Telling you that any given episode of Foundation kicks ass in five or six different ways seems to be the Prime Radiant’s prediction of my destiny, and far be it from me to deny the math: This episode of Foundation kicks ass in five or six different ways. Caitlin Parrish and Leigh Dana Jackson’s script is merciless, sullying a babyface character perhaps beyond salvation. It’s also dependent on not one but two characters, Gaal and the Mule, remaining several steps ahead of the audience, which in my case at least they certainly did. I always enjoy it when shows are smarter than I am.

As outer space spectacle, this remains a magnificent show. From Toran’s wounded ship skipping across space and down to the surface of their planet half destroyed, to the imposing enclosure of Kalgan by Empire’s ships, to the “cobalt spike” that burns the planet, even down to the red and green lighting of Dusk aboard his “black hole gun” weapon as he hears the news from Dawn, to the gravity-defying ways of the tubular planet where the Council meets, there’s virtually always something to feast on. 

I reviewed today’s episode of Foundation for Decider.

This show is full of surprises. With a one-year time jump, the relocation of a major character into a whole other world, and the introduction of perhaps the most major character of all, Chief of War has once again shaken itself up from one episode to the next. What impresses me most isn’t that it keeps introducing new wrinkles to what is at heart the simple story of a noble exile and an evil king, but how artfully it’s done.

I reviewed this week’s Chief of War for Decider.

In terms of sheer imagemaking, this is Tim Burton’s best work on the show. In terms of overall quality across the board, this is the show’s best episode. It’s scary, it’s actually funny, it’s relatable (knock before you enter the room when your roommate’s in there, god!), it’s got that awesome orc-troll-Gollum-Large Marge monster design for Tyler, it’s got goth Patsy from AbFab, and it ends with the possibility of Wednesday Addams journeying to the realm of the dead for real. It makes me want to tune in next time, even if that’s a month away. That’s exactly what you want a midseason finale to do.

I reviewed the midseason finale of Wednesday for Decider. I liked this one!

So yeah, random animated sequences? Jenna Ortega and Catherine Zeta-Jones doing their best Uma Thurman/Lucy Liu impression? Horror comedy centered on a Luis Guzmán shower scene? Christina Ricci getting dragged before Thandiwe Newton in chains? It would be churlish to deny the show’s pleasures. But it would be foolish to deny the many ways it hobbled itself right out of the gate.

I reviewed the third episode of Wednesday Season 2 for Decider.

It took me a minute, but I figured out what the second episode of Wednesday’s second installment reminds me of: Conan O’Brien’s old “Late Night’s Parade of Characters” bit. Hey, everyone, look! It’s Thandiwe Newton as a director of psychiatry for a hospital for the criminally insane! It’s Heather Matarazzo as the hospital’s chipper, ugly sweater–wearing personnel director! It’s Hunter Doohan returning as his evil Tyler/Hyde character, who’s now basically the Red Hulk! It’s Fred Armisen making an Uncle Fester Cameo for ten seconds! It’s Christopher Lloyd as a severed head in a robotic jar! It’s Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán as Morticia and Gomez, who are now series regulars because we realized the Addams Family is more interesting as a concept when it’s an actual family! And don’t forget Principal Evil Steve Buscemi! But wait — Morticia’s estranged Mama Hester is still on her way!

I reviewed Wednesday Season 2’s second episode for Decider.

So why did the series hit so big? The cast, plain and simple. Headlined by overnight sensation Jenna Ortega in the title role, supported by a breakout turn as Wednesday’s chipper werewolf sidekick Enid by Emma Myers, and augmented by a cast that included — let’s face it — certified dimepieces Catherine Zeta-Jones, Christina Ricci, Gwendoline Christie, Joy Sunday, Riki Lindhome, Hunter Doohan, and Percy Hynes White, the show felt more vivacious and charming than it actually was at any given time, just by virtue of how pleasant it was to watch these people act out their haunted-house hijinks. The flatness of any scene involving the badly miscast Luis Guzmán as family patriarch Gomez Addams shows how important the casting was to the overall project; it’s the exception that proves the rule.

I reviewed the season premiere of Wednesday for Decider.

The last word I wrote in my note s for this episode is “WOW.” TV should always be this beautiful, savage, and strange.

I reviewed this week’s Foundation for Decider.

Shows that launch with two or three episodes at once instead of a simple one-and-done series premiere always intrigue me. Is this just some random fluke of streaming services’ inexplicably bizarre release schedules, or is there some narrative or thematic logic to it? Are those first two or three episodes telling one big chapter of the larger story, or are they just, y’know, the first two or three episodes?

Chief of War’s second hour falls firmly in the latter category. In retrospect, the Chief of War we saw in the actual first episode was only half a show. We got to know the lay of the land, the sociopolitical circumstances, our hero, and his family. But we had yet to meet his co-protagonist, or encounter the world of white people, the boundaries of which are expanding all the time.

