Television

Netflix's new series features one of the most complicated narratives our critic has seen on TV. But don't be thrown – things become clearer as the drama progresses and the characters pull you in.

A new, seven-part series on Apple TV+ unfolds like a period-piece Columbo. First John Wilkes Booth plans and commits the murder, then the lead investigator deciphers clues to catch the elusive killer.

CBS presents the latest drama series from Michelle and Robert King, creators of "The Good Wife" and its spinoff series "The Good Fight." Their newest weekly series, episodes of which will stream the next day on Paramount+, is yet another extension of the franchise. It's called "Elsbeth," and it stars Carrie Preston in the role she played in both those other series - eccentric but effective attorney Elsbeth Tascioni. But this time, Elsbeth has a new job, and she's in a new city. Our TV critic, David Bianculli, has this review.

The 1980 NBC miniseries "Shogun" was one of the most highly acclaimed dramas at the height of the miniseries era. It starred Richard Chamberlain as an English sailor finding himself in Japan in 1600. Now a new adaptation, also based on the same book by James Clavell, comes to television in a 10-part miniseries premiering today on FX. It starts streaming on Hulu tomorrow. Our TV critic David Bianculli has this review.

Constellation, the new drama series streaming on Apple TV+, starts in outer space, with an astronaut struggling to survive, and return safely to Earth, after things go horribly wrong.

Season 12 opens with Larry stuck with two women he can't eject from his life. As in its previous seasons, HBO's Curb offers a delicate combination of intricate structure and freewheeling improv.

In 2017, the FX network presented the first edition of Ryan Murphy's "Feud," an anthology series dramatizing infamous real-life conflicts. The first edition was about the intense rivalry between Hollywood stars Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Now, seven years later, the second installment of "Feud" has finally arrived. It's called "Capote Vs. The Swans," and it's an eight-part drama about Truman Capote and the high-society women he socialized with and sometimes cruelly wrote about.

In the crime series "Criminal Record," two high-powered London detectives clash over an old murder case that may need to be reopened. Cush Jumbo and Peter Capaldi are the stars in this new eight-part show on Apple TV+. Our TV critic-at-large John Powers says that it's worth seeing for Jumbo and Capaldi alone.

The jokes and bodies pile up in this eight-part Netflix series about a Taiwanese assassin who travels to L.A. to protect his goofy younger brother and his formidable mother, played by Michelle Yeoh.

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.