Welcome to Now See This, THR chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg’s weekly viewer guide newsletter dedicated to cutting through the daunting clutter of the broadcast, cable and streaming TV landscape! Comments and suggestions welcome at daniel.fienberg@thr.com.

You Gotta Be Free to Be 'Underground' 

Barry Jenkins' adaptation of Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Underground Railroad is brutal and beautiful, a portrait of both the worst sides of humanity and of hope and resilience. The 9th episode in particular may be the best thing you watch on TV this year. If you've somehow missed Jenkins' brief but acclaimed filmography, you can check out  Moonlight on Netflix, If Beale Street Could Talk on Hulu and if you get Sundance Now, Medicine for Melancholy  is there. And don't skip Jenkins' season one episode of Netflix's Dear White People.

Get Smart

Before In Treatment and In the Heights kick off The Summer of Anthony Ramos, be sure to make the most of The Spring of Jean Smart by catching up on HBO's Mare of Easttown and starting HBO Max's Hacks, which marks a rare starring role for this Emmy-winning master of scene-stealing. And for more on Hacks, be sure to check out this week's TV's Top 5 podcast for a wide-ranging interview with series creators Paul W. Downs, Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky.

Everybody Must Get 'Halston'ed 

Enigmatic fashion icon Halston gets unenlightening, coke-fueled, Ryan Murphy treatment in Netflix's new five-episode miniseries, which features Ewan McGregor in peak scenery-chewing form as the mononymous designer. Seriously, it's basically his character from Birds of Prey  only less subtle. Not that the actual Halston was particularly subtle. For a more fact-based take on Halston's life, Frederic Tcheng's documentary, which THR chief film critic David Rooney called "a roller coaster of fabulousness and folly," is available to stream on Amazon.

It Goeth Before the Fall

What is Pride? It's a six-part FX docuseries chronicling the evolution of the LGBTQ+ movement from the 1950s to the 2000s, each episode hailing from a different director. The first three episodes premiere on Friday with three more next week, but take your time. These are important stories, sometimes told in interesting, personal ways. Also premiering this weekend, on Sunday, is Starz comedy Run the World , about a group of 30-something Black women in Harlem. I'm interested because co-star Amber Steven West generally makes interesting choices and if you haven't seen Greek or The Carmichael Show, they're both on Hulu!

Halt and Stop Fire

Angelina Jolie has spent recent years either menacing Sleeping Beauty or directing, but the Salt and Wanted star is back in action heroine mode in Those Who Wish Me Dead, the latest WB production to get a day-and-date release on HBO Max. THR's Rooney calls the Taylor Sheridan flick "a ruggedly entertaining throwback to studio movies of the '90s." Speaking of throwbacks, Sheri Linden calls Joe Wright's endlessly delayed The Woman in the Window "a good-looking, mildly convoluted B movie with an A-list cast and enough red herrings to stock a deli counter." And while I'm not sure I actually need to watch either of these movies, I could really go for some herring. 

Honoring Norman Lloyd

Norman Lloyd, who weathered pandemics from the Spanish Flu to COVID-19 in his 106 years, died this week, leaving a legacy of remarkable work and longevity. Many of Lloyd's best-known films — from Saboteur to Dead Poet's Society — will cost you a few bucks on rental, but you can see him opposite his tennis buddy Charlie Chaplin in Limelight on HBO Max or dig into  St. Elsewhere on Hulu.

This Week's THR Staff Pick

Senior editor, diversity and inclusion, Rebecca Sun writes, "TV talent competitions in the U.S. are generally for amateurs or D-listers, but in Korea, established artists aren't afraid to put their skills to the test. My current obsession is Mnet's Kingdom: Legendary War (available for free with English subtitles on the streaming platform Viki), which pits six popular male Kpop groups against each other in increasingly elaborate productions that are pretty much like watching the VMAs every week. There's a slight Hollywood connection with The Boyz, who for whatever reason are going for an extended  Game of Thrones homage with each of their performances. But my personal favorite is BtoB, the "senior" group fresh off of compulsory military duty, proving to the youngsters that there's still plenty of life after 30. "