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.

The Emmy of My Enemy Is My 'Friends [The Reunion]'

It's Emmy weekend! Normally this would be the time that I'd tell you a handful of shows you need to catch up with in order to be smug at your Emmy-viewing Zoom party, but if you haven't already watched Ted Lasso, The Crown and The Queen's Gambit, you're not going to. Those three are likely to dominate the night, though Angie Han and I offered some personal Emmy preferences, while Scott Feinberg and I did our picks on what should and will win. The Emmys were also a big topic of conversation in this week's TV's Top 5 podcast, though you can feel free to skip to the great conversation with ABC's new  Wonder Years showrunner, Saladin Patterson.

People Who Watch 'Dear White People' Are the Luckiest People in the World

For reasons I don't understand, Netflix has embargoed reviews of the final season of Dear White People for premiere day (Wednesday), but I don't think it's breaking that embargo to say that Justin Simien's adaptation of his acclaimed film has been a real standout for Netflix, especially the tremendous second season, while the fourth season adds '90s-infused musical numbers and therefore has to be worth checking out. Fine, one more minor spoiler: This season's show-within-a-show is a vicious takedown/celebration of Big Brother. You'll have to wait until next week's TV's Top 5  podcast for our chat with Simien and co-showrunner Jaclyn Moore, but it's a good one!

Masonic the Hedgehog

The thing I'm looking forward to watching this weekend is the third season of Sex Education on Netflix, but I haven't had time to get to it yet. The new shows I have had time to get to, I'm less thrilled about. Peacock's Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol is such an uninspired take on the conspiracy best-seller that it might as well have stayed at NBC, though at least it let me make the joke in the title of this blurb. Netflix's  Chicago Party Aunt  is another adult animation mediocrity that made me appreciate F Is for Family, though at least it's better than Hoops. Meanwhile, Angie wasn't a big fan of FX on Hulu's The Premise, though she was a bit more enthusiastic about Paramount+'s The Harper House . And if you're looking for smirking dramatic irony about the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak, the new season of The Morning Show on Apple TV+ also exists.

Bésame 'Macho'

On this week's streaming movie front, nonagenarian filmmaker Clint Eastwood contributes his latest opportunity to let me use the word "nonagenarian" with Cry Macho. The HBO Max day-and-date release is Eastwood's project built around the opportunity to learn valuable life lessons from youngsters of various ethnic groups, which may be why our David Rooney deemed it "formulaic and fatigued." Rooney was more enthusiastic about Amazon's adaptation of the acclaimed musical  Everybody's Talking About Jamie, which is also formulaic, but fun. Meanwhile, Amazon also has three new documentaries from Steve McQueen that serve as complementary texts to the director's Small Axe anthology.

Honoring Norm Macdonald

Norm Macdonald's run as host of "Weekend Update" on Saturday Night Live coincided with my first years staying up late to watch the late-night staple, and his ultra-wry sarcasm, delivered with the wickedest of withering grins, doubtlessly shaped my ongoing reaction to world events. The all-time great talk show guest and stand-up died this week at the age of 61, and streaming offers many ways to remember Macdonald, starting with his special Hitler's Dog, Gossip & Trickery on Netflix, the feature Dirty Work on HBO Max and his notorious turn on  The Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget (longtime friend Saget directed Dirty Work) on Paramount+.

This Week's THR Staff Pick 

My own full review of the new The Morning Show season is coming, but Heat Vision senior editor Aaron Couch is a fan. He writes, "A year ago, a number of pandemic-related shows and films were put into development. I thought I'd have little interest in revisiting 2020 so soon, maybe not ever. Yet season two of Apple TV+'s The Morning Show , which tackles the months leading up to the coronavirus, feels like a gentle way to process some of what we've been through. The ignorance of the characters, who don't see the biggest story in the world coming, will likely hit close to home to many in the media. Many times I found myself asking, How could they do that?! and also knowing exactly how it could happen. Ten days before Gavin Newsom locked down California, a group of coworkers and I went to the Mulan premiere in Hollywood — hand sanitizer and elbow bumps, but no masks."