie Shelby, an ex-prostitute and Thomas’s secretary, who eventually becomes his second wife and mother of his daughter, Ruby; Kate Phillips as Linda Shelby, Arthur’s wife and a devout Christian; Ana Taylor-Joy as Gina Gray (seasons 5-6), Michael Gray’s American wife, whose uncle is a pro-fascist south Boston gang leader and powerful businessman, Jack Nelson (James Frecheville), and Joe Cole as John Shelby, the youngest Shelby brother (seasons 1-4).
A barely recognizable Tom Hardy has a great turn as Jewish gang leader Alfie Solomons, who is Thomas Shelby’s sometime ally and sometime adversary. Packy Lee is Johnny Dogs, Tommy’s gypsy friend (seasons 3-6). Sam Neil is Chief Inspector Chester Campbell, one of the Shelby’s main adversaries during the first couple of seasons. Aiden Gillen is Aberama Gold, a gypsy assassin who becomes a Shelby ally and Polly’s lover (seasons 4-5). Adrian Brody is New York mafioso, Luca Changretta (season 4), who has a vendetta against the Peaky Blinders and tries to kill them all (with a team of assassins he brings over from the U.S.). Sam Claflin is Oswald Mosley, a Fascist British politician who becomes the Shelby’s fiercest adversary in seasons 5 and 6. Amber Anderson is Mosley’s wife, Lady Diana Milford (season 6), a British aristocrat and Fascist socialite.
The sixth and final season, which consists of just six episodes, was delayed because of the pandemic. Unfortunately, during that time, Helen McCrory passed away from cancer. If not for the production delay, she would have had a central role in the final season, which had to be rewritten following her passing. In the tense and exciting series finale, Thomas Shelby resolves much of his unfinished business. Although the sixth season was its last, a Peaky Blinders movie is reportedly in the works, and there’s talk of a potential spin-off series.
Severance (Apple TV+ 2022- ): Work-life balance comes to the forefront in this mystery thriller from Ben Stiller. Office workers voluntarily undergo a procedure known as “severance,” which surgically divides their memories between their work and home lives. When they are in the office, they do not recall anything about their personal lives, friends, or families. When they leave the office, they remember nothing about their jobs or co-workers. The elevator ride into and out of the office erases their memories. Their work selves are referred to as “Innies’” and their outside selves as “Outies.” There is extremely tight security and full body scans upon entering the building’s elevator to prevent either version of an employee from trying to smuggle any type of communication to their other self.
While the Innies and Outies are technically the same people, only the Outies have any life experience. The Innies only exist at work, and are essentially placed into a world where they have no past and no knowledge of anything or anyone beyond the few co-workers with whom they share a windowless fluorescent-lit office space, and their controlling bosses who dole out rewards if they meet production quotas and punishments if they break the rules. Once they leave the office they have no memory of going home or going to sleep. Their experience is leaving the office and immediately returning to the office (and somehow feeling refreshed if their outies had a good night’s sleep).
Would employees be content with this situation or would they find it a torturous existence?
The series follows Mark Scout (a pitch-perfect Adam Scott), an employee at the mysterious Lumon industries, who was recently promoted to lead a team in the Macrodata Refinement division on the “severed” floor (in the basement of the building). He was elevated to the position after the previous team leader and his best friend (at work), Petey (Yul Vaquez), was fired under mysterious circumstances. Petey’s replacement, Helly (the excellent Britt Lower), quickly decides she doesn’t want to work there, but since her Outie does (and she has no idea why) there’s no escape. The rest of Mark’s team are Irving (the always terrific John Turturro), who is a stickler for company policy, and Dylan (Zach Cherry), a follower, who enjoys the bizarre company perks employees receive for achieving certain goals (such as waffle parties or five-minute music/dance breaks).
On the outside, the severance procedure is controversial, with many people protesting it as unethical. Mark’s Outie is grieving the death of his wife, and as his pregnant sister (Jen Tullock) tells him, “forgetting for eight hours a day is not the same as healing.” At work, with no recollection of his outside life, Mark is relatively content, although he misses Petey and is constantly trying to deal with Helly and prevent her from being punished for breaking the rules and trying to escape. But one day, in his outside life, a man he doesn’t recognize approaches him and says he is his co-worker Petey, and has managed, with help from a secret organization, to reverse the severance procedure (something which is supposed to be impossible). He goes on to tell him that Lumon industries is an evil company, but won’t say exactly what they do – he fears the company is searching for him and his life is in danger. This sets up everything that follows.
