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.

Shrink Rap 

The Spring of Jean Smart is ongoing and I continue to recommend both HBO's Mare of Easttown and HBO Max's Hacks with great enthusiasm. But prepare to transition to The Summer of Anthony Ramos with this weekend's premiere of In Treatment , which boasts a new therapy-giving lead in the great Uzo Aduba and a new location in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles. Ramos, the Sunday patient in this four-night-per-week drama, is the clear standout, though John Benjamin Hickey is typically outstanding and Quintessa Swindell's storyline grew on me. 

'None' Is the Loneliest Number

If you loved Netflix's Master of None for the wise-cracking Aziz Ansari or the food porn, know that the third season, getting a somewhat unusual Sunday premiere, has none of the latter and only a little of the former — though that may be an asset for many viewers. Instead, the five-episode focus is on the relationship between Lena Waithe's Denise and Naomi Ackie's newly introduced Alicia. Our Inkoo Kang didn't love the Bergman pastiche of the first few episodes , which is fair. The fourth episode, built entirely around Ackie, is marvelous and the fifth episode is also very good, so stick with it! And check out this week's TV's Top 5 podcast as co-creator Alan Yang explains the new season's inspirations and challenges.

What's in Your Head, in Your Head?

It's so strange to me that a new show from Robert and Michelle King, creators of The Good Wife, and starring Taylor Schilling and Audra McDonald is premiering Friday and nobody seems to know. Perhaps that's because The Bite, a COVID zombie satire, is launching as a Spectrum Original or maybe it's because, despite its best intentions, the wacky series is a bit of a quarantine relic. It's probably less effective than the already erratic  BrainDead , which is available on Paramount+, and it's definitely nowhere near the level of The Good Fight, which you really ought to have watched by now.

Lack-of-Viva Las Vegas

Speaking of zombies, Zack Snyder has taken a break from criticizing Warner Brothers for their treatment of movies they gave him around a billion dollars to make and remake, instead delivering Army of the Dead, which combines the undead and heist genres and does not, at least so far as I know, feature a single five-minute Icelandic dirge. Premiering on Netflix after a token theatrical release, Army of the Dead has an ensemble led by Dave Bautista, and our David Rooney deems the result to be "deliriously enjoyable."

MODOK McStuffins

I'd still recommend checking out the fairly similar, but much funnier and more compelling, Harley Quinn on HBO Max first, but Marvel's MODOK on Hulu is an amusing, for-grownups animated take on a second-tier comic book villain featuring an energetic vocal turn by co-creator Patton Oswalt. It comes from the same animation house that did Robot Chicken, and if you like that one, you'll probably dig MODOK. Over on Apple TV+, Amy documentarian Asif Kapadia is behind  1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything. It's about 1971, the year music changed everything, from Tina Turner to Marvin Gaye. Our Sheri Linden calls it "a curatorial powerhouse."

Honoring Charles Grodin and Paul Mooney

Charles Grodin, a master of comic timing whether in lead roles or scene-stealing cameos, died this week at 86. If you didn't watch Midnight Run on HBO Max to honor Yaphet Kotto, do it now! Or watch again! And you can also marvel at Grodin lusting after Miss Piggy in The Great Muppet Caper on Disney+ or in Beethoven on Peacock. It's a bit more difficult to track down easily streamable samples of the late Paul Mooney 's scathing and unapologetic standup, but Paul Mooney: Analyzing White America is on Tubi.

This Week's THR Staff Pick

Speaking of Hacks, executive television editor Lacey Rose is a fan. Author of this week's tremendous THR cover story featuring Billy Porter, Rose raves, "I can’t get enough of HBO Max’s Hacks , and its star Jean Smart, who stuns as a Joan Rivers-esque comedic legend in the twilight of her career. That Smart is capable of such a dazzling performance — at once larger than life and acutely human — should surprise absolutely no one. Just look at her work over the last decade alone. (Unless, of course, you have time, in which case I’d totally support a good Designing Women binge, too.) So, yes, I’m very much here for the 'Jeanaissance' or the 'Smartaissance' or whatever clever name the internet has come up with while I’ve been glued to my TV."