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.

It Ain't 'Dragon' If You Can Do It

Look, I'm sure you're trying to binge the entirety of Game of Thrones in time for Sunday night's premiere of House of the Dragon on HBO, but it really isn't necessary. The prequel series has a lot of similarities — those eponymous dragons, Ramin Djawadi's epic score, oodles of textually necessary (?) incest — but it tells a more focused story of Targaryen succession, which makes it simultaneously very much like GoT  and wildly different. Me, I missed the wide array of voices provided by the individual Houses from around Westeros, as well as any single character as likably complex as Peter Dinklage's Tyrion. For more details on the production, be sure to read James Hibberd's indispensable two-part feature. 

Franklin & Smash

August has seen a slowdown in blockbuster content on the big screen, but the summer blockbuster is alive and well on TV. House of the Dragon is the weekend's popcorniest and pop-porniest option, but Disney+'s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is close behind. Sure, it's a bit silly, but what are you watching a show called She-Hulk: Attorney at Law  for, if not silliness? It's fun and a bit insubstantial, and if that's not your cup o' tea, we're only a few weeks away from Amazon's new Lord of the Rings: Dragon at Law. (Credit to Twitter user @RevDJEsq for the punny blurb title, which captures the show's tone and Los Angeles setting fairly well.)

Altruistic Grit

Wanna giggle while feeling good about humanity? Or at least better about humanity? Freevee's new comedy Sprung focuses on a group of ex-con crooks trying to do the right thing early in the COVID pandemic. It hails from Greg Garcia and features Garret Dillahunt and Martha Plimpton, so if you were a fan of Raising Hope or My Name Is Earl, this is one you'll probably like. In the same vein, if you haven't watched Hulu's  This Fool , it's a bilingual charmer, with shades of absurdism amid its grounded South Central setting. Co-creator and star Chris Estrada is the guest on this week's TV's Top 5 podcast. Oh, and for people doing less-good things, our Angie Han called Sharon Horgan's Apple TV+ comedy Bad Sisters "entertaining but a little empty."

Where My Orphanatics At? 

Orphan is one of those movies where I knew the notorious twist ending for years before watching the movie a few weeks ago on Paramount+, and I was surprised how well it plays. It's utter schlock, but it has a good understanding of its schlockiness, and Isabelle Fuhrman's performance is genuinely outstanding. Well, Paramount+ has brought Fuhrman back for Orphan: First Kill, and while early reviews haven't been great, it's probably the weekend's best new-movie streaming option? Though if you have Showtime and you're a Fuhrman fan, the excellent indie  The Novice is OnDemand. 

Honoring Wolfgang Petersen

At his peak, few directors were able to match Wolfgang Petersen's ability craft suspense with equal comfort between intimate, claustrophobic tension and epic terror. The German director died this week at 81. If you want to watch the iconic submarine thriller Das Boot with occasional commercial interruptions, it's on Tubi. If you have youthful nostalgia for The NeverEnding Story, it's on HBO Max. Personally, I love In the Line of Fire, which is Clint Eastwood at his finest, features a great villainous turn from John Malkovich and delivers one great set piece after another. It's on Hulu.

This Week's THR Staff Pick

Kimberly Nordyke, managing editor, digital, and her 10-year-old daughter, Brianna, recommend High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: "Brianna, who has been in a few of her own school musicals, and I started bingeing this series a few weeks ago, and we were hooked! Now in season three, the show has gone even more meta (High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: Frozen: The Musical: The Series, anyone?) — losing none of its charm and humor (yes, we actually laugh out loud) despite a smaller presence for Olivia Rodrigo (because she's doing her superstar thing) and other castmembers. Two (or rather, four) thumbs up!"