First Roundup of Capsule Reviews for 2024

Below are mini-reviews of some of the series I’ve watched or binged over the past year, or am watching currently. For some reason, I’ve gotten into the habit of juggling several series at once and not binging any straight through unless they’re exceptionally compelling. Although I recently posted my year-end entertainment wrap up for 2023, what follows is a data dump of sorts of mini-reviews. I’ve been meaning to write more full-length reviews but fell behind, so hopefully these will allow me to catch up and clear the slate as we enter the new year…

Doctor Who Specials 1–4 (Disney+)

At the risk of losing some of my geek cred, I’ve never watched a full episode of Doctor Who, though I’m familiar with the series. But when I heard that Ncuti Gatwa had been cast as the new Doctor—an actor with boundless exuberance and charisma who I first encountered on the Netflix series Sex Education—I made it a point to keep an eye out for the new series since it seemed like perfect casting. Come the holidays, I was surprised to discover that four Doctor Who Specials dropped on Disney+. The first three specials featured the return of a popular past Doctor Who, David Tennant, which included a fun turn by Neil Patrick Harris as a villain in the third special. The fourth and final special was the Christmas Show, which featured Gatwa’s first full adventure as the new Doctor. I’m now a convert—the episodes were fun, funny, thrilling, and emotional and full of heart. I look forward to the first full season with Gatwa this spring.

Spy X Family (Hulu)

This anime series was recommended by a friend, because the lead character reminded him of my own comic-book character, Rob Hanes. The superficial resemblance is obvious, with the lead character—a super-spy codenamed Twilight—being a sort of anime version of my character. But the two series, if I can say with some modesty, share somewhat similar tones too, as seemingly high gloss adventures on the outside with humor and tongue in cheek underneath. In the series, based on a manga series of the same name, Twilight is given a mission that requires him to create an instant family to use as a cover—this leads to a kindergarten-aged girl at an orphanage to pose as his daughter and a young woman in need of a companion to get her family off her back. However, unbeknownst to him, his new “daughter” is a telepath (due to some sort of government experiment) and the “wife” a highly trained assassin. Along with Twilight’s role as a super spy, these are secrets each keeps from the others, while also leading their double lives. Hijinks ensue.

Though the series on the surface seems to be a high stakes spy drama with plenty of twists and turns, it’s also a sly comedy with over-the-top characters. While Twilight must “act” the role of devoted father and husband in the same way the others must play traditional roles in the family, the series ironically also shows them actually coming together as a family. But who knows how this will come to a head....

This series frequently made me laugh aloud and featured characters like a a school headmaster obsessed with “elegance” and a dodgeball game portrayed as a life-and-death epic battle in the minds of the student players. My daughter is the big anime fan in the family and she told me that this is a well known, popular series. I may have to check out the manga next!

Lessons in Chemistry (Apple+)

This was one of my favorite series this year, based on the book of the same name, that was both moving and immensely entertaining. Set in the 1950s, it follows the life of a brilliant young woman named Elizabeth Zott who’s dream to be a research chemist is sidetracked when she meets a young man, falls in love and, despite not wanting to marry or have children so that she can focus on her career, soon finds herself a single mother. Though the social mores and institutional sexism of the era close the doors to a career in scientific research, her skills as a culinary artist—perfected by her scientific approach to cooking—leads to her becoming the successful host of a television cooking show, á la Julia Child. Overcoming grief and obstacles, Elizabeth eventually gains happiness, fulfillment and even a new family of sorts in her journey. 

Though Elizabeth is very much the focus of the series, the show features a diverse cast and widens its scope to explore the inequities of the era faced by women and people of color, both in the workplace and in the community. The show is incredibly moving as Elizabeth (and others on the show) challenges the system to forge a career path and be a single mom. I must admit I found the final episode a bit of a letdown relative to the rest of the series, but this was a story that stayed with me nonetheless. Full credit to Brie Larson, in a wonderful turn as Elizabeth, and the entire cast and production for a terrific show.

Julia (Max) - Season 2

This is a wonderfully written and acted series about the life and career of tv personality, author and chef Julia Child. Like Lessons in Chemistry, the show features a large, talented ensemble cast (even broader than Lessons) that are similarly deployed to explore a wide range of issues, such as the growing desire of women to advance in the workplace and to be heard and respected, the sexual revolution, civil rights, McCarthyism, and more. Though the figure of Child is the anchor, the series features a rich cast of characters (including David Hyde Pierce as Julia’s husband Paul Child, Bebe Neuwirth, Isabella Rossellini, Judith Light and more) as they navigate their careers and the changing culture, as well as evolving and complex personal and professional relationships. This description doesn’t do justice to the depth of the show and its characters and the excellence of the writing—like many outstanding shows, I continue to be surprised and delighted by the series. Highly recommended.

