Welcome to the Q&A with TV critic — also known to some TV fans as their “TV therapist” — Matt Roush, who’ll try to address whatever you love, loathe, are confused or frustrated or thrilled by in today’s vast TV landscape. (We know background music is too loud, it’s the most frequent complaint, but there’s always closed-captioning. Check out this story for more tips.)
One caution: This is a spoiler-free zone, so we won’t be addressing upcoming storylines here unless it’s already common knowledge. Please send your questions and comments to askmatt@tvinsider.com. Look for Ask Matt columns on most Tuesdays.
All Hail Emma!
Comment: I’m halfway through Apple TV‘s Down Cemetery Road, and Emma Thompson is a wonder, like a force of nature. I know she has a long resumé, beginning with her Kenneth Branagh days, but it seems to me that she isn’t in nearly as many things as other leading actresses, which is a pity. And she is at least as good in TV series (Years and Years) as in movies. — D.P.
Matt Roush: And isn’t it great news that Apple TV has renewed Down Cemetery Road for a second season! Couldn’t agree more that there’s no such thing as too much Emma Thompson. And while her list of movies dwarfs her TV work, there’s something to be said for not being overexposed. (Though in 2022 alone, she was in three films, two of which ended up as streaming originals in the U.S., so she stays busy.) She’s even delightful in her publicity quotes, responding to the renewal of Cemetery this way: “Zoë Boehm is a punkishly delicious avatar, and I can’t wait to pull on her knock-off Doc Martens again.” We can’t wait, either.
Mon Dieu!
Question: According to IMDb, France will get The Rookie Season 8 premiere on January 5, before the U.S. premiere. Is this true? Because if so, U.S. fans need to avoid social media spoilers for two days! — Christina B.
Matt Roush: I hadn’t heard that, not that I ever hear much about European TV premieres. (Though it makes sense, I guess, since they’re promoting this season as “The Rookie goes international.”) But surely it can’t be that difficult to shut out TV gossip from beyond the pond for a day or two. (ABC premieres the new season on Jan. 6.)
Although this situation reminds me of a Christmas a number of years ago, when I was scrolling through social media at my mom’s house when my feed blew up with news from the U.K. about Downton Abbey and a significant death that had just occurred on that show (which wouldn’t air in the U.S. for several months). I had to keep my mouth shut around my family, who were all huge Downton fans, but it almost ruined my holiday. Don’t let this happen to you!
Stop Telegraphing the Results!
Question: I do not watch a lot of reality TV, but I must admit I got sucked into Fox‘s 99 to Beat because I knew somebody in the competition, and I stuck with it until the end. I feel safe in assuming that it’s probably the closest million-dollar finish in the history of TV and would have been the most absolutely thrilling TV to watch if the cutaway interviews during the show didn’t completely give away the outcome. One person was ecstatic, while the other person had obviously been crying. It was not very hard to figure out that the person had won long before we actually saw it. This is a problem The Amazing Race has as well. Why don’t these shows go to voiceover interviews instead of actually showing their faces? On a side note, Erin Andrews and Ken Jeong deserve a lot of credit for how they hosted 99 to Beat. — Spoiler Frustrated, Rob
Matt Roush: I don’t watch a lot of this sort of show, but I’m almost always riled by the interview sections when the contestants are commenting on the action after the fact, though these clips are being shown while the challenge is still going on. It’s a very annoying device, and when it telegraphs the ending, it’s even worse.
Stop Teasing the Ending!
Comment: There was a spoiler issue in a recent episode of Ghosts that I never noticed before, that would only affect people watching the live airing (as opposed to streaming). So I’m watching the episode as normal, and the first commercial break includes a clip from the end of the episode. There was the Ghosts logo, then as part of the ad there was a clip of Sam looking at Jay and saying, “But what really matters is I get to spend my life with the most wonderful man in the world,” and then there was a Kohl’s ad with the narrator who does the voiceover for Ghosts ads saying “Oh, what fun it is to find holiday styles, gifts and more at Kohls.” This all happened within a few seconds. I was instantly annoyed because I knew the clip of Sam saying that to Jay had never aired in the show before. And because they had already been talking about Jay having made a bad proposal to Sam, I inferred that this was going to be the conclusion of the episode. Sure enough, at the end of the episode, Jay did his re-proposal to Sam, and there was the exact shot and line, which had aired LITERALLY in the same half hour as part of the Kohl’s ad.
If I had streamed the episode or played it back through the DVR, I might not have run into this ad. But I actually watch the show live as it airs in my time zone with commercials, which fewer and fewer people do anymore, and my reward for this is seeing a clip from the end of the episode before it ever aired. Granted, it was fairly easy to figure out that Jay was going to re-propose to Sam as a conclusion of this story point, but I still shouldn’t have had to see that before it was supposed to come up in the narrative, and it made watching it in context slightly less emotional because I knew what was going to happen. How in the world did no one flag this as a spoiler? I feel like this was a punishment for actually watching live with commercials. There’s no excuse for this. — Jake
Matt Roush: Yeah, that’s not a great precedent to tease a big moment that’s only a few minutes away from actually airing. (This particular episode was one of the very few that CBS did not make available to critics for screening in advance, and when I was playing it back that night on the DVR, I noticed that a clip from the show was airing during the act break, but I breezed past it. Glad I did.)
Why So Many Bad Dads?
Comment: After enjoying the recent season finale of Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent (a solid procedural), it was revealed that lead detective Henry Graff has an evil father. And then in Fox’s Murder in a Small Town (also a very well-done mystery), Sheriff Karl Alberg alluded to having a troubled father, though it wasn’t mentioned outright. I’m sure it will be expanded upon next season if it’s renewed (which I hope). And the multiple and annoying seasons-long mystery on Tracker about Colter Shaw’s very mysterious and likely terrible father just compounds the icky dad trend. I’m sure there are other dramas that implement this storyline. Fathers are being portrayed very badly. It must be that the writers have had some serious issues with their dads. — Fred
Matt Roush: The “sins of the father” theme dates back to antiquity and remains a favorite device for writers who seek to give their heroes or antiheroes some dark psychological texture. Is it overused? Apparently so.
And Finally …
Question: I don’t know about you, but I am getting sick and tired of audiences on TV talk and entertainment personality shows yelling and screaming like banshees, to the point where they often drown out hosts who are singers, even forcing some of them into laryngitis. Why can’t today’s audiences behave like those on the old Carol Burnett Show? Today’s audiences behave too much like they are at rock concerts. — Bob F., Berlin, MD.
Matt Roush: As I discover every time that I open an email from a viewer complaining about deafening background music overpowering dialogue — it’s a constant refrain — today’s TV makers seem to equate noise with excitement. Let’s end this final Ask Matt column of 2025 with this sentiment to all: Turn down the volume! (And I wish so many things could be like The Carol Burnett Show. Ah, nostalgia.)
Happy holidays, everyone! Thanks for reading, and for challenging me throughout the year with your questions and comments about our favorite medium. Remember that we can’t do this without your participation, so please keep sending questions and comments about TV to askmatt@tvinsider.com. (Please include a first name with your question.)
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