★★★★☆
Apple TV+’s noir comedy High Desert comes to a close this week with a nicely judged final half-hour where streams and plots cross.
Arman and Heather, the Gatchis, Carol and Denny are all looking for Peggy in the High Desert season finale, entitled “I Need a Hero.” Can Peggy make up for a lifetime of misbehaving and lying and self-interest in one gesture? It’s a perfectly ridiculous ending to this laconic, if fast-talking, crime saga.
★★★★☆
Apple TV+ comedy Platonic hits a milestone this week as Sylvia and Will find boundaries to test they didn’t even know existed. Will learns some hard lessons about aging and relationships, while Sylvia tries to embark on a new chapter of her life without much support.
Entitled “The Big Two Six,” it’s a solid episode of the show about two people in their 40s who reconnect and re-become besties, heedless of optics and obstacles.
★★★★☆
Apple TV+ comedy High Desert reaches its penultimate episode this week, as Peggy comes close to solving the many mysteries she’s been juggling as a first-time private investigator.
Arman and Heather squeeze Peggy for money she doesn’t have, just as her ne’er-do-well hubby Denny creates more problems for them by resuming his life of crime. Plus, the Gatchis demand answers about their missing sister. Entitled “This Doesn’t Have to Be a Tragedy,” it’s a surprisingly emotional episode of the zany noir.
In this installment of 3 Reasons to Watch, we look at the Platonic, the surprisingly good comedy from stoner whisperer Seth Rogen, luminous star Rose Byrne and husband and wife writers/directors Francesca Delbanco and Nicholas Stoller.
In the show, which premiered last month on Apple TV+, Byrne and Rogen star as friends who become awkward appendages of each other’s already messy lives. Here’s why you should take a chance on Platonic.
★★★★☆
Apple TV+’s farcical neo-noir High Desert gets tied up this week as Peggy accidentally finds herself at the business end of some dangerous people’s guns. Guru Bob is kidnapped and tormented for his role in selling art forgeries to bad people, while Peggy’s quest to find Bob’s wife lands her in hot water with the Gatchi family.
The episode, entitled “A Nod Is Not a Hello,” is a raucous and funny time, even as the stakes climb higher by the minute
★★★★☆
Apple TV+ comedy Platonic finds Will and Charlie stepping outside of their comfort zones this week, at a greater cost than either imagined.
The show, about two adult friends who try to reclaim their nonsexual friendship at the start of their middle age, finds them Charlie’s wife Sylvia all keeping secrets from each other — a sure sign that everything’s going according to plan, right?
Entitled “My Wife’s Boyfriend,” it’s a surprisingly effective episode, despite all the comic games that come out of left field.
★★★★☆
Off-kilter Apple TV+ comedy High Desert, which stars Patricia Arquette as con artist-turned-private-investigator Peggy Newman, takes a detour into Guru Bob’s past this week.
In the episode, entitled “Soul Retrieval,” Peggy and her ex-husband get reacquainted with the good times and the bad times that so characterized their marriage. Plus, Peggy lands her first case — if she can remember to get around to it.
The wildly entertaining comedy procedural takes a beat from the main action this week and still proves fast on its feet.
★★★☆☆
Ted Lasso, the perpetually upbeat Apple TV+ show that blindsided a pandemic-stricken world with a cocktail of optimism and inspiration, comes to a fitting close this week after a remarkable three-season run.
The Ted Lasso finale, entitled “So Long, Farewell,” finds Ted’s team AFC Richmond up against its most fierce nemesis, Rupert Mannion’s West Ham United.
With West Ham’s old coach Nate back at Richmond after an awkward breakup, will the Greyhounds have what it takes to beat the Hammers? Just how optimistic can this show be?
★★★★☆
Apple TV+ comedy Platonic takes a look at the lighter side of divorce this week. The show, about two best friends who are suddenly back in each other’s lives after a prolonged absence, finds Sylvia deciding to throw Charlie a divorce party to get his mind off how well his ex is doing.
In the poignant episode, entitled “Divorce Party,” some drugs and changes of plan send Sylvia into a tailspin that makes her realize she isn’t where she wants to be anymore.
In this installment of 3 Reasons to Watch, we’ll tell you why we’re buzzing about High Desert, the new Apple TV+ comedy starring livewire Patricia Arquette as daffy private eye Peggy Newman.
The show, created by Miss Congeniality writer Katie Ford and Grace and Frankie alums Nancy Fichman and Jennifer Hoppe, is a bawdy neo-noir set in a world of lowlifes and fake cowboys.
Here’s why you need to give High Desert the old college try.
★★★★☆
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.
In this installment of 3 Reasons to Watch, we look at Bad Sisters, the Irish black comedy that racked up awards after its spectacular first season.
The acidic series follows the five Garvey sisters, who are complicit in a crime … but not in the way it initially appears. Here’s why you need to stream Bad Sisters yesterday.
★★★★☆
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.
★★☆☆☆
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+ 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.
★★★☆☆
Ted Lasso finds almost everyone in a rut this week. Keeley is a wreck after leaked footage of her reaches the internet, and it may have even worse consequences than she fears. Ted thinks his wife is going to get engaged to someone else — and he’s not handling it well.
The thornier-than-usual episode, entitled “We’ll Never Have Paris,” still comes with the usual gallon of sentimentality we expect from the most popular show on Apple TV+.
★★★☆☆
Apple TV+ musical comedy Schmigadoon! finds love in all the wrong places this week. Melissa goes from nobody to somebody, and Josh finds his calling as a spiritual leader, which is the last thing they need right now.
In their quest to make things right in Schmicago, they tangle things up worse than ever — and they clearly don’t have a clean exit strategy. The episode, entitled “Famous as Hell,” is a rousing chapter of the Schmigadoon! saga.
Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen play a pair of friends having dual midlife crises in Platonic, a comedy series coming to Apple TV+ in May.
The Platonic trailer, released Wednesday, shows just how funny but destructive their friendship can be.
★★★☆☆
Ted Lasso, the Apple TV+ show dipped in positivity and marinated in feculence, sketches a few days in a few of its characters’ lives this week.
Ted, Beard and Roy attempt Total Football. Sam is hounded by the political climate. Keeley needs to learn when to say when, and Jamie has a breakthrough. An otherwise very strong episode of the biggest hit on Apple TV+ is undercut by the series’ usual foibles in the episode, entitled “The Strings That Bind Us.”
