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.

Smooth Move, 'Sex' Max

Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte are back! Well, not Samantha, but other than Kim Cattrall, the stars and heroes of HBO's Sex and the City are back for HBO Max's And Just Like That. Robyn Bahr's review does a great job of explaining what this new series is and why it isn't just a continuation or revival of Sex and the City. Once you're back in that Sex and the City mood, stick around on HBO Max for the charming and newly renewed  The Sex Lives of College Girls or head over to Amazon for the new friendship comedy Harlem.

Ode to Roy

Wait. What the hell? This Sunday is the season finale of Succession? Already? In only 9 weeks, the new season of HBO's Emmy-winning dark comedy has delivered possibly the year's funniest episode of television ("Retired Janitors of Idaho"), its most gut-twistingly suspenseful (the festive horrors of "Too Much Birthday") and the onslaught of mortification that was "Chiantishire." On this week's TV's Top 5 podcast,  Rolling Stone  critic Alan Sepinwall joined us to talk about where we are heading into the finale. No spoilers, though. HBO is holding the last episode close to its breast.

'Unforgivable,' That's What You Are

There's a slight pre-Christmas lull on the streaming feature front, though Netflix's drama The Unforgivable features Oscar-winning stars in Sandra Bullock and Viola Davis. David Rooney called the film "involving," though he notes that the plotting is rushed. Our Leslie Felperin praised Encounter , featuring Riz Ahmed, as a "surprisingly meaty work" examining fatherhood and an alien invasion. On the documentary front, Showtime premieres  The Real Charlie Chaplin, which I thought was full of great material and bizarre storytelling choices, on Saturday, while HBO launches Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street, a great TV miniseries condensed into a solid, too-short feature, on Monday.

High Toon

There are other choices. We're just mixed on them. Kyle Mooney's Netflix comedy Saturday Morning All Star Hits! captures the absurdist earnestness of Mooney's SNL oddities as well as the tone of vintage Saturday morning animation, but you have to like Kyle Mooney. Welcome to Earth  on  Disney+ has some astonishing nature photography, but you have to deal with Will Smith's attention-hogging. Angie Han thought Jodie Turner-Smith was tremendous in AMC+'s Anne Boleyn, but you have to know what AMC+ is. So maybe just head over to HBO Max and watch the first episode of Landscapers, featuring the always great Olivia Colman as a Gary Cooper-obsessed woman accused of murder.

Honoring Lina Wertmüller

It's easily digestible to just acknowledge Lina Wertmüller as the first woman to receive an Oscar nomination for best director, but the Italian helmer was far more than that footnote. Wertmüller, who died this week at the age of 93, was a spectacular and pivotal figure in Italian cinema of the '70s, charting out a farcical, sexy and scathingly political path in the vein of a Fellini or Bertolucci, but really entirely her own. Naturally, several of Wertmüller's most recognizable landmarks — Swept Away, The Seduction of Mimi — are only available for rental/purchase, but there are odd pockets of streaming availability including her directing debut The Lizards, listed as The Basilisks on Amazon. AMC+ actually has the Oscar-nominated Seven Beauties, featuring a great Giancarlo Giannini performance, along with Love and Anarchy. I haven't seen Blood Feud, from 1978, but it's on Tubi.

This Week's THR Staff Pick 

THR editorial director Nekesa Moody endorses an ABC sneak peek now available on Hulu. She raves: "Abbott Elementary , the Quinta Brunson-led comedy about public school teachers at a struggling Philadelphia elementary school, maintains a delicate balance: making you laugh about the characters at a struggling, inner-city elementary school without trivializing, or poking fun of, the seriousness of the issue. It succeeds from the opening scene, in large part because of the hilarity and charm of Brunson — there’s nothing she can’t carry. But a supporting cast that includes the regal Sheryl Lee Ralph as a haughty, veteran teacher also gives Abbott Elementary its comedic lift. Lisa Ann Walter and Janelle James are scene-stealers as well. Not a lot of shows merit appointment viewing these days, but this one has earned it."