\t\u2018A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms\u2019 (HBO)<\/p>\n
\t\t\t![\"Peter](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Steffan Hill\/HBO\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tJust when you thought the idea of spinning off more Game of Thrones shows was simply an exercise in IP extension, along comes a buddy comedy<\/a> that restores your faith in George R.R. Martin\u2019s TV franchise of fire and ice. Based on the author\u2019s \u201cTales of Dunk and Egg\u201d novellas and set roughly a century before GoT, this chronicle of the adventures of bumbling would-be knight Dunk (Peter Claffey) and his young, bald-headed squire Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell) is fleet-footed and not weighed down by the need for spectacle that sank the flagship series\u2019 final season. Yes, these two characters will eventually become big deals in the Thrones-verse, and there are some incredible set pieces, including one hell of a jousting battle. But freed from the responsibility of having to add chapters to a saga, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is happy to crack wise and be bawdy over in the saga\u2019s margins. \u2014David Fear<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \t\u2018Bait\u2019 (Prime)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tBeing in the running to be the next James Bond seems like a rarefied problem, but Riz Ahmed\u2019s Bait mines six hilarious, unpredictable, and universally moving episodes out of the highly specific dilemma.\u00a0Strictly B-actor Shah Latif (Ahmed) finds himself up for the very A-list part of the British icon, and he\u2019s not handling the pressure well.\u00a0As he wrestles with issues of identity, selling out, self-involvement, and shame<\/a>, a supercilious inner voice (Sir Patrick Stewart, really<\/a>) and the very loud outer voices of his tight-knit Pakistani family drive him to extremes.\u00a0With exceptionally sharp writing and a fantastic cast, Bait doesn\u2019t need to take such big creative swings \u2014 episodes mimic different movie genres and dip in and out of Shah\u2019s unconscious \u2014 but even the misses feel worthwhile.\u00a0In a crowded field, Guz Khan steals every scene as Shah\u2019s cousin (hard to pull off the line \u201cYou look like a pedophile gerbil, bro,\u201d but he does) and if you\u2019ve been worried about Industry\u2018s Rishi<\/a> (Sagar Radia), he pops up doing fine in Episode Eight. \u2014Jennifer Silverman<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \t\u2018Beef\u2019 Season 2 (Netflix)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tHow do you follow up a debut<\/a> that wins eight Emmys and instantly establishes your new show as one of Netflix\u2019s biggest hits? If you\u2019re Lee Sung Jin, the creator of Beef, you start from scratch<\/a>, assemble a dream cast, and double down on the social commentary. This sophomore-season reset examines not one but two Angeleno couples in a state of crisis: a country-club manager and his interior-decorator wife (Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan), and engaged twentysomethings (Charles Melton and Cailee Spaeny) who work for him. Once again, bad behavior, blackmail, and aspirations toward a better life cause these dueling duos to play dirty, even as the stakes keep escalating. Like Beef\u2018s first season, these eight episodes present a caustic view of a world brimming with ever-elusive brass rings, and give all four leads a large stage on which to rage; even in expanding the show\u2019s scale and scope (the final few episodes take place in Seoul), Lee keeps his sights set on the way the American dream has a way of delivering rude awakenings. That first season was anything but a fluke. \u2014D.F.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \t\u2018Big Mistakes\u2019 (Netflix)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tConsidering how embedded in the culture it\u2019s become, it\u2019s hard to believe that Schitt\u2019s Creek was Dan Levy\u2019s very first credit as both writer and star. How in the name of Pope Moira I do you follow an act like that? Levy made the wise choice to go in a completely different direction with Big Mistakes, the dark crime comedy he co-created with fellow millennial humorist Rachel Sennott<\/a>. Levy\u2019s Nicky is the diametric opposite of David Rose: a closeted pastor with impostor syndrome \u2014 and absolutely no fashion sense \u2014 who, along with his slacker sister Morgan (Taylor Ortega), finds himself caught up in New Jersey\u2019s criminal underworld. It\u2019s equal parts cringe comedy, thriller, and family sitcom, elevated by the addition of the great Laurie Metcalf as a suburban mom with an ax to grind. The freshman season ends on a delicious twist that\u2019s got us champing at the bit to find out what fresh shenanigans these three get up to in season two. \u2014Jenna Scherer<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \t\u2018The Comeback\u2019 Season 3 (HBO)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tThe first half of this TV year introduced several excellent new shows examining the struggles and humiliations of fame, but they all live in the shadow of The Comeback<\/a>, Lisa Kudrow\u2019s master class on self-delusion and resiliency.