Nate’s TV Reviews
28 shows, compiled from 149 Power Naps, listed alphabetically
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Adolescence (Season 1)
Difficult to watch. Sort of reminded me of Baby Reindeer in that it’s not really enjoyable but also sort of hard to turn it off. Also the way they shot the show wore on me and added to the difficulty to watch (really long continuing shots instead of going from scene to scene).
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (Season 1)
I enjoyed this Game of Thrones prequel significantly more than I expected. Much more of a comedy than GOT. Good music. Recommend.
The Agency (Season 1)
I really liked this show. Early contender for best of 2025. It reminded me of Homeland. Like the Night Agent, but with real actors and a more believable story-line.
The Agency (Season 2)
A CIA spy show starring Michael Fassbender, Jeffrey Wright, Richard Gere, and others. Serious and very good. Recommend if you like spy shows.
American Dynasties: The Kennedys
In a couple of books I’ve read recently, the Kennedys featured prominently. So I watched this multiple part documentary on Max. Learned a lot about JFK, but more about the rest of the family members. In particular, RFK was interesting and Rose (the mother) is underrated. They have one on the Bushs too.
American Revolution (Ken Burns documentary)
Yes, it’s slow. It’s six two-hour episodes discussing the American Revolution. There’s no way not to make it slow. But Ken Burns is a national treasure. The music is sensational. George Washington remains, somehow, underrated.
Breaking Bad (Season 1)
Watch with Kate. Number one rated show of all time on IMDB and we had never seen it. Season 1 was fine, but going to need to pick up if it’s number one. (Update: We quit halfway through Season 2. I know this will disappoint some people.)
The Chosen (Season 1)
We watched this with the kids. Wow we loved it! I feel like most “Christian” shows are usually not all that well done, but this was excellent. In particular, I thought it did a great job capturing the “human-ness” of Jesus: his humor, his love of children, his love of his mother, his willingness to engage. Basically, just how awesome Jesus is — something that can easily be forgotten. It reminded me of the last paragraph in GK Chesterton’s book Orthodoxy, which is too long to reprint here, but here it is (it’s about mirth). If you do watch with kids: One of the early episodes has a demon exorcism scene with Nicodemus and Mary Magdalene, which could be scary. But other than that short scene, very family-friendly.
The Crown (Final Season)
We finished the final season of The Crown. Definitely one of their favorite shows they’ve watched together: the music, the scenery, the cast — all top-notch. Nate’s favorite episodes were the one on Churchill’s painting in Season 1 and the “Warden of the Swans” one in the final season. Kate thinks that they did an incredible job of weaving a story and aging the characters through decades.
Dark (Seasons 1-3)
A German subtitled sci-fi show recommended to me by ChatGPT. It’s about a small German town where the disappearance of children exposes a web of time travel, secrets, and interconnected families across generations. I thought the first season was awesome, the second season was decent, and by the third season I just wanted to know how it would end. Sadly, the arc of most shows for me.
The Day of the Jackal (Season 1)
My favorite show of 2024. Eddie Redmayne is great as “the Jackal,” an English assassin. Lots of great city skyline shots of Europe and Cadiz, Spain. Even a little classical music thrown in. And he’s a birder in his spare time?!?! What?!?! Season 2 has already been confirmed to be happening. Let’s go!!! (Insert from Kate: I cannot hear “The Jackal” and not immediately think of CJ Cregg’s performance. West Wing forever.)
The Diplomat (Season 2)
I liked Season 1 a lot and I also thought Season 2 was good. They definitely are setting up Season 3. The show follows Keri Russell’s character, who is the US Ambassador to the UK. Kind of part spy show, part political show, part romance? It was great to see Allison Janey (AKA CJ Craig) back in the political sphere.
Death by Lightning
This is a mini-series on Netflix that follows US President James Garfield and his ultimate assassin. That sounds sort of boring, but this is actually a pretty crazy story from US history that I knew next to nothing about. One of those “history is stranger than fiction” cases. Plus the cast is fantastic: Nick Offerman is a great Chester Arthur (the VP) and Matthew Macfadyen is a perfect crazy guy. Good to see Bradley Whitford again, who will forever be Josh Lyman to me. Thanks to my friend Boon for the recommendation.
Endeavour (Season 9, series finale)
Nate finished the ninth and final season of Endeavor. It’s a PBS Masterpiece show, but the first eight seasons are available on Amazon Prime Video. He loved it. I mean really loved it. His second favorite show of all time (second only to The West Wing). It follows Endeavor Morse, a “flinty, hard-drinking, arrogant-yet-lovable detective” in Oxford in the 1960s and 70s. Each episode is a self-contained mystery, but the real genius of the show is the plot lines that follow between episodes and seasons. Like all great shows, you come to love all the side characters. It’s actually a prequel to another British show, “Inspector Morse,” which aired from 1987 through 2000. 10/10.
The Last of Us (Season 1)
Nate watched The Last of Us on HBO Max. He’s a sucker for end-of-the-world shows, but this one was exceptional. Not only does it have the standard action scenes that shows like this have, but he thought they did a really good job of humanizing the characters. You are really rooting for them. Looks like Season 2 is slated for 2025, so you still have time to check it out.
The Last of Us (Season 2)
I thought Season 1 was really good — like 10/10 good. This Season was slower (except for one of the early episodes, which was insanely intense), but it ended with a bang (see what I did there).
