Hey TV watchers! My name is Michel Ghanem, and I’m a freelance television critic and writer based in Vancouver, Canada. Some of you may know me by my Instagram moniker, TVScholar, where I’ve been sharing the shows I’m watching on social media and in my Substack newsletter with a television-loving online community.
I watch approximately 160 seasons of TV a year, and am grateful every day that I get to live and breathe a medium I love so much. I’m thrilled you’re here to embark on this journey here on Trust Me, I Watch Everything. Every two weeks, I’ll be sharing the shows worth your TV time and how to tune in.
Is it just me or is everyone getting hit hard this year by the January blues? It’s the perfect time to get wrapped up in something cozy, like Fox’s new dramedy Best Medicine, which is loaded with small-town charm. For something a bit edgier, FX is airing The Beauty, a new Ryan Murphy series that might get you thinking about our culture’s never-ending obsession with body and image ideals — if you can stand the gore.
Over on streaming, The Boyfriend stands out among the millions of dating reality shows as something earnest and heartwarming. If you’d rather get lost in a twisty five-season drama, the iconic legal series Damages, which premiered in 2007, is available for free on Tubi. And there’s much more TV where that came from.
⏰ Tune in
My recommendation: Best Medicine
Why you should watch it: I can’t help but love a fish-out-of-water-in-a-small-town story. Fox’s new dramedy is based on ITV’s Doc Martin series and follows Dr. Martin Best (Josh Charles) as he settles into the fishing community of Port Wenn, Maine, after running away from Boston. He gets hired as the only doctor in town, and the twist? He has a fear of blood. Who knows how he actually got through medical school, but the sight of blood makes him pretty much pass out. He’s also very cranky; in the second episode, a townsperson nicknames him Eeyore.
Luckily for Dr. Best, this isn’t The Pitt, and there aren’t too many bloody traumas (not yet, anyway). The pilot’s medical mystery involves a local man suddenly growing breasts; the second episode is about a mysterious plague making its way through town in the lead-up to their monthly community gathering (to eat baked beans together).
Despite his desire for some peace and quiet, grumpy Dr. Best keeps getting stuck in the middle of arguments between Sheriff Mark (Josh Segarra) and his ex-fiancée who broke off the engagement, Louisa (Abigail Spencer). It’s great to see Charles back in a starring role. I was very fond of him on The Good Wife, and his gravitas as an actor helps keep this show from leaning too much on the silly side.
From the first batch of episodes, it seems like amid the small-town goofiness there is something heartfelt going on, with Best recovering from his professional burnout and forming a flirtatious friendship with Louisa. It’s a little Schitt’s Creek and a little Northern Exposure but also something uniquely its own. I’m excited to see it grow.
How to watch: New episodes of Best Medicine air Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.
My bonus recommendation: The Beauty
Why you should watch it: The premise of The Beauty is challenging to recite with a straight face: There’s a sexually transmitted infection that transforms you into someone else entirely — someone conventionally attractive. We follow FBI agents Cooper Madsen (frequent Ryan Murphy collaborator Evan Peters) and Jordan Bennett (Rebecca Hall), who are investigating how the suspicious death of an American model in Paris is connected to a string of similar incidents around the world.
The show also bounces between a few different characters, including a man so tired of his appearance that he seeks this infection out in order to be made beautiful (Jaquel Spivey plays the “before”; Jeremy Pope is the “after”), not realizing that others doing so have been expiring in violent ways. There is also an assassin (played by Anthony Ramos) who has been hired by the corporation involved in how this all got started.
If you’ve seen previous Ryan Murphy projects, The Beauty will feel eerily familiar, from its look and feel to familiar faces from his other series (Peters, Pope and Ari Graynor). It also predictably starts off strong and gets a bit ridiculous by mid-season. But it’s based on a comic book series from Jeremy Haun and Jason A. Hurley, which gives it better-defined plot momentum than, for example, some of the more aimless seasons of American Horror Story.
There’s lots to enjoy here if you’re a fan of body horror as an entry point to cultural critique, like The Substance did for horror films last year: How far is our culture — and are we as individuals — willing to go for body modification and beauty? And why have we become, in the social media age, increasingly obsessed with unattainable standards? You’ll have to watch to find out.
How to watch: New episodes of The Beauty air Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on FX and stream on Hulu the same night.
📺 Stream it
My recommendation: The Boyfriend
Why you should watch it: American dating reality television has exploded as one of the most popular genres on television over the last few years. Love Is Blind and Love Island seem to dominate conversations at any party I’m at, even if those tuning in seem quite self-aware of the spectacle of it all. “It’s trash but I love it,” is something I hear often.
