I prioritized some film watching today over cramming TV shows, so this list is shorter than usual.

1) Shining Girls (Apple Plus)

English Audio Description: Yes

Every once in a while, a show comes along that isn’t just good in that way that qualifies it for a top spot, or makes me feel good because it’s a returning favorite. No, it comes out of nowhere, from a title I had zero expectations for, and that is what Shining Girls gives me every week. Astounding. Beautiful. Scary. Weird. Provocative. It’s everything every week. This has to be one of the oddest shows if you didn’t read the book, because it will not explain to you what exactly is going on, but you’re just dying to know. I cannot wait for this series to explain the breaks in reality, and how in Episode 4, reality seemed to just be a construct.

Kirby literally turns a laundromat into a bar. How? That’s not even the weirdest or creepiest thing in the episode. Upon listening to the tapes, we realize that The Thin Man (as we know him from the audio description) has been recording these girls somehow and in these phone calls actually plays them what they’re about to say a millisecond before they say it, creating a reverse echo.

But one thing is clear, the Thin Man might have something up his sleeve that no one else has on him, considering how he has never aged and seems to know the entire timeline, but somehow he wasn’t expecting Kirby to be able to circumnavigate his perfectly laid out murder plot. This show isn’t just great, it’s “fuck me, this show is everything.” Watch Shining Girls.

Episode Grade: A+ (that’s a plus for an episode that wasn’t a series premiere or finale).

2) The Pentavorate (Netflix)

English Audio Description Available?: Yes

Somehow, nothing really else came close to Shining Girls. I suppose Mike Myers weird comedy that sometimes makes me laugh, but still has me scratching my head more than I feel like I should be, was perhaps the second best thing. I love how committed Ken Jeong is to whatever he’s asked to do in anything ever. Whether he’s flying naked out of the trunk of a car in The Hangover, or asked to solve a crime in Murderville, to playing an eccentric billionaire in The Pentavorate, he’s up for anything. I still, STILL, wish this show and its audio description would let me know how many of these characters are played by mike Myers. It’s so weird that they name dropped Keegan Michael Key in the audio description, but won’t do that for myers.

Episode Grade: B+

3) Bosch Legacy (FreeVee)

English Audio Description Available?: No

In the 10th episode of the season, Bosch got there just in time to save some kid, and meanwhile his daughter really needs to brush up on her “first instincts” and not try and make friends with the guy who is obviously the rapist. Like, he doesn’t seem the least bit suspicious to you? I guess the apple did fall far from the tree.

Episode Grade: B+

4) Angeline (Peacock)

English Audio Description Available?: Yes

Maybe, if I was older, and a resident of Los Angeles, this show would be doing something for me. But, it really isn’t. I don’t know if it’s the format, and how each episode seems oddly unattached to the previous, almost like we’re missing something between each episode, or the fact that I still don’t understand this phenomenon 3 episodes in, but the thing keeping me going is Emmy Rossum’s performance. That’s close to about it.

Episode Grade: C+

5) Made For Love (HBO MAX)

English Audio Description Available?: Yes

I’ve long said I care more about Ray Romano’s character than i do the lead characters, and the fact that this fake version is pretending to be his daughter is a plot point I fear won’t be resolved in the final episode left after this.

Episode Grade: C+