In Season 2, ‘Space Force’ Comes Down to Earth and Embraces Its Workplace Comedy Roots: TV Review

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticThe blunt opening title card of “Shining Vale” feels like a test: “Women are twice as likely as men to suffer from depression,” it reads, seeming to signal the beginning of a clunky show about Women and Depression — at least until the next sentence appears onscreen. “Women are also twice as likely to be possessed by a demon,” it says, a immediate and deliberate wink of self-awareness at an audience that might’ve already tried to write the show off.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticA few episodes into “Our Flag Means Death,” aristocrat turned pirate ship captain Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby) admires his spoils with a frisson of glee. “Why can’t one be a gentleman and a pirate?” he muses aloud to no one in particular, before deciding to embrace that inherent contradiction as his new moniker.

K.J. Yossman It was only a few months ago that Ivanna Sakhno had every reason to celebrate, when it was announced the “Pacific Rim: Uprising” actor would be joining highly anticipated Star Wars limited series “Ahsoka” opposite Rosario Dawson.But last week Sakhno’s world came crashing down when, during an evening out with friends in New York’s East Village, she found out Russia had invaded her native Ukraine.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticTwo long years after Netflix first dropped its “Tiger King” docuseries, the first scripted stab at retelling the wild story of warring big cat enthusiasts Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin has landed, as was inevitable. “Joe vs. Carole,” premiering March 3 on Peacock, stars John Cameron Mitchell and Kate McKinnon as Joe and Carole as they vow to take the other down.

Top Boy will join the streaming platform next month, as well as new episodes of Bridgerton and Big Mouth spinoff Human Resources.According to What’s On Netflix, Netflix will also host Spike Jonze romantic comedy Her, starring Joaquin Phoenix, from tomorrow (March 1).Other cult films coming to the streaming platform include the Coen Brothers’ Hail, Caesar!, and Zac Efron coming-of-ager 17 Again.Take a look at the full list of titles coming to Netflix UK in March here:March 1AliveCujoHell on the BorderHerI Spit on Your Grave 2Love Is Color BlindThe MasterThree Days of CondorSave The Last DanceSpider-Man 2The Guardians of Justice (season one)UnitedWorst Roommate Ever (season one)March 2Against the IceSavage Rhythm (season one)The Pirates: The Last Royal TreasureMarch 3American GirlHe-Man and the Masters of the Universe (season two)Midnight at Pera Palace (season one)Power Rangers: Dino Fury (season two)Surviving Paradise: A Family TaleThe Parisian Agency: Exclusive Properties (season two)The Weekend AwayWhindersoson Nunes: My Own Show! March 4Making Fun (season one)Lies and Deceit (season one)MeskinaNightridePieces of Her (season one)The Invisible ThreadMarch 5Alvin and the Chipmunks: The SqueakquelRick and Morty (season five)March 8An Astrological Guide for Broken Hearts (season two)Autumn GirlLast One Standing (season one)Taylor Tomlinson: Look At YouMarch 9 Byron Baes (season one)Queer Eye: Germany (season one)The Andy Warhol DiariesThe BombardmentThe Last Kingdom (season four)March 10Karma’s World (season two)Kotaro Lives Alone (season one)Love, Life & Everything in Between (season one)Surf’s Up 2: WaveManiaMarch 1117 AgainFormula 1: Drive to Survive (season four)Hail, Caesar! Life After Death with Tyler Henry (season

Kanye West and Elon Musk are working on… a collab of some sort?! Or something??

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticDo you have to have watched the History Channel’s “Vikings” series in order to fully appreciate “Vikings: Valhalla”? For this newcomer, at least, the answer is…well, yes and no.The eight-episode season of “Valhalla,” which dropped on Netflix on Feb. 25, takes place 125 years after the events of the original “Vikings” series, with Christianity taking over Norse traditions and England’s power on the rise.

Caroline Framke Chief TV Critic“The Dropout” knows what it has in Elizabeth Holmes, the real-life enigma who managed to con the biggest power players in Silicon Valley and beyond that she, and she alone, was the future of technology in health care. With her wide-set eyes and impossibly husky voice, Holmes emerged from the pack of bland bros in Patagonia vests as the kind of uniquely, perversely compelling figure that Hollywood has never been able to resist for long.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticKnowing that Netflix’s “Cat Burglar” was created by Charlie Brooker of “Black Mirror,” and that the “Black Mirror” take on a choose-your-own-adventure episode (2018’s “Bandersnatch“) represents one of that show’s biggest horrors, I kept waiting for “Cat Burglar” (out today on Netflix) to take some terrible turn of existential dread. But after playing through several “Cat Burglar” scenarios, the opposite proved true.

Preparing for the future! As Vanderpump Rules stars Scheana Shay and Brock Davies prepare to tie the knot, the pair opened up about how different the experience was compared to their respective pasts.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticSay this for “The Endgame”: It knows what it has in Morena Bacarrin, an actor so immediately telegenic that making sure she has everyone’s attention is as simple as her walking into a room. As notorious mastermind Elena Federova, Baccarin commands her every scene in NBC’s newest drama with a sly grin and slightly raised eyebrow that usually spells disaster for those trying to test her.

Space Force is back!

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticWhen I say it took me a few episodes to get into a show, it usually means that the show itself needed a few episodes to figure its world out before it was able to draw me into it. When I say that about “Severance,” though, it’s because the beginning of the show’s first season is as unnerving as it is bleak.

After a two-year wait, Space Force is set to return to our Netflix screens.

New couple alert? Fans must certainly be trying to wrap their heads around the news of John Mayer and Kiernan Shipka being out together in Los Angeles on Thursday (February 10). The “Your Body is a Wonderland” singer, 44, was spotted grabbing a drink with the 22-year-old Mad Men alum at the Hollywood hotspot Tower Bar on the famed Sunset Strip. The pair seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely, as John even wrapped his arms around Keirnan for a big hug at one moment.

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticSPOILER ALERT: This piece contains spoilers from the entire first season of Netflix’s new hit Korean drama “All of Us Are Dead,” which premiered Jan. 28.The final scene of “All of Us Are Dead” could act either as a period on the end of a sentence or a semicolon that finishes one phrase while leaving room for another. After 12 episodes of frenzied running from zombies, the show’s exhausted, traumatized teen heroes stand on the roof of their ruined school.