It’s hard to explain why I like this show so much, and I certainly understand why it might not be everyone’s cup of tea. I’ve never seen a series where so little actually happens in each episode (except for the unbelievably tense season finale) that is nevertheless so compelling and endlessly interesting – much of which is due to the stellar cast.
Patricia Arquette is chilling as Harmony Cobel, Mark’s boss at Lumin, who is also his next door neighbor, Mrs. Selvig, on the outside. Although she takes on two separate identities, we soon realize she is not severed, and is actually keeping tabs on Mark. Christopher Walken plays another of his many quirky characters as Burt, the severed chief of the mysterious Optics and Design division, who has a mutual attraction to John Turturro’s Irving (one of the more interesting relationships on television). Tramell Tillman is excellent as Mr. Milchick, the constantly smiling supervisor of the severed floor, who also doles out employee rewards and punishments. Dichen Lachman is a find as the seemingly robotic Mrs. Casey, a Luman wellness counselor on the severed floor.
The season finale has some major reveals and a bold cliffhanger (considering it was filmed before the show was officially renewed for a second season). The last five minutes might be the most thrilling moments of television this year. There’s nothing else like this on television – a truly original and brilliant series.
Slow Horses (Apple TV+ 2022- ): Based on Mick Herron’s 2010 novel of the same name. British MI5 agents who screw up in a variety of ways, are exiled to Slough House, an administrative purgatory, where drudgery and paperwork are the tasks of the day. Known derisively as “slow horses,” these outcasts report to the notorious Jackson Lamb (played with relish by Gary Oldman). Seemingly past his prime, slovenly, borderline alcoholic, and contemptuous of those he is forced to oversee, Lamb’s acerbic and obnoxious demeanor belies the keen mind of a legendary intelligence officer.
The newest member of Slough House, River Cartwright (Jack Lowden), is an up-and-coming MI5 agent who was set up to very publicly fail during a training exercise. He joins a motley crew of agents who were deposited there because of either embarrassing failures or bad luck. When properly motivated (which they seldom are), they are a surprisingly talented bunch.
They excellent cast includes, Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves), Slough House’s administrator, a recovering alcoholic, Sid Baker (Olivia Cooke), a competent agent inexplicably assigned to Slough House, Min Harper (Dustin Demri-Burns), assigned here because he accidentally left a top-secret disk on a train, Louisa Guy (Rosalind Eleazar), who wound up here after an operation went badly, Struan Loy (Paul Higgins), assigned to Slough House after sending an inappropriate work email, and Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung), a brilliant computer expert and hacker, apparently assigned to Slough House because he’s so obnoxious no one else wants to work with him.
When MI5’s Deputy Director-General Diana Taverner (a perfectly cast Kristen Scott Thomas) tries to blame Slough House for a failed MI5 false-flag operation that results in potential disaster, the slow horses spring (or trot) into action in an effort to uncover the truth and save themselves in the process.
Part taut conspiracy thriller, part workplace comedy, the sharp writing and Gary Oldman’s terrific performance make Slow Horses completely enjoyable and entertaining. It’s been renewed for a third and fourth season.
Succession (HBO 2018- ): One of the buzziest shows in the past few seasons, this satirical drama is that rare series that actually lives up to the hype. When Logan Roy (Brian Cox), an aging Rupert Murdoch-style media tycoon has a stroke, his four adult children (Jeremy Strong, Kieran Culkin, Alan Ruck, Sarah Snook) start jockeying for control of the family’s international media and entertainment empire. When he recovers and lets them know he has no intention of stepping down anytime soon, all types of power plays, backstabbing schemes, and elaborate infighting ensue, as ambitions collide with family loyalties.
One might think a series about unlikeable and privileged one-percenters (actually 0.001 percenters) is not the recipe for broad success, but the sharp writing, fierce acting, and effortless shifts between comedy, tragedy, and family drama, make this compelling and entertaining viewing.
While owing something to the Dallas and Dynasty type soaps of the 1980s, the key differences become obvious from the start. Viewers might have felt that with the right breaks they could become akin to the Ewings or Carringtons, and might even behave as J.R. and his clan did if they amassed similar wealth. In some ways these shows could be considered aspirational. But Succession is different. You will never accumulate this type of wealth unless you inherit it, and nobody on this show acts the way you might if you suddenly became rich. They live in their own little insulated bubble universe, with no sense of community with the real world. They have little concern over what content goes out on their news network, and no sense of obligation to the public – as long as it makes them money. They have no concern about any consequences for their crimes or subsequent cover-ups – they can always find a patsy to take the fall. They are so out of touch with the real world, that they have little concern about supporting a neo-Nazi for president and having their picture taken with him – whomever Logan Roy and his network support will be the presumptive Republican front-runner.
