Apple TV+

With The Last Thing He Told Me Season 2 transferring a chunk of its action to Marseille in Episode 6, that gives it the rare distinction of...

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters trades in the giant monster action — mostly — for more focused character work in “Furusato”, and it’s a gamble that doesn’t...

"I'm a lot of things. I'm not a monster," says Robert in Episode 3 of Imperfect Women, and it's perhaps the least convincing thing anyone has ever said.

Even at its worst, Shrinking is still better than most dramedies... ever, really, which is pretty high praise. Season 3 has already threatened to fall into a bit of a holding pattern once or twice, and it does so again for most of Episode 9, which is titled "Daddy Issues" because it finally finds Jimmy's dad, Randy, sticking around for a full episode.

I’ve long since given up trying to figure out what The Last Thing He Told Me is doing with this story in Season 2, so...

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters hasn't been slacking in Season 2, but I still think Episode 4 is the best of this run yet. "Trespass" doesn't quite have the character depth of the previous installment, and the flashbacks have almost entirely dried up now that we've established how Titan X connects to Santa Soledad and, of course, what happened between Lee and Keiko.

Episode 2 of Imperfect Women is built around the most obvious “twist” in the history of television, but if we’re being charitable, I’d suggest that the whole thing isn’t intended as a twist as much as a grim inevitability.

You can’t have a TV friendship without one of you dying. Those are just the rules, I think, and at least in Episode 1, Apple TV+’s Imperfect Women operates on the assumption that murder isn’t surprising to anyone, least of all the audience.

It’s a testament to how consistently well-written the characters in Shrinking are that the broad sweep of “Depression Diet” is obvious, even when the episode...

There’s basically no monster action in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which you should probably be aware of. It’s fine, though, since you can have too much of a good thing. Season 2 only has a limited budget, and Episode 3, “Secrets”, is all about putting in the emotional, character-driven groundwork that is going to make the inevitable monster action later feel more resonant.

And there it is, folks. The big twist! Or the nearest The Last Thing He Told Me Season 2 can get to one of those, anyway, which admittedly isn't saying much.

You can’t say I didn’t tell you so. In hindsight, it was obvious that Shrinking Season 3 was going to pull the trigger on a major tragedy, and Maya was an obvious candidate. Gaby rebuffing her – entirely understandably! – was a death knell.

I might be wrong, but I’m not sure what Season 2 of The Last Thing He Told Me needed was a much narrower focus. Episode 3, “Reunion”, does away with the vast majority of scenes involving characters other than Hannah and Bailey, and indeed, as per the title, brings Owen himself back into their physical orbit.

Monsters are supposed to be scary, which is something that, in large part, hasn’t really been considered by the MonsterVerse. Giant and awesome? Sure. But...

As well as being the ending — obviously — of Hijack Season 2, “Terminal” plays out like a bit of a reassurance that there won’t be a...

Shrinking isn't about death, per se, but it's certainly rather attached to the idea. It occurs to me that we're in Season 3 now, and none of the core cast has been killed off in any way, even the ones that have come close a few times, so perhaps the fake-out trick is wearing thin.

There’s something weird about The Last Thing He Told Me that is difficult to put a finger on. It has always been there, but it’s especially noticeable in Season 2. The best way of describing it would probably be a feeling of inertia, or glossy emptiness. It all just feels so rote, so artificial, that it’s really quite difficult to care about any of it.

In its first season, Apple TV+’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters made a surprisingly great case for itself as one of the better small-screen franchise tie-ins. And Season 2, despite a break lasting over two years, seems determined to live up to that reputation in Episode 1.