The romantic action comedy genre has been a popular TV staple for decades, the kind of lighthearted fare that’s easy to digest at the end of a long day. From its opening minutes, ABC’s Whiskey Cavalier tries very hard to exude an aura of fun. While it’s clear that the stars are having a good time, the amusement doesn’t exactly translate through the screen to the viewer.

The premise of Whiskey Cavalier is fairly straightforward. Scandal’s Scott Foley plays FBI agent Will Chase who teams up with CIA agent Frankie Trowbridge, played by Lauren Cohan, fresh off an eight-season run on The Walking Dead. Naturally, the inter-agency rivalry trope is quite present in the show, as are just about every other spy cliché one could possibly think of.

Whiskey Cavalier has all the makings of a fun show. The dialogue is full of humor, the scenes are fast-paced, and there’s plenty of music there to remind the viewer how to feel at any given time. Foley and Cohan hit it off right from the start with the kind of natural chemistry that’s incredibly rare to find this early on in a show’s run. Their rapport is so effortless that it ends up highlighting how hard the rest of the show is trying to endear itself to the audience.

Aside from Foley and Cohan’s natural chemistry, everything in Whiskey Cavalier feels too neatly put together. The show plays almost like a computer algorithm took a look at every successful spy show and put together a composite of their best attributes. The scenery is beautiful, the actors are all charming, and the script plays out like a well-oiled machine with the singular goal of making the audience chuckle on cue every few beats. Unfortunately, the show is weighed down by a script that isn’t good enough to coast on.

All of these pieces put together might make for an entertaining experience in theory, but underneath the pretty backdrops and the clever witticisms, it’s clear that the show doesn’t really have anything interesting to say. There’s nothing wrong with comfort food television, but Whiskey Cavalier lacks even the ambition to excel at that, wasting its stars with incredibly lackluster dialogue that instantly fades from memory. It’s far too complacent for a new show, ending its first episode without any clear mandate for why the viewer should tune in the next week.

A show like Whiskey Cavalier doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel to be worth watching. The spy genre fits in perfectly on ABC’s lineup, serving up feel-good entertainment for people to enjoy at the end of a long day. With two great leads and beautiful locations, there’s a lot of fun sitting there waiting to be had. It’s definitely the kind of show that could turn itself around, but for now, it simply doesn’t do enough to justify anyone going out of their way to watch. Whiskey Cavalier isn’t flat-out terrible, but it’s never as fun as it’s trying to be.

Titans debuts with an additional burden not attached to most new television shows. As the marquee offering of the new DC Universe streaming service, the show is inevitably judged not only by its own merits, but also those of the place it calls home. If that wasn’t enough, there’s also the additional weight of expectation brought upon it as the first live-action Teen Titans adaptation, a franchise that has exponentially grown in popularity this century due to the success of the animated Teen Titans and Teen Titans Go!

None of these burdens are particularly fair. As we saw with Star Trek: Discovery, which similarly serves as the flagship offering of CBS All-Access, television shows take a little bit of time to find their groove even if they’re supposed to carry the weight of an entire streaming service. What impressed me the most about Titans was how little it seemed bothered by the mandate attached to it. It needed no flashy pilot designed to justify its existence. Rather, the show takes a methodical approach to its early episodes, carefully introducing its four lead characters in a way that seems neither rushed nor deliberately slow-walked. By the time the Titans finally come together midway through the season, the viewer has a sense of the stakes at hand for each of the heroes.

Perhaps fitting given the emphasis on teenagers in its source material, the early breakout star of Titans is its youngest member Raven. Played by fourteen-year-old Teagan Croft, the powerful empath anchors the show’s emotional core, delivering a raw performance that conveys the character’s overwhelming sense of abandonment. Another early standout is Anna Diop, who brings a cool confidence to Starfire that exists in stark contrast to the character’s memory loss. Diop dominates nearly every scene she’s in while her character constantly keeps the viewer on their toes, never quite sure what’s coming next. The character’s bright aesthetics are a refreshing contrast to the typically grim color scheme deployed by the show.

Bruce Wayne’s presence looms heavy over Titans despite the lack of an appearance from the caped crusader. Robin’s story is inescapably tangled in Batman’s world, which creates a tricky web to navigate for a show that exists adjacent to the dark knight, a beloved character that most fans would welcome on screen if it weren’t for the fact that this isn’t his show. Titans does a great job presenting Dick Grayson’s story in a way that isn’t purposefully distant from his past while at the same time not creating a situation where the viewer longs for Batman to show up at every corner.

