David Bianculli

Issa López, the director and chief writer of this current season, intentionally evokes some of the elements that made that first story so gripping.

Tom Smothers, who died Dec. 26, was one half of the comedy duo The Smothers Brothers. We listen back to an interview with Tom and Dick Smothers from 1985, and an interview with just Tom in 1997.

Critic David Bianculli acknowledges that his year-end list of TV favorites is hardly all-inclusive. Nevertheless, here's what he enjoyed watching, including Beckham, The Bear and Black Mirror.