Netflix Japan’s The Boyfriend is like a splash of cold water in comparison. The show follows a group of queer men in their 20s and 30s who move in together for a few weeks in the hopes of finding friendship, community and, maybe, love. But rather than heated arguments or sensationalism, there is an earnestness and vulnerability that is extremely endearing to watch. Conversations are mutually supportive: Same-sex marriage is still not recognized in Japan, and some of the participants join the show before coming out to their families, recruiting the support of the group to help encourage them to confront their parents after the show.
Naturally, some couples form and some hearts are broken along the way. The show — which has returned for a second season with a new cast — has a cute structure: The household runs a coffee truck, and one person is selected as the leader each day who gets to pick their sous-barista. Their shifts function as mini dates, allowing them to get to know each other while selling lattes — a bonding opportunity, or a welcome distraction in the case of being on the receiving end of an unrequited crush.
There’s also a panel of commentators who watch and react alongside you, including Yoshimi Tokui, who was also a talking head on Terrace House, a similar series but with straight participants, and Durian Lollobrigida, a drag performer who frequently offers context to the peculiarities of queer dating and identity.
I don’t watch a lot of reality television, and sometimes overly produced scenes will take me out of the moment. I can’t help but wonder how long it takes for the camera crew to figure out the lighting and camera angles before a participant can finally admit his crush on another, or how they could possibly film inside of a sauna. For the most part, though, The Boyfriend is a soft reminder about the power of wearing your heart on your sleeve and the tenderness of a deep connection.
How to watch: New episodes of The Boyfriend’s second season stream Tuesdays on Netflix in batches of three.
But that’s not all …
Ponies: A major departure for Emilia Clarke since mothering dragons on Game of Thrones, she stars alongside Haley Lu Richardson as two secretaries in 1970s Russia who are informed their husbands have died under questionable circumstances. If Cold War-era spy action is your thing, the show is in good hands with co-creators Susanna Fogel (The Flight Attendant) and David Iserson (Mr. Robot). — Stream on Peacock
Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials: Yet another Agatha Christie adaptation has arrived on Netflix, and it stars the iconic Helena Bonham Carter. It’s just three episodes so it’s easy to gobble up even when it falters, and it’s a fun-enough murder mystery with Mia McKenna-Bruce as our sleuth trying to get to the bottom of it all. — Stream on Netflix
Shrinking: Speaking of heartwarming and cozy, Shrinking is a reliable balm. The therapy comedy created by Bill Lawrence, Jason Segel and Brett Goldstein returns for a third season on Jan. 28 with an ever-increasing cast (Jeff Daniels and Michael J. Fox appear in these new episodes). Who will Liz (Christa Miller) gift a precious stone to next? — Stream on Apple TV
💎 Hidden gems
My recommendation: Damages
Why you should watch it: There’s nothing like reaching back to an older show for comfort. I’ve been watching Damages for the first time amid Rose Byrne’s awards campaign for her incredible film If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. It also came to mind after All’s Fair, a disappointing legal show that premiered on Hulu last year, despite an impressive cast that includes Glenn Close.
Damages, which aired between 2007 and 2012, really feels like it’s from another era of television. It meets somewhere between The Sopranos and Scandal or Desperate Housewives, a drama with ruthless anti-heroines that you somehow find yourself rooting for. Season-long arcs set the scene for the increasingly complex relationship between renowned New York City lawyer Patty Hewes (Close) and her protégé, Ellen Parsons (Byrne).
The central legal case, usually a complex class action lawsuit, is the episode-to-episode focus. Embedded in each episode are flash-forwards to something much more nefarious in the near future: a murder and deception, although it takes a while for the puzzle pieces to coalesce (in this way, it’s reminiscent of How to Get Away with Murder).
For the most part, supporting actors played by the likes of Marcia Gay Harden, Ted Danson and Lily Tomlin only stay around as long as needed for the season-long arc to conclude; it’s the central relationship that is the focus here. What makes Damages such a thrilling ride is the show’s brutal twists and turns, the soap opera-level reveals that keep you on your toes.
This is also a show that has no problem killing off characters left and right, even if they seem essential to the plot up until their demise. I mostly watch with gritted teeth, anticipating the next victim — while anxiously clicking the next episode button. It feels like they don’t make addictive 40-minute television dramas like this anymore.
How to watch: All five seasons of Damages are streaming on Hulu or for free on Tubi.
That’s the end of this week’s episode, but there’ll always be more TV to watch. I’ll be back on Feb. 4 with new recommendations.
Think there’s something missing that deserves my TV time? Let me know in the comments below what else I should have on my radar!
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com ’
