All five shows were definite recommendations in the first (of three) ‘2024 TV Highlights Thus Far’ review articles. They were all shows that I expect to end up on plenty of top 10 lists at the end of the year. This second part is a little bit different. Although, yes, I expect one or two of these to have enough critical appreciation for them to land on plenty of top 10s, the vast majority of part 2’s series weren’t home runs. They are highlights because I found something about each and every one of these series to be really effective, but not all of these are series that I’d easily recommend to friends and family. In fact, some of these shows even disappointed me from time to time, but I think there is enough in every one of these shows to merit them being singled out and discussed. In this part, among other things, I’ll be discussing two Apple TV+ series both of which revolve around parallel universes and the existence of multiple different persons of the same character.
F.A.Q.
- What are Additional Bite-Sized Reviews?
– My movie and television catch-up review series ‘Additional Bite-Sized Reviews‘ is an evolution of the Overview-article section previously titled ‘What I Didn’t Write About.’ In articles such as this one, I will provide my readers with my thoughts on select new films, new shows, or even classics that I feel like giving my thoughts on relatively briefly, since I don’t have the time to dedicate thorough reviews to them at this point in time. That said, sometimes the reviews found in these articles go quite long, which is why I sometimes refer to them as review compilations rather than a handful of bite-sized reviews. - Why do the bite-sized reviews not include either a letter grade or a review score?
– In my full and thorough reviews, I like to score or grade what I watch. But since these reviews aren’t as detailed, I think it is fairer to the films and shows to simply just decide whether or not to recommend them. I guess you could say this is the only type of review that is basically ‘scored’ with the classic thumbs-up/thumbs-down-method on my site, though sometimes my recommendation answer comes with a caveat.
Constellation | Series | Created by Peter Harness | Release Year: 2024 | Season Length: 8 Episodes | Recommended?: Well, only if you’re OK getting invested in something that got canceled.
We start with a little bit of a bummer, which isn’t to say that the show was a bummer, but rather that the reality is that, even though this show finds itself in this highlight article, this show was actually canceled a couple of months ago. So, unless something miraculous happens, we won’t be getting the season two that I’m sure many fans crave. I state this at the very top because I think it is only right to come clean about its non-existent future before I potentially talk you into giving it a chance. On the surface, Apple TV+’s Constellation had a lot going for it. It featured a solid cast consisting of Noomi Rapace, Jonathan Banks, and James D’Arcy, and, on top of this, it also features some pretty ambitious sci-fi series ideas that are sometimes executed quite well. The series is about the aftermath of a collision on the International Space Station that resulted in a loss of life and the immediate evacuation of most of the remaining crew. One of these astronauts, Johanna Ericsson (played by Noomi Rapace), stays in space a little while longer and risks her life in the process. Before, and following, her eventual return to Earth, however, Johanna starts seeing disturbing visions and questions everything about the nature of her reality, as some details appear to have changed all of a sudden.
Peter Harness’ show gets off on the right foot with a strong opening episode from veteran television director Michelle MacLaren, which allows for some thrilling — and occasionally somewhat scary — sci-fi scenes in space. As the show goes on, and the plot eventually starts taking place on Earth, the sci-fi-horror-thriller blend continues to work really well. Throughout the series, which features solid work from Rapace, the show has all the right ingredients, while at the same time managing to pull off a strange, creepy atmosphere that really works for the show. As a Dane, I also really appreciated the series’ Scandinavian focus, and, when she eventually shows up, it was really cool to see Birthe Neumann, a veteran Danish actress, appear in a mysterious role she clearly enjoyed, as it was quite unlike what she normally gets the chance to do. That said, despite the strong start, I found that the show too often kept you at arm’s length, that the mechanics of the central hook eventually got a little bit too unclear, and that you get less and less vested in the broader universe of characters, with James D’Arcy’s husband-character feeling frustratingly underwritten. I always cared about the mother-daughter narrative that eventually became the core of its complex spooky parallel universe storytelling, but, annoyingly, while the finale was a good episode, it was not a good season (or series) finale, as it left too much up in the air and unresolved. Though the ending was unsatisfying (even more so because of the cancellation), I found enough in this one that I genuinely liked, but, at the same time, I constantly wanted to like it more than I did. Perhaps it got another season in another reality somewhere out there.
Dark Matter: Season 1 | Series | Created by Blake Crouch | Release Year: 2024 | Season Length: 9 Episodes | Recommended?: Sure.
Speaking of other realities, parallel universes, and doppelgängers, the same month that Apple TV+ canceled Constellation, they also released another show that, in some ways, was quite similar. That show is Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter, which is based on Crouch’s own novel of the same name. The series follows a college professor named Jason (played by Joel Edgerton) who, while out for a drink, is abducted, held at gunpoint, and injected with something by a mysterious stranger. Jason passes out from the injection, but, when he wakes up, his world has been turned upside down. He awakens in a fancy laboratory facility in a parallel universe where he is met by people who are elated about his so-called return, but Jason has no idea what they mean. Meanwhile, we find out that the man who abducted Jason looks just like him, and, in Jason’s universe, he intends to insert himself into his life and his family like nothing ever happened. As such, the series is all about Jason’s attempt to make his way back to his family, while this ‘other Jason’ tries to convince Jason’s family that he isn’t any different from the husband and father they know.
