Binge-r #117: The Best New Shows of 2018
The Mercy Seat: Julia Roberts (Heidi Bergman) in Homecoming
THE BEST NEW SHOWS OF 2018
1) KILLING EVE (Stan): “Killing Eve is a delicious, deceptive pleasure that double-crosses the audience’s expectations… Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s series is a thriller, a romance, a black comedy, and always something more.” – BINGE-R #90 [full review here]
2) HOMECOMING (Amazon Prime): “This is not a breathless thriller, it’s an intimate drama about trauma, memory, and what we’re willing to acknowledge. It is both tense and heartrending, drawing a starkly sustained performance from [Julia] Roberts.” – BINGE-R #114 [full review here]
3) BABYLON BERLIN (Netflix): “Set in 1929 Berlin, a canvas that allows for nightclubs, revolutionaries, a crumbling society and carnivorous decadence, this period drama matches a detailed police mystery to immersion in the still torn social fabric – accentuated by exquisite production design, this is a period piece that feels the opposite of dated.” – BINGE-R #76 [full review here]
4) COUNTERPART (SBS on Demand): “Everyone has experienced a moment of doubt about the choices they’ve made in their life, pondering what could have turned out differently, but in the tremendous science-fiction thriller Counterpart that unease has a physical form and gripping ramifications.” – BINGE-R #92 [full review here]
5) THE ALIENIST (Netflix): “The New York of 1896 comes to malignant life in [this] addictive crime drama … which uses the hunt for a monstrous serial killer preying on impoverished boys pressed into service as sex workers to dig into the realities of how our cities came to be and where their legacies of inequality took root.” – BINGE-R #85 [full review here]
Park (Still) Life: Dakota Fanning (Sara) and Daniel Bruhl (Laszlo) in The Alienist
6) FOREVER (Amazon Prime):“It has a barbed sense of humour that turns minor circumstances into spiky eruptions, and the show is a terrific showcase for [Maya] Rudolph, so often the hilarious supporting player or note perfect guest star.” – BINGE-R #106 [full review here]
7) WILD WILD COUNTRY (Netflix): “The story of an Indian guru’s vast following descending on a tiny American town in the early 1980s… You watch it with jaw-dropping disbelief but also genuine fascination, because no-one here is ever as two-dimensional as their adversaries believe them to be.” – BINGE-R #80 [full review here]
8) COLLATERAL (Netflix): “In Collateral every interrogation is a dialogue about belief and every dialogue about belief is an interrogation. You should savour every minute of this richly involving drama.” – BINGE-R #79 [full review here]
9) WORMWOOD (Netflix): “Wormwood is not a cold case investigation of a little known crime. Frank Olson’s death is steeped in history, especially after 1975 when the CIA confirmed he had been dosed with the psychedelic drug LSD as part of an experiment, and that it led to his suicide.” – BINGE-R #71 [full review here]
10) THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE (Netflix): “The contemplative pacing always lets you know when the shocking looms because the point is not to surprise, but to enforce the inevitability of what the Crain family has and will go through.” – BINGE-R #110 [full review here]
Plus: 11) The Marvelous Mrs Maisel (Amazon Prime); 12) Maniac (Netflix); 13) Escape at Dannemora (Stan); 14) Dark (Netflix); 15) Homecoming Queens (SBS on Demand); 16) The Bisexual (Stan); 17) The Sinner (Netflix); 18) Seven Seconds (Netflix); 19) Bodyguard (Netflix); 20) Condor (Stan).
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>> Check the complete BINGE-R archive: 146 series reviewed here, 110 movies reviewed here, and 23 lists compiled here.