\u00a0After a 12-year break between seasons two and three, Hollywood survivor Valerie Cherish (Kudrow) returns to confront a contracting entertainment industry, AI creep, agism, sexism and the compromises of success.\u00a0As a bittersweet bonus, this season features the recently passed legendary sitcom director James Burrows<\/a>.\u00a0He plays himself as the beloved voice of reason, a guy who\u2019s done it all, very well, and can demand a \u201cfun clause\u201d in his contract (\u201cIf I\u2019m not have any fun, I\u2019m out\u201d) \u2014 something you suspect Kudrow included in hers.\u00a0\u2014J. Silverman<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \t\u2018The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins\u2019 (NBC)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tExcellent television has been crafted around our cratering health system, the dark side of international finance, and examinations of ethnic identity in a postcolonial world, but sometimes, you just need jokes about a dating show called \u201cEx Peninsula,\u201d featuring the Valtrex Confessional Pool.\u00a0The latter comes courtesy of The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, the latest entry in the Tina Fey-Robert Carlock cannon of silly, joke-a-minute comedies.\u00a0Tracy Morgan plays a disgraced former NFL football player looking for a comeback.\u00a0To get there, he hires a documentary crew, helmed by a pompous Daniel Radcliffe<\/a>, to follow him around, along with his ex-wife and manager (Erika Alexander, working magic), current fianc\u00e9 (Precious Way), son (Jalyn Hall), and live-in Al Cowlings-esque sycophant (Bobby Moynihan).\u00a0It\u2019s a far from an original premise, and the pilot creaks a bit, but the ensemble soon hits its groove, stuffing jokes into every crevice (Sports Shouting! is back!) while making room for comedy aces like Craig Robinson, Heidi Gardner, and [checks notes] Megan Thee Stallion<\/a>.\u00a0\u2014J. Silverman<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \t\u2018Hacks\u2019 Season 5 (Max)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tIn the history of television, there\u2019s never been a relationship quite like the one between Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder<\/a>). Are they creative partners? Professional rivals? Mentor and prot\u00e9g\u00e9? Mother and daughter? Best friends? Wives? Yes. After five years spent in the world of Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky\u2019s whip-smart, emotionally honest comedy series, we\u2019ve become deeply invested in Deborah and Ava, two women who are completely different and exactly the same. The fifth and final season couldn\u2019t have been a more fitting sendoff for our girls, who have finally come to know and accept each other on every level. We laughed through a hilarious lesbian farce, cheered as they each achieved their lifelong dreams, and wept cathartic tears through that raw, gorgeous finale. These two began as enemies, but they ended as one another\u2019s literal reason to live. \u2014J. Scherer<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \t\u2018Industry\u2019 Season 4 (HBO)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tJust like its baby traders, Industry has grown up over four seasons. What started as a juicy trifle that used London\u2019s finance world as a backdrop for the salacious cavorting of the young and attractive has gradually become a more serious meditation on capitalism, politics, race, class, and power, and how they all make a dangerous cocktail when it comes to human relationships. The series\u2019 fourth installment widened its aperture far beyond Pierpoint, showing how the finance sector\u2019s greedy tentacles stretch across the globe and intertwine with even more sinister underworlds. The unraveling of Kit Harington\u2019s Henry Muck, only for him to wind up coddled, if trapped, on his family\u2019s country estate in perpetuity, is a haunting testament to both the privileges and the damages of the elite. Ken Leung, the series\u2019 stealth MVP, brought pathos and humanity to Eric\u2019s dissolution, while Myha\u2019la\u2019s Harper, who\u2019s sometimes seemed the most soulless of the bunch, proved she still has a moral compass. Yes, the season turned woefully dark by the end \u2014 but in a world where the depravities of the so-called Epstein class are only just beginning to be known, nothing it depicted felt too heinous to be real. \u2014Maria Fontoura<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \t\u2018Margo\u2019s Got Money Troubles\u2019 (Apple TV)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tBetween Euphoria and this series, it\u2019s been a banner year for OnlyFans on the small screen, but David E. Kelley\u2019s adaptation of Rufi Thorpe\u2019s novel about a young, single mom on the platform neither demonizes nor romanticizes the controversial site. Sex