TV Tips

Legion
The comic book show for people (like me) who hate comic book shows. Created by Noah Hawley, the genius behind "Fargo" (the movie revamp show for people who hate movie revamp shows). The premiere episode was an intense, surreal, outlandishly ambitious feat. Episode two calmed down some, but was still pretty amazing. Amid the plenty of Peak TV, I rarely look forward to new episodes with bated breath, but the next episode of Legion can't get here quickly enough. The great Alan Sepinwall's episode reviews.

The Young Pope
Not what you'd think from the trailers. Not what you'd think from the reviews. This is a surreal, surprising, whack job of a series that miraculously never seems indulgent or eye-rolling. Gorgeously shot, too. AV Club recaps are particularly good for this one, and Vulture, too.

The Expanse
Best hard science fiction since Battlestar Galactica, now into its second season. Great transportive world-building. Plot's a bit complicated, so I recommend following along on AVclub (though they didn't recap the first two epis of season 2).

Detroiters
Meticulously crafted comedy, starring the dude who plays Richard Splett on Veep. It's an original vision; not just another cookie-cutter comedy, and it gives me at least one or two laugh-howls per episode. I'm not saying this is great (yet), but I'm sticking with it.

Midnight Diner
On Netflix. Simple, gentle anthology series featuring the denizens of a late-night diner in Tokyo where the chef/owner ("The Master") will cook anything you ask for (and a certain amount of each show is devoted to the dish). Netflix has season 4, and it's very hard to find English-subtitled disks for previous seasons (and, when you do, they're subpar Chinese-produced translations), or English-subtitled versions of the film (featuring the same actor, Kaoru Kobayashi, as The Master). The original manga series (on which the live action stuff is based) is called "Shinya Shokudō". It's great, and available with English translation if you poke around for it.

I'm glad to see "Atlanta", which I found smshingly good (subtle, funny, brilliant, true), getting the credit it deserves. Wait, I never mentioned it here before? Sorry about that. Definitely catch up on Season One, which recently ended. Your only choices (for now) are Apple iTunes or the FXNow app.


Previous TV tips (including some gigunda round-ups, if you'll scroll down).