As a professional reviewer of television I am regularly asked “What should I watch?” — a question I answer with the question, “Well, what do you like?” One can discuss the quality, the technique, the structure of a series in a relatively objective, analytical way, but taste is a matter of ...
taste. Some celebrated series that attract awards like a magnet does iron filings, while I might praise their craft and artfulness, are just not my thing. I might find them admirable yet not exciting.
Every critic knows the feeling. Indeed, were I to catalog my favorite series over the years since I started thinking seriously about television, it would be heavy on single-season flops, offbeat comedies, strange children’s shows and lo-fi art projects. (I will make you that list sometime, but you will surely find “Food Party” on it.
) It would favor the light and lovely over the dark and gritty, and stories of ordinary folks over the rich and powerful — people who make things rather than just own things, lovers not schemers. Currently, I am in love with “Land of Women,” a dramatic-romantic family comedy starring Eva Longoria and Carmen Maura ( la reina de las películas de Pedro Almodóvar), premiering Wednesday on Apple TV+. I find it thrilling not so much for its plot — which is, indeed, a little bit of a thriller and doesn’t always make real-word sense — but for its luminous cast, and the humble splendor of its setting, a village in the mountains northeast o.