work is real work, and NSFW content can be a creative outlet, the show suggests<\/a>. The struggle to outrun social stigmas around such things is equally real, but this standout dramedy doesn\u2019t let its hot-button topic eclipse everything else \u2014 it never forgets it\u2019s a character-driven piece, as well as a first-rate showcase for star-producer Elle Fanning. She\u2019s matched by Michelle Pfeiffer, doing some career-best work as Margo\u2019s mother, who\u2019s trying her best to leave her own checkered past behind, and a surprisingly moving Nick Offerman as Margo\u2019s pro-wrestler pops, grappling with sobriety. It\u2019s the sort of story about class divides and second chances that wears its prestige bona fides lightly, and brims with empathy. Plus, because Kelley\u2019s gonna Kelley, it\u2019s also got a showstopper of a courtroom climax. \u2014D.F.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \t\u2018The Pitt\u2019 Season 2 (HBO Max)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tWe came to R. Scott Gemmill\u2019s hospital drama for the ER nostalgia and Noah Wyle\u2019s big, soulful Basset Hound eyes. But we stayed for the propulsive pacing, brilliant ensemble, and hyper-realistic depiction of just how intense life in the ED can be. If the first season was a thriller, the second was a study of the psychological cost of years spent helping people through the worst day of their life. It also grappled with hot-button topics like sexual assault, insulin rationing, and suicidal ideation without ever coming off as didactic. But the show\u2019s appeal ultimately comes down to following the characters we\u2019ve come to know so intimately \u2014 not just how they hurt each other, but how they care for each other, whether through wisecracks or tough love. And that karaoke credits scene<\/a>? Icing on the cake. \u2014J. Scherer<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \t\u2018Widow\u2019s Bay\u2019 (Apple TV)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tWelcome to Widow\u2019s Bay \u2014 a tiny island off the coast of New England that, if the town\u2019s overly ambitious mayor Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys) has his way, is primed to become the next Martha\u2019s Vineyard. Except there\u2019s this centuries-long curse, see, and well\u2026 it\u2019s kinda tough to be a tourist-friendly hot spot when haunted inns, ancient sea hags, and Necronomicons masquerading as self-help manuals keep messing with the program. Part workplace comedy \u00e0 la Parks & Rec and part Stephen King-style horror mixtape, this Apple TV show from creator Katie Dippold (Ghostbusters) and director Hiro Murai (Atlanta) finds the exact third-bowl-of-porridge mix between sly laughs and jump scares. Throw in a murderers\u2019 row of supporting players \u2014 Stephen Root, Hamish Linklater, Betty Gilpin, Dale Dickey, Jeff Hiller, and breakout MVP Kate O\u2019Flynn \u2014 a real feel for small-town eccentricity, and a potent dig at our nation\u2019s inability to reckon with its blood-splattered, body-strewn past, and you\u2019ve got the cross-genre breakout hit<\/a> of 2026. \u2014D.F.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n \t\u2018Wonder Man\u2019 (Disney+)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tAside from sweetly enjoyable, it\u2019s a little tough to figure out what, exactly, Wonder Man is. This genre-defying series starts with the familiar Marvel montage and some superhero business but soon switches to the very unheroic life of a struggling actor, Simon Williams (a mesmerizing Yayha Abdul-Mateen II)<\/a>, a guy so dedicated to his process he loses a three-line part for overthinking his barely-there character\u2019s backstory. Simon soon meets a minor Marvel character, Trevor Slattery<\/a> (a loose, joyous Ben Kingsley) and together the two live out a sort of Once Upon a Time in\u2026MCU Hollywood.\u00a0It\u2019s a funny, unexpected, poignant study of art, friendship and loneliness, with barely a supernatural set piece in sight. Wonder Man purposely evokes the two-handers of the 1970s (count the references to Midnight Cowboy), with Abdul-Mateen II and Kingsley\u2019s easy banter giving Newman and Redford a run for their money. \u2014J. Silverman<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n \t
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Amazon Studios\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Netflix\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Spencer Pazer\/Netflix\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Max\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Scott Gries\/NBC\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: HBO\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Simon Ridgway\/HBO\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Allyson Riggs\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Warrick Page\/MAX\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Robert Clark\/AppleTV\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Suzanne Tenner\/Disney\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n