“The Outsider”
Richard Price adapted the hit novel by Stephen King into this dramatic series for HBO and the result was one of the better creative properties based on the work of the horror master. Ben Mendelsohn plays Detective Ralph Anderson, a small-town cop who follows a truckload of evidence to the belief that a friend and neighbor, played by Jason Bateman, committed a horrible child murder. All the evidence is there, but Ralph has no idea that he’s entered into a King vision of ancient evil, this time in the form of a doppelganger who can make the most innocent people look guilty. Mendelsohn is solid, as always, but the series belongs to Cynthia Erivo as Holly Gibney, the woman who really puts all of the pieces of this horrifying picture together. – BT
“Ozark”
It’s rare for a third season of a Prestige TV drama to be its best, but that’s the case with Netflix’s hit drama, never better than its junior year. After a couple of seasons in the shadow of the anti-hero dramas that inspired it, “Ozark” found its own voice by turning Marty (Jason Bateman) and Wendy Byrde (Laura Linney) into true heads of a criminal empire, amplifying the depth of their growing evil by throwing Wendy’s brother Ben (Tom Pelphrey) into the fray. Tighter and smarter than previous seasons, this year set the stage brilliantly for a final chapter in the Byrde saga. (Netflix just announced that the fourth season, split into two parts, will be the show’s final one.) – BT
“The Plot Against America”
The brilliant David Simon adapted the acclaimed 2004 novel by Philip Roth in a way that translated its message from the period in which it was set to the state of the world today. “The Plot Against America” is about an alternate universe in which Charles Lindbergh became President of the United States, and so the country never got involved in World War II, allowing Hitler’s beliefs to infiltrate American shores. How easily evil can flourish when good people look the other way has been a theme of fiction and philosophy for generations, but rarely has it been conveyed with such icy precision as in this HBO mini-series, a program that works on its own terms as an enthralling drama about where we could have been in 1945 or as a conversation starter in terms of what it says about where we are in 2020. – BT
“Ramy”
One of the most unique shows on television, and one that gives space to the Muslim-American culture and communities that rarely get their due, let alone spotlight on TV—other than stereotypes you see on cop or anti-terrorism shows—Hulu’s “Ramy” is an insightful and hilarious look at identity seen through the Muslim-American lens of creator and star Ramy Youssef. “Ramy” follows the eponymous first generation Egyptian-American who is on a spiritual journey in his politically divided New Jersey neighborhood. He’s devout, yet full of contradictions and hypocritical vices (porn, sex, weed, etc.). Season 2 introduces Mahershala Ali, as a wiser stoic elder that Ramy begins to take guidance from and the show continues to find a spiritual balance. While noting its unfortunate lack of female representation, Robert Daniels’ Season 2 review says, “Ramy” still holds “a strong footing as a deep dive into a rarely represented community, while parsing through the complexities of what it means to be a good Muslim man…[and the] greater existential dread wrapped in religion.” – RP
“Tales From The Loop”
We only have one life to live and a finite amount of life to live it and yet life is still filled with regret of how we live it and loss. Much of that idea—and perhaps the notion of freezing or restarting time to relive moments—are front and center at Nathaniel Halpern‘s humanist and melancholy sci-fi drama “Tales From The Loop” which follows the interconnected lives of the residents in a small town built around an experimental physics underground facility known as the Loop. Starring Rebecca Hall, Jonathan Pryce, Abby Ryder Fortson, Ato Essandoh, Paul Schneider, Abby Ryder Fortson, and more, the connected anthology stories of ‘Loop’ are intimate, emotional and all seem to hover around the inevitable notion that tyranny of time will eventually take everything from us, our loved ones, our cherished memories, our hopes and dreams. Helmed by an arsenal of excellent filmmakers including Mark Romanek who executive-produced the series and directed the pilot, ‘Loop’ directors include Andrew Stanton, Ti West, Jodie Foster, So Yong Kim, Charlie McDowell, and more. That should be more than enough to convince you of this excellent Amazon series. – RP
“Unorthodox”
Defying the Netflix bloat by being a tight 4-episode mini-series, this German production became one of the streaming service’s most acclaimed offerings to date after it dropped in March 2020. Based on Deborah Feldman’s Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots, “Unorthodox” is the story of a teenage Hasidic girl who flees her arranged marriage to find freedom and her mother in Berlin. Shira Haas is a revelation as Etsy, never turning her naivete about the non-Hasidic world into a crutch, finding truth in every tumultuous decision and every conflicting emotion. It’s a window into a society that hasn’t been seen much in fiction and it should turn Haas into a star. – BT
“What We Do in the Shadows”
The first season of the FX adaptation of the Taika Waititi comedy that could have been shorthanded as “The Real World with Vampires” was a pleasant, smart diversion. The second season, airing earlier this year, was one of the best comedies in years. The writers and actors found the groove of this show in its sophomore outing, delivering one of the best laughs-per-minute ratios in a long time. The whole season was hysterical, but the midsection of the season—“Colin’s Promotion” and “On the Run”— delivered a pair of instant classics, the kind of episodes that people will be quoting and re-watching for generations. – BT