NEW SHOWS
Curb Your Enthusiasm – “Fatwa!” (A) / season finale
Finally, one of this season’s episodes earns its length. The show features three of my favorite people (Lin-Manuel Miranda, Chris Sullivan and Nick Offerman) AND F. Murray Abraham playing paintball AND recreates the Alexander Hamilton-Aaron Burr duel and features a distractingly busty ASL interpreter. It’s everything that works about Curb in a deluxe package. I hope that we don’t have to wait six more years for another season.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine – “99” (A)
It’s becoming increasingly clear that we’ll be saying goodbye to the Nine-Nine in 2018. This became yet another beautiful episode that could have served as a series finale (just like Season Four’s “The Last Ride”), with a cross-country road trip and a touching revelation from one of the show’s most emotionally closed-off characters. Bless this show.
CURRENT SHOWS & SPECIALS
Patton Oswalt: Annihilation (A)
A hilarious and loving exploration of the fuck-it-all bewilderment we’re subjected to every day under the Trump administration, as well as Oswalt’s grief over the sudden loss of his wife. “Life’s chaos; be kind.” What a beautiful motto.