CBS

In a weird way, it’s almost impressive that we’re on Season 2 of Watson and yet nobody involved in its creation has quite figured out who any of its core characters are.

It’s only Episode 3, and things really aren’t looking good for Mickey or Skye in Sheriff Country.

I respect Boston Blue for not turning Episode 3 into some kind of wacky Halloween special, but after moaning last week that it seems too willing to contrive happy endings for everyone, it’s kind of a double-edged sword.

With Watson Season 2 having moved on from Sherlock Holmes as quickly as he was introduced, Episode 3, “Expletive Deleted”, has the advantage of being able to push forward with the case of the week as a pure medical mystery.

I guess enough time has passed for an episode about a pandemic, even a tiny one that only flirts with the idea of becoming a wide-scale health event.

DMV can get away with a lot because it's genuinely funny more often than it isn't.

It’s hard not to compare Sheriff Country to Boston Blue. They’re pretty different shows on the face of it, sure, but are they really?

My biggest question about Boston Blue is when things are going to start going wrong.

DMV turns up the heat in Episode 2, both literally and otherwise. "Stay in Your Lane" is a significantly more chaotic episode than the premiere was.

Halfway between the continuation of Blue Bloods and the introduction of a completely new show, the premiere of Boston Blue has that classic “same but different” quality you probably expect from a spin-off to a beloved procedural.

The hook of Sheriff Country is that it’s about a sheriff for whom the law is the least of her problems.

The worst thing that ever happened to Watson was Brilliant Minds. Both shows are similar enough that the comparisons are unavoidable; medical procedurals with a focus on very strange, often brain-related cases of the week.

DMV seems built on the question of what a single-camera workplace sitcom looks like when everyone hates the workplace.

Taking a page out of Black Mirror's playbook, Poppa's House tries to tackle a relevant subject in Episode 16. And like recent Black Mirror, it's misguided rubbish.

Call me naïve, but I thought Poppa’s House was onto something. After finally introducing a halfway-compelling new element, it regresses into its default state in Episode 15.

Here’s a potentially controversial statement, but I much prefer Watson when it’s playing down the Sherlock Holmes association. Given I also prefer it when it isn’t about John Watson, I can admit that I’m setting the show some perhaps unreasonably strict parameters.

After a week or two off, the return of Poppa's House doesn't exactly feel like a tantalizing proposition.

I’ve been pretty up-front about the fact that Watson doesn’t work as well when it’s focusing on Watson himself, so Episode 7 is a bit annoying in the respect that it proves me wrong.