Rank 'Em The Best Picture Oscar Nominees of 2026

1. Hamnet - One of the things I prize most highly about the cinematic experience is its cathartic effect, and I had an emotional response to "Hamnet" like nothing else from last year.   Yes, the movie is manipulative.  However, it's very difficult to make an effective tearjerker, and playing on people's emotions is absolutely part of the assignment.  The movie gives us a very human take on Shakespeare, and multiple opportunities for Jessie Buckley to bring down the house.  

2. One Battle After Another - I have been struggling with how to rank "One Battle Another" against "Sinners" for the whole awards season.  I have to give it to "One Battle," because the filmmaking is more ambitious and accomplished, the script is much denser with a lot of different themes packed in, and the characters are funnier in a way that not many films manage anymore.  This is not my favorite of Paul Thomas Anderson's movies, but it might be his best one. 

3. Sinners - On the other hand, you have to give "Sinners" its kudos for originality, for daring, and for the best soundtrack of the year, by far.  The combination of so many different genres, tones, and cultural influences is irresistible, showing us the American South in the Prohibition era from not just one new perspective, but several.  I want more stories from this universe, but I also want Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan to continue to push in new directions.

4. Train Dreams - I wish I liked this better, because a film like "Train Dreams" doesn't get made very often.  It's a period piece that does so much to evoke a past way of living that no longer exists, while still acknowledging the darker parts of that era.  It's a film about the big questions in life, about a quiet man who is a bystander to history, and sees the world change in monumental ways.  I appreciate its placidity - and yet I think it may have been too subtle for me at times.

5. Marty Supreme - Because this was such a tough watch for me, it never had a chance of placing higher.  However, I strongly admire what Timothee Chalamet and Josh Safdie set out to do with the tale of Marty Mauser, ping-pong player and grifter supreme.  The performances are fantastic, the scummy cinematography is absolutely gorgeous, the themes and writing are as good as anything I've ever seen out of the Safdies, and the laughs are well-earned.  

6. Frankenstein - This is Guillermo Del Toro's "Frankenstein," not Mary Shelly's.  And though Del Toro is prone to excesses, this is not a bad thing.  Once you accept that this telling of the story is as much melancholic tragedy as cautionary horror story, it plays beautifully.  Whatever you want to say about Jacob Elordi's Creature or Oscar Isaac's Victor, you're never going to mistake them for any of the other versions of the characters.  And that's remarkable.

7. Sentimental Value - Honestly, this wasn't the kind of film that I was expecting from Joachim Trier and Renata Reinsve after their previous collaboration.  Maybe it's because I much prefer "The Worst Person in the World" that I found "Sentimental Value" a little unsatisfying, despite it being a perfectly good film about the nature of art and artists and families.  I enjoyed it while I was watching it, but I also retained very little, and haven't thought about it much since.  

8. Secret Agent - I'm still grappling with this one.  I really like some of Kleber Mendonca Filho's other films, but I'm running into the same problem that I did with "I'm Still Here," which is that I don't have the adequate frame of reference to absorb everything that's going on in this movie socially, culturally, and politically.  And I think I need to.  I just see a collection of fascinating pieces that I can't quite get to fit in a satisfactory way.  I'm still not sure if it's me or the film.  

9. Bugonia - So many parts of this Yorgos Lanthimos movie are great - the performances of Emma Stone and Jesse Plemmons, the Jerskin Fendrix score, and Robbie Ryan's breathtaking VistaVision cinematography, just to name a few.  Unfortunately, for reasons I am still unpacking, the movie as a whole didn't work for me.  I knew exactly where it was going far too quickly, and the nihilistic finale rubbed me the wrong way, despite being beautifully executed.

10. F1 - Well, this one's just lucky to be here.  And there's absolutely no shame in being a well-made, perfectly entertaining blockbuster about fast cars that go zoom.  

---

"Bugonia" Bugs Out

I was a little disappointed with "Bugonia," despite liking it very much, and I feel that I brought this on myself.  I won't spoil anything except to say that the plot is pretty much in line with the Korean film it's adapting, Jang Joon-hwan's black comedy, "Save the Green Planet!"  However, watching "Save the Green Planet!" right before watching "Bugonia" impacted my initial viewing experience of "Bugonia" negatively.  

