Between sickness and lack-of-playoff-making by my favourite teams, I’ve been able to catch up on a lot of TV over the past few months.

• Drops Of God was like beautiful catnip to a wine nerd (and would-be travel nerd) like me.
• Silo felt like it had so much promise but turned into a slog by the end.
• Similarly, For All Mankind started out very strong and medium-high-concept (how would history have changed if the Russians landed on the moon before the US?) but then it got stretched into four seasons.
• I was utterly mistaken about the premise of Black Earth Rising (I don’t know why, but I thought it was about aliens, not about Rwanda) and I ended up really liking it. As much as one can like a story about genocide. I appreciated it, I guess?
• Season 3 of Slow Horses was a good as ever — the story kind of doesn’t matter nearly as much as the charisma of the actors. The scene where Lamb asks Roddy, “Can you talk me through your thinking here?” was comedy gold.
• I love Band Of Brothers, so it makes sense that I liked Masters of the Air. Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg are doing their best to tell all the WWII stories they can before that war fades from collective memory. (Though, this Substack post by Dan Gardner suggests we might already be there.)
• The Bear lived up to the hype. I actually liked season 2 better; “Fishes” was the star-studded flashback episode that garnered all the hype, but for my money “Forks” was the real magic. Glad I watched it just in time to feel momentum heading into season 3 next month.
• Speaking of: I am extremely excited for the start of season 2 of House Of The Dragon in a few weeks.