The Apple TV+ series For All Mankind is an alternate history story in which the Soviet Union beats the United States to the moon, leading to a greatly intensified space race. Screenwriter Rafael Jordan was excited to see another science fiction show from Ronald D. Moore, creator of the hit series Battlestar Galactica.
“I’ve been saying for two or three years that this is probably the best show on TV, and it’s not the first time we’ve said that about a Ron Moore show,” Jordan says in Episode 556 of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast.
Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy host David Barr Kirtley thinks that For All Mankind will appeal to a wider audience than most outer space shows, since its first season revolves around the familiar and relatable world of the Apollo program. “It starts off with this fairly realistic world of the ’70s, so if you’re someone who’s put off by super science fiction stuff, it kind of eases you into it,” he says. “And then by the time you’re hooked, then the fusion reactors and all that kind of stuff starts coming in.”
For All Mankind also features top-notch dialogue and characterization. Writer Sara Lynn Michener thinks the show will appeal to anyone who likes the knotty domestic drama of shows like Mad Men. “Very few characters, if any, ever feel like they’re just there to provide filler and there to provide something else for the main characters,” she says. “Every time you think that you’re going to write them off as some sort of caricature, you’re wrong, and they’re going to come back around and be real again in a new way, in a refreshing way, and I absolutely love that about this show.”
For All Mankind is currently airing its fourth season, out of a planned seven. Lightspeed magazine editor John Joseph Adams hopes the show becomes one of the rare science fiction series to last that long. “I think this is one of the best science fiction shows probably ever, certainly the best alternate history show,” he says. “Everybody watch it and get your friends to watch it, because we’ve got to get those seven seasons.”
Listen to the complete interview with Rafael Jordan, Sara Lynn Michener, and John Joseph Adams in Episode 556 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (above). And check out some highlights from the discussion below.
Rafael Jordan on alternate history:
For once my background as a musician ties into this, and there’s really nothing they can do about this, but as the timelines start to diverge from reality, they use a lot of specific songs from certain years to create the mood. And I dig that, but also those songs wouldn’t exist any more. They would be different. “Come As You Are” by Nirvana. That song wouldn’t exist in this new timeline. It would be slightly different, because music is a reflection of the times and culture. … In the perfect version of this show they would have had the extra money to hire bands to make fake songs in the style of the times.
John Joseph Adams on the Season 2 finale:
What they figure out is that they can basically cover every inch of them with duct tape. So they basically make spacesuits out of duct tape, because that’s what they have, and they have some kind of face masks that they can put on them. And they explain in excruciating detail, “Any bit of your skin that’s exposed is just going to balloon.” It sounds completely awful, and you can see the angst on their faces as it’s explained what’s going to happen to them. And they have 15 seconds to get from where they are to this control panel on the outside, and it’s so intense. It’s just incredible.
David Barr Kirtley on astronaut Garrett Reisman:
Ron Moore calls [Garrett Reisman] and says, “I have an idea I’d like to bounce off you.” So they meet up, and Ron Moore says, “I’m thinking about doing a show about NASA in the ’70s, or maybe make it an alternate history thing, where we start off that way but then it diverges from actual history. One or the other.” And Garrett Reisman says, “Well, when I was in Russia I saw their lander”—their lunar lander that they built that they never used. And he’s like, “Most people don’t realize how close the Russians actually came to beating us to the moon.” And so they started talking about, “Whoa, what if that had happened? Then this would have happened, and this would have happened.” So that’s where the show’s origin was.
Sara Lynn Michener on Apple TV+:
I remember being very worried when this show came out, because I was literally pleading with people to watch it. Because I desperately wanted it to have all of the seasons, and I had read somewhere that they have a whole planned seven-season arc. And I want to see every bit of it. So I remember when it came out I was just like, “Why am I the only person talking about this show?” … I think Apple TV+ is smart enough to look at the long game and say, “Hey, if we finish this show, we can keep making money off of it in perpetuity,” and that is such a smarter way of doing stuff like this, because they’re aware shows go through ebbs and flows of popularity.
