TV & Movie

The pseudonymous novelist Elena Ferrante’s appeal to television producers remains as clear as the Tyrrhenian Sea. Sun-kissed Italian locations; prominent female leads, afforded greater agency than the Italian media have traditionally afforded their women; material that’s genre-adjacent, but open to more emotion than genre mechanics typically allow. As HBO’s much-lauded ‘My Brilliant Friend’ — three seasons in, headed for a …

The true crime industrial complex has grown so unwieldy over the years that the true crime critique is itself a phenomenon, if smaller in scale — the mothership’s opposite, though not quite its equal. On television, such takes run the tonal gamut from “The Investigation,” the somber Scandinavian drama about the real-life murder of journalist Kim Wall, to “Only Murders in …

The typical season of “Fargo” starts at a simmer. Thanks to the famous opening disclaimer (“at the request of the survivors”; “out of respect for the dead”), borrowed wholesale from the Coen Brothers’ original masterpiece, the audience knows violence is in the offing. In translating “Fargo” into an anthology series, an interpretive exercise that now spans five different installments over …

The least compelling thing about “Tom Jones: Masterpiece” is Tom Jones himself. When the four-part miniseries debuts on April 30, it transforms Henry Fielding’s 800-plus page picaresque novel into a romcom in which the female lead isn’t only every bit the hero as her male counterpart, but often outshines him. For the uninitiated, “Tom Jones” revolves around an orphan of …

U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) had a time-honored tradition during the six seasons of the original  “Justified.” The rakish law man would chase a baddie across Kentucky back roads and trailer parks. Bullets flew, and moonshine was consumed. Still, Givens always made time for a philosophical and deep conversation with his prey before the final showdown. Raylan would learn …

SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers from “With Open Eyes,” the series finale of HBO’s “Succession,” now streaming on Max. “Succession” ends in a place it’s been countless times before: with Kendall Roy, alone and adrift by a body of water. “With Open Eyes,” the feature-length conclusion to the Roy family saga, has many such full-circle moments. Some series finales …

Director Allen Hughes has evolved into a deft and imaginative documentarian, just the latest pleasant surprise in a long, eclectic career. His best-known films are the scripted fare he co-directed with his twin brother Albert, including “Menace II Society” and “Dead Presidents,” which dove deep into the lives of young, disaffected Black men. The brothers dabbled in documentary with 1999’s …

“Love & Death” feels familiar, as it should. The Max drama is the second series in less than a year to take on the same story: the case of Candy Montgomery, a Texas housewife who killed her friend and neighbor Betty Gore with an ax in 1980. This version follows closely on the heels of “Candy,” which aired on Hulu …

The American buffalo, or bison, is a massive animal. It can weigh more than a ton and span over 10 feet wide, excluding its tail. As fascinating as the mammal is, a four-hour series centering on its origins, decline and revitalization wouldn’t exactly be riveting for a general audience. However, as he’s done with countless subjects throughout his career, including …

Everyone loves an underdog, but it’s possible nobody loves one more than Greg Whiteley. With Netflix hits “Cheer” and “Last Chance U,” the documentarian trained his eye on undergraduate athletes whose programs lack the resources or respect of a Big Ten institution. Each show made a compelling case for its subjects’ skill, tenacity and right to a bigger spotlight; “Cheer,” …