Ms. Marvel (Disney+)

Although the Marvel film, The Marvels, was considered a box office disappointment (and a target for those who engage in the culture wars), I very much enjoyed it. So much so, that it encouraged me to watch the Ms. Marvel series. I tried the show when it dropped, but initially couldn't get past the first episode, for some reason turned off by the teen energy of the show, lol. But I’m glad I gave the series another try because I loved it and ended up binging the entire series over a few days—in fact, I consider it one of my favorite Marvel series to date. As the child of immigrants myself, I identified with Kamala (who soon becomes Ms. Marvel, played with great enthusiasm by newcomer Iman Vellani) and her efforts to reconcile her East Asian and first-generation American identity. I also appreciated the show’s efforts to integrate the character’s Pakistani and East Asian roots and history into the series, while also offering viewers with a suspenseful adventure that offered a Home Alone vibe at the end, as Ms. Marvel and her school friends grapple with rogue federal agents. It was great fun and a tribute to Marvel's efforts to appeal to different audiences.

The Deuce (Max) - Season 3

This show ran for three seasons from 2017-19. I loved and binged the first two seasons in 2021 then took a break…two years later in 2023, I finally picked up and finished where I left off. It’s a sprawling series that fictionalizes the colorful history of Times Square in the 1970s (located in the general area of Manhattan known as “the Deuce”). I grew up in New York City during this time—a period I describe as the “Ford to City: Drop Dead” years—though, as a preteen during most of much of this time, I was comfortably sheltered in a very suburban outer borough, though I still have some memories of Times Square from those days. It was an area rife with drugs, prostitution, brothels and sex shops and the series portrays this era in its gritty, sordid glory, touching on the involvement of organized crime and the rise of the golden age of porn, including the industry's transition from dirty loops, to feature-length x-rated movies, to home video. Though the cast is led by actors James Franco (playing twin brothers) and Maggie Gyllenhaal, the show features a large, talented ensemble who portray the denizens of Times Square and their dreams, both broken and fulfilled. (Ralph Macchio has a small recurring role as a somewhat shady but amiable vice cop who knows how to play both sides of the street.)

While it’s hard to feel nostalgic for a time rife with crime, drugs and prostitution, the show nevertheless exposes the downside of gentrification. The area may have been cleaned up and made family friendly (and Disneyfied), but it also lost some of its color and character—and of course became less affordable and hospitable to the working class and disenfranchised inhabitants who populated the area. Indeed, the show makes clear that this transformation was achieved through a somewhat shady partnership between land developers and city officials, who made sure they procured those properties—many admittedly distressed and some run by "slum lords"—at a bargain without paying existing property owners a fair market rate for properties that would eventually be developed and become valuable real estate in one of the priciest markets in the world. As the series shows, Times Square was ignored and allowed to fester until the city and its real estate barons saw money in it (it should be noted that Rudy Giuliani, mayor of New York at the time, played a role in cleaning up the area and is name-checked in the series). In the last season, the series time-jumped to the 1980s to portray the final throes of sordid Times Square and sticks the landing in its finale episodes.

Minx Starz) - Season 2

Like The Deuce, Minx covers the same era of the sexual revolution through the lens of the rise of a fictional Playgirl–like magazine called Minx, founded by an uptight feminist and a dirty magazine publisher of the old Larry Flynt school. (I reviewed the first season here.) However, while The Deuce is gritty and doesn't shy away from showing the underbelly of the porn world, Minx is a playful comedy of manners that's both sex-positive, and even more graphic in its portrayal of sex and nudity (including the most full-frontal male nudity I’ve ever seen anywhere!). Like many of the other top shows I’ve listed here, such as Lessons in Chemistry and Julia, the show gets better, richer and broadens its scope with each episode. After a somewhat critically acclaimed first season run on the streaming platform Max, the show was cancelled following Warner Brothers’ merger with Discovery, but then was picked up by Starz. I found the second season just as well done and fun, but alas, shortly after the season dropped, Starz announced that it too was ending the series. Which is a shame since the season clearly had set the table for another season.

My Adventures with Superman (Max)

Some have decried this “anime” version of the iconic character, featuring a Black Jimmy Olsen and an Asian Lois Lane, but I found it incredibly fun and engaging. At first I thought the series was simply episodic, but though the episodes feature stand alone stories, the first 10-episode season builds an engaging arc for both the series and the characters, among them being Superman/Clark Kent trying to find out more about his alien identity—unlike the comics, he has no awareness yet of his origin as the last son of Krypton. It’s an entertaining series that feels like a good welcoming entry point to the character and I look forward to the next season.