{"id":186158,"date":"2025-11-17T23:59:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T23:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/186158\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T23:59:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T23:59:10","slug":"fall-tv-was-saved-by-heavy-hitters-critics-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/186158\/","title":{"rendered":"Fall TV Was Saved by Heavy Hitters: Critics’ Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDANIEL FIENBERG<\/strong> Bringing eyeballs back to broadcast in a major way, the best television show of the fall was a seven-part anthology series that sparked debate about the limitations of star power and whether budget and quality are inextricably intertwined. Although seemingly reset from year-to-year, it\u2019s technically a drama owing to key elements that recurred from last fall, including the wunderkind multi-hyphenate at the story\u2019s center: a producer of the highest level, unbound by the medium\u2019s traditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite efforts to put restrictions on running time, some installments made a mockery of duration, with one episode running well over six hours \u2014 unheard of outside of the realm of\u00a0Stranger Things.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWe laughed. We cried. We held our collective breath waiting to see whether or not the series would stick the landing, only to end up with a thrilling finale that satisfied one part of the fandom and left the rest of the audience fixated on the smallest of details, the most random of choices.<\/p>\n

\n\tThank you to the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays for briefly saving one of the most lackluster TV autumns I can recall. Fox is certainly grateful. Heck, all of broadcast television is grateful, because otherwise we\u2019d only mention ABC, NBC, Fox and CBS in the context of questions like, \u201cBoy, Nashville sure has some wacky emergencies!\u201d or \u201cBoy, the cast of\u00a0DMV\u00a0is better than the TV show they\u2019re currently in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was a fall where people were constantly coming up to me begging for TV recommendations and for a while, I was forced to recommend favorites from the first half of the year, urging people, for the hundredth time, to check out Netflix\u2019s\u00a0North of North\u00a0or Adult Swim\u2019s\u00a0Common Side Effects.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut as we transition from fall to winter, it becomes clear that there were absolutely some treasures, with or without the unparalleled brilliance of Shohei Ohtani.<\/p>\n

\n\tMy two most anticipated shows of the fall withstood the weight of expectations and turned out to be exceptional and distinctive star vehicles. Vince Gilligan moved to Apple and returned to his\u00a0X-Files\u00a0roots for the sci-fi horror dramatic comedy\u00a0Pluribus<\/a>, which used its ultra-mysterious and yet ultra-familiar genre trappings for a droll meditation on the eternal clash between collective joy and individual grouchiness. The latter was embodied flawlessly by Rhea Seehorn, seemingly emerging as far more than every TV critic\u2019s favorite unrecognized actor. Meanwhile, over on FX, Ethan Hawke took a beating across the nine episodes of Sterlin Harjo\u2019s\u00a0The Lowdown<\/a>, a celebration of pulp mystery, white guilt and the glorious melting pot of Oklahoma.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tActually, a LOT of the fall TV that I had the highest hopes for delivered, which is far from a common occurrence. There have been several times that I\u2019ve started one of these seasonal conversations by saying, \u201cThe big shows stunk, but we found some good stuff under the radar!\u201d This fall, the radar \u2026 umm \u2026 did whatever radars do. It worked, is what I\u2019m saying.<\/p>\n

\n\tAngie, how was your radar working this fall? No, literally: How do radars work?<\/p>\n

\n\tANGIE HAN<\/strong>\u00a0I didn\u2019t go into TV criticism because I\u2019m good at knowing and explaining science-y things like \u201chow radars work.\u201d But to your actual point: So much of fall TV this year has been the equivalent of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the super-talented, super-rich, super-famous top dogs already heavily favored to win the World Series winning the World Series. Is anyone\u00a0surprised\u00a0that the latest shows from heavy-hitting talents like Vince Gilligan and Sterlin Harjo are great? No. Was it nevertheless immensely satisfying when\u00a0Pluribus<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0The Lowdown<\/a>\u00a0turned out to be as good as we\u2019d hoped? Oh, yes.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe same could be said of several other highlights from the past few months. What keeps things interesting, though, is that despite hailing from familiar pedigrees, none of these shows just feels like more of the same.<\/p>\n