E3 is finished, for good this time. The Entertainment Software Association confirmed today that the event will not be happening in 2024 or any time thereafter, bringing 28 years of the video game industry’s most prolific trade event to a sudden, unceremonious end.
E3’s demise isn’t wholly unexpected. The annual event, a three-day pageant (with press conferences leading up to its showfloor opening a day or two before), was once the pinnacle of showcases for companies’ forthcoming titles and consoles. As platforms like Twitch grew more popular, however, gamemakers and publishers no longer needed to rely on a trade show to make a splash. With the show’s poor attendance at what would be its final in-person event in 2019, and the ESA’s troubles with reviving the show post-pandemic, the writing has been on the wall. In April, following news that the ESA was again canceling the summer event, the reason was obvious: Streaming killed E3.
“Thanks to streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube, companies now have the power to deliver news to consumers in-person and online simultaneously, without the need for public relation firms or journalists,” I wrote at the time. “Nintendo, for example, has perfected this with Nintendo Direct, its series of hyped and tightly controlled prerecorded marketing events. Similarly, [The Game Awards creator Geoff] Keighley’s [Summer Game Fest], built during a time when no one could safely gather, is envisioned as a digital-savvy event that can run without the need for a physical presence. Between game companies creating their own events and Keighley’s growing chokehold on the streaming space, thanks to the popularity of The Game Awards, E3 is largely redundant.”
ESA president and CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis said as much in his comments to The Washington Post announcing the end of the event, adding that although fans were invited to attend in E3’s sunset years, it was more of a business and marketing confab. Companies, he said, now “have access to consumers and to business relations through a variety of means, including their own individual showcases.”
The gaming world just doesn’t need E3 the way it used to. The Game Awards and Summer Game Fest are now associated with big announcements and trailer reveals. E3 hasn’t been relevant in nearly five years.
I started covering the video game industry in 2012 and attended my first E3 the following year. At the time, E3 was the pinnacle of gaming events—an all-hands-on-deck affair where videogame journalists routinely filed several stories per day while running from big-hype promo events to big-hype meetings with game companies. (During my first year, I filmed a video wrap-up with a 101-degree fever I’d developed by the week’s end.) Gamers expected such coverage, and they read it devoutly.
Following two years of preproduction, game developer 10 Chambers finally announced its new heist game—Den of Wolves—Thursday during the 2023 Game Awards. Set in 2097 in a highly corrupt city located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, it is, according to narrative director Simon Viklund, the kind of game “where you’re supposed to feel like a badass.” For Viklund, who also serves as the game’s composer (he did the compositions for PayDay: The Heist and PayDay 2, too), that means “the music needs to, like, [grunt noise].”
True to its name, Den of Wolves’ fictional city is a place where basically anything is legal as long as it is done in the pursuit of supercharged innovation and groundbreaking technology. Imagine PayDay meets Cyberpunk 2077 set in a metropolis that’s a mixture of Venice and Hong Kong. The concept is quite different from 10 Chambers’ previous work with horror game GTFO, but it structurally plays to the studio’s core strength: four person co-op games.
A lot is on the line as the studio works on its second release. 10 Chambers received an investment from Chinese tech and entertainment conglomerate Tencent to build this game and expand from a small staff of around 10 people to nearly 100. Viklund emphasizes that the game will have a highly detailed environment but that gamers should not expect an open-world experience. The overall vibe, Viklund adds, pulls from a litany of sci-fi and thriller movies, like Heat and Judge Dredd (the Stallone one, not the 2012 reboot).
While he enjoyed working on horror game music for GTFO, Viklund is excited to move away from that genre and back to a PayDay-esque heist experience. “My wheelhouse is this power fantasy type of music,” he says. Never played that franchise before? Give “Razormind” from PayDay 2 a listen any morning you forget your coffee at home and need a quick jolt of adrenaline.
So, what can players expect from the music in Den of Wolves? “So, there’s going to be elements, of course, that are similar to PayDay,” says Viklund. “But I’m keen on taking it somewhere else in terms of tempo. Making it heavier, slower paced.” He also looks forward to incorporating different elements of percussion inspired by the Pacific Ocean setting.
