April Watchlist: Dying for Laughs and The Love of a Good Anti-hero
"Reality is nothing but a collective hunch.” Lily Tomlin. Quote repeated by a member of the Jackson Wyoming council in the "Last of Us" Season 2 opener.
Laugh. Cry. Scare. Rinse. Repeat.
Whether you’re in the mood for a Breaking Bad-style show starring the aughts’ best anti-hero, Don Draper himself, Jon Hamm (Your Friends & Neighbors), a gritty, heartfelt period drama redemption story (Government Cheese), an apocalypse tale for our times à la The Walking Dead Season 1 (The Last of Us), or a female-centered mid-life story about sexual self-discovery in the face of death (Dying for Sex), April is packed with great TV options. And this list doesn’t even include the newly released Black Mirror, The Pitt (which everyone is raving about), and the soon-to-be-released Amy Sherman-Palladino (Gilmore Girls, Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) Prime Video production, Etoile, about competing ballet companies, starring Luke Kirby aka Lenny Bruce from MMM.
But First. Goodbye to The White Lotus, Season 3.
Logline: Watch what happens when you put rich (entitled) people and service people together at a wealthy resort, and things start getting real. Downton Abbey, this ain’t.
STATUS: FINISHED ✔️
If you’re done with season 3, be sure to catch my thoughts on the finale:
⚖️ The FINAL WORD: Season 3 had its flaws. All in all, it wasn’t as strong as the earlier seasons. The pacing was uneven, and the finale felt overstuffed with action, as if it were trying to compensate for the shortcomings of the earlier episodes. But overall, I LOVED THIS SEASON. ❤️ Can’t wait for Season 4.
Au Revoir, Surface. And That’s a Wrap.
Surface on Apple TV+ | (2022-present) | [Trailer] | Showrunner: Veronica West | Season 2 | Hello Sunshine Productions (Reese Witherspoon)
Description: Sophie, a mysterious Brit married to James and living luxuriously in San Francisco, suffers a head injury that causes memory loss. As she begins to uncover the truth about her life, she finds herself in danger—but she can't stop searching for answers, especially about her mother’s death. In Season 2, the story shifts to England, where Sophie uncovers her origins with the wealthy, privileged Huntley family—think grand estates and entitled behavior. It’s a rough fit for the outsider Soph, who grew up on the other side of the tracks.
STATUS: FINISHED ✔️
⚖️ The FINAL WORD: The first few episodes of Season 2 were strong, but the season gradually lost steam—I found myself fast-forwarding through scenes, which isn’t a great sign for a mystery where sleuthing is the point, and hence, details matter. In the end, I stuck with it, but the finale left me underwhelmed. It ended on a cliffhanger, leaving the possibility of another season up in the air. Gavin Drea, as a journo who sets out to reveal the tawdriness and illicit crimes of the Huntley family, is a bright light in the cast. I also enjoyed his performance in Wedding Season [Hulu].
Now, for the New Stuff
The Last of Us on Max | (2023-present) | [Trailer] | Showrunners: Craig Mazin & Neil Druckmann | Season 2
STATUS: WATCHING (one episode in)
Logline: End of times variation of The Walking Dead’s Rick Grimes & his daughter, Judith, if she were aged up, but with Pedro Pascal’s Joel and his adoptive daughter, Ellie, played by Bella Ramsey.
/ Verdict: I’m all caught up with the season 2 opener, and it doesn’t disappoint. The new cast additions of Isabela Merced as Dina, Ellie’s friend and love interest (and a Jewish character!), Kaitlyn Devers (Justified, Booksmart, Apple Cider Vinegar), and Catherine O’Hara as Gail, the community’s resident therapist, are all solid newbies to this hit HBO show based on a video game. Favorite storylines so far involve Dina and Ellie’s evolving romance, as well as Joel and Gail’s relationship. O’Hara, who I can never separate from the kooky and iconic Moira Rose, her Schitt’s Creek character, is chillingly effective, in a much more serious turn, as a grieving woman who has lost her partner (Joel killed him, offscreen last season apparently) and is forced to live in close quarters with the aggressor.
The best scene of the episode takes place between Joel and Gail, in which Joel relays Ellie’s fraught relationship with him. Watch as Gail totally turns the tables on Joel. It’s masterful. At 1:05, it’s a mic drop moment.
From the Mouth of Its Creators: Neil Druckmann, the show’s creator, framed the season’s arc as one about the repercussions of acts of violence (stemming from season 1) and how far people will go to uphold their convictions in service of honoring or protecting a loved one.
