5 pieces
Vince Gilligan built a nine-episode drama in which nobody opposes the protagonist. What replaces opposition is the most interesting formal move on television this decade.
Most television uses the unbroken take to show off. The Studio uses it to trap its lead inside his own disasters, which is the most honest thing a Hollywood comedy has done in years.
Jonathan Tropper's Apple series gave Jon Hamm a part he has been waiting a decade for. The show itself is a more complicated object.
Graham Yost's second season of Silo split its story across two bunkers and asked viewers to wait. The waiting is the show's argument, and also its risk.
The second season of Apple's therapist comedy deepens rather than complicates, which is the correct instinct for the show and an increasingly rare one on contemporary prestige TV.