"Bugonia," directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and written by Tracy Letts, is easily the better film, with a much more coherent storyline and excellent performances from Emma Stone and Jesse Plemmons.  Alas,  knowing how some of the key conflicts would be resolved in advance removed a lot of the tension from the experience.  I think it would have been better to go into a viewing knowing as little as possible.  

That said, I'll lay out the basics of the plot.  A conspiracy theorist named Teddy (Jesse Plemmons) and his autistic cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) kidnap Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), the CEO of a pharmaceutical company.  Teddy believes that Michelle is an Andromedan, an alien agent sent down to infiltrate Earth, and is keen to get her to admit it and arrange a meeting with her superiors on the Andromedan mothership in Earth's orbit.  As Teddy and Don match wits against Michelle, we learn about the circumstances that led Teddy to take such drastic actions, and how far he's willing to go in order to prove he's right.  Because "Bugonia" is a Lanthimos film, this involves a great deal of chaos, violence, and pitch black humor.  

Emma Stone and Jesse Plemmons were paired up previously in "Kinds of Kindness," Lanthimos's anthology film of surreal featurettes.  "Bugonia" often feels like an extension of "Kinds of Kindness" due to its approach to similar themes and the nature of the storytelling.  However, the characters are much better fleshed out, and the performances are more entertaining as a result.  Stone's Michelle is a slimy corporate executive who is a very convincing liar, but also a vulnerable woman in a dangerous situation.  Teddy is very affable, polite, and has clearly been through a lot, but his fanaticism emboldens him to do terrible things.  Both characters are in a tug-o-war for the audience's sympathies as the kidnapping plays out, and they battle for control of the situation.  Watching Stone and Plemmons going at each other for two hours is such a joy.  

I appreciate that Yorgos Lanthimos has never lost his edge.  Even after so much time and so many projects, his movies still feel dangerous, and he's willing to go to places that other directors wouldn't.  The violence in "Bugonia" is jarring and upsetting, including an extended torture sequence.  No matter how vile Michelle is, her subjugation is awful, and no matter how funny some of the fights and chases are, the fallout is ugly and sobering.  Some of the most viscerally disturbing moments involve no onscreen violence at all.  Lanthimos's style has definitely been refined over time, though it's no less blunt and oppressive.  "Bugonia" has the highest budget that he's ever worked with, but this just means that his nervous long shots and panicky whip pans are accompanied by a full orchestra blasting Jerskin Fendrix's score, and the inevitable carnage is shot by Robbie Ryan in breathtaking VistaVision.  

I want to highlight Will Tracy's script, which successfully transplants "Save the Green Planet!" into a very different tone and milieu.  Genders have been swapped, backstories reworked, and American corporate culture efficiently skewered.  I'm a big fan of the absurd deadpan dialogue, especially lines like "I'm crucial - in all humility, I can say that," and "Your hair has been destroyed."  However, taking the story away from its scrappy Korean indie roots does lessen some of the charm. Where "Save the Green Planet!" was a high concept mix of different genres, "Bugonia" is 90% paranoid conspiracy thriller and relies on a lot more brute menace than eclectic oddity.   

Finally, despite knowing what was coming, I quite enjoyed the divisive ending, though I suspect it would have gone down easier if Lanthimos had taken more time to set it up.  But then again, it's an ending that is very fitting for a Lanthimos movie, and very effective at getting its points across.  And while "Bugonia" isn't Lanthimos's best, ultimately I found it very accessible, very watchable, and well worth my time.  

---

"A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" Year One

It was inevitable that "Tales of Dunk and Egg" would be adapted after the success of "Game of Thrones."  However, despite taking place in Westeros, "Dunk and Egg," is a very different piece of work, and the adaptation, "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms," follows suit.  These are much lower stakes stories that follow one POV throughout - that of low-born "hedge knight" Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey), who goes on adventures with his squire Egg (Dexter Sol Asell).  The first season is six half-hour episodes, which can easily be polished off in a single sitting.  