Since the game is still in early development and won’t be released for a while, WIRED did not see any actual game footage during a recent preview event 10 Chambers held for the title. Similar to the launch of GTFO, the company plans to release the game at first to players through Steam early access. Den of Wolves doesn’t have a release date yet, but PC gamers can anticipate receiving it before their console counterparts.
Fans of GTFO may be disappointed that their game’s content updates are ending, but Viklund points to 10 Chambers’ first game as critical for building the company’s confidence around design. “It was very freeing to be able to have a project where we could have that ‘fuck it—we’ll just do it’ sort of attitude,” he says. This type of confidence is a driving force behind 10 Chambers’ decision to develop something fresh for players rather than relying on a franchise concept that already exists.
The first trailer for Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto VI has arrived, and it’s promising a new female protagonist. More of a teaser than anything, the trailer introduces viewers to Lucia, a woman who blames her incarceration on “bad luck, I guess.”
To say Grand Theft Auto VI is hotly anticipated is an understatement. Rockstar’s last car larceny game dropped more than 10 years ago, and despite a circus of speculation and some leaks in 2022, fans have seen almost nothing official from the franchise.
Today’s trailer doesn’t offer much in the way of details. A series of flashing scenes set to Tom Petty’s “Love is a Long Road” feature beaches, late-night parties, and a lot of butts, as Lucia plans a robbery with a partner. It’s the first time Grand Theft Auto has included a female antihero, and it appears players will be returning to Vice City.
Rockstar says GTAVI will be the “biggest, most immersive evolution” of the series yet.
The game is currently set for release in 2025 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. A Bloomberg report from 2022 suggested that the game would feature a Bonnie and Clyde-esque duo in a fictionalized version of Miami.
Rockstar released the trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI, which it had been teasing for Tuesday, December 5, a day earlier than expected after it leaked. “Please watch the real thing on YouTube,” the developer tweeted. A video briefly surfaced on TikTok with what appeared to include debug footage of the game. It was quickly taken down.
It’s not the first time Rockstar has dealt with GTA VI leaks. Last year, a hacker released a huge trove of data from the game, including 90 videos of unfinished development.
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While Netflix seemingly led the way for other streaming networks to create compelling original programming, Hulu actually beat them all to the punch. In 2011, a year before Netflix’s Lilyhammer and two years before the arrival of House of Cards, the burgeoning streamer premiered The Morning After, a pop-culture-focused news show that ran for 800 episodes over three years, plus A Day in the Life, a docuseries from Oscar-winner Morgan Spurlock.
Hulu has continued to make TV history in the dozen years since, most notably in 2017, when it became the first streamer to win an Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series with The Handmaid’s Tale. In fact, that was just one of eight Emmys the series took home in its inaugural season, and it has continued to rack up nominations and wins over the years.
While more competition has popped up since Hulu started gaining critical credibility, the network has continued to stand out for its carefully curated selection of original series and network partnerships that make it the home of FX series and more. Below are some of our favorite shows streaming on Hulu right now.
Not finding what you’re looking for? Head to WIRED’s guide to the best TV shows on Amazon Prime, the best TV shows on Disney+, and the best shows on Netflix. Have other suggestions for this list? Let us know in the comments.
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A Murder at the End of the World
Darby Hart (Emma Corrin) is a talented hacker and armchair detective who is one of eight guests invited to spend a few days at the stunning yet remote home of a mysterious billionaire (Clive Owen). When one of the guests ends up dead, Darby must work quickly to prove that it was murder—and who did it—before the bodies start piling up. Fans of twisty true crime will appreciate this limited series, which comes from the minds of Brit Marling (who costars) and Zal Batmanglij—cocreators of the equally mind-bending The OA.