The core concept of this series was, to put it mildly, right up my alley, and, to add to that, because of its cast, which also included Jennifer Connelly, Alice Braga, and Jimmi Simpson, I had high hopes for the series. But while it got off to a strong and gripping start, I found the development of the show to be less than ideal. Something that was slightly irritating to me about the show was how it sometimes overexplained the concepts of the multiverse and parallel universes. It felt to me like the show had been written before the concept gained popularity (with Everything Everywhere All at Once, among other things), but has been released into a world where it’s old news. As the show went along, though the cast and the intriguing premise consistently held my interest, I felt that the show had a tendency to constantly go in circles with regard to the A-plot, and only really move forward in the B-plot.
With that having been said, despite it being stuck in place for a few episodes, I found that, for the most part, the final three episodes turned things around for the show with some excellent emotional scenes, while at the same time (finally) merging the central storylines. And, while the road to getting there was sometimes less than smooth, I also thought the season finale crossed the finish line fairly well. Although it should be said, that the show definitely could’ve done a better job of holding the audience’s hand when, eventually, it became difficult to tell who was who and why things were happening. Nonetheless, this was a solid sci-fi series from Apple TV+, despite certain issues along the way.
Baby Reindeer | Series | Created by Richard Gadd | Release Year: 2024 | Season Length: 7 Episodes | Recommended?: Yes.
The series, which is entirely written by Scottish comedian-turned-actor Richard Gadd, is based on Gadd’s own one-man show, which is inspired by or based on his own real-life experiences. Richard Gadd even plays the lead role, Donny Dunn. In the series, we encounter Dunn as an aspiring but struggling comedian mostly working as a bartender in the UK. During one of his shifts, he took pity on a customer, an older woman named Martha (played by Jessica Gunning), which turned out to be a decision that would haunt him, as she would go on to stalk him online and in person. While Martha gradually makes Donny’s life more and more of a living hell, we also slowly learn about his traumatic past.
I had misinterpreted the initial trailer for this show, and it ended up both having a markedly different tone than I expected and being much tougher to watch than I expected. I think that the first trailer sold the show more as a dark comedy with thriller elements, but, in reality, while it does sometimes feel like that, the show is much more hard-hitting than that. Frankly, for some, this will be a very triggering show. This is a raw, honest, complex, and vulnerable account of a man being stalked by a lonely older woman that turns into a horrifying male story of being the victim of grooming, abuse, and sexual assault, which warped his sense of self and sent him into a crisis of identity, sexuality, conscience, and depression. It does a phenomenal job of handling some very taboo subject matter and is, ultimately, an extremely good show. It is extremely impressive that Gadd not only wrote something this good but also that he successfully turned in an equally good — if not better — lead performance despite his limited acting work experience. In addition to that, though Gadd may take the headlines, it should also be said that Gunning is also terrific in he series, as she manages to give layers to a character that is more than just one note in large part because of the well-tuned portrayal.
True Detective: Night Country | Series | Showrunner: Issa Lopez | Release Year: 2024 | Season Length: 6 Episodes | Recommended?: Sure.
True Detective is such an interesting anthology series, but I think it is fair to say that it has never recaptured the energy, critical acclaim, or popularity of its iconic first season. For many, this fourth season was a triumph that was much better than the second and third seasons, while for many others, including series creator Nic Pizzolatto (who criticized the series very publicly and very unprofessionally), it is a blemish on the show as a whole. This is a series that has probably both been review-bombed and championed, and, frankly, I think it’s a little bit wild that either camp is so intense in their feelings. For me, Night Country had a lot of good and a lot of drawbacks, and I find myself sitting somewhere in between those that say it was a triumph and those that claim it is a disaster. I thought it was mostly fine but with some notable problems.
Issa Lopez’s True Detective: Night Country follows local Alaskan police Chief Liz Danvers (played by Jodie Foster) and trooper Evangeline Navarro (played by Kali Reis) as they try to uncover what happened on a mysterious research station, which the entire crew has disappeared from and where a severed tongue was found. They make disturbing and puzzling discoveries and consider whether or not this case could be related to a cold case.
With Night Country, I immediately dug the Wind River meets True Detective meets The Thing vibes, and I was super fascinated when the show revealed itself to be bringing more of a supernatural angle to the whole thing. I didn’t mind the relatively slow opening episodes, because I thought they always would be worth the build-up to some terrific development or reveal. I also really enjoyed the cast, which also includes Fiona Shaw, John Hawkes, Finn Bennett, and Christopher Eccleston. And, as a fan of hers, it was also such a joy to see Jodie Foster as this gruff lead character. But, as the show went along, I had issues with the execution, as there were both instances of forced drama and cliche disagreements. Furthermore, I felt that Fiona Shaw’s character merited more of a focus than she got, while I also thought both the actual detective work and the natural inclusion of the supernatural angle left something to be desired.
In the end, I enjoyed the opening, struggled with the season’s midsection, and I have mixed feelings about the ending. I like what Issa Lopez was going for in the finale. The major resolution makes sense in the grand scheme of things, but it’s in the little things and in the execution of things that the season didn’t fully work for me. So while I get the idea of saying the season stuck the landing (like many are — more power to you), I instead thought that it landed somewhat inelegantly. This felt like a 100-minute supernatural murder mystery film that had been extended to work as a season of TV and then tweaked to have the ‘True Detective’ title make even a little bit of sense. Every time the series referenced the prior seasons, it felt groan-inducing to me and forced. Truth be told, there are a lot of things that I genuinely like about Lopez’s Night Country, but, at the same time, also quite a few things that felt off about it. Ultimately, I have a feeling that I would’ve been a huge fan of this if it had been repackaged as an original film. But, as a season of True Detective, I think it is probably about as good as season three.
– Reviews Written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
I'm Jeffrey Rex 
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