Shogun
FX’s adaptation of James Clavell’s novel is a genuine epic and the best new show in years. In 1600s Japan an English pilot lands in a country on the edge of civil war, and the series builds a political chess…
Tag shows you should be watching
Bad Monkey
A severed arm washed up in the Keys pulls a suspended detective into a Florida noir, and Vince Vaughn finally gets the role his motormouth was built for. Carl Hiaasen’s brand of environmental crime comedy survives the adaptation fully intact,…
The Old Man
Jeff Bridges as a former CIA operative living off the grid whose past comes calling, and the chase drama is elevated by the best veteran ensemble on TV: Bridges, John Lithgow as his pursuer, and Alia Shawkat as the agent…
The Dropout
Amanda Seyfried becomes Elizabeth Holmes, blinking her way from Stanford dropout to fraudulent billionaire, and the Theranos collapse becomes a tragicomedy about ambition with nothing behind it. Naveen Andrews as Sunny Balwani matches her beat for beat in shared delusion.…
Dopesick
The opioid catastrophe told through a Virginia mining town, the sales reps who pushed OxyContin, and the regulators who let them. Michael Keaton as a country doctor prescribing his patients into addiction is devastating, and Rosario Dawson’s DEA investigator carries…
What We Do in the Shadows
Four vampires and their long suffering familiar share a house on Staten Island, and the mockumentary format turns centuries of horror into the best sitcom of its era. Matt Berry’s energy vampire is the funniest character on television, full stop,…
Justified
US Marshal Raylan Givens, played with perfect laconic cool by Timothy Olyphant, returns to his Kentucky hometown and starts aiming at his own past. Elmore Leonard’s dialogue has never been adapted better, and Walton Goggins’s Boyd Crowder is one of…
Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty
The 1980s Lakers become showtime, and Adam McKay’s production turns sports history into a neon comedy with a great John C. Reilly as Jerry Buss. Quincy Isaiah’s rookie Magic Johnson and the behind the scenes chaos of a franchise reinventing…
Industry
Young graduates claw for permanent positions at a London investment bank, and the finance drama is really a war story about ambition, drugs, and 3 AM deals. Myha’la’s Harper is one of TV’s great volatile leads, and Ken Leung’s desk…
Cross
Aldis Hodge becomes James Patterson’s Alex Cross, the detective psychologist hunting a killer with a taste for psychological warfare. Hodge brings real gravity to the character Morgan Freeman and Tyler Perry played before him, and the DC setting is used…