Living for the Dead
“It’s all fun and games until someone gets possessed.” That’s tarot card reader Ken’s take on this twisty new reality series, which follows the paranormal adventures of a group of five queer ghost hunters. Kristen Stewart executive-produced the series, which has been described as gay Scooby-Doo but with better hair and laugh-out-loud observations, like being more terrified of the “horrific” bedspread than the clowns at Nevada’s infamous Clown Motel.
Moonlighting
While Die Hard turned Bruce Willis into one of Hollywood’s biggest action stars, he was far from producers’ first choice for the role of John McClane. That’s largely because he was seen as the funny guy from Moonlighting, the Emmy-winning ’80s dramedy that centers around the Blue Moon Detective Agency and its two often-bickering owners, David Addison (Willis) and Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepherd). Over the course of its five seasons, the series racked up some serious critical acclaim and wasn’t afraid to experiment with the sitcom format.
Ash vs Evil Dead
The always-charming Bruce Campbell reprises his role as Ash Williams, the hero of The Evil Dead film series. Taking place 30 years after the events of the original films, Ash is now living a mundane existence alone (save for his pet lizard Eli), working as a stock boy at a local discount store, and attempting to prevent the Necronomicon from getting into the wrong person’s hands. Ultimately, Ash realizes that he’s ready to be a hero again.
The Other Black Girl
Sinclair Daniel shines as Nella Rogers, an up-and-coming book editor—and the only Black employee at the publishing house where she works. While Nella is initially thrilled when another young woman of color, Hazel-May McCall (Ashleigh Murray), is hired as an assistant, she can’t help but notice that a series of bizarre events seems to follow. As Nella tries to suss out exactly what is going on, she uncovers some pretty damn disturbing skeletons in her employer’s closet. While horror-comedies are an increasingly popular movie genre, we don’t see them on the small screen quite as often—which, if this clever series is any indication, is a real shame.
The Full Monty
Twenty-six years after a low-budget British comedy blew up at the box office, scored an Oscar, and introduced “the Full Monty” into the popular lexicon, the Regular Joes turned strippers from Sheffield are back to face largely the same issues they were lamenting in the original feature film. Much of the main cast reassembled for this follow-up to Peter Cattaneo’s hit 1997 movie. Stripping is involved, as are other inevitables in life, including breakups, reconciliations, and death. For fans of the original movie—or the Broadway musical and stage play that followed—it’s a fun check-in with the characters who bared it all.
The Office (UK)
Years before there was Jim and Pam and Dwight and Michael, there were Tim and Dawn and Gareth and David. For lovers of cringe, it’s hard to do better than Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s workplace comedy. David Brent (Gervais) is the original boss from hell, whose office antics will have you covering your eyes and laughing out loud at the same time. Like many British series, there are just two seasons—each consisting of a mere six episodes—plus a two-part Christmas special. Don’t be surprised if you sit down to watch a single episode and binge it all in one go.
Cheers
In the 1980s, NBC was the channel to watch on Thursday nights—in large part thanks to Cheers. The bar where everybody knows your name is where the action happens in this award-winning sitcom about a former Red Sox player (Ted Danson) and the lovable employees and patrons who treat his bar like a second home. If you can look past (or, even better, embrace) the questionable ‘80s fashion and sometimes-sexist storylines that wouldn’t necessarily fly on TV today, you’ll find what is arguably one of the smartest sitcoms ever written. More than 40 years after its original premiere, the jokes still stand up and the characters are some of television’s most memorable (and beloved) for a reason.
Fargo
Noah Hawley’s anthology series isn’t the first attempt to adapt the Coen brothers’ Oscar-winning crime-comedy to the small screen (Edie Falco starred in a previous version, which was a more straightforward adaptation of the movie), but his approach was clearly the smarter move. Fans of the Coens in general will find lots to love about the many nods to the filmmakers’ entire filmography, with each season covering a different crime and time period. Though the seasons do share connections, each one is a total one-off, and the show might boast the most talented group of actors ever assembled: Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Freeman, Bob Odenkirk, Oliver Platt, Ted Danson, Patrick Wilson, Nick Offerman, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Ewan McGregor, Michael Stuhlbarg, Carrie Coon, Scoot McNairy, Chris Rock, Jason Schwartzman, Timothy Olyphant, and Ben Whishaw are just a few of the names who’ve found a home in Fargo. The all-new fifth season—featuring Juno Temple, Jon Hamm, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Joe Keery—premiered on November 21, with new episodes arriving weekly.