Duncan is the former squire of Ser Arlan (Danny Webb), an obscure, impoverished wanderer, recently deceased.  Duncan wants to be a knight, and travels to an inn where he meets a strangely knowledgeable boy named Egg, who wants to be his squire.  The two of them decide to enter a tournament at a nearby town, but there are challenging requirements they'll need to fulfill to be able to compete.  They come across many characters, both high-born and low, including friendly Ser Steffon (Edward Ashley) and his squire Raymun (Shaun Thomas), the dissolute Ser Manfred (Daniel Monks), who employs prostitutes Beony (Carla Harrison-Hodge) and Rowan (Rowan Robinson), boisterous Ser Lyonel (Daniel Ings), a Dornish puppeteer, Tanselle (Tanzyn Crawford), and the current heir to the Iron Throne, Prince Baelor (Bertie Carvel), his brother Prince Maekar (Sam Spruell), and Maekar's sons Daeron (Henry Ashton) and Aerion (Finn Bennett). 

Unlike most "Game of Thrones" characters, Ser Duncan is a fairly straightforward hero with a very traditional hero's arc and a sad, simple backstory.  Westeros is as corrupt and brutal as it's always been, and the showrunners delight in showing us the more disgusting side of life before modern plumbing and medicine.  However, "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" is a series where people believe in honor and valor more seriously, and Ser Duncan has the opportunity to prove himself, even if it's not in the way he intended.  The first season is short, but manages to set up a few thrilling events, and nicely establish our main characters for further seasons.  I like that there's a sense of more epic and consequential stories happening in the background, but these don't really affect Dunk and Egg.  The whole season happens in the space of only a few days.    

Peter Claffey, a very tall former professional rugby player, and Dexter Sol Ansell, a very small child actor, are a pair I have zero awareness of seeing in anything else, which makes their performances here all the more delightful.  Claffley plays Duncan as good-hearted and simpleminded, without being slow-witted, and capable of being intense and formidable when he needs to be.  There are some great moments where you can feel him lock in on a goal in a way that's really effective.  Ansell is playing the Westerosi version of a smart-aleck kid who is simultaneously young and vulnerable enough to tug on the heartstrings.  The two work very well together onscreen, though there's room for improvement.  The supporting cast is excellent all around, featuring some solid character actors like Sam Spruell and Daniel Monks making the most of limited screen time.        

It's hard not to draw comparisons to "The Mandalorian," not just because of the "Lone Wolf and Cub" character dynamics, but because I worry that HBO will try and make the show bigger than it's designed to be.  They've already made that mistake once with "Game of Thrones."  "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" is already in production on its second season, and my hope is that the showrunners will continue to keep it limited in scope.  I like that it's a more modest production, without much distracting spectacle, and content to stick to only a few locations.  The quality is still very high, with a couple of anachronistic soundtrack choices to distinguish it from the rest of the franchise, but everything is simple enough that seasons can be made more quickly, and present a more immediate and immersive view of Weteros.  So far the writing is also sticking very close to George R. R. Martin's source material, which is a plus 

I'm keeping my fingers crossed, and looking forward to next season.  

---

"Heated Rivalry," Year One

A six-episode Canadian television program about gay hockey players doesn't sound like the sort of thing that would take America by storm, but when we're talking about underserved audiences, romance fans have to be near the top of the list.  "Heated Rivalry," about a pair of rival professional hockey players who start hooking up in secret, has an increasingly familiar genesis.  The source material is part of an anthology series of gay hockey romance novels, written by a straight female author for a largely female readership, and has roots in the fanfiction world.  The adaptation was written and directed by a gay man, Jacob Tierney, who is best known for "Letterkenny."    

I don't know much about hockey, and can't say anything as to the accuracy of either the sport or the culture around it as depicted in the show.  I did count myself as a Ducks and Sharks fan in the past, but it's been years since I properly watched a whole game.  However, "Heated Rivalry" is blatant wish fulfillment, so anyone trying to watch this for the hockey parts is probably barking up the wrong tree.  The appeal of the show is watching Asian-Canadian player Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Russian player Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie), playing for fictional Montreal and Boston teams respectively, carry out a decade-long clandestine relationship, which includes some pretty steamy sex scenes.  In fact, after the first two episodes, I wouldn't have been surprised if many viewers assumed that the show was a throwback to HBO's adult entertainment programming roots.   

