★★★★☆
The search for a mayoral hopeful’s killer takes center stage on this week’s Truth Be Told, the Apple TV+ crime series told through the lens of podcaster Poppy.
Eva’s on the hunt for a killer, but is it a smokescreen for her own guilt? Poppy can’t decide. Markus is still acting out, and it’s getting in the way of his parenting. Plus, Poppy has some secrets of her own to spill. And fate has one last curveball to throw this crew before the season’s final inning.
★☆☆☆☆
It’s all about splitting and coming back this week on Dear Edward, the Apple TV+ series about the tangled web of grief in the wake of a plane crash.
In the episode, entitled “Paper Covers Rock,” Edward acts out at school and is rewarded with a crisis or two he wasn’t aware were coming his way. Plus, Linda goes into labor, Lacey is clueless, Dee Dee doesn’t want group to end, Adriana and Kojo don’t want their time together to end, and Steve and Amanda don’t want their affair to end.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, your Apple TV+ reviewer is anxious for this dreadful series to end. (The good news is, the end is nigh.)
★★☆☆☆
Shrinking is all about reconciliation this week. The Apple TV+ show about the social circle of a manic pixie dream therapist sees Jimmy Laird trying to mend the rift between his hero, Paul, and his family.
Meanwhile, as Brian prepares for his wedding, he meets with nothing but disappointments and potential catastrophes. Gaby is caught between her rock and a hard place. And Alice makes a fateful mistake.
Everything comes out in the end in “Moving Forward,” this week’s whatever installment of the hit show that could have been an email.
★★★★☆
Hello Tomorrow!, the Apple TV+ show about a salesman running out of ways to talk himself out of damnation, flies into a panic this week. Jack’s celebrity spokesman goes missing, and if he’s found by the wrong people, it could blow his entire operation.
At the same time, Shirley’s starting to wonder about Jack’s lies, and Joey has just stopped believing him entirely. And when Herb gets a brief moment to shine, he blows it immediately. The episode, entitled “Another Day, Another Apocalypse,” delivers another great half-hour of the show with the most verve and wit of anything on the Apple TV+ lineup.
★☆☆☆☆
Astonishingly overwritten and mega-ambitious sci-fi parable Extrapolations, which premiered today on Apple TV+, has a cast of thousands and more than a few things on its mind. None of what show creator Scott Z. Burns (who wrote Contagion and The Bourne Ultimatum) is saying in this show about the impact of climate change can be argued with. But the messages aren’t easily swallowed, either.
Rather than leave room for viewers to draw their own conclusions, Extrapolations sits you down and yells at you for 10 hours of dreary cli-fi drama. It’s certainly distinctive — but that’s not always a good thing.
★★★★☆
Servant, the stellar Apple TV+ show about a supernatural nanny and the Philadelphia family that plays unwitting and unwilling host to her journey, comes to its fiery finale this week.
Leanne must decide who she’s going to serve, and Dorothy decides what her family and life will be from now on. The episode, entitled “Fallen,” serves up a mostly perfect ending to a mostly perfect show.
★★☆☆☆
Three years after Ted Lasso became a runaway smash for Apple TV+, the show returns Wednesday with a fresh blast of unrelenting optimism.
The fish-out-of-water story of an upbeat U.S. football coach leading a team of U.K. footballers somehow became one of the most-watched things in the streaming sphere, fueled by pandemic viewers looking for something — anything — with a positive message. Now, as Ted Lasso season three arrives, there’s a lot of hype to live up to (and a lot of dross that needs papering over).
Can the show’s likely last season cement Ted’s place in TV history? Maybe … but star Jason Sudeikis’ aw-shucks act seems in danger of wearing thin. After all, the new Ted is an awful lot like the old Ted.
★★★★☆
Apple TV+ thriller Liaison gets down to the dirty business of statecraft this week as Alison and Gabriel head to Brussels for different reasons. A daring refugee camp breakout leads to almosts and what-ifs that drive Alison mad.
Plus, a couple of unfortunate lackeys get put through the ringer — and Britain is still under attack. The episode, entitled “Manipulations,” delivers another solid hour from a team with enough star power to light up London.
