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.

¿Quien Es Mas Macchio?

It's the end of December, so it must be time for that oddest of new traditions: the premiere of a new season of Cobra Kai on Netflix. The fourth season of the now-Netflix comedy is probably more invested in The Karate Kid Part III than any reasonable person should be, and perhaps more screen time is dedicated to Thomas Ian Griffith reprising his role as villainous Terry Silver than common sense would dictate, but the slightly fragmented run of 10 episodes comes together nicely in its climactic two-episode All-Valley Tournament finale. Those episodes, particularly a showcase for young stars including Tanner Buchanan, Jacob Bertrand and Peyton List, are among the show's best. And check out this week's TV's Top 5 podcast for what has become another tradition, our end-of-year interview with creators/showrunners Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg.

'Daughter,' 'Daughter' Everywhere

Streaming services dropped their blockbusters — the Matrix thing, the Sorkin thing and the climate comet thing — at Christmas, but Netflix saved one of the year's best movies for pre-New Year viewing. Maggie Gyllenhaal's adaptation of Elena Ferrante's The Lost Daughter is two hours of tension, even if you don't always know what the nonstop discomfort is building to. Our David Rooney rightly raves about the "jagged brilliance" of Oliva Colman and Jessie Buckley, both in absolute top form. For something more comforting at feature length, HBO Max will almost surely get tears from its  Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts documentary, which is packed with sweet interactions from returning stars, as well as emotional salutes to the likes of Richard Harris, Alan Rickman and Helen McCrory.

The Secret Life of Fetts

Beyond the discomfort of watching COVID-impacted college football and COVID-impacted New Year festivities, there are other television options this weekend. Jules Vernes' Around the World in 80 Days gets the Masterpiece Theatre treatment on PBS starting Sunday with an adaptation that boasts solid character work from David Tennant, but somehow leaves out the adventurous thrills from the beloved book. Delivering a few more thrills, but only a wisp of a story, is Disney+ The Book of Boba Fett, which premiered earlier in the week. Ultimately, you may be better off watching the December previews of  Abbott Elementary, American Auto and Grand Crew on Hulu ahead of next week's official premieres for the three promising comedies. Oh, and this week's second new episode of  Station Eleven  was my favorite of the season, so it's a good time to play catch-up.

Honoring Betty White

Television was a wholly experimental medium inaccessible to most Americans when Betty White first became a TV star, launching a career that spanned nine decades. Possibly the most universally beloved figure in popular culture and beyond, White died this week at the age of 99. Both The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Golden Girls , featuring but two of White's iconic roles, are available to stream on Hulu. You can watch The Proposal , a key piece of White's 21st century renaissance, on Amazon, which also has 17 episodes of White's 1950s sitcom Life with Elizabeth and the 1970s pet-centric talk show Betty White's Pet Set. For a more recent decorated Betty White performance, Hot in Cleveland is on Paramount+.

Honoring Jean-Marc Vallée

Montreal-born filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée died last weekend at the age of 58. Vallée's blending of the poetic and the visceral reliably brought out the best in his actors, who won Oscars and Emmys under his watch. Pay particular attention to the rhythms of his storytelling, since Vallée doubled as his own editor, earning his only Oscar nomination for editing Dallas Buyer's Club, which is available to stream on Peacock. Vallée had recent success on the small screen, winning an Emmy for directing Big Little Lies and earning deserved acclaim for his often-haunting work on  Sharp Objects. They're both on HBO Max and showcase the talent we lost.

This Week's THR Staff Pick 

THR.com's deputy East Coast editor Hilary Lewis has been bingeing one of my recent favorites. She raves, "HBO Max’s The Sex Lives of College Girls, created by Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble, isn’t as raunchy as its title suggests. Instead, the comedy offers an astute, relatable exploration of the dreams, desires and disappointments of a group of ambitious freshmen suite mates. I quickly devoured all 10 episodes of season one and have since been pondering the characters’ motivations and futures. To paraphrase one character: I think I’m a Sex Lives of College Girls  addict."