\n\tLong Story Short<\/a>, from Bojack Horseman<\/a>\u2019s Raphael Bob-Waksberg, was a bittersweet reflection on time, familial love and Jewishness as explored through one normal human family; it shared some of Bojack\u2019s gift for combining laugh-out-loud humor with profound melancholy, but tilted more toward the latter and featured nary a Bojack-ian anthropomorphized animal in sight.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlien: Earth<\/a>, the offspring of Fargo\u2019s Noah Hawley and Fox\u2019s unkillable sci-fi franchise, devoted one of its middle chapters to what is essentially a recreation of 1979\u2019s Alien, sure \u2014 but it spent the rest of its time expanding the series\u2019 ongoing preoccupations with robots, monsters, capitalism and hubris in new directions, with new flavors of all of the above.<\/p>\n

\n\tI didn\u2019t love everything about HBO\u2019s I Love LA<\/a>, from Shiva Baby<\/a> and Bottoms<\/a> breakout Rachel Sennott, but I appreciated its ambitious and honest attempts to grapple with a specifically Zillennial take on fame, friendship and hustle culture, from her distinctly Zillennial perspective.<\/p>\n

\n\tHBO\u2019s The Chair Company<\/a> \u2026 actually, no, that one does feel like a prestige-series-length expansion of an I Think You Should Leave sketch. But that\u2019s not a bad thing when the extra time allows Robinson and Kanin to push their signature \u201cweird guy doubles down on inane thing to the point of self-destruction\u201d storyline farther than ever before, and to take you down the rabbit hole with them.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo, yeah, maybe our faves weren\u2019t necessarily out-of-nowhere shocks to the system, but they managed to surprise me nonetheless. Just like how anyone could have predicted the Dodgers would win, but no one would have foreseen that getting there would involve an 18-inning game, a ball getting wedged under a wall, a benches-clearing almost-brawl, etc.<\/p>\n

\n\tFIENBERG\u00a0<\/strong>Sigh.\u00a0Long Story Short\u00a0was so very good and so effectively Jewish that it made me resent how repetitive and generally toothless the second season of\u00a0Nobody Wants This<\/a>\u00a0was and (how heavily and aggressively Netflix promoted one and not the other).\u00a0Long Story Short\u00a0found a way to combat popular culture\u2019s stereotypical-Jewish-mother problem with nuance and evolving storytelling, while\u00a0Nobody Wants This\u00a0attempted to do the same by mostly writing the Jewish mother out of the show. Oh well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt isn\u2019t surprising that HBO continues to push hard at the boundaries of cringe comedy \u2014 this is the home of\u00a0Girls<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Curb Your Enthusiasm \u2014 but it may be achieving peak cringe this year. After the spring triumph of the second season of Nathan Fielder\u2019s\u00a0The Rehearsal, HBO is raising the bar with\u00a0The Chair Company, which has an uncomfortable tone that feels unsustainable until it just keeps going. The blend of conspiratorial thriller drama and absurdist humor is hard to get right (Netflix\u2019s\u00a0The Vince Staples Show\u00a0does it fairly well in its second season), but Tim Robinson and company are getting it right so far.<\/p>\n

\n\tA lot of the shows from familiar auspices have delivered familiar and satisfying results this fall, including\u00a0Down Cemetery Road<\/a>, which shares literary origins with\u00a0Slow Horses\u00a0and offers the pleasure of watching Emma Thompson play her own version of Gary Oldman\u2019s Jackson Lamb \u2014 only more stylish and less flatulent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThat does not, however, mean that every TV auteur and beloved star has delivered up to their high standards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRyan Murphy\u2019s one-two punch of\u00a0Monster: The Ed Gein Story<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0All\u2019s Fair<\/a>\u00a0were met with critical hostility \u2014 the first is a thematically repetitive and exploitative condemnation of true crime and the audience who loves it, the second a bizarrely overqualified ensemble of acting titans playing second fiddle<\/a> to Kim Kardashian. Glen Powell generates few, if any, laughs in the sour sports satire\u00a0Chad Powers<\/a>, while Andy Muschietti made so much money with his two\u00a0It\u00a0movies that he decided to basically remake them for\u00a0It: Welcome to Derry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut\u00a0All\u2019s Fair\u00a0and\u00a0Monster\u00a0are hits and you needn\u2019t worry about Glen Powell or Pennywise. And some things are just polarizing. I hated Brad Ingelsby\u2019s\u00a0Mare of Easttown\u00a0follow-up\u00a0Task<\/a>, which I found to be a hollow mixture of implausible dramatic contrivance and unearned misery. But other viewers found it emotionally devastating.<\/p>\n

