"Sharp Objects" transparently wants to be this year's "Big Little Lies," from its movie-star lead (Amy Adams) to the gauzy, washed-out tones and flashbacks employed by Jean-Marc Vallee, who directed both. The result, however, isn't nearly as compelling, focusing on a missing-girl mystery that actually plays second fiddle by a long shot to the protagonist's tortured personal odyssey.
Netflix has followed in HBO's footsteps by investing heavily in stand-up comedy. And as a sign of what a big tent that discipline represents, one would be hard-pressed to find a more striking philosophical split than Jerry Seinfeld -- who's back with his breezy series "Comedian in Cars Getting Coffee" -- and Hannah Gadsby, whose scathing one-woman show questions the very nature of the stand-up craft.
"Whitney," the second feature-length Whitney Houston documentary in 10 months, has the advantage of being produced with cooperation from Houston's estate, providing greater access to those closest to her, including multiple relatives. The overall message, though, is much the same and painfully familiar -- how the price of fame, and being pulled in multiple directions, contributed to the premature end of a one-for-the-ages talent.
The roots of the current Golden Age of Television run deep, but its seeds can be traced to a pair of HBO dramas that left their mark in the 2000s, for shared reasons as well as two very different ones: "The Sopranos," because the series turned into an enormous mass-appeal hit; and "The Wire," because it never did.
