2022

2022 · 1 Season · HBO · Drama, Comedy

Irma Vep is Olivier Assayas's deeply personal meditation on cinema, creativity, and the impossibility of adaptation, wrapped in the guise of an HBO prestige series. Alicia Vikander is magnetic as a Hollywood star lost in a chaotic French film production, and the show's blend of industry satire, personal drama, and genuine cinephilia creates something unlike anything else on television. It's also deliberately paced and deeply referential, which limits its audience to viewers willing to meet it on its own terms.

2022 · 1 Season · BBC Two · Western, Drama

The English is a visually stunning revisionist western anchored by Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer as unlikely partners crossing the 1890s American frontier on parallel quests for justice. Hugo Blick's writing swings for the fences with a complex, non-linear narrative that ties personal revenge to the larger crimes of westward expansion. The ambition sometimes outruns the clarity, with a plot structure that confuses as often as it illuminates. But the performances, the frontier vistas, and the show's willingness to reckon with the violence beneath the western myth make it a compelling, if demanding, six hours of television.

2022 · 1 Season · Starz · Historical Drama

Becoming Elizabeth covers a rarely dramatized chapter of Tudor history, focusing on the teenage Princess Elizabeth navigating the dangerous political world after Henry VIII's death. Alicia von Rittberg delivers a strong lead performance, and the show's refusal to fast-forward to Elizabeth's triumphant reign gives it a different texture from most Tudor dramas. Slow pacing and the weight of its sprawling cast work against it, and its cancellation after one season means the story ends mid-chapter. But for Tudor enthusiasts willing to invest, there are real rewards here.