★★★☆☆
Apple TV+ drama City on Fire drops a bomb this week.
Charlie and Keith meet up under less-than-ideal circumstances, while Sam fights for her life. Nicky and Sol have one last missive for the city of New York — and the fat cat who set them up. And William has one more act left in his life as an amateur detective — and a family to reunite.
This week’s episode, entitled “The Demon Brother,” is full of engaging, but deeply ridiculous, stuff.
★★★☆☆
Apple TV+ dystopian sci-fi hit Silo sends Juliette out on her second day as sheriff and into a minefield this week.
The show, about the last few thousand people on earth living inside a massive underground structure, unveils more tentacles of its political conspiracy. When Juliette and her new deputy look into the murder of their predecessors, they find corruption and lies in every corner they search. The episode, entitled “The Janitor’s Boy,” is a thrilling chapter in the Silo saga.
★★★★☆
City on Fire, the new Apple TV+ drama about a web of connections that expands from the attempted murder of an NYU student, nears what looks like a breakthrough this week.
Charlie finds a roll of undeveloped film that’s a missing piece of the puzzle surrounding the near-death of Samantha, the object of his affection. Nicky thinks he has the upper hand, but learns he’ll always be someone’s patsy. Plus, Keith and Regan follow a lead to a dead end, and Amory starts to sweat.
Entitled “Brass Tactics,” it’s an action-packed episode with few of City on Fire’s usual misplaced steps.
★★★★☆
This week on Drops of God, the excellent Apple TV+ show about two people competing for the title of greatest sommelier on earth, Camille and Issei consider their places in the world — and in their family lines.
Issei, fuming over a secret long kept, needs to focus for the final challenge. Camille, weighing an impulsive business decision, wonders what the next step for her will be, no matter whether she wins or loses.
★★★★☆
Apple TV+ neo-noir comedy High Desert gets mired in criminal business and stolen paintings this week. The show stars Patricia Arquette as Peggy Newman, who’s doing some on-the-ground investigation into a missing woman and the trail of chaos she left in her wake.
Is her husband, a mutilated guru, to blame? Or the woman’s mobbed-up brothers? The episode, entitled “Get Judy off the Bed,” delivers another delirious dose of the streaming service’s newest success.
★★★☆☆
Ted Lasso, Apple TV+’s most popular show, is winding down, with just two episodes left before it closes up shop (likely for good). The fish-out-of-water football coach is trying to keep his struggling soccer team from the bottom of the rankings — and himself from the bottom of his feelings.
To complicate things, Jamie Tartt goes on an existential bender this week as he prepares for a big hometown gig, and Ted and his tough-guy coach Roy Kent need to figure out how to fix their star player. The episode, entitled “Mom City,” is about as good as this show gets.
★★★★☆
In new Apple TV+ comedy Platonic, Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne play old pals who, after taking a hiatus from their intense friendship, learn that rekindling such a thing is a fraught proposition this far into their lives.
Created by Francesca Delblanco and Nicholas Stoller, Platonic is a lovely, lazy-day kind of a comedy that charms even when it seems like it could stand to straighten up and fly right.
★★★☆☆
New Apple TV+ drama City on Fire, based on the book by Garth Risk Hallberg, tries to crack its central mysteries wide open this week.
William discovers he has a connection to the attempted murder of Samantha. Regan discovers she has more rats in her nest than she imagined. Charlie finds his allegiances tested as his sanity frays. Keith’s troubles are getting worse, and he still hasn’t even hit bottom.
Entitled “Land of a Thousand Dances,” it’s a good episode of the Dickensian potboiler, but it’s almost undone by rookie mistakes.
★★★☆☆
Apple TV+ dystopian sci-fi hit Silo investigates a high-profile murder and a hero’s childhood this week.
The show, about the last people on Earth living in hellish conditions underground, follows new Sheriff Juliette Nichols as she gets wrapped up in her first homicide investigation with Deputy Marnes. Plus, it delves into her past as she remembers the circumstances under which she became a machinist.
As this show progresses, it gets a little better with each episode and each twisty plot development.
★★★★☆
This week’s episode of the Apple TV+ series Drops of God, about the differing paths of two potential heirs to a fortune in wine, finds Camille on an excursion and Issei in a fog.
Camille and Lorenzo take a jog to Italy to do research before the second challenge. And Issei and Yurika discover some things about his personal history that make the contest even more bitter. Entitled “Legacy,” the episode splashes out a very fine bit of work from this team.
★★★☆☆
Apple TV+ limited series The Last Thing He Told Me comes to a shockingly emotional end this week.
In the series finale, Hannah makes a calculated risk on behalf of her stepdaughter and herself, and they’re both still distraught over the disappearance of their husband and father. Plus, a shadowy criminal and a U.S. Marshal offer competing visions of safety for the pair — and no one’s sure which one is better.
★★★★☆
The Big Door Prize closes its first season with a blackout at Deerfest and a big twist from the Morpho. The show, about a mysterious machine that reads people’s futures, throws harsh weather and hard truths at its cast of misfit townies this week.
Father Reuben and Hana experience a few troubling realizations. Cass and Izzy have another blow-up. Jacob and Trina try to make it through their first real date. And more than one storm is brewing in this compelling cap to a winning season of a wonderful show.
