Hey TV watchers! My name is Michel Ghanem and I’m a freelance television critic and writer based in Vancouver, Canada. Some of you may know me as my Instagram moniker tvscholar, where I’ve been sharing the shows I’ve been watching on social media and in my Substack newsletter with a television-loving online community.
I watch approximately 160 seasons of TV a year, and am grateful every day that I get to live and breathe a medium I love so much. I’m thrilled you’re here to embark on this journey with me with Trust Me, I Watch Everything. Every two weeks, I’ll be sharing the shows worth your TV time and how to tune in.
In this first column, I highlight a few hard-hitting dramas arriving on small screens: The Lowdown, an Ethan Hawke-led modern noir; Slow Horses, a reliably propulsive spy thriller with an excellent fifth season; and House of Guinness, a captivating period drama inspired by the Guinness family.
But if there’s one thing you’ll get to know about me, it’s that I’m always after niche, esoteric shows that catch me off guard in their creativity — shows I believe deserve a boost in a crowded television landscape. Such is the case with Women Wearing Shoulder Pads and Interview with the Vampire. And there’s much more where that came from. Let’s dive in.
⏰ Tune in
My recommendation: The Lowdown
Why you should watch it: Ethan Hawke stars in FX’s new series and it may be his strongest performance yet. He plays Lee Raybon, a self-proclaimed “truthstorian” journalist in Tulsa, Okla., whose approach to investigating his stories isn’t always ethical.
The show builds out a believable and textured world. Lee lives in an old bookstore, drives a musty white van around town and tries his best to provide for his ex and their daughter — when he’s not dodging the attacks of angry white supremacists in town.
It’s all inspired by showrunner Sterlin Harjo’s time working as a documentarian for a Tulsa-based publication. During a Q&A at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, he said he wanted to tell a story about Middle America in The Lowdown that was a different flavor than what we’ve been seeing onscreen lately.
His last project, the lauded three-season comedy Reservation Dogs, was also set in Oklahoma, but I can’t say that the two shows are comparable — except for the inclusion of multiple Indigenous characters in The Lowdown. There is also a lot more comedy in the show than you might expect for a noir, mostly through Hawke embodying this character with somehow both gusto and neurotic chaos.
The season is one of the most positively received shows of the year by critics — I struggled to find a single negative review.
How to watch: The Lowdown airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on FX and streams the next day on Hulu.
But that’s not all…
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Grey’s Anatomy: Yes, it’s still on! The long-running medical drama returns for Season 22 with the fate of a few characters up in the air. The show, a shell of its former self but still enjoyable for what it is, has settled into a comfortable procedural rhythm. Grey’s Anatomy premieres Oct. 9 at 10 p.m. ET on ABC and streams the next day on Hulu.
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Task: Mark Ruffalo and Tom Pelphrey star in a sleek and well-performed crime drama from the creators of Mare of Easttown. The first few episodes are a bit sluggish, but don’t worry, the intrigue picks up in the later episodes when you find out there’s a mole in the FBI unit. Task airs Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET on HBO through October 19 and streams on HBO Max.
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The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City: These Utah women are back for a bombastic fifth season with new alliances and campy winks to viewers. If you’re curious about the Housewives universe, the show starts off strong right from its pilot. I don’t watch much reality television, but as John Oliver passionately proclaims, it’s a masterpiece. The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo and streams the next day on Peacock.
📺 Stream it
My recommendation: Slow Horses
Why you should watch it: If you’ve been sleeping on Slow Horses, this is your sign to wake up. The spy drama is one of the most consistent shows on television: You can reliably expect six new episodes per year, and they film so far in advance that each finale ends with a little trailer of the next season.
It’s a fun premise, too: Slough House is the dumping ground for MI5 agents who flopped in the field. They’re given a chance to rehabilitate themselves and their careers under the stewardship of Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), who kind of just wants to drink and eat his way to retirement, but frequently outsmarts MI5 when the situation calls for it (and it always does). The slow horses are supposed to be taking on menial assignments, but they’re each eager to stick their neck where it might not belong.
My typical warning before embarking on a Slow Horses binge is not to get too emotionally attached to any given character. Similarly to a show like Lost or The Walking Dead, characters are dispensed with sudden brutality. After all, there is always a crisis, and the work of MI5 (solving hostage situations, unraveling conspiracy) is a dangerous one.
To catch up to this new season, you would only need to watch 24, 40-minute episodes — the equivalent of one season of a pre-streaming era drama series.
How to watch: Slow Horses Season 5 is streaming on Apple TV+, with new episodes on Wednesdays.
