This week has proven to be a bit light when it comes to new TV shows — for obvious reasons, given the Thanksgiving holiday and perhaps the expectation that too many people are going to be traveling and spending time with family to watch anything. We’ll be back to your regularly scheduled programming next week, of course, with a slew of new releases from the major streamers. In the meantime, here’s a snapshot of which TV shows are performing the best at the moment. All of them have perfect 100% scores on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing.
Get Millie Black (Max)
This five-episode HBO Original limited series, created and executive produced by Booker Prize-winning author Marlon James, stars Tamara Lawrance as ex-Scotland Yard detective Millie-Jean Black. She returns to Kingston to work missing persons cases, and soon finding herself on a mission to, among other things, save a sibling who won’t be saved, find a child who can’t be found, solve a case that threatens to tear Millie’s world apart.
Arcane: Season 2 (Netflix)
Based on Riot Games’ popular multiplayer online battle arena game League of Legends, Netflix’s animated series Arcane is a stunning tour-de-force that tells the origin story of two League of Legends characters who are also sisters: Jinx (Ella Purnell) and Vi (Hailee Steinfeld). When war brews between the utopian city of Piltover and the oppressed city of Zaun, the sisters find themselves taking opposite sides.
Hands down, this is one of the best animated TV shows Netflix has ever released — maybe even the best. “Arcane makes an arresting first impression,” raves the Rotten Tomatoes critics’ consensus, “combining a spectacular mix of 2D and 3D animation with an emotionally compelling story to deliver a video game adaptation that could become legendary.”
From: Season 3 (MGM+)
This final title has been one of the more under-the-radar TV shows of the past year or so, but for those who seek it out it’s proven quite an addictive thrill ride. From, according to MGM+, “unravels the mystery of a nightmarish town that traps all those who enter. As the unwilling residents search for a way out, they must also survive the threats of the forest including the terrifying creatures that come out at night.”
I’ve always thought of it as a horror-fied version of Lost. That’s because From is set in a cursed place where a mysterious force pulls in visitors who are subsequently unable to leave — who keep getting looped back into the town, and who get killed if they try to leave via the forest around it. Furthermore, the town’s sheriff is played by Harold Perrineau (aka Walt’s father on Lost). See what I mean?
Lioness: Season 2 (Paramount+)
Finally, creator Taylor Sheridan’s stable of TV shows is dominated by testosterone-heavy narratives that span everything from the prison industry to Big Oil and ranching. His protagonists are also generally pale and male, with a few exceptions — one of which is Lioness, starring Zoe Saldana as a CIA operative who leads a program that involves recruiting and inserting women into trouble spots where men can’t go because they would either stand out or just not be able to bring a woman’s subtler touch that a particular job requires.