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.

Ace of 'Mass' 

Midnight Mass, Mike Flanagan's exploration of faith and horror tropes, isn't one of those shows where you're going to know immediately if it's for you. In fact, the seven-episode series about a priest (Hamish Linklater) who arrives on a remote island and sets a series of miracles into motion takes a few episodes before it truly spells out its dark purpose. Ultimately it works better in broad thematic terms than as anything frightful —  The Haunting of Hill House  and The Haunting of Bly Manor were both scarier — but Linklater, Zach Gilford and Kate Siegel are very, very good, and Flanagan is completely committed to the religious aspects and the nuttiness. Love it or hate it, it'll give you something to talk about.

'Foundation,' All I Ever Wanted / 'Foundation,' Had to Get Away

Fans of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series have waited for decades — appropriate, given the franchise's centuries-spanning timeline — for an adaptation. David Goyer and Josh Friedman's new Apple TV+ series isn't exactly that adaptation. The cinematography and effects are breathtaking, but the story takes what's esoteric and challenging about Asimov's texts and replaces it with more conventional sci-fi trappings. So yeah, it's beautiful, and Lee Pace as a sneering emperor who wears stylish man-skirts will surely make some people happy, but not the people hoping for hour after hour of talk about mathematics, psychology, power and human selfishness.

Great Barrier Grief

I like to keep you informed on the new movies coming to streaming services, but with a Sopranos prequel and a Jake Gyllenhaal thriller ticketed for next week, this weekend's feature fortunes are bleak. Your best bet is the Melissa McCarthy grief vehicle — grieficle? — The Starling, which our Caryn James dismissed as a "misfire" upon its TIFF premiere. Still sounds better than Nine Perfect Strangers ? Anyway, it's on Netflix.  The Starling, not Nine Perfect Strangers, which is on Hulu. Over on Amazon, indirect competition comes from the ballet drama Birds of Paradise, which stars Kristine Froseth, whom I really liked in Looking for Alaska. Our Robyn Bahr praised Birds of Paradise for its aesthetics but was less impressed with its narrative contortions. Finally, while it isn't really a movie, HBO's three-part  Nuclear Family, premiering Sunday night, was on the fall film festival circuit and our Angie Han found it poignant and complex.

Remembering Willie Garson

Willie Garson, who died this week at 57, was a master of taking parts designed for comic relief and inhabiting them in ways that almost immediately became fully realized and not just the subject of welcome punchlines. With Sex and the City on HBO Max and White Collar on Hulu, it's easy to relive your favorite Stanford Blatch or Mozzie moments. If you've watched all the Sex and the City and White Collar that you need to, maybe check out the beloved character actor's work as part of the tremendous ensemble of David Milch's surreal surfer odyssey, John From Cincinnati. 

Honoring Melvin Van Peebles and Roger Michell

Melvin Van Peebles was a pioneer of Black cinema and indie ingenuity, and it's a shame that the streaming world is desperately short on easily available works from the late director, who died this week at 89. Fortunately, Van Peebles' landmark Watermelon Man is on Amazon, while you can learn more about his impact and body of work in the documentary How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (And Enjoy It), now on Tubi. Let's just say that because of Melvin Van Peebles, there are countless voices now in the room that had no place there before him. Also of note: Director Roger Michell, who died this week at 65, left a wildly varied body of work. Sadly, things like Changing Lanes and Persuasion aren't easily streamable, but Notting Hill is on Peacock, and it's basically the perfect romantic comedy.

This Week's THR Staff Pick 

West Coast TV editor and TV's Top 5 podcast co-host — check out this week's interview with the showrunners of Dear White People — Lesley Goldberg raves, "With the glut of content — and an amazing race for the National League West pennant between my Dodgers and the rival Giants — I somehow let season two of HBO's Betty  slip through the cracks. Thanks to a day off, I caught up on Crystal Moselle's skater comedy, which ultimately delivered an amazing season and a satisfying conclusion, with HBO having canceled the hidden gem after only a 12-episode run. I highly recommend joining the all-girl skate group via Moselle's Skate Kitchen (on Hulu) and enjoying the ride of Betty's short but sweet run (on HBO Max)."