Of everything I covered this year, I found this to be the most startling. I had no idea about this story before I saw the documentary and interviewed the filmmakers - I was horrified and fascinated.

It was a pleasure to do an analytical deep dive into one of the best episodes of one of my favorite shows.

Following HSMTMTS from its unexpectedly bold debut to its boldly mature finale has been one of the joys of my TV criticism career. Dream show, for real.

I love writing about children's television and I especially loved getting to write about a beloved character I remember vividly from my own childhood.

This piece celebrates a milestone in reality TV history—the 50th anniversary of An American Family—but it's also a personal reflection about why representation matters so much.

After years of covering GBBO, I finally have had it with Paul Hollywood

It was a really interesting experience to recontexualize this 20+ year old episode for our modern day AI issues.

I loved Reservation Dogs and the casting agent is their unsung hero behind the scenes.

TV criticism is so vast, I chose my review of Fellow Travelers not only because of the scope of the show, but because I think it's brilliantly written.

Scavengers Reign quickly became one of my favorite shows of 2023 thanks to its stunning world building, so I loved getting to explore the show’s alien ecosystems with co-creator Joe Bennett.

Interviewing The Last of Us editor Timothy A. Good for Emmy this year was special. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I never take for granted when one of us gets the chance to tell our stories on the small screen. And Timothy's work is exceptional.

This piece grapples with both the Ted Lasso finale and, on a larger level, the sort of conflict-free, comfort food TV it represents.

This Fool continues to surprise and impress me, so I'll take any chance to write about it. Season 2 is a stylish rejoinder to the industry's demand for aspirational Latinx stories above all else.

I love writing about how fandom and art intersects, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds delivered an episode that's a love letter to fans while also interrogating what it means to be a fan. It's brilliant stuff and I really enjoyed breaking it down.

Talking to one of my comedy heroes was a genuine thrill as Pell's perspective of comedy & TV is smart & informed by decades of experience.

The 1619 Project gathered a lot of controversy from scholars and others discrediting Critical Race Theory (CRT), especially after her book was published. I wanted to ask the questions that people wanted to know and to write them in her words.

During the Hollywood strikes, a saw a lot of blame going around carping at streaming services and recent changes in media. I also heard from a lot of TV fans who felt powerless. So I wanted to write something to remind us all how much value streaming TV has brought to the industry, while laying out some important truths about our current moment, suggesting ways the audience could push the industry in the right direction. This was published a little while before the WGA settled their strike, and readers seemed to enjoy the ideas I was batting around.

I love Yellowjackets and, let's face it, this was the episode we were all waiting for, as dark as that may be. I really enjoyed the humorous stories and reactions the cast and producers shared when I asked about this event finally occurring. As Liv Hewson put it, “Well, ya can’t not eat her!”

As an Italian-American who watched a gaggle of nanas and aunties lovingly collaborate in the kitchen every Christmas Eve, the "Fishes" episode of The Bear hit me, hard. Delving into the context of the dish within the episode as well as the season as a whole was incredibly gratifying for me, both personally and professionally.

While K-dramas got a lot of media love out of the pandemic, I wanted to spotlight the queer Asian dramas that are watched worldwide, in light of the popularity of Red, White & Royal Blue and Heartstopper this past summer. I interviewed 6 queer individuals about the genre of Boys Love, its evolution and how it's creating change

I rarely write personal pieces, and remain deeply grateful that I had the chance to do so with this. Given the spike in hate crimes against Jews, A Small Light feels hideously timely.

TV has moved away from pandemic stories, but The Last Of Us delivered an emotionally devastating episode about love, loss, and how companionship can hold the world up in a time of isolation.

Billions was one of my favorite shows throughout its run, and Maggie Siff was one of the last actors I interviewed before the SAG-AFTRA strike began. She had been a great interviewee for me previously as well, and I appreciated this "exit conversation" about a smartly written, beautifully cast series that I'll really miss.

I'm especially proud of this piece because of the way Ken Burns provides perspective on how important past history is to our future.

Some deeper analysis than a straightforward review, looking at two shows with very different tones that engage with increasingly relevant concerns about AI, while telling engaging sci-fi stories.

The articles I most enjoy writing are of shows or episodes that I most enjoy watching! This was the case for the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds crossover episode with Lower Decks, an animated series in the Star Trek universe.

This is one of my favorite interviews of the year because XO, Kitty's Peter Thurnwald openly shared about parallels between his and his character Alex's lives—they are both adoptees searching for their biological families. I was very moved by our conversation, and especially when Peter talked about how one scene in the show played out similar to how he imagines a meeting with his birth mother may play out.

Having covered the debut of The WB/UPN and then the creation of The CW from the latter's ashes, it was a bittersweet honor to pay tribute to the end of an era of Teen TV.

If you've ever wanted to watch a television critic work through their real time response to a season-ending cliffhanger they didn't know was coming, this is the piece for you. It also turned into a rather cathartic meditation about faith, scripture, and the idea that everything will be okay in the end (and If it's not okay it's not the end).

It was a privilege to interview Bella Ramsey in the days before The Last of Us became a phenomenon for HBO, when she was still figuring out not only the importance of the story she wanted to tell, but how it would impact her relationship with the public—and with herself. I tried to capture the narrative power of the video-game adaptation, particularly within Ramsey's own life, and I'm proud of the resulting piece.