Catch up on my Season 1 recaps and commentary [here]
Keeping Up with the Joneses / Alt Title: Jon Hamm Being Jon Hamm
Your Friends and Neighbors on Apple | 2025 | [Trailer] | Showrunner: Jonathan Tropper (This is Where I Leave You, Banshee) | Season 1 (3 episodes released)
STATUS: WATCHING (2 episodes in)
Logline: If Don Draper and Walter White had a lovechild, and that child was a divorced, cuck’d man who's driven to crime, in a bid to support his and his family’s lifestyle.
Description: Think of every TV anti-hero you’ve ever rooted for. Examples that come to mind include Mad Men’s Don Draper, Tony Soprano, and Peaky Blinders’ Thomas Shelby, and you basically have Andrew Cooper, Jon Hamm’s character in his latest Apple TV+ vehicle. Hamm’s portrayal of the chief villain in the latest Fargo from a few years ago convinced us all that what was missing from our lives was another John Hamm-helmed production. So here we are, and we’re better off for it.
/ Verdict: If you’re into Jon Hamm, this one’s worth a watch. The acting’s strong, the writing holds up, and Amanda Peet—forever queen of Y2K/early 2000s rom-coms—plays his ex, now with a retired basketball player she cheated on him with. What really makes the show pop, though, are the relationships. I especially love Hamm’s dynamic with his on-screen sister, who has bipolar disorder—it’s messy and real, and you can tell he’s doing his best to hold it all together. He’s far from perfect—he yells, punches his daughter’s boyfriend in the balls (okay, the kid did back into his car), and even robs his friends just to keep up the illusion that he hasn’t totally fallen apart after losing his job. But at the core of it, Cooper has heart. He’s trying. And I get the sense that’s the essence of this show as well.
Dark Winds on AMC | (2019-present) | [Trailer] | Showrunner: John Wirth | Season 3 (6 episodes released)
STATUS: WATCHING (all caught up on all episodes from this season)
Logline: 70s crime drama centers on a Navajo Tribal Police, headed up by Joe Leaphorn, solving mysteries alongside Jim Chee and Bernadette Manuelito as a wave of violent crimes hits their locale.
/ Verdict: The show’s first two seasons made it a sleeper hit. I kept telling people about it because it’s gripping, smart, and so well-acted. [See here] But here’s the thing—this season, it’s even better. I didn’t think that was possible. It raises the stakes, diving deeper into power imbalances and racial tensions between the Diné (Navajo Nation) and white communities, unfolding across generations of systemic crimes. If the cost of watching our hero, Joe Leaphorn, lose everything this season, including his grip on reality, comes with the clarity borne from remembering his painful past and seeing his way through it, then I can sit through weird Lynchian existential episodes, like episode 6. I just want him to get the bad guys.
Dark Winds is based on Tony Hillerman's Leaphorn & Chee novels.
Dying for Sex on Hulu | 2025 | [Trailer] | Showrunners: Kim Rosenstock, Elizabeth Meriwether | Season 1 (8 Episodes)
STATUS: WATCHING (5 episodes down/3 to go)
Logline: Eat, Pray, Love for the Sex-Positive Millennials set and Jenny Slate fans, in general
Verdict: This show is good because, ultimately, it tells the poignant story of the tested bonds of friendship between two very different women—one more reserved and the other living life loud. Loosely based on the real-life story of her friend, Molly, who is diagnosed with Stage IV metastatic breast cancer, Nikki, an actress, supports Molly as she leaves her husband (Jay Duplass) and takes a journey of sexual fulfillment. Along the way, the quieter Molly discovers how to voice her needs, not only in sexual situations but in all of life’s important interactions, starting with how her doctor talks to her. Slate and Williams’ chemistry here is authentic. Bonus points for the casting of Jenny Slate as Nikki and Rob Delaney (Catastrophe, Bad Monkey) as “Neighbor Guy” and Molly’s sex buddy.
Real-Life Connection: According to Wikipedia, Nikki Boyer, upon whom Slate’s Nikki is based, served as executive producer of the FX show Dying for Sex, which was based on the Wondery Podcast she co-created. Boyer is also the former host of Yahoo!'s "Daytime in No Time," which received millions of hits daily.
Government Cheese on Apple TV+ | 2025 | [Trailer] | Showrunners: Paul Hunter and Ayesha Carr | Season 1 (4 Episodes released)
Logline: An idealist ex-con inventor (David Oyelowo) tries to make good on his promise to uphold a crime-free life when he reunites with his family in the late 1960s, but life has other plans in store for him.
Flavor: Surrealist Wes Anderson arthouse film aesthetic meets The Sticky [see here]
Verdict: I downloaded a few episodes for a recent plane ride and was instantly gripped. It’s such a fun and light watch, like a nutritious comfort food, and in the theme of antiheros, this one would have a similar categorization.
Random Actor Connection: Bokeem Woodbine played Mike Milligan in Season 2 of Fargo. Milligan was an iconoclast, a philosopher, and an enforcer for the Kansas City mob in the show’s anthology. He was a beloved and memorable character.
