Sonal Pandya

The addition of Allison Janney, who just won an Emmy Award for her supporting role, may be the best thing The Diplomat has done. The Debora Cahn series is back for a tense fourth season which deals with the fallout of the events from the Season 3 finale when the US covertly takes a nuclear machine from a Russian submarine that’s lying in UK territory. Kate Wyler (Keri Russell), the American ambassador to the UK, and her husband, Vice President Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell), balance not only their marriage but also the growing tensions between the two countries. The result is a delicious interplay of politics and diplomacy as the US leader, President Grace Penn (Janney), establishes her presidency.

To launch their streaming service, Disney+, in 2020, the series WandaVision came out the gate with a bang. Created by Jac Schaeffer, it set the standard for all other shows to follow. The limited series featured Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) dealing with the death of Vision after Infinity War. To overcome her grief, she creates a suburban haven in Westview until reality sets in. The second part of the trilogy, Agatha All Along (2024), introduced one more part of the puzzle with her son Billy Maximoff (Joe Locke). Now, with the final instalment, VisionQuest, created by Terry Matalas, reveals two more pieces as Vision (Paul Bettany) and Tommy Maximoff (Ruaridh Mollica) reunite. But what happens when Ultron (James Spader) interferes in the long-awaited father-son reunion?

Following in the footsteps of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, Matchbox The Movie tries to replicate the formula. However, it falls flat in its execution. The only thing impressive about the spy thriller is its high-octane action stunts and sequence envisaged by Extraction director Sam Hargrave. John Cena is the spy in question as he reunites with old friends to go down memory road and instead takes them as hostages in a plot to save the world. The Matchbox IP never properly lands, and the narrative doesn’t even connect.

In 1955, Elia Kazan directed the James Dean starrer, East of Eden, which followed the last part of John Steinbeck’s semi-autobiographical 1952 novel. Dean played Cal Trask, who fights for his father’s love alongside his perfect brother Aron. A new Netflix limited series on the material, written and showrun by Elia’s granddaughter, Zoe Kazan, goes deep into the novel, exploring the Biblical themes, characters and the promise of America at the turn of the century. Backed by a strong cast, East of Eden follows the doomed marriage of Adam (Christopher Abbott) and Cathy (Florence Pugh) that spills over its sins to the next generation. Finely acted, the ambitious and largely faithful period drama really gets into the characterisation from the novel, while also immersing viewers into its self-righteous world.

Actors Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson have been good friends since they met on the film Edtv (1999) and went on to collaborate on HBO’s award-winning series True Detective (2014). In recent years, a rumour about the two keeps surfacing from an interview with Matthew’s mother Kay revealing that she ‘knew’ Woody’s father, Charles, a felon, in her past. While it was suggested that the two actors could be brothers, a DNA test was never taken. In the new Apple TV series, Brothers, created by the two stars, David West Read and Lee Eisenberg, the outlandish series imagines a fictional scenario in which this plays out. The cheeky, wink-wink narrative works best when it remains on the actors, as it gets way too sitcom-ish when applied to their extended families.

The first half of MobLand Season 1 moved around at a slow pace, introducing characters and setting up the chaotic world of the Harrigan crime family. Returning for its second season, the series, created by Top Boy’s Ronan Bennett, wastes no time in setting up another threat for the Harrigans, who find themselves in the midst of a civil war. Directed by Guy Ritchie, the Paramount+ show has been in the news for its on-set drama, with reports of discord between the leads. However, the show is back with gusto on Season 2 that quickly establishes the stakes and the players. It remains to be seen if it can stick the landing with what lies ahead.

Apple TV’s Slow Horses has never shied away from death. In the past five seasons, Slough House has lost several agents, and this season, the count is about to get higher. Gary Oldman’s Jackson Lamb must figure out who is targeting his agents and why. Based on the books of Mick Herron, the MI5 agents of Slough House have endured a lot, but this season, they’re truly on the run as sitting targets in a mission that’s out to get them. Led by Oldman and Jack Lowden, the darkly humorous spy thriller just improves with every season, as the writing, characterisation and direction just get sharper and hit that much harder.

The 2001 British series The Office launched the mockumentary sitcom which many have tried to replicate. Its American remake was the most successful one; last year, it officially got a spinoff, The Paper, set in Toledo, Ohio. The first season, which introduced the characters, took some time to set up, but the second season is finally settling into its identity. Led by About Time’s Domhnall Gleeson and The White Lotus’ Sabrina Impacciatore, the comedy fully embraces its cringe storylines that find its characters at their most outrageous. The Paper is also about the dying field of print journalism; however, those B-plots are either a hit or a miss.