Justified: City Primeval
Few reboots have generated as much enthusiasm as this one, in which Timothy Olyphant reprises his role as no-nonsense US marshal Raylan Givens. Fifteen years older than when we last saw him in Justified, Raylan is now living back in Miami, helping to raise his teenage daughter Willa (played here by Olyphant’s real-life daughter Vivian) and still rocking a Stetson like no other actor ever could. But life for Raylan never stays quiet for long, and this miniseries sees him making his way to Detroit and facing off against a violent criminal known as the Oklahoma Wildman (Boyd Holbrook). Guns are drawn and wise is cracked in this limited series, with all eight episodes currently available to stream.
Dopesick
Back in 2021, Hulu went where Netflix’s Painkiller is currently going: to the late ’90s and early 2000s, aka the beginning of America’s opioid crisis. Danny Strong created this retelling of the lengths to which Richard Sackler (played here by the always excellent Michael Stuhlbarg) and Purdue Pharma would go to sell doctors on the powers of OxyContin—all with the promise of no addiction. Michael Keaton won an Emmy for his portrayal of a widowed doctor in Appalachia who buys into the lies, and eventually becomes a victim of them.
Futurama
In case you haven’t heard—which would mean you’ve not been reading enough WIRED—Futurama is back. Following a decade-long hiatus, Matt Groening and David X. Cohen’s animated sci-fi comedy has been successfully updated for 2023, complete with gags about Twilight Zone and “Momazon” drone deliveries. Now is the perfect time to dive back in—or watch it all for the first time.
Reservation Dogs
Taika Waititi and Sterlin Harjo cocreated this Peabody Award–winning series, which made history as the first mainstream TV show created by, starring, and crewed by an almost entirely Indigenous American team. It tells the story of four bored teens who are desperate to escape their lives on a reservation in Oklahoma. They decide that California is where they want to be and commit to a life of mostly petty crimes in order to save up enough money to leave. The series’ third, and final, season concluded on September 27 with a brilliant sendoff—and the whole series is available to watch now.
What We Do in the Shadows
In 2014, Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi cowrote, codirected, and costarred in What We Do in the Shadows, a funny mockumentary featuring a group of vampires who share a home. This series, which premiered in 2019, moved the vampire action from New Zealand to Staten Island and brought in a whole new group of vampires—who struggle to even get up off the couch, let alone take over all of New York City (as they’ve been instructed to). In the show’s fifth season, which concluded in September, Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) recovers from a supernatural hex, energy vampire Colin (Mark Proksch) runs for office, and gentleman scientist Laszlo (Matt Berry) tries to figure out the secret behind the changes Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) is experiencing. If you haven’t been watching, now is the perfect time to tune in.
The Bear
Even if you’ve never seen The Bear, you’ve undoubtedly heard about it (and had at least one person recommend it to you). The electrifying series, which premiered in June 2022, was all anyone could talk about last summer—and for good reason. Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) is a superstar of the fine dining world who has returned to his hometown of Chicago to save his family’s struggling sandwich shop after the death by suicide of his brother. While Carmy initially struggles to acclimate himself to being home and to his inherited kitchen’s back-to-basics style, he eventually realizes that it’s not too late to change both himself and the restaurant. Anyone who has ever worked in a busy kitchen knows the stress that comes with it, and The Bear does an excellent job of making that tension palpable. While the plot sounds simple enough, much of Carmy’s previous life is a bit of a mystery, and it’s doled out in amuse-bouche-sized bits throughout the series. Now that The Bear’s highly anticipated second season—which features several A-list guest stars—is live on Hulu, it’s time to feast.