The opening credits sequence (the images change slightly each season) and award-wining original theme music might be the most fascinating 90 seconds of television on the air. The video sequence intersperses images of the New York City skyline with home-video footage of the Roy family. The patriarch (Logan Roy) is shown mostly from behind as he observes (and directs?) his privileged, isolated, and largely unhappy children growing into screwed up adults.
In season 1, we are introduced to the powerful, wealthy, and dysfunctional Roy family.
- Logan Roy (Brian Cox) is the billionaire founder of Waystar RoyCo. a giant media and entertainment conglomerate. He has four children from two of his three previous marriages He is ruthless and misogynistic, and treats his family as nothing more than pawns on a chess board. His ex-wife says of him, “Logan enjoys kicking the things he loves just to see if they’ll come back to him.”
- Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) is Logan’s second son (the first from his second marriage). He is presumed to be Logan’s successor. Through his own and everyone else’s doubts, he struggles to prove he is worthy, while battling substance abuse. At the end of season 2, he makes a stunning move that throws everything and everyone for a giant loop, thrusts the company into chaos, draws new battle lines, and sets the stage for the confrontations to come in season 3.
- Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin) is Logan’s middle son from his second marriage. He is immature and does not take his responsibilities seriously, but he’s street-smart and has people skills. Despite all evidence to the contrary, he continues to think his father believes in him.
- Siobhan “Shiv” Roy (Sarah Snook) is Logan’s youngest child and only daughter from his second marriage. She was a left-leaning political fixer, whose views clash with the conservative Waystar media company, but she comes back to work for her father when he dangles the CEO position (which she desperately wants but never gets). She thinks she is much more qualified to run the company than her brothers, but Logan, who has a general disdain for women, keeps shutting her out of major decisions.
- Connor Roy (Alan Ruck) is Logan’s eldest son from his first marriage. He wants more involvement in the family business, but he is not seen by the others as particularly qualified for anything, and has been shunted aside. In season 2 he announces he plans to run for President of the United States.
- Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) is Shiv’s fiancé and later her husband, and one of the most put upon characters in the show. He’s a Waystar executive who was promoted from their amusement park and scandal-ridden cruise division to head of the company’s global news outlet. He is a people-pleaser and vies for more power, but is thought of as an outsider by the family’s inner circle. Shiv has been casually cruel and dismissive toward him for virtually the entire series, oblivious to how it might be affecting him. He appears to have made a surprise move in the season 3 finale that stuns Shiv and promises even more fireworks in season 4.
- Nicholas Braun (Greg Hirsch) is Logan’s bumbling but opportunistic great nephew – the grandson of Logan’s estranged brother, Ewan Roy (James Cromwell). He is manipulated by some members of the family, particularly Tom, until he starts to wise up.
The first season starts out slowly, but builds into something great as the season progresses. Season 2 is near perfection, with strong guest starring roles for Cherry Jones and Holly Hunter. The surprise ending sets the stage for everything that happens in season 3, which sees Kendall Roy face off with his father, an uphill battle to be sure, as the viewer wonders if any of his siblings will eventually join him. But as Tom says to him when he tries to get him to switch sides, “…my hunch is you’re going to get fucked, because I’ve seen you get fucked a lot and I’ve never seen Logan get fucked once.”
In the season 3 finale, Logan makes a move that threatens the future financial security of all his children, as Shiv and Roman seek Kendall’s help to try and stop him. This episode is a true acting masterpiece – it expertly builds tension, reveals what people are thinking based solely on their body language, and ends with a boom. Season 4 should be a blast.
Tehran (Apple TV+ 2020- ): Israeli spy thriller about a young Jewish Mossad agent, Tamar Rabinyan (Niv Sultan) on her first field mission in Iran’s capital – she was born in Iran, but moved to Israel when she was a child. She’s an expert computer hacker, whose undercover mission in Tehran is to help disable a nuclear reactor. The plan is to neutralize Iranian air defenses so that the Israeli Air Force can bomb a nuclear plant to prevent Iran from developing an atomic bomb.
Every episode is fraught with tension and anxiety as Tamar is exposed and goes into hiding, and is hunted by Faraz Kamali (Shaun Toub), lead investigator of Iran’s feared Revolutionary Guards. Glenn Close joined the cast in season 2 as one of Tamar’s key allies.
This is one of those rare series that attempts to show the humanity of both sides – and also the ruthless disregard for the collateral damage to innocent life in the pursuit of what each side sees as its righteous cause. No one on either side is safe. Captivating, intense, and exhilarating.
The show received an award for best drama series at the 2021 International Emmy Awards. No word yet on whether it will be renewed for a third season, but I hope so.