The show was smart to make Robin out to be the parent figure of the team rather than its hotshot leader. Unlike the other three, Dick Grayson doesn’t have any actual superpowers, initially relying on a borderline excessive amount of violence to win his battles that’s toned down in later episodes. Brenton Thwaites brings a welcomed reservation to the role even though Dick Grayson possesses the obvious chip on his shoulder by token of his estranged relationship with his foster father.

Ryan Potter’s Beast Boy often feels like the odd man out in the show’s early episodes, as the character is featured far less than the other three. This issue is perhaps exacerbated by the second episode’s focus on Hawk and Dove, two other DC superheroes who are recurring characters on Titans. It’s not really until the introduction of the Doom Patrol, who are set to star in their own spinoff series, that Beast Boy’s place in the narrative starts to make sense.

Titans manages a much better balance in tone than its recent DC film counterparts. Visually, the bleak settings feel right out of a Zack Snyder movie, but the show possesses a keen ability to reign itself in at times, with well-placed humor to lighten the mood when needed. The production values are a big step up from the DC shows on The CW, justifying the “prestige drama” labels that follow many programs airing first-run on streaming services. The CGI for Beast Boy’s Tiger transformations is especially well-done, looking right out of something you’d find in a feature film.

With a third of its first season still remaining, Titans has gotten off to a great start. There’s a bit of a course correction in tone from the earliest episodes, but you get the sense that the show is quickly learning what works, abandoning the initial ultra-violent combat for more nuanced fight scenes. The cast functions well as a unit, giving the sense that the characters actually like each other as they find themselves in a makeshift family. escortnavi Like Robin, Titans has a lot to live up to, but the show never allows itself to buckle under the weight of its enormous expectations. DC Universe’s first original show is a well-constructed take on a beloved franchise.

The controversy surrounding She-Ra’s updated wardrobe perhaps best illustrates the need for her return in the first place. Too often female representation has been centered on the needs of men, to have something pretty to fawn over. Saving the universe takes a back seat to the notion that one must look sexy while doing so. This modern era has called for something different. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power presents a number of well-developed female characters for young people to look up to and for older fans to appreciate.

The first season utilizes the Netflix model quite well, with many episodes flowing right into the next one without skipping a beat as if it was all one long flowing narrative. The plot moves at a brisk pace, wasting no time in establishing Princess Adora’s confliction between her alliance to Hordak and her newfound friends in the Princess Alliance. Most of the later first season episodes focus on introducing the show’s large cast, giving the viewer a full sense of the characters by the time the season wraps up.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power displays a quiet radicalism in the diversity of its characters’ personalities. These aren’t people with characteristics designed to fit a certain trope or niche to the audience, which makes them all the more relatable to the audience. It’s difficult to describe any of them in a single sentence, which gives them seemingly boundless space to grow in future seasons.

Preview hype broke news that She-Ra would include at least two LGBT characters, a promise that the show has a mildly complicated relationship with. There are plenty of queer nods in the ways that certain female characters interact with each other and a relationship between Princesses Spinerella and Netossa is hinted at, but there aren’t any actual explicitly gay characters. This issue isn’t something that really takes away from the show, but it’s an unforced error of sorts as it has been celebrated for inclusion it doesn’t fully deliver on. Which pregnancy pillow shape is best? The best shape will largely depend on user preference. Keep in mind that many are designed to support your neck as well, so if you use a flatter pillow for neck support, a big fluffy one might be hard to adjust to. Are you looking for best pregnancy pillows? Read https://pregily.com right now! Many women prefer support for their growing bellies and something to go between their legs for hip support. Most models will support this position, though keep the dimensions in mind if you’re taller as you want to make sure the pillow reaches your knees when bent. #pregily

The plots, most of which are fairly predictable, are often the weak point of each episode. The show seems to have figured out its characters extremely well but struggles with what to do with them. The serialized nature of the show puts more of a strain on the plot considerations, amplified by the early episode’s considerable investment in the development of its characters. The first season hits enough strong notes to suggest that future seasons will rectify the story problems, having established the stakes of its universe.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is an easy show to recommend to children, never taking their intelligence for granted while giving older viewers plenty to chew on. Noelle Stevenson did an excellent job in developing a classic for the modern era, an empowering take in a genre that’s still heavily dominated by men. The show doesn’t hit every note in its first season, but gives the viewer plenty to root for as it took the time to find its footing. I look forward to seeing what the future has in store for these characters.