The Clearing
This twisty crime series—based on J.P. Pomare’s book—tells two parallel storylines: When a young girl is abducted, cult survivor Freya (Teresa Palmer) is forced to reckon with the traumas of her past. At the same time, we watch as a cult leader (Miranda Otto) perpetrates horrendous crimes against little girls. As you can probably guess, their stories eventually collide in surprising, and disturbing, ways.
Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi
“The gateway to another culture often happens first through food,” says Padma Lakshmi in the first season of Taste the Nation. That pretty much sums up this food show, made in the style of Parts Unknown and Bizarre Foods. Lakshmi makes for a compelling tour guide, and she doesn’t even need to leave the US to explore the cultures, and culinary delights, of Ukraine, Cambodia, Italy, and beyond.
Not Dead Yet
Nell Serrano (Jane the Virgin’s Gina Rodriguez) was a journalist living her best life in New York City until she put her career aside to follow a man to London. Five years later, she returns to NYC in the hopes of picking up where she left off—but finds herself having to start over. Struggles include being put on the obituary-writing beat, which leads to her seeing the dearly departed she’s writing about. Think of it as a funny The Sixth Sense.
Class of ’09
There are plenty of series about the FBI, including, erm, FBI. But Class of ’09 promises to be different. Set across three different timelines, it follows a series of bureau agents who “grapple with immense changes as the US criminal justice system is altered by artificial intelligence.” The Hulu-exclusive limited series features a stellar cast with some of the coolest-sounding character names to ever be introduced in a law-enforcement series: Brian Tyree Henry as “Tayo,” Kate Mara as “Poet,” and Sepideh Moafi as “Hour.” If you’ve been looking for an FBI series with a twist, your time has come.
The Great
Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult shine in this witty, fast-paced, comedic retelling (but not really) of Catherine the Great’s rise to power. Created by Tony McNamara, who earned an Oscar nomination for cowriting The Favourite, The Great offers the same combination of lush costumes and scenery mixed with a biting commentary on the world, and a woman’s place in it. A story that rings as true today as it did in the 18th century, when Catherine the Great became empress of Russia and brought about the Age of Enlightenment, this show, which dropped its third—and final—season in May, chips away at notions of class, propriety, and monarchical rule in a way few others do. If it’s historical accuracy you’re after, look elsewhere; the series’ creators describe it as decidedly “anti-historical” (which is part of the fun).
Tiny Beautiful Things
The reason to watch this eight-part limited series can be summed up in two words: Kathryn Hahn. A comedic juggernaut, Hahn can switch from funny to dramatic in the same scene, if not the same sentence. This talent is on display in Tiny Beautiful Things, where she plays Claire, a writer who takes up an advice column and pours all the traumas of her life into responding to her readers. Based on Wild author Cheryl Strayed’s collection of “Dear Sugar” columns, the vignettes here may be a bit out of sorts, but Hahn pulls them together.
Dave
Dave Burd is a comedian and rapper who goes by the stage name Lil Dicky. In Dave, Burd plays a rapper who goes by the stage name Lil Dicky and is attempting to raise his profile and make a much bigger name for himself. If only his many neuroses didn’t keep getting in the way. While Dave could have easily turned into some mediocre experiment in meta storytelling, Burd—who cocreated the series, stars in it, and has written several episodes—grapples with some surprisingly touchy topics, including mental illness. And he does it all with a level of sensitivity and honesty that you might not expect from a guy named Lil Dicky.
Great Expectations
This latest adaptation of Charles Dickens’ novel isn’t so much a modern retelling—Alfonso Cuarón’s 1998 film this is not—as it is a fresh one. Starring Olivia Colman in the iconic role of Miss Havisham, this six-part series transforms the story of Pip, a young boy with dreams of an upper-class life, into a gothic tale that examines the moral compromises one must make to ascend in the world. Filled with stunning performances and a sleek look (or “try-hard edginess,” depending who you ask), it’s the perfect miniseries for fans of the novel—or viewers encountering Dickens’ classic story for the first time.
