Dramas

If you enjoy detailed looks at hit shows, check out my write-ups of Judging Amy Season 6, Voyager Season 4, Criminal Minds Season 8, Gilmore Girls Season 7 (and the subsequent, ill-judged Netflix miniseries), Doctor Who Series 8, Grantchester Series 6, Cold Case Season 4, plus fourteen essays devoted to each season of the great primetime soap Knots Landing, starting here.

Elsewhere, I look back at Murder, She Wrote and pick out The 10 Best "Murder She Wrote" Mysteries -- not (necessarily) my top episodes, but the best whodunnits.

If you're looking for something a bit more current, I look at three noir-tinged dramas from 2024: the first seasons of Dark Winds, Black Snow and Blue Lights; the best sci-fi series I saw in 2024, the one-season wonder Constellation; and a trio of fine procedurals, including Shetland Series 9 and Unforgotten Series 6. I have a piece called "Men in the Middle," about four recent dramas (The Tourist, This Is Going to Hurt, The Responder and Around the World in 80 Days) buoyed not merely by the talents of their leading men, but by the onscreen personas they've cultivated; another entitled "Private Faces," in praise of two spectacular series that emerged in the fall of 2020, Roadkill and Life; and a third entitled "Unwilling Victims," taking a look at three 2019 series by and about women: The Trial of Christine Keeler, Deadwater Fell and Flesh and Blood. And I ask "What Do Critics Want?" as I examine three series I loved, but they didn't: American Rust, The Offer and The Time Traveler's Wife.

There's also a 2015 essay praising two CBS shows that had quickly become favorites, Limitless and Madam Secretary; and a 2016 essay decrying two CW shows that I'd decided to drop, The Flash and Arrow. (It's an essay that asks, "How bad does a show have to get before you bail?")