However, Hollander and Rozanov's infrequent hookups take a turn for the romantic, and we get to spend some time with a second couple, veteran hockey player Scott Hunter (Francois Arnaud) and his barista love interest Kip (Robbie G.K.), whose relationship has very different dynamics.  Slowly but surely, "Heated Rivalry" turns into a much more compelling, more emotionally charged romance where Hollander and Rozanov slowly realize their feelings and start navigating the steps toward having a real life together.  The last episode is one of the most touching hours of television I've seen all year.   It's still wish fulfillment, but a far more personal and well grounded kind of fantasy that's going to hit every LGBT viewer right smack in the feels.  And it even manages a few laughs in the right places.

 

I've written before that while I enjoy gay romances, I'm always a little wary of the ones that seem to be pandering to the preferences of straight female audience members.  The fact that Jacob Tierney was working behind the scenes was a big factor in me deciding to give the show a chance, and I'm glad I did.  The series is lower budget, but it never feels compromised or insincere.  The production is pretty solid, with an especially good soundtrack.  The young actors are a little green, but the performances are committed and there's plenty of onscreen chemistry.  I'm glad the first season was only six episodes, because it means the show has to keep up the narrative momentum and never has a chance to outstay its welcome.  And while the multi-year story isn't lacking in incident, it's a relief that there aren't many of the usual manufactured, time-wasting obstacles that tend to frustrate me in similar romance series.  A closeted queer Russian hockey player is clearly already dealing with plenty.          

I look forward to future seasons of "Heated Rivalry" with great anticipation.  However, I'm pretty wary of the imitators that are bound to follow in its wake.  Romances are harder than they look, and there has already been too much media in recent years that has botched gay characters and stories.  However, I'm  heartened by the amount of positive attention that the series and everyone involved have received, signalling that the culture war is far from over, and that the audience for this kind of content is not only there, but it's voracious.  

---

A Dip In the "Nouvelle Vague"

"Nouvelle Vague" is about the making of Jean-Luc Godard's "Breathless," really a love letter to the whole French New Wave and its participants.  Director Richard Linklater has taken great pains to capture the look  of Paris as it existed in the early films of Jean-Luc Godard, and the whole Cahiers du Cinema cohort.   The film is shot in black and white, in the 4:3 aspect ratio, and in French language of course, reportedly with vintage lenses and film stock.  In the early scenes, Linklater introduces every notable figure who appears with a snapshot close-up and caption so that we can quickly identify Suzanne Schiffman or Raymond Cauchetier before the action starts.  It would be impossible to keep up with all the cameos and references otherwise.

It's the summer of 1959, and Paris is abuzz with filmmaking activity.  Jean-Luc Godard (Guillaume Marbeck) is keen to get his first film made, after the successes of his friends like Francois Truffaut (Adrien Rouyard) and Claude Chabrol (Antoine Besson).  With a script by Truffaut, Godard secures funds from a producer friend, Georges de Beauregard (Bruno Dreyfürst), a cinematographer Raoul Coutard (Matthieu Penchinat), a leading man, Jean-Paul Belmondo (Aubry Dullin), and even a Hollywood leading lady, Jean Seberg (Zoey Deutch), fresh off of the success of "Bonjour Tristesse."  However, Godard's approach to filmmaking is unusual to say the least, which alarms and frustrates his collaborators.  Seberg in particular is worried that she's made a mistake signing on to star in "Breathless." 

I've never liked the films of Jean-Luc Godard very much, but "Nouvelle Vague" gives me a better insight on why he's considered one of the greats, and why he's so beloved by certain filmmakers. Linklater makes a smart choice positioning Jean Seberg as a major POV character, who doesn't understand why there's no script, why Godard only shoots for a few hours a day before sending everyone home, and why he's fine with using equipment so suboptimal they don't even have synchronous sound.  Godard may be a genius, who pioneers improvisational filmmaking and goes on to invent the jump cut, but to Seberg he's also an annoying, pretentious film nerd who never seems to stop talking and is bad at communicating that he knows what he's doing.  As the twenty day film shoot for "Breathless" goes on, innovations are made, tempers are lost, and cinematic history is achieved. 

