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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.

MobLand has such a great cast that Episode 1 didn’t need to do anything to be compelling out of the gate. Luckily, “Stick or Twist” did some things anyway.

Major character deaths in 1923 have been like buses in Season 2; you wait for ages without seeing one, and then a whole bunch come along at once.

It’s very much a cliché that the journey is more important than the destination, but it seems pretty true in 1923 because the journey never ends.

One of the meta mysteries of Yellowjackets Season 3 has been who Hilary Swank is playing, and if nothing else, Episode 8, “A Normal, Boring Life”, answers that question.

The first two episodes of Happy Face were okay, but suffered from a bit of an identity crisis, and Episode 3, “Was It Worth It?”, doesn’t make the existing problems any better.

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.

I’m not sure now’s the time to be introducing new characters into Yellowjackets Season 3. The show has mostly worked by maintaining a tight cast, albeit two distinct versions of them.

Happy Face is a true story, more or less, but you get the sense in its two-part premiere that it’d rather not be.

It probably says a lot about how harsh the Montana winter of 1923 is that a man having his skull drilled into constitutes a real bright spot. But here we are. Episode 4, “Journey the Rivers of Iron”, skips across all the ongoing subplots with a real sense of confidence.

I’ve figured out what Watson needs to do to be interesting, which is to focus on everyone other than Watson himself.

Yellowjackets Season 3 felt like it was starting to get going in the previous episode, even though it was lacking those big, key developments.

“The Man with the Glowing Chest” isn’t about a man with a glowing chest, though one does briefly feature.

America is the land of opportunity. It’s also, apparently, the land of thieves, sexual deviants, racists, judgy bureaucrats, and very long-winded travel options.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it's worth reiterating that Poppa's House is a significantly better show when it's focusing on Poppa -- especially his relationship with Ivy.

There might come a time in the not-too-distant future when I’m able to look back and say Watson got good around Episode 4. It’s weird, though, because “Patient Question Mark” isn’t even a hugely notable improvement over the first few episodes.