B.J. Novak’s ‘The Premise’ Anthology Series Often Can’t Deliver on Its Promise: TV Review

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticSay this much for Netflix’s new documentary “Britney vs. Spears”: It certainly wasn’t made with the objective of pleasing her fans in mind.The documentary, directed by Erin Lee Carr, is intended as an exploration of the pop star’s current struggle to escape the conservatorship, run by her father, that controls her life.

EXCLUSIVE: The first installment of Super Pumped, Showtime’s anthology series from Billions co-creators Brian Koppelman and David Levien, has rounded out its cast.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic“I’m not ready to be a human pop star,” a contestant on Fox’s new show “Alter Ego” tells us. “I want to be a digital pop star.”That’s the “Alter Ego” proposition in a nutshell.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticAround the midpoint of Mike Flanagan’s new Netflix horror serial “Midnight Mass,” in the middle of a conversation about loss, Kate Siegel’s character Erin asks Zach Gilford’s Riley: “What happens when you die?”Humanity’s been grappling with with that big question for millennia, and a single conversation likely won’t crack it.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticJames Wolk is a naturally appealing TV lead. So much so that viewers may even forgive the early scenes of his new drama “Ordinary Joe” for casting him as a college senior.Wolk, at 36 a veteran of projects including “Mad Men” and “Watchmen,” first came to audiences’ attention on network TV, and it’s to network TV he returns this month.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticFox has lately made its name, and its success, on televised music competitions — everything from “The Masked Singer” and “Dancer” franchises to a revived “Name That Tune” to the amiably strange “I Can See Your Voice.” And so it makes a certain kind of sense that this fall, it launches a new scripted series about … the inner workings of a reality-TV contest.On “The Big Leap,” various Detroit residents are wooed by a series of the same name, one that aims to find

73rd Primetime Emmy Awards. Would it go to the singular? Or or, both series that launched a million fan theories? Or perhaps one of the prestige period pieces, or ?In the end, was named the winner.

And now we come to the grand finale of my prediction posts for Emmy’s key contests. The name of this category has evolved over the years— the new name is designed to find someplace other than Television Movie to showcase individual episodes of what are known as Anthology series.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticThe first season of “The Morning Show” ended in an explosion; the new one begins, as the experienced TV viewer might expect, with characters picking up the pieces. But that’s about the only thing that’s predictable this time around.In its second outing, Apple TV Plus’ drama has placed a premium on the twist — stomping through 10 new episodes with forced complication and out-of-character behavior.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticThe first iteration of ABC’s “The Wonder Years,” which kicked off in 1988, featured a young Fred Savage as a kid growing up about twenty years in the past.If the revival of the format, now executive-produced by Savage along with Lee Daniels, Saladin Patterson, and Marc Velez, kept that gap, we’d be following a story that took place at the turn of the century, roughly the same territory occupied by Hulu’s “Pen15.” Instead, though, the show keeps its gaze fixed on

Now that Anna Kendrick’s Darby has found love, HBO’s “Love Life” is shining a light on someone else’s story, that of Marcus Watkins, played by William Jackson Harper.

An incredibly rich category where, fortunately, no one from the five year old production of  Hamilton qualified, leaving room for one of the strongest fields in a long time, boasting a shortlist that cut out the likes of Nicole Kidman in The Undoing, Thuso Mbedu in The Underground Railroad, Kate Mara in A Teacher, Tessa Thompson in Sylvie’s Love and more.

When it comes to acting nominations in this newly named category for performers you might as well just skip the part about Anthology or TV movies. All the acting nominations—this year at least—are from Limited Series (formerly called miniseries), or in the case of those seven nominations for Hamilton actors, come from a show otherwise only eligible for Variety Special (Pre-Recorded).

Co-created by Ava DuVernay and former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick — who silently took a knee during the US national anthem in 2016 in protest of the racial inequality and indiscriminate killing of Black Americans by police — “Colin in Black and White,” the limited docudrama series from Netflix, follows its subject as he looks back on his formative years as an adopted, biracial high school and college athlete with his eyes set on becoming a professional quarterback.

The title of writer B.J. Novak’s new FX anthology series is essential to understanding its approach, and also its failure.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticThe forensic breakdown of corporate greed may be the defining artwork of this historical moment.From the dueling Fyre Festival documentaries of 2019 to the multiple filmed and written explorations of overweening founders like Adam Neumann (WeWork) and Elizabeth Holmes (Theranos), there’s a sort of giddy weightlessness in watching the mighty brought low, and seeing the plebes who worked for them elevated, for a moment, to star-witness status.

dibé in Navajo) in an hour—a symbolic ritual. The sheep represents spirituality and life: Dibé bi iina.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticEach episode of “Scenes From a Marriage” opens with a bit of frank reality. The five installments of HBO’s new limited series begin showing one of the show’s stars, Jessica Chastain or Oscar Isaac, getting prepared for shooting — walking to set, receiving makeup last-looks.

The Walking Dead's Andrew Lincoln will come back to TV following his exit from the hit zombie show in 2018. The English actor, also known for *that* card scene in Love Actually, is set to star in Guillermo del Toro's upcoming Netflix anthology horror series.