A defining quality of Pose is its absence of suspense. There has never for a second been any doubt that Blanca would win the “Mother Of The Year” award that has been teased all season. There’s never any doubt that House Of Evangelista will win the ultimate house battle against House Of Ferocity in the season finale.…

In the penultimate episode of its first season, Pose pulls out all the stops, harnessing all of the strengths it has developed over the course of its first six episodes—fully realized character development, compelling visual storytelling, and narratives that feel deeply personal while still having larger cultural…

In her directorial debut, Janet Mock pulls together all of the strengths of Pose, delicately balancing the moments of lightness and darkness from a script co-written by her and Ryan Murphy with powerful visual storytelling. Her eye and style bring a sense of urgency but also a deeply intimate feeling to this episode.…

As with any great ensemble series, Pose has not only a deep roster of talent but a rich tapestry of characters with lives that overlap but also bring different things to the table, standing on their own. Sometimes ensemble series will still have a sneaky protagonist around whom everyone else orbits, but that really…

Pose’s “Giving and Receiving” has all the hallmarks of a Christmas special. It has its dramatic, tearful moments, but its overall warm and fuzzy and dressed up in holiday spirit. Like most special holiday episodes of television, it has a message of family and love. But because it’s Pose, that message is distinctly…

As its title suggests, Pose’s second episode revolves around access. Who has access to safe sex education? Who has access to safe spaces? Who has access to visible gay spaces? Who has access to wealth, jobs, self-worth? And by focusing not only on a marginalized group in a society but the group that is marginalized …

“Balls are a gathering of people who are not welcome to gather anywhere else.” And just like that, Blanca (MJ Rodriguez) ushers new-in-town Damon (Ryan Jamaal Swain) into the glistening, restorative world of NYC ball culture in the 1980s, where queer and trans people of color have carved out a place for themselves,…

As the first half of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt likely last season draws to a close, it leaves Kimmy with a clear goal: taking down bad men. Now, that sentiment has always been at the core of the show. Kimmy has fought to redefine herself outside of her experiences as a victim of the reverend. But the show hasn’t…

Meeting a bad dude at the tech conference last episode has led to Kimmy discovering the many shades of trash men. “Party Monster” introduced Fran Dodd, the certified meninist who tired to argue that the reverend shouldn’t be in jail because what he did shouldn’t be considered illegal. He doubles down on that assertion…

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt portrays a society on the brink of technological dystopia—in a fun, Kimmy way, as Kimmy herself would probably clarify. Yuko robots have infiltrated not only the workplace but private lives, too. And they seem to have actual lives and agency of their own: C.H.E.R.Y.L. brunches with Titus and…

In the age of Documentary Now!—which is often perfect in its send up of various doc styles and subjects—pulling off a documentary parody is an ambitious move. But Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt doesn’t just pull off its true crime documentary parody; it turns in one of its best episodes of all time in its departure from…

When it comes to satire, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt shines brightest when skewering the lives of rich people. The show turns wealth and privilege into a grotesque horror show. The rich almost seem like an alien species on this show. They’re dumb to the point of absurdity. Even the way they move and carry themselves has…

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’s fourth season begins with a playful parody of a 90s-style comedy opening sequence, Kimmy playing the goofy, affable protagonist in a cheery world scored to a song by Jane Krakowski. Of course, that bright and silly world comes crashing down before the actual intro, Kimmy’s broken record…

Hari Kondabolu’s Netflix special Warn Your Relatives brims with the kind of incisive political comedy one can expect from Kondabolu, the star, creator, and executive director of the pop culture documentary The Problem With Apu. There are digs at Trump, and self-aware attempts to stop talking about Trump that end in,…

I grew up with two Indian cuisines: The food I ate in Indian restaurants on special occasions, and the food cooked by my grandmother. The biggest difference I noticed between the two came in the bread department. My grandma served us many kinds of breads, but they never included naan.

Shows like How To Get Away With Murder thrive on viewer manipulation. It’s their nature to fake us out. So it tracks that How To Get Away With Murder would totally pull the rug out from us after last week’s penultimate episode. The end of that episode suggests that Bonnie has gotten into a major car accident. And when…

Unsurprisingly, the penultimate episode of How To Get Away With Murder’s fourth season has a lot going on. “The Day Before He Died” tries to attack all of the long-term storylines at once. Isaac is in the hospital recovering from overdosing. Simon’s in the hospital, too, but now he’s awake and gradually remembering…

The Good Fight returns for a second season with a premiere steeped in death. Elegantly framed by a central funeral that moves from church to cemetery to at-home reception, “Day 408” slowly unspools its ominous thread, surrounding its main characters with subtle dysfunction and doom.

When I first heard about the How To Get Away With Murder/Scandal crossover event, I thought it was certainly a joke. It seemed like something Twitter had somehow breathed into existence, like the premise of fanfiction. But despite there was no real evidence all this time to suggest that Olivia Pope and Annalise…