"Nouvelle Vague" will be best enjoyed by other film nerds, of course, who will appreciate the detailed recreations of "Breathless" shooting locations, and recognize the other directors who keep popping up in the story - Cocteau, Melville, Rossellini, and Bresson most prominently.  However, I was impressed by how watchable the film was just as a comedy about a chaotic film shoot.  Like the film that the characters are making, "Nouvelle Vague" is light and breezy, doing a good job of evoking the creative spontaneity that Godard was known for.  I like that Godard and Seberg are pretty well matched - neither totally in the wrong nor blameless for the poor working relationship, but just operating on totally different wavelengths.  Zoey Deutch is especially enjoyable when Seberg reaches the end of her patience.   

I still don't like "Breathless" as a film.  I understand and acknowledge its importance, but for all of Jean-Luc Godard's revolutionary verve, his instincts and his sensibilities don't appeal to me at all.  Maybe it's culture clash and maybe it's his notoriously difficult personality coming across onscreen.  Fortunately, Richard Linklaters' filmmaking is more to my tastes, and Linklater's appreciation for Godard is a good bridge to help me appreciate him a little more as well.   

---

My Top Ten Episodes of 2009-2010

Below, find my top ten episodes for the 2009-2010 television season below, in no particular order.  And a few spoilers ahead, including "Mad Men" and "Breaking Bad."  I

Community, "Modern Warfare" - The first paintball episode is my favorite episode of "Community," thanks in large part to director Justin Lin, who perfectly executes all the action movie spoof sequences.  The cherry on the cake is Ken Jeong channeling Chow Young Fat as he faces off against Jeff and Britta with multiple paintball firearms and even a paintball IED.  None of the subsequent paintball episodes came close to topping this.

Torchwood: Children of Earth, "Day One" - One of the best things to ever come out of the "Doctor Who" franchise was this five episode event miniseries that served as the third series of "Torchwood."  It presents an engrossing invasion scenario targeting Earth's children, with a troubling moral dilemma at its center.  My favorite episode is the first with the initial worldwide threat being unveiled, and Captain Jack's team racing to figure out what's going on.

Doctor Who, "Vincent and the Doctor" - "Doctor Who" was having a very good season itself.  "Vincent and the Doctor" is one of the highlights of the Matt Smith era, written by Richard Curtis, and featuring guest appearances from Bill Nighy and Tony Curran as Vincent van Gogh.  It's a little art history lesson, a little wish fulfillment, and a little reminder of the immutability of human existence.  It's my favorite "Who" encounter with a historical figure to date.

Mad Men, "Shut the Door. Have a Seat" - I love a heist episode, and this is exactly what this episode is, as the Sterling Cooper staff gather their allies, raid the offices, and strike out on their own as a new agency under Roger, Bert, Lance, and Don.  The irony is that this is also the episode where Betty engineers her exit from her marriage and makes her own escape.  Runner up in this excellent season was "Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency," for the unexpected carnage.

Breaking Bad, "One Minute" - The third season of "Breaking Bad" had "Full Measure" and "Fly," but pound for pound the most entertaining and memorable episode of the season was all about Hank Schrader, featuring his revenge against Jesse and its ugly aftermath.  Most of the episode is about Hank versus Jesse, and the tension is running so high, you almost forget about the other lurking danger in this episode - which all comes to a head with the explosive ending.

30 Rock, "Anna Howard Shaw Day" - This is the one where Liz Lemon is stuck at the dentist on her least favorite holiday trying to get a ride home, with that priceless ending tag with the Jamaican nurses.  However, I like the B-plot with Jack trying to impress Avery just as much.  And the C-plot with Jenna and her ex-stalkier ain't shabby either.  Very good use of cameos here.  And "Klaus and Greta" with James Franco and his body pillow is our runner up.

Dollhouse, "Epitaph One" - Technically this was never broadcast in the US, but it was in the UK, so I'm counting it as a summer of 2009 release.  This was our first glimpse into the show's dystopian future, quickly doing a ton of worldbuilding and giving us hints of what happened to all of the series regulars via memory flashbacks and encounters with their future versions.  The most touching is DeWitt and Topher's scene, recounting the way the world ended.

The Office, "Niagara"  - Okay, the best episode of this season is probably "Scott's Tots" based on the sheer gutsiness of airing something with that amount of cringe.  However, I'm a softie and I'm picking the double episode with Jim and Pam's wedding.  There are so many great moments here, from Andy trying to do the splits, to Jim cutting his tie in half, and the viral video recreation, and of course the actual wedding itself - both versions! 