★★☆☆☆
Alice goes missing this week on Apple TV+ hit comedy Shrinking, and Jimmy, Paul and Brian are on the case. After exposing Alice to the awkwardness of a social curveball, Jimmy and Gaby alienate her so much that she decides to act out like her dad has been doing for so long.
Meanwhile, Gaby needs to face down a big challenge as she prepares to maybe move on from her divorce. And Brian must confess something to Jimmy that’s going to be painful — and chooses the worst time to do it. All in all, it’s an above-average episode of a very tiresome sitcom.
★★★★☆
Lots and lots of bad judgment and mistakes come to light on this week’s episode of Truth Be Told, Apple TV+’s true crime podcast drama.
It turns out Emily Mills’ kidnapping was something else altogether. Plus, Poppy is pressing hard into other people’s secrets — and into her own for a change, much to Leander’s chagrin. Markus has hit bottom and can’t seem to pull up. Trini gets a much-needed wake-up call, and Eva can’t stop living in the past.
This week’s very fine episode brings some extremely strong performances, and some equally impactful revelations.
M. Night Shyamalan returns to the director’s chair for the penultimate episode of Apple TV+’s Servant, his show about a nanny terrorizing a Philadelphia family in their brownstone.
Leanne has Dorothy all to herself — and Dorothy can’t help but notice. A last-ditch rescue attempt is scuttled after Dorothy insists on hearing some hard truths from Sean and Julian, who may not have the upper hand when they’re done.
Though unnerving and quite upsetting, “Awake” stands tall as one of the greatest episodes yet of this outstanding show.
★★★★☆
Hello Tomorrow!, the Apple TV+ show about hucksters selling a place in the sun (on the moon), takes a trip back in time this week as Jack relives some foundational traumas.
Also this week: Shirley thinks she has a way out of the hole that Brightside’s in, while the one that Herb is stuck in gets deeper by the minute. And Joey finds that there is no end to a life of lies once it really gets going.
This week’s offering, entitled “The Numbers Behind the Numbers,” stacks up as a superlative episode of a superlative program.
★☆☆☆☆
Trauma-focused Apple TV+ series Dear Edward has even more reckoning to do this week.
First, Adriana gets into hot water with the two men in her life, even as her election looms. Then Lacey and Edward both get rejected, right when they need support the most.
Dee Dee is having housing issues. And Steve and Amanda need some space, as do Shay and Mahira. And frankly, so do I. This frustrating show just keeps on going to uninspired, unearned places.
★★★★☆
Bad weather, bad omens and bad timing collide on this week’s installment of Apple TV+ thriller Servant.
Sean and Julian attempt a Hail Mary to wrest control of the Turner house away from evil nanny Leanne. And Dorothy’s about to realize there are worse things than being loved too much.
The episode, entitled “Tunnels,” is a sharply directed half-hour of the horror/mystery series, which is the best show on Apple TV+ — and indeed one of the finest things on TV, full stop. It points the way to darker things coming in Servant’s final two episodes.
★★★★☆
In the explosive second episode of Apple TV+ thriller Liaison, Richard, Albert and Alison find common ground over a crash, while Gabriel flits around London trying to recapture the missing Syrian hacker he lost.
The French government is being kneecapped by secrets and hidden ambitions, while the British haven’t a clue what’s happening or why. The gripping Stephen Hopkins-directed series continues to make for a pleasant (if upsetting) watch.
★★★★☆
Apple TV+ crime drama Truth Be Told takes a stroll down memory lane this week as Eva remembers her years in the life of sex trafficking, giving her a potential tool to bring a network of bad people to justice.
Meanwhile, Markus is at his wit’s end trying to help Trini reintegrate into her life while looking in vain for justice. Leander and Poppy both have favors to ask of Lee Hackman. And the walls are starting to close in on Andrew Finney and his donors.
★☆☆☆☆
Everyone’s falling in love this week on grief-riddled Apple TV+ series Dear Edward — but nobody’s happy about it.
Shay and Edward have their 90th falling out, this one over Mahira and Shay’s deadbeat dad. Lacey and John keep having a bad time, while Dee Dee and Zoe need to have a chat about priorities and the future. Kojo and Adrianna are at a stalemate (where they’ve been for the last three episodes), and Steve and Amanda have a lot left to talk about (and not much time left to do it).