\n\tAngie, what high-profile shows let you down this fall? <\/p>\n

\n\tHAN<\/strong> I was going to say something mean about the Mets, but since this is a TV column and not a baseball one, I\u2019ll refrain and just say that you\u2019ve already named several I\u2019d put in that category.<\/p>\n

\n\tI didn\u2019t dislike Task as much as you did, but it turns out that without Mare of Easttown\u2019s touches of warmth and humor, Pennsylvania is just an unrelenting pit of gloom. Chad Powers made me wonder if I disliked Glen Powell, a feat I would have previously assumed to be impossible. Monster: The Ed Gein Story and All\u2019s Fair felt like the Ryan Murphy machine testing how much contempt they could show for their audience and still keep \u2019em coming back for more.<\/p>\n

\n\tThen there are the promising-on-paper shows that didn\u2019t flop, but didn\u2019t really take off, either. AMC\u2019s Talamasca: The Secret Order<\/a>, like It: Welcome to Derry, tried to replicate the pleasures of its parent project, but despite a few bits of charm it mostly just answered questions I wasn\u2019t asking to begin with. The Paper<\/a> was cute, but it was always going to be impossible for it to live up to the legacy of its beloved predecessor \u2026 and indeed it did not, if the general lack of buzz is any indication. I only partly blame Peacock\u2019s head-scratching decision to drop all the episodes at once. Netflix\u2019s House of Guinness<\/a> was frothy fun \u2014 not to mention an ideal showcase for Anthony Boyle\u2019s ability to rock an old-timey mustache \u2014 but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s sparking Peaky Blinders-level obsession in anyone.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut enough about these big-market, big-dollar teams. Let\u2019s talk about the Milwaukee Brewers equivalents, the little TV shows that could. Women Wearing Shoulder Pads is maybe the ultimate underdog, a queer Spanish-language stop-motion animated series created by Undone and Tuca & Bertie writer Gonzalo Cordova and aired by Adult Swim. Puppet sex, telenovela twists and surreal flourishes braid together in the saga of 1980s Ecuadorian businesswomen battling for the future of the guinea pig \u2014 and somehow, it\u2019s even stranger than that description makes it sound. In a TV landscape currently dominated by familiar names and franchises, it\u2019s a treat to see something so delightfully out of left field.<\/p>\n

\n\tFIENBERG<\/strong> Well, the Brewers didn\u2019t provide much of a challenge for the Dodgers, but they provided an important service in depicting Wisconsin as something other than a haven for ghoulish serial killers (and that one season of\u00a0Top Chef, though I can\u2019t say for certain that there weren\u2019t any serial killers in that cast).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWe\u2019ve both trashed\u00a0Monster: The Ed Gein Story\u00a0sufficiently, so I want to say something positive about it. Watching eight episodes of\u00a0Monster: The Ed Gein Story\u00a0in one sitting on premiere day \u2014 Ryan Murphy doesn\u2019t believe in screeners for critics anymore \u2014 really made me appreciate\u00a0Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy<\/a>\u00a0when I watched it the next day. Patrick Macmanus\u2019 over-stuffed eight-parter about the prolific serial killer operating down the road in Chicagoland was subtle, somber, respectful and restrained, all attributes that will never be mentioned in a\u00a0Monster\u00a0review. Michael Chernus is great as the clown-loving killer whose love for clowns is barely addressed, but the series is generally an ensemble about Gacy, the law enforcement figures who pursued him, his victims and the societal conditions that allowed him to operate unchecked for years. It isn\u2019t flawless, but it\u2019s substantive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tGood call on the charmingly odd\u00a0Women Wearing Shoulder Pads, which I recommended in my weekly Now See This newsletter, but hadn\u2019t heard anybody discuss in the wild. I felt like\u00a0Common Side Effects\u00a0had a bit of a mainstream breakthrough, but\u00a0Shoulder Pads\u00a0was perhaps just a bit too strange.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut you never know what\u2019s going to \u201cwork.\u201d Mae Martin\u2019s Netflix limited series\u00a0Wayward<\/a>\u00a0didn\u2019t feel like a breakout either, but it was in the Netflix Top 10 for a few weeks (even if I assume many of those viewers were left more perplexed than gratified). I still dug how the show, an extremely dark semi-satire of the troubled kid correctional industry, always felt like it was on the verge of becoming something else and, thus, kept me guessing (in contrast to Netflix\u2019s\u00a0The Beast in Me<\/a>, a thriller that never kept me guessing for a second).<\/p>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t know if a show with Michael Shannon, Matthew Macfadyen, Nick Offerman and Betty Gilpin could count as an underdog, but Netflix\u2019s\u00a0Death by Lightning<\/a>, focusing on James Garfield\u2019s unlikely rise to the presidency and his bizarre assassination, delivered three excellent episodes before a too-rushed conclusion. The stars are all great, especially Offerman, whose drunken, easily overlooked Chester A. Arthur become one of my favorite TV characters of the year.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd speaking of unlikely TV favorites? Benito Mussolini! Chances are good that unless you\u2019re a Mubi subscriber, you haven\u2019t even heard of\u00a0Mussolini: Son of the Century, starring the spectacular Luca Marinelli as the fascist dictator. Directed by Joe Wright, it\u2019s one of the most artistically audacious shows you could ever hope to see. Does it all work? No, but it\u2019s a brash and bold and operatic cautionary tale.<\/p>\n