My bonus recommendation: House of Guinness
Why you should watch it: After you’re done splitting the G at the pub, you might be interested in the ubiquitous beer’s origins. Netflix’s new eight-episode historical drama by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight takes us to the 1860s, nearly 100 years after the founding of the iconic Guinness brewery.
We begin during the chaos of patriarch Sir Benjamin Guinness’s death in Dublin. Four Guinness heirs succeed parts of the empire: Edward (Louis Partridge), entrusted with the mantle of responsibility; Arthur (Anthony Boyle), mired in blackmail related to his closeted identity as a gay man; Benjamin (Fionn O’Shea), an alcoholic not trusted by his father to run the estate; and the only daughter, a married Anne Plunket (Emily Fairn).
The drama will likely grab you from the first episode, which throws you into the politics of the Fenian Brotherhood, a pre-Irish Republican Army group dedicated to Irish independence with roots in America — and how they become intertwined with the Guinness family.
The primary conflict throughout the season makes House of Guinness feel something akin to The Crown (and I say that respectfully) with a sprinkle of both The Gilded Age and Succession.
Overall, it’s a surprisingly well-written and exciting new series sprinkled with dark Irish humor; a worthwhile binge in Netflix’s newer slate of offerings. Plus, the costumes are fun. Shall we bring back tall top hats?
How to watch: All eight episodes of House of Guinness are streaming on Netflix.
But that’s not all …
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The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox:True crime documentaries freak me out, so I tend to wait until a dramatized version of the story is released to fill me in. Such is the case with this series. Critics knowledgeable about Knox’s case, in which a young American woman was accused of killing her roommate while on exchange in Italy, say not much new information is revealed here. But if you’re in the dark or a zillennial like me, it’s a fascinating and eye-opening tale with strong performances across the board. All episodes are now streaming on Hulu.
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Platonic: If you just want a giggle, consider Platonic — a hang-out comedy about two ex-best friends who reunite after a divorce and rebuild their friendship. I could watch Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne embark on misadventures for many more seasons. Seasons 1 and 2 are now streaming on Apple TV+.
💎 Hidden gems
My recommendation: Women Wearing Shoulder Pads
Why you should watch it: There have been significant stand-outs in the world of adult animation over the last few years, with everything from Scavengers Reign to BoJack Horseman expanding what I even believed could be possible within the genre. Women Wearing Shoulder Pads, a new Mexican, Spanish-language stop-motion series is similarly spectacular, attempting to provide a plot summary almost does it a disservice.
Set in 1980s Ecuador, a wealthy Spanish woman named Marioneta Negocios (voiced by Pepa Pallarés) is trying to rebrand cuyes, or guinea pigs, from popular dinner meat to friendly and intelligent pets. She meets her match in Doña Quispe (Laura Torres), the owner of a popular cuy restaurant, who will stop at nothing to continue butchering the cute furry creatures.
The series feels part telenovela, part Pedro Almodóvar-inspired drama, with lightning-fast 10-minute episodes. The stop-motion format takes a minute to adjust to, but becomes incredibly immersive.
I found myself in awe of the show’s audacious storytelling and how many of the seemingly nonsensical moving pieces come together satisfyingly by the finale, and I laughed incredulously at some of the twists.
How to watch: Women Wearing Shoulder Pads is streaming on HBO Max.
My bonus recommendation: Interview with the Vampire
Why you should watch it: Happy spooky season! As a lasting chill settles in the air, perhaps it’s time for a juicy vampire show to add to your TV schedule?
Both seasons of AMC’s Interview with the Vampire, the deeply underrated vampire drama based on the 1976 Anne Rice novel, are now on Netflix.
The series is narrated by Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson), who is giving an oral history of his life as a vampire to journalist Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) in present-day Dubai. Told through flashbacks, Louis’s story begins in 1910, living in New Orleans as a 30-something brothel owner who navigates racism at every turn and lives discreetly as a gay man. He falls quickly for Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid), a confident French vampire visiting the city.
Created by Rolin Jones, whose credits include Boardwalk Empire and Perry Mason, this show is slick and polished, with expensive-looking production design and gruesome special effects for all the blood, biting and limb-tearing you would expect from a vampire story. But there’s a lot of heart here too.
How to watch: Both seasons of Interview with the Vampire are streaming on Netflix and AMC+.
That’s the end of this week’s episode, but there’s always be more TV to watch. Tune in again with me on Oct. 20 for more recommendations.
Think there’s something missing that deserves my TV time? Let me know what else I should have on my radar in the comments below!