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 with me on Trust Me, I Watch Everything. Every two weeks, I’ll be sharing the shows worth your TV time and how to tune in.
For TV watchers, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. Spring is on the horizon, and so is the Emmy consideration deadline, which means nonstop prestigious television projects are coming our way. FX’s Love Story, which may actually do justice to the whirlwind romance between JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, is a good place to start. Over on streaming, Keke Palmer anchors The ‘Burbs on Peacock, and Reality Check digs up America’s Next Top Model skeletons in a docuseries for Netflix. Finally, the cult classic comedy Search Party has also made its way to Netflix — and it’s the kookiest thing you might ever watch. Let’s dive in.
⏰ Tune in
My recommendation: Love Story
Why you should watch it: One of the buzziest series of the spring has finally arrived in the form of a biographical romance period drama, created by Connor Hines and produced by Ryan Murphy, which chronicles the real-life courtship between Carolyn Bessette (Sarah Pidgeon) and John F. Kennedy Jr. (Paul Kelly).
The way the first episode opens is also how their story ends: the plane crash that took their lives when they were still in their 30s. It is a tragedy that hangs over the series as we are thrust into New York City in the early 1990s, when everyone was still smoking cigarettes at the bar. A very chic Carolyn is climbing the corporate ladder at Calvin Klein and making a name for herself for having a keen stylist’s eye (an early scene sees her styling Annette Bening for her Bugsy premiere), while JFK Jr. navigates his turbulent relationship with Daryl Hannah and spends time with his mother, an aging Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (Naomi Watts), who nags him about his dating choices.
The first episode is breathtaking. The soundtrack and intimate cinematography are absorbing, but the real draw is the crackling chemistry between the two leads as they meet and fall in love, despite Carolyn’s initial attempts to thwart his advances. Working in the fashion industry, she is keenly aware of the pitfalls of dating someone constantly on the front page of newspapers and immediately recognizable by every New Yorker.
Eventually, she lets him in. This is a love story, after all — the latest entry in Ryan Murphy’s “… Story” universe, of which he has five other installments, including American Horror Story and American Crime Story. One may wonder whether dropping “American” from this show’s title could open the door to more international meet-cutes in future seasons.
Initially, there was some pushback while Love Story was in production from family members who didn’t want to watch tragedies exploited and from fans online pointing out some questionable costuming choices. I’m happy to say the show is fantastic. It is somewhat reminiscent of The Crown in that it interrogates the Kennedy family’s lineage and legacy, but I couldn’t help but get sucked into a compelling, heart-wrenching romance, with performances that are sure to be life-changing, breakout roles for these actors.
How to watch: New episodes air Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on FX and stream simultaneously on Hulu.
But that’s not all…
The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins: Tracy Morgan stars as the titular Reggie in this mockumentary comedy about a retired football player trying to rehabilitate his public image with the help of a disgraced filmmaker (Daniel Radcliffe) and his ex-wife and manager Monica (Erika Alexander). It’s charming and quite funny, created by 30 Rock writers Robert Carlock and Sam Means and executive produced by Tina Fey. — The show premieres Feb. 23 at 8 p.m. ET. New episodes air Mondays at 8:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
📺 Stream it
My recommendation: The ‘Burbs
Why you should watch it: Affectionately, The ‘Burbs is reminiscent of a bygone era on network television — something along the lines of Pretty Little Liars meets Desperate Housewives, with some campy soapiness to fill in the gaps when the story doesn’t quite mesh.
An adaptation of the 1989 Tom Hanks film and created by Celeste Hughey, The ‘Burbs is carried by a strong ensemble. We follow new parents Samira (Keke Palmer) and Rob (Jack Whitehall). The couple and their newborn move into Rob’s childhood home in the fictional town of Hinkley Hills, a seemingly idyllic suburb billed as one of the safest in America.
Naturally, things are not quite as they seem. A spooky house across the street and its suspicious resident, Gary (Justin Kirk), raises a few questions, and a missing girl from Rob’s youth sends lawyer Samira on a mystery-solving mission when no one in the area seems to want to talk about it. The friendly wine-guzzling neighbors seem to harbor a few secrets of their own, too: Lynn (Julia Duffy) has a habit of talking to her recently deceased husband out loud, and Dana (Paula Pell) never leaves the block. Rob’s high school best friend, Naveen (Kapil Talwalkar), an aspiring DJ who is still reeling from getting dumped, is a comedic highlight of the bunch.