\n\tLet\u2019s go back to radars, Angie. Other than the arrival of pitchers and catchers at spring training in February, what are you looking forward to over the next couple of months?<\/p>\n

\n\tHAN<\/strong>\u00a0Hmm \u2026 does the final season of\u00a0Stranger Things\u00a0count, if I\u2019m mostly just looking forward to not ever having to think about those overgrown kids anymore?<\/p>\n

\n\tNot to turn up my nose at\u00a0With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration\u00a0or anything \u2014 I am sincerely sure the Duchess of Sussex does amazing things with gift wrap \u2014 but aside from the usual procession of holiday specials, this winter\u2019s looking pretty sleepy.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne possible highlight is Netflix\u2019s\u00a0The Abandons, which looks like the most Taylor Sheridan drama not actually produced by Taylor Sheridan (it\u2019s created by\u00a0Sons of Anarchy\u2019s Kurt Sutter). If nothing else, its cast list \u2014 Gillian Anderson! Michael Greyeyes! Nick Robinson! Patton Oswalt! \u2014 is too promising to ignore. Similarly,\u00a0His & Hers, also on Netflix, has sold me on its talent alone: Tessa Thompson, Jon Bernthal,\u00a0Lady Macbeth<\/a>\u00a0director William Oldroyd. And I have no idea what exactly Adult Swim\u2019s one-off animated special\u00a0The Elephant\u00a0is going to be, but after\u00a0Common Side Effects\u00a0and\u00a0Women Wearing Shoulder Pads, I\u2019m down to see whatever weirdness they\u2019re cooking up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThen there\u2019s the usual cavalcade of returning shows and spinoffs from now \u2019til February:\u00a0Spartacus: House of Ashur,\u00a0Game of Thrones: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,\u00a0Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Destin Daniel Cretton\u2019s Marvel comedy\u00a0Wonder Man, a new season of\u00a0Scrubs. Am I pumped for all of them? Not at all. But I\u2019d be remiss not to mention them at the end of a long conversation about how many of this fall\u2019s big winners have also been the buzziest and most obvious ones.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tA great show can come from anywhere, and sometimes that includes hugely beloved properties you might fear had already been strip mined to death.\u00a0Check back here in a few months, I guess, to see if a single one of those actually wins us over \u2014 or if we really will be forced to start saying things like \u201cThe World Baseball Classic is the best TV show of 2026 so far!\u201d come March.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DANIEL FIENBERG Bringing eyeballs back to broadcast in a major way, the best television show of the fall…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[265],"tags":[18,117,104681,19,17,96323,52590,128],"class_list":{"0":"post-186158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-i-love-la","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-pluribus","14":"tag-the-lowdown","15":"tag-tv"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115567759382817575","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}