I’ve been recapping THE ALIENIST over at The AV Club! (All recaps so far should be gathered under that header; if you’ve wanted to get caught up, now’s the time.) It is a fascinating case study in adaptation (especially the pros and cons of adhering to the letter of the law), and it features, among other things, gorgeous sets and cinematography, three lead actors who are all pitching their performances to different iterations of the show, and occasional bursts of incredible weirdness that include one of the most sublime moments on TV this year: Sean Young silently looking to her dog for legal advice.…

“Why weren’t you a part of this?” “Because I was playing basketball.” Every so often, some of the dozen spinning plates on Riverdale wobble, and the show has to deal with Archie. … It’s a bizarre but fascinating process to watch a show routinely try to reset one of the stars to teen-show stakes.…

“When I heard what happened at Nick’s party, I decided that we should come together…to deal with this motley crew of liars, dope fiends, and fornicators.”…

Boy, this is a fascinating episode to deal so directly with needing to be liked. When Brooklyn Nine-Nine is on its game, it’s one of television’s warmest half-hours. (See the donut-hole cold open that gets an offhand callback halfway through the episode just because.) But after sticking a toe into more serious waters early in the season, “The Venue” seems like a deliberate attempt to bring some lighter screwball energy back into the season.…

There has never been a fictional wedding/funeral ratio more to my tastes, has there? The wedding happened on BATES MOTEL, which I covered for AV Club; you could not have picked a better week for me to drop in on a show than the week two characters with a deeply repressed slow burn have to marry each other for plot reasons and then trip over their feelings for the next forty minutes.…

(A very artsy shot considering that in this scene they’re running from undead Redcoats summoned from the grave by an evil witch.) Sleepy Hollow is back – and it is so, so sorry about last season. My io9 recaps continue apace, and judging by the way I update the blog these days, you should probably plan to just follow along there.…