I enjoyed revisiting a series finale I historically hated, and felt was not earned, in order to compare and contrast it to one I surprisingly loved and thought was earned.

In looking back at what shows inspired Loki, short-lived NBC time-travel series Timeless stood out as a show that brought fun to the procedural.

Like anyone dealing with the gripping horrors of getting older, I've been finding myself drawn to stories that make me really think about big questions, like when is a fork truly polished? Writing about The Bear Season 2, specifically the episode "Forks," thus meant a lot to me, as it offers up a whole new way of looking at the world, and our individual roles in it.

This was in celebration of Mothers' Day, revealing what an important influence mothers had on celebrities who succeeded in a cutthroat business

I think it is imperative that we honor and remember the TV shows that helped shape the landscape. Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In is certainly one of them. George Schlatter shares the memories in his memoir, Still Laughing: A Life in Comedy.

On the first day of the SAG strike, I got to talk with a number of background actors on why winning AI protections was so crucial. A lot of the conversation around the WGA and SAG strikes had been around AI, but this piece was one of the first I noticed that really laid out what was at stake. Reporting this also gave me a much greater appreciation for the valuable work of background actors on our favorite shows.

The Simpsons is still good!! The show has taken some really big creative risks in recent years & breaking down some of the most unconventional episodes with showrunner Matt Selman was a delight.

Reservation Dogs is one of the best shows I've ever written about, and I feel fortunate to have been able to craft a few words about its many great qualities.

I got to dig deep into Strange New Worlds making history with Star Trek's first-ever musical episode with EPs Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers, director Dermott Downs, and choreographer Roberto Campanella.

This isn't my best piece of the year, but it is perhaps my most dangerous. Yes, this is the one where I literally walked on a tightrope, over downtown Los Angeles, all for a story.

For those of us who grew up in the early 90s, the glitzy ridiculousness of American Gladiators remains a nostalgic staple. I first caught this ESPN documentary at a film festival in Toronto (prior to its public release on ESPN) where I was shocked to learn about the power struggle and ownership disputes behind the program. Ben Berman’s interpretation of the show is vastly different from an unrelated Netflix miniseries that followed the release of The American Gladiators Documentary. It was also fun to catch up with Wesley ‘2 Scoops’ Berry who was one of the most accomplished athletes of my childhood.

I have a long history of obsessive interest in attempts to turn the filmmaking process into a documentary, and HBO's inclusive take on Project Greenlight was no exception—it might not have made a huge cultural impact, but it's a cautionary tale in how to integrate DEI initiatives into Hollywood and the privileging of appearances over reality when it comes to the motives underpinning the entire project.

Bosch is the best book to TV series adaptation on the screen and Titus Welliver is the perfect embodiment of Harry Bosch. I was a fan of the Michael Connelly books long before the TV series came along, so I was relieved when the series stayed so true to the novels. Plus, my interview with Titus is the best -- and most enjoyable -- I've had this year.

It's an article 25 years in the making and required extensive knowledge of the show and the characters in it. Plus, it shows the Law & Order universe doing a 180 from its origins of "just the facts" to having a devoted fan base hoping for a Benson/Stabler relationship. What a difference a quarter-century makes in TV.

I broke a lot of exclusives during the strikes, but this piece was the one that received the most attention and it led to speaking to some other streaming execs.

Enjoyed the show and was happy with how the column, encompassing both review and interview, turned out.

I chose this story for several reasons: one is it's a beautiful cover and spread for the long-running series The Chi created by Emmy winner Lena Waithe which hasn't received this kind of attention and treatment it deserves for such longevity. Then EBONY EIC Marielle Bobo, photographer Keith Major, and the rest of the team did a beautiful job; second I interviewed these five cast members -- Jacob Latimore, Luke James, Yolonda Ross, Birgundi Baker, and Curtiss Cook -- from the ensemble show set in my native Chicago in Chicago; and third I think it's a really good conversation that covers a lot of ground. It's definitely one of my most unexpected standout moments from 2023!

I have written about both Ramy, the series, and Rami Kashoú, the Project Runway contestant, before, but found that in light of the recent Israel-Hamas war, the two shared a perspective that is barely explored in American television but now has particular urgent timeliness and emotive relevance. Thank you to all who take the time to read this piece and consider Ramy and Rami's perspectives.

Director Alethea Jones worked on several of my favorite shows in recent years, and her talent was on display again in Peacock's Mrs. Davis, the best show of 2023.

Paste TV allowed me a monthly column to focus on all the amazing adult animation on TV right now. I’m proud it’s a space to allow greats from the medium to discuss their art and highlight what often gets overlooked.

As a Mexican-American who’s seen significantly more negative and stereotypical representations of Hispanics on TV than positive ones, 2023 was the year I’ve long been waiting for.

I enjoyed delving into how a long-running show changes over several seasons but still remains true to the core tenets we see in the first minutes of the pilot.

One of the saddest aspects of the prolonged SAG-AFTRA strike is that I couldn't speak to my supposed celebrity doppelgänger for this piece.

Stephen Root is always a great interview, and this might be the only idea we ever get about the King of the Hill revival, which now seems in doubt after the death of Johnny Hardwick, a.k.a. Dale Gribble.

I absolutely loved this show, and I enjoyed writing about it as well because of its unique perspective and profound, timeless themes.