I reviewed the second episode of Chief of War for Decider.

Blood, butts, boats, and beauty: There are worse foundations upon which to build your historical epic. Judging by the sheer quantity of each in the series premiere of Chief of War, Apple TV+’s brutal and beautiful new saga of war-torn late 18th century Hawaii, this show’s on solid ground. Filmed entirely in Hawaiian and fueled by the simmering star power of Jason Momoa, who co-created the show and co-wrote the episode with Thomas Pa‘a Sibbett, it’s proof that the “Game of Thrones but in the real world” success of Shōgun was no fluke. Executed with care and charisma, it’s a formula that works.

I’m covering the new Apple TV+ historical epic Chief of War for Decider, starting with my review of the series premiere. I really can’t emphasize this enough: Jason Momoa is bare-assed throughout.

Plot-heavy recaps of a plot-heavy show tend to make those shows feel, well, heavy. There’s always a lot going on on Foundation, and since much of the business is very grim, cataloging it feels a bit like reading your New York Times push notifications. Collapse of civilization, fall of empire, rise of a tyrant, destruction of all that is kind and good in this world, flaying shirtless himbos with a potato peeler…It’s a lot to take in.

Not when you’re watching, though. Director Tim Southam drops us into the action with a you-are-there shot of Dawn’s huge landing craft touching down and keeps things spectacular from there. Bravodo Magnifico Giganticus’s performance is a sci-fi psychedelic musical rainbow, staged in one of those futuristic nightclubs that play EDM as heard everywhere from Andor to Dune: Prophecy. From lamplit glow of the library to the red light of the nightclub exterior, the scenery is vividly realized.

The script by Eric Carrasco and Greg Goetz, meanwhile, is full of funny little gems shining out from in between the flayings and the mindwipings. My favorite line goes to Day, who asks Song, “Are you feeling alright, darling? You’ve hardly touched your drugs.” (Second favorite is him insisting to Demerzel that “giraffe” is pronounced with a hard “G.”) Toran referring to the child princess whose archduke father the Mule killed as “your drunken toddler” is a nice bit too, as is her scampering after the Mule and his goons when they leave like she’s about to yell “Wait for meeeeee!” 

And all the Cleons resting their chins on their hands in contemplation simultaneously? It’s a great visual, but it also points to how similar these three men are despite all their self-perceived differences. Like so many aspects of this show, it works on multiple levels, which is why Foundation, like any empire, works so well.

I reviewed the most recent Foundation, which includes one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen (complimentary), for Decider.

“Do you feel it? The air gone stale? The common people holding their breath, watching their neighbors’ door get kicked in?” When Captain Han Pritchard asks this of the wealthy nepo baby Toran Mallow (Cody Fern) and his “wife” — marriage is the latest trend; everything old is new again — Bayta (Synnøve Karlsen), he knows what their answer will be. They’re too rich, too callow, too comfortable to hear the sound of the jackboots. When the Black Tongue, the flagship vessel of the telepathic pirate warlord known as the Mule, hovers over their honeymoon spot, their only concern is that its shadow will prevent them from getting a tan. They don’t want something so insignificant as a coup interfering with their comforts.

Not to sound like a broken record in these reviews, but boy, does that feel familiar!

I reviewed this week’s Foundation for Decider.

What can I say? The rom worked, the com worked, the Shakespeare/Austen happy wedding ending worked. I’d watch a second season about their married life in a heartbeat. It’s not Girls at all, but at no point did I expect it to be. It delivers on the promise of its opening moments: It gives Jessica her grand English love story, and it gives that to us too. 

I reviewed the finale of Too Much for Decider. It’s a funny, romantic show that makes great use of both its cast and its setting!

Will she head back to him, or is Lena Dunham going to give us a rom-com with an unhappy ending?

Beats me, man. People often forget that though Dunham’s own character on Girls, Hannah, got a bit of a grace note, the show’s verdict on its protagonists was bitingly cynical. I wouldn’t put it past her to craft a five-hour America-dreams-of-England rom-com with a down ending, even if it is based on the real-life happy ending she found with her own husband, the show’s co-creator Luis Felber. But I doubt it. I think we’re headed for a kind of anti-Girls, in which the creator of a show all about how grand young romances are dysfunctional and doomed throws her lot in with love, actually.

I reviewed the penultimate episode of Too Much for Decider.

So the two angrily part ways in the night, a beautiful floodlit blackness as captured by Bravo’s camera. Assuming we’re headed for a happy ending, this isn’t the end of the road, but it’s something that’s just as important in its way: the first Big Fight, the first Close Call, after that first exchange of I Love Yous. You’ve put your heart on the line, you’ve staked a decent part of your life on it, and now you’re furious at each other. Do you work through it, or do you decide it’s a dealbreaker?

