Tomorrow Never Knows: notes on The Last Anniversary, Black Doves and The White Lotus

Last January, the Doomsday Clock was reset at 89 seconds to midnight, the closest it’s ever been to human extinction. Meanwhile, I turn on the TV, and it feels like every third drama is post-apocalyptic. Maybe some people find that comforting — that whatever happens, at least we get through it, even if we’re hunted by zombies, stuck in a silo or trapped underground. Me, I prefer not to think about the end of the world, thank you very much. I haven’t written about TV since May of 2024, so here’s the last of a series taking on nine shows I watched in the last year (none of them set in a dystopian future). Some of my favorite series — The Pitt, Adolescence, Ludwig — were just as good as the critics promised and I have nothing to add, so I won’t be writing about them here. I’d rather focus on shows that came and went without sufficient fanfare, or ones where my opinion differs from popular consensus. Let’s do a roundup of some recent dramas.