It is not unusual for most series to hit a sophomore slump, but Hacks manages to avoid this fate, partly because of how deftly it expands on its original premise.
HBO
Television Review: “Barry” in Season Three — Even More Malign
Season three of Barry is just as dark as its predecessors. In fact, in some ways it may even be darker.
Television Review: “Gentleman Jack” — Even More Spellbinding in Season Two
The emphasis isn’t on gratuitous sensuality: Gentleman Jack’s throes of passion are designed to reveal more about the psychological makeup of its characters.
WATCH CLOSELY: HBO’s “Landscapers”
Landscapers is a true crime series that compellingly weaves together dream and reality.
Television Review: “The Sex Lives of College Girls” — Wonderfully Down-To-Earth
Let’s hope The Sex Lives of College Girls is given a second season because, much like Sex Education, it is a reminder of the value of the real at a time Big Tech and others are trying to pull us into living and loving in the virtual.
WATCH CLOSELY: HBO”s “Scenes from a Marriage” — Love, Naturally
These are people behaving badly, even while they struggle to retain their dignity.
Film Review: “Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage” — Hell on Earth
The premier entry in the HBO documentary series “Music Box” shows how everything about the concert celebrating the 30th anniversary of Woodstock goes terribly wrong, then gets worse.
Television Review: “Class Action Park” — The Most Dangerous Place on Earth
Visitors (of all ages?) were invited to drink copious amounts of liquor and possibly get laid. This was as close to Pinnochio‘s Pleasure Island as they were ever going to get.
Television Review: HBO’s “Perry Mason” — American Justice, with Loose Ends
The parallel plot — maybe the real plot — percolates just below the surface: the meta-textual challenge of figuring out how the HBO Perry Mason will morph into something resembling its CBS progenitor.
Television Review: “Bully. Coward. Victim: The Story of Roy Cohn” — A Soulless Man
Roy Cohn was much more pernicious than Joe McCarthy because he was far more adept at undercutting the relevance of so-called American values.