Dexter, "The Getaway" - This was the last I saw of "Dexter" for a long time, the final episode of the Trinity Killer season.  And though I enjoyed the show, I'm glad I stopped where I did, because how could "Dexter" have ever topped this?  John Lithgow and Michael C. Hall are taking no prisoners, and the ending delivers one of the series' best shocks.  I will elaborate no further, because this is one spoiler I will take no chances with.

The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, "Finale" - It didn't last for very long, but I watched as much of Conan O'Brien's stint as host of "The Tonight Show" as I could.  He definitely had one of the most memorable exits, inviting Will Ferrell, Beck, ZZ Top, and friends to close out the show with a rousing rendition of "Freebird."

---

"Fionna and Cake," Year Two

Unlike the first season of "Fionna and Cake," the second is much more clearly part of a sequel to "Adventure Time," and involves a lot of characters that I'm not familiar with, not having watched most of the later seasons and other spinoffs of that show.  However, "Fionna and Cake" is such a fantastically weird and wonderful animated fantasy, full of characters and concepts that are so endlessly inventive that I was completely entertained and invested in what was going on anyway.  

Fionna continues to struggle with her life and relationships after saving the world, especially dealing with her feelings for DJ Flame (Manny Jacinto), and potentially disappointing her other friends.  We get a second protagonist in the universe-hopping Huntress Wizard (Ashly Burch), who is on a quest to save a mortally wounded Finn.  This involves traveling to Fionna's world and tracking down the "heart of the forest."  At this point there are so many different versions of Finn and friends running around that I can't keep them all straight, but Huntress Wizard is a distinct, memorable character who isn't quite like anyone else.  She's a mysterious magic user who has plant-based powers and is very brave, but has trouble connecting to other people.  

"Fionna and Cake" is aimed at an older crowd than "Adventure Time," dealing with more mature relationships and concerns.  Fionna is riddled with anxieties and can never quite seem to get her life together.  She wants to help, but often her efforts end up hurting her friends due to her impetuousness and mistakes in communication.  Her troubles are often tied into her mental and emotional health - jealousies, self-doubt, guilt, fear of failure, and being overwhelmed.  Huntress Wizard's adventures are more externalized, a life-and-death struggle against all manner of impossible creatures, some of whom we've met before and have history with, like the Cosmic Owl.  Nearly all the major characters from "Adventure Time" appear here, including the crew from Ooo, though their current storyline is very somber and emotionally fraught.

I don't quite know how to describe the particular aesthetics of this season, currently  being showrun by Adam Muto, based on the characters and concepts created by Pendleton Ward and Nathasha Allegri.  There's a darker, more primal sort of feel to the universe, where the rules of how the magic and mysticism work are never outright explained, but follows a crude sort of dream logic.  I always liked the way that "Adventure Time" had an undercurrent of existential horror to it, and "Fionna and Cake" leans into that vibe heavily.  Huntress's magic always seems to involve some brutal transformation or sacrifice, but abstracted heavily through the cartoon style.  Death is very present throughout the show, though revival and rebirths are common.  Some of the wordless sequences showing the origins of certain characters, or revealing past events, reminded me strongly of "Scavengers Reign" in the way that very simple animated forms convey complex systems and cycles of power.  However, the visual language is folk horror instead of science fiction.

The juxtaposition between the two storylines is very effective.  Fionna's world is essentially our own, populated by young adult city-dweller versions of the "Adventure Time" cast, so it presents a stark contrast with the other worlds that resemble fanciful variants of Ooo, or Jungian projections of the unconscious, or darkest timelines, or the backstage of reality.  Our heroines are fighting cosmic beings and nightmare monsters one minute, and trying to nail down a venue for a fundraiser the next, and both trials require comparable amounts of emotional labor.  The silliness and playfulness of the original "Adventure Time" is still very apparent, especially in the way the humor works.  However, the franchise has grown up along with its original audience, and its lessons have expanded and deepened.  I find that so miraculous and so poignant.

I have no idea who I could recommend this show to, except for the people who might have grown up on "Adventure Time" and drifted away from the franchise over the years.  In its own way it's just as inventive and involving as any dramatic prestige series made for adults that I've seen over the past year.  However, this one has a translucent giant earthworm that lives in a garden that processes people's traumatic experiences.  And he's a very good singer.  

---