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.

And 'Justified' Like That…

It's a good time to be a Timothy Olyphant fan. Olyphanatic? Is that a thing? Is that a thing NOW? Next Tuesday, Justified: City Primeval premieres on FX, bringing back Olyphant's throwback lawman Raylan Givens, absent since the near-perfect 2015 conclusion of Justified. Thanks in large part to an exceptional new ensemble led by Aunjanue Ellis and Vondie Curtis-Hall, City Primeval stands alone, while still capturing much of the original series’ Elmore Leonard-flavored wit and menace. Before City Primeval  premieres, you can watch Olyphant as a father wondering if his past has caught up with him in Max's kidnapping thriller Full Circle. That six-part drama, from writer Ed Solomon and director Steven Soderbergh, is awash in interesting elements, but doesn't always do enough with them to be captivating, even if the cast — Claire Danes! Dennis Quaid! Zazie Beetz! — is superb.

The Day 'Afterparty' 

The first five new episodes of Christopher Miller's Apple TV+ comedy The Afterparty  are a roller coaster. The premiere, a rom-com takeoff focused on Sam Richardson's Aniq, made what for me was a strong argument that two seasons was perhaps too many for the series, in which each episode looks at a murder mystery suspect in the style of a different genre. The second episode, told through a Jane Austen filter, was better, and I loved the third and fourth episodes, one a film noir takeoff built around Paul Walter Hauser's character and the next a Wes Anderson pastiche centered on the great Anna Konkle. But then I temporarily stopped after a flimsy heist riff starring Jack Whitehall. The show's highs are very high and there are so many great performances — Zach Woods does perhaps his most delightfully weird work ever, accompanied by a friendly lizard — that I'll return eventually.

Ace of Pace

Sorry, I can't not sing the title of Foundation to the tune of the Carnation: Instant Breakfast commercial from the '80s. You're gonna love it in an instant! I didn't love Foundation in an instant, but man the Apple TV+ Isaac Asimov adaptation is gorgeous TV, with the best sci-fi visual effects the medium has to offer. The first three episodes of the new season feature philosophical noodling, epic vistas and some naked wrestling, plus there's actually some humor, which was absent in the first season . I still have a hard time investing in blather about the Second Crisis and the Second Foundation and where and when things are taking place. But the plot feels more visible this season, even if it's split in bits and pieces. Jared Harris is great, Lee Pace is doing intriguingly odd things, and they're joined by lots of interesting new faces including Ben Daniels as an eccentric military leader and Ella-Rae Smith as a wily princess of some sort.

Centers of Attention

With Showtime's Goliath, Wilt Chamberlain becomes the latest NBA big man to get his own multipart documentary series, following in the outsize footsteps of Bill Russell and Shaquille O'Neal. Goliath  is decent, but the burgeoning genre's best entry was one I didn't even review. If you have ESPN+, check out Steve James'  The Luckiest Guy in the World. The four-part doc might not convince you to love Bill Walton if his gregarious personality sets your teeth on edge, but it will help you understand him, thanks to a series of conversations that range from delightfully voluble to intriguingly uncomfortable. Building the full documentary around a Grateful Dead-driven soundtrack, James revels in setting up interviews that are sometimes fun (a sit-down with Walton's key Blazers colleagues), sometimes emotional (a conversation with Walton, his wife and the widow of a favorite teammate) and sometimes unexpectedly buoyant (1986 Celtics pals Kevin McHale and Robert Parish have never been this much fun). 

Mama's Got a 'Bird Box' She Wears on Her Chest

The weekend is light on new streaming original features, especially since our David Rooney was decidedly mixed on Alex and David Pastor's Bird Box Barcelona, simultaneously calling it generic as a genre exercise, but praising its performances and unsettling atmosphere. Also, why a Bird Box spinoff/sequel NOW?!? Anyway, I can't speak to the quality of Max's teen psychic drama Gray Matter, but based on what was teased in the new season of  Project Greenlight , it's hard to be optimistic. The Project Greenlight season probably could have been cut in half, but it's full of entertaining bits, especially when the movie and TV productions butt heads. So I'll step out of my streaming box, not to be confused with my bird box, to recommend the Oscar-nominated A House Made of Splinters (pictured), a heartbreaking documentary about orphans in Eastern Ukraine, which premieres as part of PBS' POV slate on Monday.

It Takes a Nomination of Millions

Look, if none of that works for you, you can get started on your homework catching up on the nominees for the 75th Primetime Emmys. Nominations were announced Wednesday for the telecast that was scheduled for September but will now take place in "???" because of Hollywood labor unrest. Succession, The Last of Us, The White Lotus and Ted Lasso all received more than 20 nods apiece. Angie Han and I analyzed the nominations in print form, and I rambled about them extensively on this week’s TV's Top 5 podcast, which also breaks down what's at stake in the SAG-AFTRA strike.