I reviewed the eighth episode of Too Much for Decider.

“Welcome to my filth!” So says a cheery Brother Day (Lee Pace), the absentee Emperor of the galaxy, to his predecessor/older brother/imperfect clone, Brother Dusk (Terrence Mann). He’s welcoming the aging avatar of Empire to his lovely villa, where he’s “playing poverty” with his beautiful lover (and drug dealer), Song (Yootha Wong-Loi-Sing). But Day — stupid, sexy, Christlike Day, with his bare chest and his oversized drug rug and his “Common People” decision to slum it — speaks for me as well. Foundation is extremely my shit. Welcome to my filth!

I reviewed the Season 3 premiere of Foundation for Decider. So glad this one’s back!

I’d like to get right down to it in this review, so I’m doing something uncharacteristic and including a content warning: If frank discussion of sexual abuse troubles you in a way you’re not up for at the moment, you can skip this one. Like I said, I’m gonna get right down to it.

Everyone alright? Okay. Well then:

One of the best things I’ve ever done in my life was tell the woman I love that I was sexually abused as a child. Doing so meant, among other things, that I was finally willing to tell this to myself, to admit to myself what had been done to me. Weird verb choice there, I realize: How do I admit to myself what was done to me? How does that work? How have I, the victim, done anything to admit? But that’s the kind of infuriating anti-logic abusers embed in your brain.

More than that, though, telling my wife about my abuse was, in its strange way, a major building block in our relationship. I forced myself to trust this woman with a terrible part of my life, because I had faith that she would handle me with care. When she did, which of course she did…well, the reward has been the healthiest romantic relationship of my life. And whatever else it is or does, Too Much is a romance in the end.

I reviewed episode 7 of Too Much for Decider.

It all comes full circle when she makes it to Polly’s and screams for Felix to come out to talk to her. (“There’s a bell,” he points out.) She invites him to move in, which he agrees to do — but from now on, she has to talk about her problems with him with him, not with her phone.

Now get this: That’s exactly what she does! We catch up with them some time later at her apartment, where she’s just wrapping up telling him the whole Zev story. Her conclusion isn’t even “please tell me how bad that guy sucked,” it’s “please understand this my instincts are so screwy because I have all this bottled-up anger at him with no place to go but the wrong directions.”

I reviewed episode six of Too Much for Decider.

When Jessica ends up needing an abortion after a “look how spontaneous I’m being” fling with a production assistant at her latest gig, she finally decides to break things off with Zev. She outlines her reasons in a speech that actor Megan Stalter seems to bring forth from her bile ducts somewhere, with a clarity about who he is and what he’s done that’s hugely gratifying to hear after watching this poor woman get the shit kicked out of her for 20 or 30 minutes. “You just want to beat me into submission,” she says, accurately. “Maybe not with your fists, but with your words, and your lack of love.” She’s got him dead to rights. But she still affords him the grace of an opportunity to tell her he still loves her. The door is still open, if just a crack.

Zev slams it shut as hard as he possibly can. After first flipping the script so that it’s Jessica, not himself, who kept the other person trapped in a relationship she didn’t want, he says sure, it’s possible he’s made her feel as lonely as she claims to feel. But there’s an alternate explanation that he prefers: “At the root of it all, you really are just a fucking cunt.” The crooked-mouthed, open-jawed look of combined horror, sadness, fury, disgust, and terrible clarity that comes over Jessica’s face when she hears this shocking statement is Stalter’s finest moment on the show so far.

I reviewed the fifth episode of Too Much for Decider.

This is the surprisingly humane and complex note on which Murderbot ends. This is what sci-fi on television can be: a simple idea, staged in a vividly imagined universe, executed with skill at delivering both the expected thrills and the unexpected complications.

I reviewed the season finale of Murderbot, happily already renewed for a second season, for Decider. People seemed to have gotten a kick out of these reviews — thank you for reading!

The vast majority of this episode is like a good crazy-party episode of any comedy you’d care to name, from Woody’s wedding on Cheers to Pam feeling God in this Chili’s tonight on The Office to, well, more rich-asshole-party-based dramedy episodes than I could possibly list. And since every single person in the cast is a funny actor in a funny role, guess what? It’s funny! It’s wall to wall good bits, like Boss explaining to Felix that he was avoiding eye contact because he prefers to avoid eye contact with people he might have sex with, or Jessica slurring “Icanhaveadrink onceinawhile,” or Ann talking about how her dog was there for her during “Jonno’s emotional affair with Kylie Minogue.” (“What happened to her?” “She became like a sister.” “No, I mean, like, your dog.”) You’ve got some rom, you’ve got some com. No complaints here!

I reviewed episode four of Too Much for Decider.