History of the World, Part II
Forty years after Mel Brooks’ History of the World, Part I, the comedy legend has assembled a who’s who of funny people for a new installment. Nick Kroll, Ike Barinholtz, Wanda Skykes, Jason Mantzoukas, Hannah Einbinder, and Quinta Brunson are just a few of the names in this collection of sketches. From Sigmund Freud to Rasputin to Jesus Christ, everyone gets a sendup—and a laugh.
Abbott Elementary
Quinta Brunson created and stars in this hit series, which follows the daily lives—in and out of the classroom—of a group of teachers at what is widely considered one of the worst public schools in America. Despite a lack of funding for even basic educational necessities, and school district leaders who only care about the barest minimum standards, these educators are united by their drive to surpass expectations and encourage their students to do the same. The show, which is prepping its third season, has already received a massive number of awards, including three Emmys.
Atlanta
Donald Glover proved himself to be a quadruple threat of an actor, writer, musician, and comedian with this highly acclaimed FX series about Earnest “Earn” Marks (Glover), an aspiring music manager who is trying to help his cousin Alfred Miles, aka Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry), kick off his musical career. They’re surrounded by a supportive crew of friends, including Alfred’s BFF, Darius (LaKeith Stanfield), and Van (Zazie Beetz), Earn’s close friend and the mother of his child. This makes it all sound like a fairly straightforward buddy comedy, but Atlanta is so much more. Even better: It’s weird. Glover is not afraid to experiment with storytelling, which is part of what makes the show so compelling.
Baskets
Zach Galifianakis stars alongside Zach Galifianakis as twin brothers Chip and Dale Baskets in this unexpectedly moving family comedy about an aspiring clown (Chip) who fails to graduate from a fancy clowning school in Paris and is forced to return home to Bakersfield, California, where he lives with his mother (the late Louie Anderson) and is constantly belittled by his higher-achieving brother (Dale). Between the dual role for Galifianakis and Anderson as the mom, it may sound like a cheap bit of stunt casting that can’t sustain more than an episode, let alone multiple character arcs. But if you’re a fan of absurdist comedy, Baskets truly ranks among the best of them. And Anderson, who won his first and only Emmy for his role as Costco-loving Christine, is absolutely transcendent. While it received a fair amount of critical acclaim, Baskets could rightly be considered one of the most underseen and underappreciated series in recent memory.
The Dropout
Amanda Seyfried won a much deserved Outstanding Lead Actress Emmy for her portrayal of the notorious Stanford dropout turned health care technology maven Elizabeth Holmes, who tricked some of the world’s savviest business minds into investing in her company, Theranos. While Holmes’ goal was altruistic enough—making health care more accessible to the masses via a device that could detect any number of diseases with little more than a single finger prick of blood—the technology wasn’t able to catch up. Rather than admit defeat, she kept pushing, making business deals and promises she could never fulfill.
Fleishman Is in Trouble
Taffy Brodesser-Akner created this series, based on her bestselling novel of the same name, which manages to tell a very specific story that is also universally relatable. Toby Fleishman (Jesse Eisenberg) is a recently divorced fortysomething hepatologist living in New York City. Things are looking up for Fleishman when he’s considered for a promotion and begins dipping his toe into the dating waters via an app. But then his ex-wife, Rachel (Claire Danes), disappears, leaving him with their two children. With the help of two of his best friends (played by Lizzy Caplan and Adam Brody), Fleishman realizes that it will take an honest deconstruction of his marriage to understand what happened to Rachel, and where she might be.
