John Powers

I'm not sure that any creature is more marvelous than the honeybee, with its highly evolved social organization, its ability to create honey, and, of course, the stinger that causes us to take heed whenever we hear buzzing. The pain it threatens makes it easy to think you need an almost-monastic devotion to become a beekeeper.

The superbly acted HBO series is a darkly funny riff on King Lear. Members of a family struggle for control of a media empire — and not one of them is likable, but all of them are fun.

Critic at large John Powers reviews the second season of the HBO series about a group of entitled women in Monterey, California. He says the new season is "steeped in shame, anger and melancholy."

Olivia Wilde's lighthearted, female-centric film charts the adventures of two brainy best friends who embark on a quest to reframe their high school identities 24 hours before graduation.

When Lena Dunham's Girls appeared seven years ago, it cleared the path for a parade of smart, provocative television shows about smart, provocative young heroines.

The best of the bunch may well be Fleabag, the hilarious, raunchy and unexpectedly touching Amazon series by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the British writer and actress who created the terrific TV adaptation of Killing Eve and was recently asked to punch up the script of the new James Bond movie.

Everyone is either a fool, a knave or a monster in HBO's hilariously scabrous political satire starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus. After seven seasons, Veep ends its run with its sharp teeth fully intact.

Over the years, the HBO series has risen from being a nifty potboiler to a timely expression of a zeitgeist that contests everything from gender roles to climate change to immigration.

In the new TV series Mrs. Wilson, the British actress Ruth wilson stars in the true story of her own grandmother who discovered that her marriage wasn't what she thought it was.

Based on the true story of a crime gone wrong, Wanda is considered a cinematic landmark. The 1970 film, which is now out in a restored version, was written and directed by its star, Barbara Loden.

Critic-at-large John Powers reviews 'Manhunt' a 3-part series on the popular British streaming service Acorn TV. Based on the true story of a serial kill working in and around Twickenham in south-west London, the show became a smast hit when it aired in the UK.