CBS

I always feel bad comparing Sheriff Country to Boston Blue directly, since it doesn’t seem like a fair comparison, but they’re both procedurals airing on the same channel on the same day, and one is significantly better than the other in a way that is strikingly obvious whenever they try to adopt a similar cadence.

It didn’t take a genius to work out that Boston Blue wrapping up its most compelling overarching subplot was going to leave it a little adrift. Episode 11, “Family Secrets,” falls into a procedural holding pattern reminiscent of some of the early-season outings that felt too aimless to take much notice of.

I’ve long held a personal theory that DMV is much better when it isn’t focusing on Colette, and Episode 11, “Power Shift”, makes me feel...

Watson has always had a fairly detectable medical-mystery pattern, so it was perfectly fair to imagine that Season 2’s mid-season premiere would really embrace that...

John Dutton died, and then Yellowstone itself died shortly after him, but that doesn’t mean that Taylor Sheridan was ever going to leave the neo-Western...

Sheriff Country is making a big claim for itself in Episode 10. The midseason premiere, “Crucible, Part 2”, picks up five minutes after the midseason finale, and manages to not only immediately resituate us in that tense siege situation but also keep the suspense up unrelentingly for the entire episode.

And we’re back. After a several-month hiatus, Boston Blue returns in Episode 10 not just to conclude the cliffhanger left by the midseason finale, but also to tie up one of Season 1’s big overarching plots – the murder of Judge Ben Silver.

DMV has been off the air for a long while, and Episode 10 feels less like a triumphant return than a reminder that this show...

Just like with Boston Blue, the midseason finale of Sheriff Country is one of its stronger episodes – and right on the back of an uncharacteristically weak one.

It took all season for Boston Blue to get good, only for it to reach its dramatic high point just in time for the midseason finale.

Every time Sherlock Holmes has shown up in Watson Season 2, it has heralded bad news.

I do love a subplot that feels very specific, and Sheriff Country has had its share of those already. But it has a really good one in Episode 8, appropriately titled “Death & Taxes”, which really enjoyably leans into the show’s very specific vibe and sense of place.

I’ve been moaning about Boston Blue’s lack of meaningful conflict. But I’m beginning to wonder if maybe the real thing that was missing was depth.

Trust DMV to radically improve just in time for the midseason finale.

It turns out Laila is still in Watson Season 2 after all, but her sudden reappearance in Episode 9 causes more problems than it fixes.

Sheriff Country has some mixed subplots in terms of quality, there’s no doubt about that, but it’s similarly inarguable that the main thrust of it is really very good.

I’ve spent most of my coverage of Boston Blue complaining about conflict – or the lack of it, as has often been the case here.

Just in case you were wondering whether DMV itself is aware of how annoying Colette is, Episode 8 has you covered.