The episode, entitled “Folklore,” is a predictably predictable outing for this dreary affair.
Severance draws its excellent first season to a close this week with an episode that makes excellent use of every second of its pulse-pounding airtime.
The perfectly curated frames give way to woozy chaos as Lumon Industries workers Irving, Mark and Helly experience the outside world for the “first” time.
Revelations await them. And they’re going to have be savvy if they want to get away with this illegal operation to bring down Lumon. Everyone’s in fine form as usual, and the show makes a great case for a second season. (Which Apple just made official, BTW.)
The plan is set on this week’s episode of Apple TV+’s dark comedy thriller Severance. But will our heroes make it out of Lumon Industries? Will anyone believe Mark, Helly and Irving when they wake up from their regular lives and emerge their work selves?
This week’s magnificently tense episode, directed by series executive producer Ben Stiller, is a real nail-biter. It’s wonderfully edited and excellently performed.
Severance has abandoned its early crux — the depressing lives of office drones who literally have no souls because they’ve been surgically stripped of them — for a more fast-paced approach to the show’s thriller aspects.
It’s no longer a show about the drudgery of both lives lived by lost people. It’s about the race to get back some measure of its characters’ personhood.
A depressing dance party and a murder round out the crazy goings on in this week’s episode of Severance, the Apple TV+ show about a workplace plagued by secrets and underhanded, science fiction-style practices.
Once Mark (played by Adam Scott) sees the truth of his situation, there’s no turning back. But he can’t fix the problems at Lumon Industries alone. Wouldn’t it be helpful if something traumatic happened to everyone on his team, aligning them against their employer?
This week’s episode of Ben Stiller and Dan Erickson’s trippy workplace thriller brings a cavalcade of violent upsets — and each new incident stings intensely. It’s all a hair convenient, but it’s compelling enough to clear the hurdle anyway.
The plot thickens on this week’s tense and exciting episode of Severance, the show about a creeping conspiracy at a shady organization.
Mark is finally ready to start asking questions about what his employer Lumon Industries is up to, even though he knows the company will do everything in its power to stop him. He’s going to have to watch himself on two fronts because his outside world self is starting to dig into Lumon, too. And if he keeps making a spectacle of himself at work, they’ll be watching him extra-closely outside.
Severance takes a detour to a birthing cottage as Helly recovers from her suicide attempt and Mark recovers from having misjudged her so wildly. Now that he’s starting to see her side of things, he just has to hope it’s not too late.
Elsewhere in this week’s episode of the Apple TV+ hit about a company with extreme ideas about work/life balance, Irving and Burt circle each other. Mrs. Cobel grows nervous about her grip on the employees. And a psychiatrist comes in to monitor everyone.
Trust is running thin at Lumon Industries, and tensions are running high.
Severance throws a couple of funerals this week, but only one might be final. Apple TV+’s satirical psychological thriller about the hazards of compartmentalizing runs into a grim cul-de-sac in the episode, with some people giving up and others giving in.
The show’s purposefully lifeless world of corporate culture and suburban malaise find darker territory than ever this week as it becomes clear that each character, in their own way, will stop at nothing to do the job they deem most important.
New Apple TV+ thriller/comedy Severance takes a visit to a motivational museum this week. Actors Adam Scott, Britt Lower, Patricia Arquette, John Turturro and Yul Vasquez continue to do amazing work with their offbeat characters in this satirical study of the depressing nature of punching the clock.
Severance’s unique look and science fiction premise continue to pay dividends rich enough to get over some of the hurdles the show occasionally throws at the rational part of your brain.
New Apple TV+ dark comedy/thriller Severance centers on a company man with an unusual relationship to himself and his job. Every day he goes to work, and his brain stays behind.
At work Mark’s a new man — one who doesn’t have to think about his grief or his petty social problems. At home, he’s a sad sack who doesn’t know he’s about to stumble into a conspiracy.
Comedy veteran Ben Stiller and first-time showrunner/writer Dan Erickson collaborated on Severance, which premieres Friday. The unconventional show takes pointed satirical swipes at modern workplace culture, but ultimately offers a deeper look at the meaning of life.