★★★☆☆
Apple TV+’s runaway hit Ted Lasso starts closing up shop this week as the show nears the end of season three. The stars of AFC Richmond are out of town, but that doesn’t mean we can’t wrap up some loose ends.
Keeley finds herself without a job or an office. Rebecca has a big meeting, and one small chance to make a difference. Roy starts thinking about human connection. Sam suffers a series of letdowns. And Nate goes on a soul-searching trip back home.
While undoubtedly enervating, this week’s episode, entitled “International Break,” occasionally scores a win.
★★★★☆
In the tragicomic new Apple TV+ series High Desert, Patricia Arquette plays Peggy Newman, a drug addict and serial liar/improviser who’s trying to remake her life after her husband goes to jail and ruins her social standing.
The perpetually broke and broken Peggy is a marvelous creation. The first three episodes of High Desert arrived on Apple TV+ today, and the show is mighty good company.
★★★★☆
Drops of God, the impressive new Apple TV+ series about an impossible contest to determine the winner of a fortune in wine, brings us to our second challenge this week.
In the episode, entitled “The Link,” Issei deals with the fallout from his father’s latest and most devastating decision. And Camille is given even more choices as she struggles to come out ahead in the latest contest.
★★★☆☆
The Last Thing He Told Me nears its endgame this week as Bailey goes AWOL and Hannah must make a tough choice.
The Apple TV+ thriller, about a software developer with a rap sheet who goes missing and leaves a trail of breadcrumbs for his wife and daughter, finally starts to spill its last bunch of secrets before a showdown or a retreat in next week’s finale. Hannah needs to decide which of those sounds more appealing, and which will keep her stepdaughter the safest.
★★★☆☆
New Apple TV+ sci-fi series Silo examines the social machinations at play in the titular structure, and takes us deep inside the belly of the beast for a truly thrilling sequence.
The show — about the last people on earth, who live inside an incalculably huge structure powered by a huge generator — takes a long walk with the mayor for political points. And Juliette lands a job offer, but she needs a big favor before she’s ready to take it.
After so much table-setting, Silo gets down to business in the episode, entitled “Machines.”
★★★☆☆
New drama City on Fire is here to shake up the Apple TV+ lineup. Set in New York City in 2003, it’s a twisty, coincidence-laden tale of a girl killed in Central Park. It focuses on an interconnected web of people who want to know what happened and why, as well as suspects who want the world to forget about her death.
With its sprawling depiction of crime and the NYC music scene, City on Fire looks like a coin toss: a qualified success or an interesting misfire. Either way, this one’s worth a watch.
★★☆☆☆
Ted Lasso comes out of the closet this week as Colin and Isaac tackle their unspoken problem. Meanwhile, Roy has a goals problem. Rebecca has a Roy problem. And Nate gets put to the test by Rupert and Jade.
In the episode, entitled “La Locker Room Aux Folles,” AFC Richmond must learn a quick lesson in tolerance that would be better put to the writers of this show. It’s a uniquely frustrating episode — the type that only the people at Ted Lasso can provide.
★★★★☆
The Big Door Prize stares down the barrel at the end of its first season with the first lovey-dovey installment of a two-part finale.
The Apple TV+ sci-fi comedy about a machine that predicts the futures of the busybodies in a small town — and changes a few too many lives in the process — puts on a big display of emotional fireworks in “Deerfest: Part One.” It’s one of the finest episodes of the season.
★★★☆☆
Apple TV+ series Drops of God, about two wine experts competing to win a priceless cellar and their dead father figure’s favor, takes a trip down memory lane this week.
Alexandre and Marianne Léger relive their first tribulations, as well as their decision to move to Japan. And Issei’s mother remembers her first encounter with Alexandre, and how he ended up changing her life.
It’s a bit of a letdown that the episode, entitled “Foundation,” drifts from the show’s main action. However, this beautifully acted and well-directed detour proves very good nevertheless.
★★★☆☆
The Last Thing He Told Me, the Apple TV+ limited series about a shady software developer with a checkered past who vanishes from his wife and daughter’s life, heads to a bar for a fateful drink and a little interrogation this week.
Hannah and Bailey find themselves dancing ever closer to the truth about their missing husband/father, and danger looms around every corner. The episode, entitled “The Never Dry,” makes for a pretty tense outing of the sometimes-too-casual mystery series.
★★★☆☆
New Apple TV+ series Silo packs what may be the last people on earth into a huge, mysterious structure. Like Snowpiercer pointed straight up, this show offers a look at the hierarchies and conspiracies of silence that lead to cataclysmic turns of events.
This shaggy dog post-apocalyptic story — with an all-star cast spouting a lot of silly sci-fi lingo and exaggerated futurespeak — gets off to a compelling start this week.
★★★★☆
Apple TV+ musical comedy Schmigadoon! wraps its second season with an action-packed episode this week entitled “Over and Done.” Josh and Melissa are being held captive, and unless some unlikely people decide to change their ways and recover from past wounds, they’ll be killed or married — or both!
It’s a lovely little wrap to the big-hearted show’s second season.
★★★★☆
The Big Door Prize focuses on the prickly mayor of Deerfield this week. The Apple TV+ show, about a small town interrupted in a big way by a machine that’s supposed to be capable of telling people’s futures, digs deep into the hidden feelings among Deerfield’s citizenry.
The episode, entitled “Izzy,” proves very affecting.