Saloni Gajjar

Apple TV+’s foreboding drama Severance instantly exudes creepiness. It opens with Helly (Britt Lower) lying face down, prop-like on a brown table too big for the dull conference room. She awakens as a new employee of the shadowy corporation Lumon Industries, with no knowledge of how it happened or who she is. It turns out that Helly opted to undergo the “severance program,” a medical procedure that takes work-life balance to controversial extremes.

Let’s get this out of the way: Pachinko is an extraordinary drama. Based on Min Jin Lee’s 2017 novel of the same name, it masterfully weaves the intricate tapestry of a Korean family with an expansive scope, spanning different cities, languages, and generations. The show is at once an educational, sweeping saga (about culture, history, politics, romance, and lineage), and a pointed story about its protagonist, Sunja, and her loved ones at various times in their lives.

Netflix Indian originals haven’t acquired quite the global limelight as the streamer’s other phenomenal Asian content like Squid Game, K-Dramas, and Love Is Blind: Japan. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be paying attention. Besides being home to several Bollywood hits, the streaming platform has steadily released its own Indian movies and shows since launching in 2018. Two of Netflix's relatively recent thrillers, Aranyak and The Fame Game, live up to the hyp.e Plenty of others was excited about the shows, too: Their trailers racked up over 17 million views.

For the first time in decades, there were no scripted comedies among NBC’s primetime lineup in fall 2021. The network was coming off a string of tepid new sitcoms and had just said farewell to two mainstays— Superstore and Fox transplant Brooklyn Nine-Nine—but it was still a startling sight. Was the broadcaster that gave us Sam and Diane, Festivus, and Kevin Malone’s famous chili recipe breaking up with comedy?

The Afterparty successfully scratched the itch for an entertaining murder mystery caper after last year’s crime comedy Only Murders In The Building. Christopher Miller’s Apple TV+ series is an engrossing and amusing whodunit. It follows Detective Danner’s (Tiffany Haddish) investigation into douchey popstar Xavier’s (Dave Franco) death during a 15-year high school reunion party at his lavish, seaside mansion.

Atlanta is closing shop in 2022. The comedy will end its run with a fourth and final season, FX Chairman John Landgraf announced at the Television Critics Association’s (TCA) 2022 winter press tour. Season four, which has already been filmed, will release this fall.
But before that, the 10-episode third season, which was filmed almost entirely in Europe, is finally set to premiere on March 24, almost four years after the preceding installment aired on the cable network.

The A.V. Club spoke to Quinta Brunson about helming her new ABC show Abbott Elementary, subverting comedy tropes, bringing in mockumentary experts from The Office to work on the show, and the overwhelming response from fans and teachers.

At one point in Netflix’s Inventing Anna, journalist Vivian Kent (Anna Chlumsky) fervently argues with her magazine editor over the importance of her story exposing con artist Anna Delvey, a.k.a. Anna Sorokin (Julia Garner). “It’s about why scam culture is here to stay,” Vivian says about the article she’s spent months reporting and researching. The line inadvertently acts as a reference to the current TV landscape as well.

Sarita Choudhury’s magnetic presence has graced the screen from her 1991 debut in Mississippi Masala to a supporting role in last year’s acclaimed The Green Knight. The British Indian actor has appeared in numerous dramatic films and TV shows over the last couple of decades, most notably Homeland and Jessica Jones. Choudhury now tackles one of the more daunting roles on And Just Like That...

The Apple TV+ workplace comedy's recent episode highlight's Danny Pudi's character, Brad Bakshi. In season two’s “Breaking Brad,” his brother Zack (Parvesh Cheena) enters with balloons, a sheet cake, and a wicked agenda in tow. The invasion of Brad’s safely guarded private life into his professional sanctum allows Mythic Quest to finally scrutinize what makes him tick, unveiling an emotional sliver of his backstory and cultural identity such that it's step away from the oft-clichéd Indian American portrayals in TV comedies.

Uzo Aduba is a powerhouse performer, as witnessed in her Emmy-winning work on Orange Is The New Black and Mrs. America. The actress has an innate ability to enrapture audiences with an emotive performance. Her new series further allows her to fully occupy the frame and do just that: Aduba leads HBO’s revival of In Treatment, which initially ran for three seasons from 2008 to 2011.

Showtime’s Couples Therapy is reality TV, but it refreshingly doesn’t fall under the traditional purview of the genre. The series is often quite intense, so it’s initially hard to imagine deriving any relaxation out of watching various couples air out intimate and serious issues. But the show also doesn’t dial up the volume of these issues to construct a falsified reality; instead, it invites audiences to be a fly on the wall.

The O.C. lasted only for four seasons, but left a definite impact on the teen drama genre. Created by Josh Schwartz, the Fox series ended in 2007 but remains a pop-culture phenomenon even today. The show centered on four teens—Rachel Bilson, Adam Brody, Ben McKenzie, and Mischa Barton—navigating friendship and relationship drama in the series’ titular posh region.

Jeff Richmond, the ace composer known for his Emmy-nominated 30 Rock theme song and Tony-nominated original score for Mean Girls, has added to his accomplishments with Peacock’s Girls5eva. Richmond, who also produces the show with wife Tina Fey, composed the musical comedy’s funny, catchy original songs in collaboration with series creator and lyricist Meredith Scardino.

The show stars Sara Bareilles, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Paula Pell, and Busy Phillipps as Dawn, Wickie, Gloria, and Summer, respectively. Girls5eva broke up in 2000, and they lost their fifth member, Ashley (Ashley Park, seen in flashbacks). To make their grand return, they must once figure out their voice together as adults with varied life experiences. “They have arrested development because of this huge thing that happened to them when they were younger, so for me it’s an interesting ground to talk about all of the things in the ’90s when I came of age," creator Meredith Scardino says.