The Night Agent (Season 1)
The acting won’t win any awards, but this is the first show Nate has truly binged in quite some time, watching all ten episodes in a week (and forgoing precious sleep). He’s never seen a Washington D.C., FBI, there’s a mole in the White House spy thriller he didn’t like.
The Night Agent (Season 2)
Right in my genre sweet spot: CIA, FBI, Oval Office, double-agents, Eastern European dictators, chemical weapons, intelligence brokers, etc. Kate watched it and liked it as well. The two leads are what I would call “goofy” and it will never win any awards but entertaining nonetheless.
The Night Manager (Season 1)
Rewatched this 2016 spy thriller with Kate. Tom Hiddleston plays the lead, an ex-soldier turned hotel manager turned spy who wants to take down Hugh Laurie as the arms-dealer villain. Based on the John le Carré novel. It’s very good. Season 2 just came out 10 years (!) after Season 1.
The Night Manager (Season 2)
Unfortunately, Kate and I did not like Season 2. I did not like the plot twist, hated the ending, and it seemed like the plot had some serious stretches to make it all make sense. In other words, it seemed to me that Season 1 was based on a great book and Season 2 was made up by some people trying to make money on a TV show (and wanting to stretch Season 2 into Season 3 because….duh….more money).
Paradise (Season 1)
A political thriller where a Secret Service agent (Sterling K. Brown, underrated) investigates the assassination of the President. Lots of twists and turns and flashbacks, but not hard to follow. Sort of a cross between Designated Survivor and Lost. Kate and I both watched and both loved it.
Paradise (Season 2)
Watch with Kate. We loved Season 1. And I think Season 2 mostly lived up to the hype. I’m slightly worried that they are taking the “Lost” approach of adding twist after twist, which makes it difficult to stick the landing. But I was highly entertained throughout. Recommend.
Shadow and Bone (Season 2)
Loved it! It’s based on a fantasy book series with everything from a giant black cloud that splits the earth into two to shadow monsters. However, it is not scary (trust us, Kate is a scaredy cat!). All in all, an entertaining series that ended with a strong opening for a third season.
Succession (Final Season)
If you haven’t seen it, the premises is that the dad (above on the right) built a massively valuable company, and the show is his four kids and other members of the family jockeying to lead the company when he retires. The music and scenery are awesome, and the writing is top notch. It does move slowly (and there’s a ton of vulgar language). But on the whole, we thought it was excellent.
Ted Lasso (Season 3)
We finished the third (and final?) season of Ted Lasso. Was it as good as Season 1? Not even close. Was it as good as Season 2? I’d say on par to slightly better. Do you really care? Not really. You love the characters so much that you can put up with a lot to enjoy a little more time with everyone. This review hits it pretty hard, but I think is largely correct. (warning: spoilers). “Don’t cry because Ted Lasso went off the rails; smile because it happened.”
The Residence (Season 1)
This light-hearted, comedic murder mystery, starring Uzo Aduba, investigates a death at a state dinner at the White House. It was funny, breezy, and kept you engaged. Plus it has a strong birding component! It reminded me of Only Murders in the Building (which was really good in the early seasons I thought). First recommended to me by Power Napper Leigh Anne Ross!
True Detective (Season 1)
I read that this was one of the best TV seasons of all time and it did not disappoint. You have young Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson running around the Louisiana bayou looking for a serial killer. Both Matty’s and Woody’s lives are complete disasters — drugged up, addicted, lying, cheating, etc. Maybe they are both just crazy enough to catch this guy. Lots of gore, nudity, etc. definitely rated MA and very dark. You have been warned.
Twin Peaks (Seasons 1 & 2)
This came recommended as a cult classic from the early 90’s. So weird. But also sort of watchable? Here is Chat GTP on the beloved writer, David Lynch: his style is dreamlike, surreal, and unsettling, blending the ordinary with the bizarre to create a world that feels familiar yet deeply uncanny. It’s crazy to me that this was on network television in the early 90’s. I watched Season 1 and really liked it. Season 2 had 22 episodes! And so about 7 episodes in I lost steam and abandoned it. Also, Lynch recently passed away. If you were considering watching and wanted to get a sense of his style, consider reading this obit/essay.
Unfamiliar (Season 1)
This was a German subtitled spy show that Netflix really pushed on me. I would say average to slightly below average. They are definitely setting up a Season 2, but I am not sure I will be along for the ride.
The White Lotus (Season 1)
In this dark comedy drama each season begins with a floating dead body at a luxury hotel in a beautiful location and you spend time with the guests, hotel employees, and locals to solve the whodunnit. Season 1 takes place in Hawaii. I loved the music, the scenic beach shots, the wallpaper in the opening credits, and the cringing, slow-moving awkwardness of the scenes. Also good to see Steve Zahn again. The characters were all unlikeable, but in a very likable way. Not easy to do.
The White Lotus (Season 2)
Felt much darker than Season 1 and I would say not as good. In retrospect, Season 1 was primarily concerned with class—who holds power because of wealth, how that power is exercised (often obliviously), and how service workers and less wealthy characters navigate or are crushed by that imbalance. By contrast, Season 2 shifts its lens to sex and desire—not just in terms of physical relationships, but as a means of power and manipulation.
Zero Day (Season 1)
Stars Robert De Niro as a former President who gets called back into office by the current President to figure out who conducted a massive cyberattack that has thrown the country into turmoil. Started off strong but puttered out. Really not very good, which is sad because “cyberattack that throws the world into chaos” is usually a genre sweet spot for me.