Despite its episodes being longer than they should be, it filled the Only Murders in the Building-sized gap in my TV watching schedule for something a bit fluffier, with cliffhangers just juicy enough to keep me hitting the next episode button. There’s also something to be said about satirizing picture-perfect suburbia, this time from the perspective of millennials. There’s always more to the story behind the white picket fence.
How to watch: All eight episodes of The ‘Burbs are streaming on Peacock.
My bonus recommendation: How to Get to Heaven From Belfast
Why you should watch it: If Derry Girls is a cult classic in your home, like it is in mine, you’ll definitely want to tune into Lisa McGee’s latest series, once again riddled with quippy Irish banter and big personalities. This time around, we follow a group of three friends who reunite when their estranged childhood friend dies unexpectedly.
Since high school, the three friends have stayed in touch, despite their different life paths. Saoirse (Roisin Gallagher) has become a celebrated murder mystery television writer; Robyn (Sinéad Keenan) is trying to stay sane while raising three rambunctious children; and Dara (Caoilfhionn Dunne) is a full-time carer for her elderly mother. Out of the blue, they one day receive an invitation from the sister-in-law of their friend Greta (Natasha O’Keeffe) to attend her wake in Donegal.
A few mysteries are presented upfront: There’s an “incident” that caused a rift in their group that occurred 20 years ago, but it unravels slowly in a Yellowjackets kind of way. The mystery of it all is fine enough, but the real draw of How to Get to Heaven From Belfast is the dialogue.
What made Derry Girls such a blast to watch was the bickering and silly misadventures; Heaven From Belfast is like a grown-up version. The arguing is just as entertaining, but set against adult-sized stakes. I could watch this crew relive their glory days (dancing to Black Eyed Peas after too many shots at the club) for 10 seasons, conspiracy plot or not.
How to watch: All eight episodes of How to Get to Heaven From Belfast are streaming on Netflix.
But that’s not all…
Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model: Wanna be on top? A three-episode docuseries is reckoning with the legacy of America’s Next Top Model, the modeling competition series that ran for 24 “cycles.” It’s a fascinating watch as Tyra Banks and other key players dodge accountability for some of its most insidious moments, like race-swapping photo shoots and models passing out on set from dehydration and malnutrition. Banks has recently announced that ANTM is set to return for a 25th season. — Stream on Netflix
Dreaming Whilst Black: The first season of this dramedy followed Kwabena (Adjani Salmon), a London-based aspiring filmmaker who hopes that his film script about Jamaican immigrants will be the big break that allows him to quit his day job. The struggle continues in a second season that probes the experience of being Black in an industry that tends to either marginalize or exploit creatives of color. Plus, it’s quite funny. — Watch new episodes on Fridays on Paramount+ with Showtime
💎 Hidden gems
My recommendation: Search Party
Why you should watch it: One of the most unhinged comedies to grace the small screen is now streaming on Netflix, and it is a joy to watch new viewers discover it. Search Party first debuted in 2016 on TBS, and each of its five seasons is crazier than the last.
It begins quite simply: a group of Brooklyn-dwelling friends in their 20s find out their college acquaintance has disappeared. Dory (Alia Shawkat) takes it upon herself to start looking for clues, getting somewhat obsessed, to the chagrin of her passive boyfriend Drew (John Reynolds). Her two affable friends, Portia (Meredith Hagner) and Elliott (John Early), are along for the ride, until things take a violent turn at the end of the first season.
From then on, everything gets crazier and crazier. It begins as something akin to a satire of Brooklyn millennials, the anti-Girls in some ways, before spiraling into campy absurdity beyond anything you could imagine: Dory becomes a viral cultural phenomenon when she is accused of murder and eventually becomes a cult leader, for one thing. Between that, there are also kidnappings and zombies and brainwashing. And somehow, that’s just scratching the surface.
You’ll want to keep your eyes peeled for a revolving door of guest stars, too, from Jeff Goldblum to Kathy Griffin and Susan Sarandon. If you want to see just how far writers can push a comedy (to its absolute limits) and witness how dedicated the cast was to executing that vision, Search Party is a must-watch.
How to watch: All five seasons of Search Party are streaming on Netflix.
That’s the end of this week’s episode, but there’ll always be more TV to watch. I’ll be back in March with new recommendations.
Think there’s something missing that deserves my TV time? Let me know what else I should have on my radar in the comments below!
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com ’
