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.

Nō Business Like 'Shōgun' Business

As we slip into March, it's a good time to get started on a pair of the year's best new TV offerings. The first two episodes of FX's Shōgun are now on Hulu. I called it "big, bold and beautiful" and praised stars Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai from the deep ensemble. All three installments of the HBO documentary series God Save Texas  are now on Max. I had particular praise for Richard Linklater's "Hometown Prison," but the installments by Alex Stapleton and Iliana Sosa also contribute to a series I deemed "wide-ranging, timely and vitally important."

License to 'Phil'

It doesn't make my lists of the 10 best shows on TV, but if you asked me to list my 10 FAVORITE shows, the shows that I do a happy dance for whenever they return, Somebody Feed Phil would be there every time. Phil Rosenthal's food-centric travelogue gets an extra-happy happy dance this year for an eight-episode seventh season, up from its regular five or six episodes. Not every installment is thrilling, but this season is full of terrific episodes in places like Iceland, Mumbai and Edinburgh. Highlights include introducing Dwight Howard to uni in Taipei, a 94-year-old whiskey-loving samurai guide in Kyoto and a cameo from the late, great Norman Lear. The season continues Phil's push toward a more family-centric focus — wife Monica and daughter Lily are frequent guests — and an expanded effort to bring charitable organizations into his traveling purview, complete with this ambitious list of featured do-gooders. 

'Tourist' Trap

The first season of The Tourist  premiered on HBO Max a million years ago (two, I suppose) and got a little attention for Jamie Dornan's gruff and funny turn as a mystery man who wakes up in the Outback with no memory of his past. The second season leaps to Netflix, and the action hops to Ireland with Dornan's Elliot still seeking answers, each seemingly darker than the one before, accompanied by Danielle Macdonald's Helen. This season is funnier and twistier, if a bit less appealingly efficient. It's still a show that thrives on Dornan and Macdonald's chemistry, and its pulpy zig-zagging lags when it gets hung up on over-explaining its themes. Drink every time somebody refers to how you can't run from your past and you'll be dead before you complete these six episodes, which I'm guessing will break through in a big way thanks to the power of Netflix's Almighty Algorithm. The seeds for a third season are definitely planted.

Life & 'Elsbeth'

Lots of TV this week/weekend. Apple TV+'s The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin made me laugh, but it lacked the emotional center that attracted folks to the somewhat similar Our Flag Means Death. Angie Han's review is on-target! I enjoyed Kate Winslet's performance in HBO's The Regime, but found the satire of authoritarianism to be mighty superficial. And CBS'  Elsbeth — first episode is now streaming on Paramount+ — was a cheery, Columbo-esque showcase for Carrie Preston's Good Wife/Good Fight character. Creators Robert and Michelle King discuss why Elsbeth isn't exactly a spinoff and talk about ending Evil on this week's TV's Top 5 podcast.

Sand-Worm vs. Sand-Man

While you're free to see Dune II if you want, this is a TV newsletter, so I'm all about Netflix's Spaceman , even if reviews for the Johan Renck-directed space thriller have been… tepid. Our David Rooney praised the "frazzled warmth" of Sandler's performance, but felt that the love story at the film's center fell flat. Ever stop and ponder how odd it is that we're still surprised when Sandler does one of his low-key, grounded films, even though at this point, he's done more films that highlight his solid range as an actor — Punch-Drunk Love (PlutoTV), The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (Netflix), Hustle (Netflix), Uncut Gems (Netflix), plus non-streaming Spanglish and Reign Over Me, among others — than, for example, Martin Scorsese has made mobster movies.

Honoring Richard Lewis

A certain vein of particularly ironic, particularly Jewish, particularly self-lacerating comedy proliferated in the '70s and '80s and Richard Lewis was at the vanguard. Lewis, who died this week at 76, was most recently best known for his recurring guest role on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm and as the star of the well-regarded sitcom Anything but Love , which sadly isn't streaming anywhere. You can check out a young Lewis in 1979's Diary of a Young Comic , now on Tubi, which also has Lewis' 1988 feature The Wrong Guys. Mel Brooks' Robin Hood: Men in Tights, with Lewis as Prince John, is now on Max, while Amazon is home to Wagons East! and Once Upon a Crime.