The Handmaid’s Tale
When Margaret Atwood wrote The Handmaid’s Tale in 1985, little did she know that its television adaptation would revolutionize the still-nascent world of original streaming content. And she may not have anticipated just how many parallels her dystopian classic would share with the real world at the time it was adapted into an award-winning television series. It’s set in an unnamed time in what is presumably the very near future, when the United States has been taken over by a fundamentalist group known as Gilead, under whose regime women are considered property and stripped of any personal rights. The most valuable women are those who are fertile, as infertility has become an epidemic, and they are kept as handmaids who are forced to take part in sexual rituals with high-ranking couples in order to bear their children. Recognizing the power she wields, Offred, aka June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss), is not content to remain enslaved and sets about changing the rules as she seeks to reunite with her lost husband and daughter.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
If you thought the characters on Seinfeld were terrible people, wait until you meet the gang from Paddy’s Pub. For nearly 20 years, Dennis (Glenn Howerton), Mac (Robert McElhenney), Charlie (Charlie Day), Sweet Dee (Kaitlin Olson), and Frank (Danny DeVito) have unapologetically plotted against each other and total strangers in a series of completely self-centered schemes with absolutely no regard for the rules of civility. The show follows the “no hugging and no learning” rule Larry David established for Seinfeld, but elevates it to a new level of sociopathy. “Dennis and Dee Go on Welfare,” “Sweet Dee Has a Heart Attack,” “How Mac Got Fat,” “Dennis Looks Like a Registered Sex Offender,” “The Gang Turns Black,” and “The Gang Goes to a Water Park” are just some of the offbeat adventures awaiting viewers. In 2021, Sunny became the longest-running live-action sitcom in the history of television, and it shows no signs of slowing down—or taking it easy on its characters. It also happens to be one of the easiest shows to binge: Pop an episode on and, without even realizing it, you’ll be on to another season. Its 16th (!!) wrapped up in August—but there are at least two more on the way.
Letterkenny
What began as a web series is now a Hulu original that wrapped up its eleventh season in December. The show is a portrait of small-town Canada (the fictional Letterkenny of the title) and focuses on siblings Wayne (cocreator Jared Keeso) and Katy (Michelle Mylett), who run a produce stand with help from friends Daryl (Nathan Dales) and Squirrely Dan (K. Trevor Wilson). As is often the case in small-town series, many of the residents fall into specific categories—in Letterkenny, you could be a gym rat, a hick, a skid (their word for a drug addict), or a “native” (a member of the nearby First Nation reservation). But in contrast to many small-town series, these groups—and the individuals who comprise them—aren’t reduced to meaningless stereotypes.
Only Murders in the Building
Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez make for a delightful trio of true-crime-obsessed podcast fans who, in season 1 of this original Hulu series, decide to join forces and create their own podcast while attempting to solve the mysterious death of a fellow resident of their Manhattan apartment building. From the very beginning of their odd alliance, it’s been clear that all is not what it seems, and everyone is keeping secrets. Now they’ve upped the ante on guest stars, too; the third season sees Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep join in the fun.
Pam & Tommy
Lily James and Sebastian Stan are practically unrecognizable—and seem to be having the time of their lives—as they let their inner hedonists out to portray Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, one of the most famous couples (and tabloid staples) of the ’90s. What emerges is the portrait of two people who, like the rest of us, are simply doing their best to balance their personal and professional lives. Unlike the rest of us, this pair is forced to do that in the blinding light of paparazzi cameras tracking their every move. It’s nothing groundbreaking or revelatory, but for people who lived through the Pam and Tommy years, it’s a fun bit of nostalgia.
The Patient
Steve Carell plays against type—or is at least nothing like The Office’s Michael Scott—in this psychological thriller from Joel Fields and The Americans creator Joe Weisberg. Carell is Alan Strauss, a therapist being held captive by his patient (Domhnall Gleeson), who cops to being a serial killer and desperately wants Strauss to “cure” his desire to kill. The series plays out like one big-bottle episode; much of the action occurs in a single room, with Carell and Gleeson speaking only to each other—each trying to determine his best next move.
Pen15
Mining the awkwardness of one’s middle school years is hardly a new comedy concept. But being in your early thirties and playing yourself as a junior high school student and then surrounding yourself with age-appropriate actors who are actually going through that hellish rite of passage brings a whole new layer of cringe and humor. This is exactly what cocreators/stars Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle did for Pen15.
Under the Banner of Heaven
Murder and Mormonism collide in this true crime drama when detective Jeb Pyre (Andrew Garfield) is sent to investigate the murder of a woman (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her baby near Salt Lake City. While trying to solve the crime, Pyre learns some troubling information about the most devoted members of the LDS church that forces him to reckon with his faith.
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