NEW SHOWS
Reservation Dogs – “Uncle Brownie” (B+)
Gary Farmer stakes an early claim for the Guest Actor in a Comedy Series trophy, playing the titular role as a recluse whose journey to sell some homegrown weed gives him a chance to enjoy other people again.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
“Blue Flu” (B+)
“Balancing” (B+)
The show’s second attempt at addressing police corruption goes much better than its first, because it’s both funnier and it’s just a plot beat, not a grand statement. The juggling-being-parents episode is very cliche, but very sweet and has a lot of laugh-out-loud moments, including Holt uttering the phrase “digital phallus portrait.”
Ted Lasso – “Rainbow” (B+)
It seems as if every week the show has defied you to turn on it, to get tired of its delightfulness, and every week it proves you wrong.
BINGEING
The White Lotus – Season 1 (A- average)
Mike White’s vicious satire of vacationing rich whites and the minority staff they take advantage of sometimes was a bit too on-the-nose. But it was often ferociously funny, and then terribly sad in its finale. It managed to thread the needle between outlandish and realistic. One of the best shows of the year.