“Ceci N’est Pas Une Drill” starts to get at a topic that could be a really fascinating, compelling kernel for Maniac: the way we use the stability of genre as a coping mechanism. For the most part, genre conventions are consistent, even across stories that seek to subvert those tropes. A mob story includes cases of…
I pulled out my notes to start writing this review, saw the name of the episode, and started grinning like a giddy fool. How in heaven’s name does this show know with such uncanny accuracy how to make me happy?
Goofy Maniac is back, and it’s got some momentum. “Larger Structural Issues” starts to set up the likely endgame of the season—GRTA taking control of the study while the C pills induce even wackier reflections, as Owen and Annie are forced to actually confront their issues—and the necessary place-setting, which might…
At one point during their attempted heist, Ollie—Owen’s incarnation in the 1940s setting of “Exactly Like You”—turns to Annie’s incarnation, Arlie. He asks her, “Do you ever think your condition is a lot simpler than you think?” He’s asking about their relationship: In this world the two were married, then separated,…
This was a difficult episode of Insecure to review. As a standalone episode, it had some of the show’s most hilarious moments of the season. But, when you examine “Obsessed-Like” against the show’s entire third season things start to fall apart. This is the penultimate episode and there’s no real momentum taking us…
Last week, Doc Venture (along with Billy and Pete) invented a teleportation device that could revolutionize the world, and the Monarch and Gary somehow managed to steal it. This week, that—doesn’t come up at all. Which isn’t a problem! “The Terminus Moderate” is an excellent episode, one of the best of the season so…
Ian spends the entirety of “Weirdo Gallagher Vortex” searching for answers, waiting for “Shim” to speak to him like they did when he was in prison.
I don’t know, gang.
This is the first episode of Maniac where I really feel like I have a firm handle on the tone: This is a dark comedy, through and through, starting from the beginning moments of the episode when one of the orderlies tells the drug trial subjects, “You waived ethics on your consent form.” (Oops!) It’s not that it…
The second episode of Maniac picks up parallel to the first, tracking the events that led Annie to the drug trial where the primary action of the series starts. Is there a reason these two episodes are separate, rather than weaving Annie and Owen’s lives together? By the end of “Windmills,” I’d forgotten why I cared…
Not everything is as it seems, but some things are.
At some point, it had to come to this for Franklin. A stint in prison was always on the horizon; it was either going to be the result of getting wrapped up in the game, or simply being a black kid with the nerve to exist during the height of the War on Drugs. So what options did Franklin really have along the way? He…
“I wouldn’t have sex with you if you were the last man on earth.” Such a clichéd dig seems weightier when whispered in a bunker after the end of the world, more or less.
It went to some very dark places. There was murder, kidnapping, arson, abuse, blackmail, and lots of very unpleasant therapy. The season finale of The Sinner answered questions, but it left one unanswered: Does Elisha Henig have the most unsettling thousand-yard stare of any kid on TV, or just one of the most?
“The only way to beat men is by competing with other women.”
Even on a show known for its cold opens, this is one for the ages. The screen split vertically down the middle, DePalma style, Kim and Jimmy go about their increasingly separate lives. We see them walking through the same routine on different days, wearing different clothes: Jimmy puts toothpaste on Kim’s brush for…
Okay. Lawrence came back and the show didn’t implode. I know some of us were disappointed about Lawrence’s return, but I think anyone can admit that this was a great episode of Insecure. Season three has focused on some major changes paying off for Molly and Issa, but the show’s ensemble has always been strong. With…
Tonight’s Venture Bros. asks a simple but unexpected question: what happens if Doctor Venture actually came up with something good? One of the core principles of the series has always been Rusty’s basic ineptitude. He may walk the walk and wear the speedsuits of super science, but he’s never been able to live up the…
Frank Gallagher is, at his core, ideologically opportunistic. He will be whatever he needs to be in order to get ahead, shifting his beliefs in whichever direction is necessary to scam a place to stay or scratch together a few bucks. We’re meant to find this kind of behavior abhorrent, I think, but at the same time …
“There’s no such thing as bad guys and good guys! We’re all just guys! Who do good stuff, sometimes. And bad stuff, sometimes. And all we can do is try to do less bad stuff and more good stuff. But you’re never going to be good! Because you’re not bad! So you need to stop using that as an excuse.”
