The 5 Best New TV Shows of November 2024

As someone who has spent years navigating the labyrinthine world of television and its countless offerings, I can confidently say that this November’s lineup is nothing short of a rollercoaster ride for the senses. From the lush melodrama of Like Water for Chocolate to the gritty political thriller of The Madness, there seems to be something for every mood and preference.

Indeed, November 2024 seems like quite an eventful month, doesn’t it? If you find yourself reflecting on the complexities of our current situation, give “The Madness” a try. For those seeking a humorous approach to the ongoing healthcare crisis, “St. Denis Medical” is the perfect choice. If understanding political violence from different angles is more your cup of tea, both “Say Nothing” and “The Stanford Prison Experiment: Unlocking the Truth” offer unique viewpoints. And if you’re looking to immerse yourself in a romantic, melodramatic, and food-centric tale from another era, congratulations! HBO has adapted “Like Water for Chocolate.

Like Water for Chocolate (HBO)

Like Water for Chocolate is a grand, heartfelt melodrama that brilliantly intertwines themes of love, passion, life, and fate over six years. The HBO adaptation, released three decades after a successful cinema adaptation, proves its worth by embracing the essence of melodrama with all its emotional depth and sensuality. The head writer Francisco Javier Royo Fernández, along with showrunner Jerry Rodríguez (a part of an executive producer team including Salma Hayek Pinault), also wisely choose to delve deeper into the story’s historical context, incorporating it with the political turmoil of its era. [Read the full review.]

The Madness (Netflix)

Daniels Muncie is merely striving to be heard above the noise that characterizes modern public debate. A driven commentator on CNN, the central figure in the fast-paced Netflix conspiracy thriller The Madness, has been overlooking his chaotic personal circumstances and deviating from his progressive principles. However, this mundane, audience-friendly career path can’t shield Muncie, portrayed by the versatile Emmy winner Colman Domingo, from being entangled in a conflict between the far right and the radical left, wealthy powerbrokers and individuals living on society’s outskirts. In truth, this conflict poses a threat to everything he has worked so hard to achieve.

It’s a timely premise, following a presidential election that empowered one extreme, alienated the other, and left the U.S. with an even noisier, more chaotic public square than we had before. Creator Stephen Belber (Tommy) and his co-showrunner, VJ Boyd (Justified), channel our collective exhaustion with the discourse into a ‘70s-style paranoid thriller grounded in the hyperpartisan polarization of today. [Read the full review.]

Say Nothing (FX)

1972 marked the intensely violent period known as The Troubles, during which a 10-child widow named Jean McConville was forcibly taken from her Belfast apartment by intruders. Her family never saw her alive again. For decades, they sought explanations from the Irish Republican Army, infamous for “disappearing” Catholics at that time, concerning McConville’s fate and reasons behind it. This quest forms the basis of Patrick Radden Keefe’s critically acclaimed 2018 book, Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland. Now, this best-selling work has been transformed into an outstanding nine-episode FX miniseries, sharing the same title as the book. The series not only grips viewers with its true-crime narrative but also resonates powerfully as a relevant piece of political art for today’s times. [Read the full review.]

St. Denis Medical (NBC)

There are way too many medical shows on TV right now—without doctors, lawyers, and cops, broadcast prime-time would basically be sports and singing competitions—but this one feels unique among them, and not just because it’s a comedy. A mockumentary in the tradition of Abbott Elementary and Parks and Recreation, set within a beleaguered public institution populated (mostly) by committed employees, it also has the sly political insight of co-creator Justin Spitzer’s big-box store sitcom Superstore. And it’s promising enough to earn those comparisons. If the rest of the season is as strong as the six episodes I was able to screen, St. Denis could be the best network comedy since Abbott. [Read the full review.]

The Stanford Prison Experiment: Unlocking the Truth (Nat Geo)

Over the past fifty years, the Stanford Prison Experiment has led many psychology enthusiasts to believe in the concept known as “the power of situation,” suggesting that it can transform seemingly good individuals into oppressors. By converting a university basement into a mock prison setting, Professor Philip Zimbardo tasked white male students with playing the roles of either prisoners or guards. The experiment was designed to explore behavior when politeness is discarded and carceral practices are adopted. However, just six days into what was intended to be a two-week study, the cruelty exhibited by guards compelled Zimbardo to terminate it prematurely. Throughout his career, Zimbardo advocated for the theory that humans are easily swayed by circumstances to unleash the potential for evil within us. He even defended American soldiers implicated in the torture of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison.

As a movie reviewer looking back on the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment, I’ve always felt compelled to delve deeper into this groundbreaking study that has been both celebrated and scrutinized over the years. In “The Stanford Prison Experiment: A Reexamination,” Juliette Eisner does just that, offering a refreshing take on the story many of us thought we knew so well.

2024-11-29 17:06

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