Life is Too Short for Shit Shows (could double as a name for a Substack)
STATUS: WILL LIKELY NEVA’ FINISH 🤔 Grosse Pointe Garden Society (and it’s a shame, too)
I raved about this show when it came out, and I’d seen a few episodes. Ever since, it’s stunk pretty bad. It’s devolving into a soapy melodrama. I don’t totally want to give up on it, but I’m pretty close to throwing in the towel, especially because it’s moving further away from the crime elements that keep it interesting. It’s a classic example of a show not playing to its strengths. This show has Amy Santiago (a reference to Brooklyn Nine-Nine) after all. That adds automatic street cred.
STATUS: WILL NEVA’ FINISH ❌ The Studio on Apple TV+. Actor, producer, director, showrunner, etc., Seth Rogan is back. He’s done hiding out in his ADU, making candles or sourdough bread, and back with a new vanity project in tow called The Studio, a meta show and insider’s look at the daily shenanigans of a Hollywood studio. The show itself is full of frenetic, jazz-infused Miles Davis energy and long camera shots [someone wrote an article about it] to the beat of Rogan’s trying hard to be Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. If this sounds appealing, I get you. I thought so, too. Plus, it’s an all-star cast, including the likes of Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara (she’s busy), Rogan, and Kathryn Hahn, among others. Watching the first episode, I felt like I’d done a line of Barinholtz’s studio exec character’s coke, with my heart beating irregularly paced fast beats against the jazz syncopation in the background. The episode, which centers on Rogan’s newly minted executive position as Studio Head, and his ethical versus commercial dilemma of selling out to big blockbuster-type films versus making smaller, indie-type films, is interesting enough. Clearly, the idea of making a film about the Kool-Aid mascot was inspired by the fame of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, but so much of this show feels like fluff and someone’s fancy experiment, lacking any genuine humility. And for that, I’m out, even if it has an 8/10 score on IMDb.
- gives a rundown on the Black Mirror episodes and provides a useful compass for deciding which episodes to watch. [Read here]
- compels us all to watch medical procedural drama The Pitt, starring Noah Wyle, whose career took off over 30 years ago with ER. With the rave reviews I’ve read of this show, this show feels like this year’s The Bear. Survey Says: “Yes, Chef.” [Read here]
Shhh… Dark Winds is mentioned here.
More Fargo fodder:
My love of Mad Men:
What I’m Looking I Said I was Looking Forward To in March/April & Very Much Am Enjoying:
EVERYBODY’S LIVE with John Mulaney: John Mulaney is an uber-talented comedian, writer, and host of last year’s Everybody’s in L.A. [See here]. Following the success of the pilot, he effectively secured a talk show on Netflix. So far, his weekly talk show has been pretty decent overall. It has fallen victim to some unevenness, resulting in some acts being less of a draw, and awkward, silent pauses where you get the feeling there shouldn't be, but generally, if there are 2 celebs I’m into on the show, I will watch. Each episode has a theme (“squatting,” “cruise ships” are recent examples), and the celebrity guests and one non-celebrity subject matter expert discuss topics related to it. My favorite episode so far has been the season opener, featuring Michael Keaton and Fred Armisen, among others. The John Waters episode was notable, as well, but mostly because of him and Wanda Sykes, rather than the other comedian, Stavros Halkias.
“Coffee Talk” with Mike Myers Something people sometimes ask me: When do you know to give up on a show?
mentioned the 3-episode rule to determine. For me, it’s dependent on how invested I am in seeing an outcome through and genre-specific. By way of example, for mysteries I generally keep going because I want to know what happened or it I get distracted by other better shows and stop watching, I phone a friend, who watched and just ask them to put me out of my misery. (Defending Jacob and Prime Target fell into this category) Generally, I have zero regrets about aborting a show. Life is short. Make room for the better stuff and move on.Now Your Turn: What are you watching? What’s your decisioning rationable around when to stop watching a show?
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Glad I imprinted the 3 episode rule on you. Hehe.
Great round up and reviews.
We love Your Friends and Neighbors. Hamm never disappoints. It’s well written, directed and leaves you wanting more.
Hubby loves The Last of Us. I couldn’t get into it.
Meanwhile, Hacks 4 has been awful. As Joan Rivers used to say, Can we talk?
Mike Milligan was such a complex, nuanced character. Adored him. And to the point of the supermarket resting face - if I had a dime for everytime someone tells me, “you look lost” when I’m trying to make sense of new surroundings or just walking anywhere, I’d be rich. In fact, last time someone said this was just this past week in Vegas and I told the lady, “yeah I’m still trying to find myself”
Fargo - Kansas City was my favorite. I know I’m weird though.