Going deeper with True Detective, Curb returns, and more from the week in TV
A look at The A.V. Club's top television coverage from the week of February 5
TV Features True Detective
True Detective: Night Country recap: “You’re not terrible”
Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) can’t sleep. It’s December 24, the seventh day of night, and the Chief is kicking off Christmas Eve by doom-watching that haunting ice-cave video of Annie Kowtok being killed. Adding to that holiday cheer is the unwelcome news that Captain Connolly (Christopher Eccleston) is early packing up the Corpsicle bodies for Anchorage—and is sticking around Ennis to mitigate the messy mine conflict—and the fact that Danvers discovers Navarro’s younger sister having a shirtless mental episode in the middle of a snowy street. Read More
Of course Apple TV Plus has a star-studded TV show lineup for 2024
Apple TV+ has quickly become a go-to platform for underrated dramas, big-budget franchises, and Emmy-winning comedies. This year is shaping up to be another strong one, at least if the upcoming content slate is any indication. At the Television Critics Association’s 2024 winter press tour, Apple TV+ unveiled its plans to keep audiences busy during the spring and summer. Read More
Curb Your Enthusiasm season 12 premiere: Larry is back and just the way we like him
Cue up “Frolic,” because Curb is back, baby! Larry David just choked out Elmo on the Today Show, then apologized, and now we’re ready to rock with some new episodes of his television program. And this is the season-12 premiere, so there’s a lot to establish. First of all, remember Maria Sofia? The horrible actor Larry cast on his show Young Larry in season 11 to smooth over a conflict with her dad? The first thing we get is a montage, showing us that she has since become a breakout star. She’s on the cover of all the magazines, winning the awards, giving the acceptance speeches: “I love you America, and you love me!” We see her on Jimmy Kimmel Live! getting praise for stealing the show on Larry’s sitcom. “Obviously confidence is not an issue with you,” Kimmel tells her. And of course she makes up her own lines. So there we have it: She’s definitely back here. But for how long? Will she fall from grace? Will her fame eclipse Larry’s? Read More
Time is a flat circle: All of Night Country’s connections to True Detective season one
True Detective: Night Country showrunner, writer, and director Issa López has told the story of how the fourth season came to be many times by now, including in an interview with The A.V. Club. She’s spoken at length about how she had a pitch ready to go when HBO came to her in search of ideas for a revival of the show, because she’d already been working on one. All she had to do was retrofit her original story about a pair of detectives investigating a mass death at an arctic research station into the universe of the show. One of the ways she did it was by going back to season one for inspiration, a “dark mirror” of the series she wanted to create. Read More
A third season of AMC’s The Terror is on its way
You thought you’d seen the end of The Terror after season two in 2019, but AMC is here to surprise everyone with a renewal. At the 2024 Television Critics Association’s (TCA) winter press tour, the cable network announced it has given the green light for the supernatural drama’s third season. Read More
One Day review: Netflix rom-com is perfect for the BookTok set
The 2011 film One Day, adapted from the David Nicholls novel of the same name, is not a very good film. Released during the spiritual decline of the rom-com, it had all the right elements (and ostensibly likable leads in Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess), but none of that unknowable alchemy that makes a romance truly spark. The prestige TV streaming era has created an opportunity for many maligned 2010s movies to be reborn as series; now it’s One Day’s turn, with a new—and much improved—television adaptation that premieres February 8 on Netflix. Read More
Why do we keep giving book adaptations a second chance on TV?
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. We know this saying well, so why do we forget about it when it comes to book adaptations? Why, when a film or TV version of a bestselling novel is so bad, do we give it another chance and try again? Read More
Apple TV Plus welcomes you to Palm Royale in March
Does Apple TV+ have its next big crowd-pleaser ready to go? With Ted Lasso’s end and Severance only beginning production on season two now, the streaming platform is ready to hit us with another seemingly perfect watercooler TV show with Palm Royale. The ‘60s-set dramedy hails from Dead To Me and The Eyes Of Tammy Faye creator Abe Sylvia. Read More
15 best Valentine’s Day TV episodes of all time
February 14 is just around the corner, people. Which means it’s high time to rewatch those Valentine’s Day-centric TV episodes, whether they toast the holiday, revel in its craziness, poke fun at it, or what-have-you. From Michael Scott’s tour of Times Square in The Office to a survey of what love actually is in Orange Is The New Black to the greatest card of all time on The Simpsons, these are, in chronological order, The A.V. Club’s favorite Val-Day-focused TV installments to date. Read More
Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira preview their return to The Walking Dead universe
It’s a sight no one thought they’d see, yet here we are. Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira are stepping back into the never-ending world of The Walking Dead, a franchise they left behind years ago. They are reprising their roles of Rick Grimes and Michonne in a new spin-off, The Ones Who Live, to provide closure to their characters’ “epic love story.” It’s a phrase both actors repeatedly used at the 2024 Television Critics Association (TCA) winter press tour. Read More