THE BEST TV SHOWS OUT NOW
From apocalyptic fare to light drama, these series are worth watching
It's the trial of our times: you've pulled up the daunting menu of streaming services and you're trying to decide what to watch. So many choices, so little time.
That's where we come in. These are the shows that stand out from the pack so far this year.
RIPLEY,NETFLIX
In Steven Zaillian's Ripley, a witty cinematic extravaganza chronicling the titular charlatan's journey from a bleak existence in New York City to a luxurious one in Italy, actor Andrew Scott embodies a dour, awkward Tom Ripley. His genial American target, a rich wouldbe artist named Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn), offers to put him up in Italy. Dakota Fanning plays Dickie's girlfriend, Marge Sherwood. This series is conceptually and visually wry, lushly hyper-referential and packed with winks.
THE SYMPATHIZER, CRAVE
Park Chan-wook and Don McKellar's stylish and wry seven-episode adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen's 2015 novel follows a Vietnamese double agent loyal to the Viet Cong. Referred to only as “the Captain” (Hoa Xuande), he struggles to keep the North Vietnamese, the South Vietnamese and the CIA happy while working as an operative in the United
States. By the time we meet him, he's imprisoned by his own side. In the North Vietnamese re-education camp, officials toss him into a sweltering cell and order him to pen the “confession” that structures the show.
FALLOUT, PRIME VIDEO
An adaptation of the popular video game series, Fallout echoes many stories about the world's end. What sets it apart is how it depicts a nuclear-ravaged America in arrested development, obsessed with 1950s culture and norms. The show tracks the journey of two Vault Dwellers: Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell), who leaves the vault after an invasion by mysterious strangers; and her brother Norm (Moisés Arias), who sticks with the survivors as they search for understanding. Aaron Moten plays Maximus, a soldier training with an isolationist group of supersoldiers.
3 BODY PROBLEM, NETFLIX
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the duo responsible for Game of Thrones, join Alexander Woo (The Terror: Infamy) to adapt Cixin Liu's bestselling novel The ThreeBody Problem. The show is about five scientists recruited to figure out how to handle a disaster 400 years in the future. What it lacks in style it more than makes up for with character work that complements its deeper philosophical questions.
ELSBETH, CBS
Elsbeth is a spinoff starring Carrie Preston as the deceptively daffy redhead who steals scenes when she guest-stars in The Good Wife or The Good Fight. In this show, the New York Police Department has been operating under a Justice Department decree requiring an outside observer to confirm that it's complying with the law. This task falls to Tascioni. She starts genially nosing around the department, annoying everyone. This is a fishout-of-water story that delights in Tascioni besting insufferable New Yorkers. A spinoff of a spinoff may not sound promising, and the caseof-the-week format has been done many times. But Elsbeth Tascioni is a fabulous creation, and she can easily anchor a pleasant detective show in a fantasy world.
THE GIRLS ON THE BUS, CRAVE
No one wants to relive the 2016 presidential election. That was always the challenge facing The Girls on the Bus, Max's watchable and startlingly apolitical dramedy about political reporting. Inspired by former New York Times reporter Amy Chozick's memoir, Chasing Hillary, which chronicles her years following Clinton on the campaign trail, the series explores the beat's grubby compromises, temptations and rewards by fictionalizing almost all of the source material. In so doing, it turns a memoir about a globally significant event into a show full of epiphanies about writing, friendship and female solidarity. The result is a frequently funny drama following four reporters as they cover a flawed female candidate in the lead-up to a fictional Democratic National Convention.
X-MEN '97, DISNEY+
The X-Men, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, debuted in 1963 and have since appeared in comics, blockbuster movies, video games and the occasional animated show — the latest of which is X-Men '97. The show picks up from X-Men: The Animated Series, which ran from 1992 to 1997 on Fox. True to its title, X-Men '97 is a throwback affair that feels like the 1990s — even though many of the X-Men comic-book stories it's mining come from the period that many fans consider a creative peak for the franchise: the '80s.
CONSTELLATION, APPLE TV+
Equal parts family drama, puzzle-box mystery and thriller, this mind-bending series follows astronaut Jo Ericsson (Noomi Rapace) as she tries to get home to her aptly named daughter Alice (played, also aptly, by twins Davina and Rosie Coleman). The show opens with Jo navigating a series of disasters after a lethal incident at the International Space Station. When she finally makes it home, things aren't quite as she remembers them — but no one's willing to listen.