Recommendations: Week of 2/3/25
What to look forward to in February
I have been remiss in not discussing many shows that premiered in January of this year. I apologize. I have been watching Severance and will discuss it more when I’ve seen more of the second season, but I’ve been relatively silent on the rest because I am being a bit of a baby. The two shows I was most excited about (beyond Severance) were American Primeval and The Pit, both of which are quite stomach-turning and quite dark. Primeval is about the Mountain Meadows Massacre, a gruesome and under-discussed historical event, and The Pit is about working in an emergency room. All signs point to both of these being great shows, so if you have a stronger stomach than I do and a higher tolerance for darkness, please watch and please let me know your thoughts. I will get around to them, but maybe when the days get a smidge longer and I can take a walk outside and breathe nice and deep. I need the sun on my face before I can commit to all that.
February, however, holds a lot of diverse promise. A few dark shows are premiering, but they are often darkly comic (Yellowjackets and White Lotus), which is more to my taste. This list is not comprehensive, but it represents what interests me most. Let me know if you’re excited about anything you don’t see below.
Below Deck Down Under Season 3 (Bravo): Bravo could probably get away with making these shows as lazily as possible but have instead chosen to try and make a good one, and I celebrate that. This season, the yacht is bigger (seriously, it’s huge and has a uselessly slow elevator), the captain is hotter (mullet), and almost everyone is a new hot face. If you aren’t familiar with the series, Below Deck is a reality show that follows crewmembers' lives on chartered superyachts. You get to see all the downstairs drama and the upstairs rich nonsense of the guests. Above it all reigns the captain, a no-nonsense charmer and melanoma survivor. I’ve watched so many versions and seasons of this show I have taken to using nautical metaphors during my decidedly non-nautical job. It sucks you in like the great maw of the sea itself.
February 3
Apple Cider Vinegar (Netflix): Starring the excellent Kaitlyn Dever, this series is about a wellness influencer who gets drunk on power and fakes a cancer diagnosis. She “cures” herself through healthy eating, inspiring others to ignore traditional treatment options. The show explores our desire to heal ourselves, our fears about the opacity of institutionalized medicine, and the way social media can warp us into someone we don’t recognize.
February 6
Yellowjackets Season 3 (Paramount +/Showtime): I wrote about the first season of this frightening show but didn’t watch the second. It can be a rough hang; it is about ritualized teenage cannibalism after all. It follows the lives of a girls’ soccer team that crashes in the Canadian wilderness and must survive a long, cold winter. The show is set in dual timelines, also following the same girls a few decades later. Someone is leaving them messages in the present that imply they know the secrets of that time. The survivors have built new lives for themselves but their experiences in the wilderness have shaped who they are. I’m particularly fascinated by stories about adolescent girls growing up under extraordinary conditions; where else do our stories of witches come from? If you’re willing to deal with the violence, this show is worth the hang.
February 14
The White Lotus Season 3 (HBO): Following rich Americans on vacation in foreign climes, this show is such a perfect balance of elements. It is soapy but uses the excesses of the genre to plant these little psychologically incisive bombs that explode at the right moment. The first and second seasons were as close to perfect as you can be; showrunner Mike White always dangles a coffin in the first episode then takes you back to the beginning of the vacation to show you how we got there. He has a near-supernatural power to draw career-making performances out of little-known or near-forgotten actors, most of which go on to interesting roles after their time with him. This year, we’re in Thailand. I can’t wait to see what shenanigans these folks get up to.
February 16
Zero Day (Netflix): This series is about a coordinated attack on America and its aftermath, a proposition you may feel disinclined to buy into after the recent spate of plane crashes, generally disturbing Presidential emanations, and overall instability of the country (eggs!). But maybe the fact that Robert De Niro is on the case will give you the comforting blanket you need to get through this series. It is his first foray into television and he is joined by some excellent co-stars, including Lizzy Caplan, Jesse Plemens, and Connie Britton.
February 20
Surface Season 2 (Apple TV+): I had trouble getting into the first season of this show, but Gugu Mbatha-Raw is such an extraordinary talent that I want us all to give it a shot. The first season follows a woman who has lost her memories following a suicide attempt and slowly pieces them back together. It is a psychological thriller in name but has struggled to balance the potboiler elements with the more human ones. It joins shows like Big Little Lies in being about women pulling themselves back from the edge and learning who they can and can’t trust. That’s always a powerful story, but done wrong it can seem hysterical rather than compelling. Let’s see if this season gets the balance right.
February 21
1923 Season 2 (Paramount+): I have become something of a Taylor Sheridan fanatic/apologist/obsessive in recent years, but I’ve never dipped into 1923. 1883, Sheridan’s other Yellowstone prequel series was so brutal I have subsequently avoided his dips into the past (you can see where my American Primeval avoidance comes from). But I am girding my loins and diving in this year, mainly because my avoidance has more to do with the skill and accuracy with which he depicts these other eras than with them being bad shows. 1883 was brutal because 1883 was a brutal time to be alive in the American West. It’s hard to fault the man for his accuracy or to justify looking away from our history. Plus, 1923 stars Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren. Not watching a combo like that is grounds for expulsion from the TV reviewers guild!
February 23
Full Swing Season 3 (Netflix): I love golf, so I love this documentary series about golf. It’s as simple as that. The reasons I love it are all there: the loneliness of a mostly individual sport, the agony of inches, the beauty of spending hours in some of the most scenic places on earth. If you like golf, you’ll like this. If you don’t, it might get you into a sport that for too long has been thought of as boring and stuffy. Golf is changing and it’s the right time to check back in.
February 25