For over 30 years I’ve been teaching teachers to engage in meaningful conversations with their students about real things. Strong teachers know how to pose thoughtful questions, elicit questions from students, and listen and engage respectfully with students.

And yet, 30 years in, there are still a shocking number of schools where adults and children fail to discuss important issues. For instance, according to findings recently released by RAND’s American Youth Panel, only about 1 in 3 students say their school has a school-wide policy on the use of AI. Many students say AI policy in their school varies by teacher, and 67 percent of students endorsed the statement, “The more students use AI for their schoolwork, the more it will harm their critical thinking skills.”

The RAND report recommends “direct conversations” with students about the use of AI. So let’s talk about how to do that.

Talking Directly About AI in Schools

According to the Center for Democracy and Technology, approximately 85 percent of teachers and students report using AI for schoolwork. If your school has a clear policy on AI use, great! Discuss it with your students. Ask them how they feel about it; what’s clear and what needs more explanation; what feels fair and what they might want to advocate to change.

If your school does not have a clear policy on AI, talk with your colleagues, and talk with your students. Here are some questions to get those conversations started.

With colleagues, including teachers and school leaders:

• Is it our goal to make things easier for students? For teachers? AI can simplify, increase efficiency, and in other ways do the work for us. Is this what we want?

• If so, when is this a good thing?

• In what types of situations might we want to avoid making things easier?

• How can we implement AI and LLM tools in a way that benefits our learning community, i.e. increased efficiency, time savings, ability to gather and analyze more data, etc.?

• What guardrails can we put in place to ensure we maintain the learning experiences we value, such as engaging in productive struggle; working through complex problems and devising, testing, and refining solutions?

• How are we going to teach students to critically analyze information and “answers” provided by AI tools?

• How skillful are our students at identifying bias? Will our students ask, “What’s the source for this information?” “What perspective does this source have?” Can they distinguish fact (i.e. the distance between the Earth and the sun) from opinion (i.e. the filibuster as a tool for promoting democracy)?

• What skills do they – and we – need to strengthen in order to ensure that we are the drivers of AI innovation?

• Are there other schools or people we trust, admire, and respect who have implemented AI policies? What can we learn from them?

• What processes do we have in place (or can we put into place) to include student voice in determining when and how to use AI in our school?

With students:

• What is valuable about the work we do together in school? How might AI tools increase this value? How might AI undermine it?

• What does integrity mean to us, as individuals and as a school? How can we implement AI in a way that supports integrity in our school?

• What do you know about AI? What do you want to know about it?

• What are some ways we might use AI in our school? What are the potential benefits and drawbacks?

Aligning AI with School Values

If this seems like a lot of work, and a lot to talk about, that’s because it is. An AI policy isn’t something to overlay on a school, and then continue with business as usual. AI is a powerful tool. It has the power to disrupt. That disruption can be beneficial, such as disrupting inequitable access to information and learning tools. It can also be harmful: AI can fuel complacency and undermine critical thinking and curiosity. So a school’s AI policy needs to be deeply aligned with the school’s values. And that requires thoughtful, school-wide conversations about those values.

During these conversations, make liberal use of the phrase, “I don’t know.” Because we don’t have all the answers. There is so much we don’t yet know about what AI can, or should, do. How it might support, or undermine, critical thinking and curiosity.

When you engage in conversations based on the questions above, you are modeling to your students – and your colleagues – how to puzzle through complex issues. You’re building uncertainty tolerance. You’re teaching problem solving at the highest level.

And isn’t that what we teachers are here to do in the first place?

A price war has erupted between Amazon and B&H, resulting in Apple’s current M5 MacBook Pro 14-inch falling to $1,849. Plus save up to $500 on a multitude of models.

B&H and Amazon are competing for your business this Tuesday, with a $150 discount on the 10-core M5 14-inch MacBook Pro with 16GB of unified memory and 1TB of storage, bringing the price down to $1,849. Both Space Black and Silver are available for that price, with B&H stating there is limited supply available.

• Buy 1TB M5 MacBook Pro 14-inch for $1,849 at B&H
• Buy 1TB M5 MacBook Pro 14-inch for $1,849 at Amazon

B&H is throwing in free 2-day shipping on orders shipped within the contiguous U.S., with both Amazon and B&H having units in stock at press time.

Today’s top 14-inch MacBook Pro deals

• 14″ MacBook Pro M5 (10C CPU, 10C GPU, 16GB, 1TB, Standard Display): $1,849 ($150 off)
• 14″ MacBook Pro M5 Pro (18C CPU, 20C GPU, 24GB, 2TB, Standard Display): $2,999 ($200 off)

16-inch MacBook Pro sale prices

• 16″ MacBook Pro M5 Pro (18C CPU, 20C GPU, 24GB, 1TB, Standard Display, Space Black): $2,818 ($181 off)
• 16″ MacBook Pro M5 Pro (18C CPU, 20C GPU, 48GB, 1TB, Standard Display, Space Black): $3,299 ($300 off)
• 16″ MacBook Pro M5 Max (18C CPU, 32C GPU, 36GB, 2TB, Standard Display): $3,999 ($400 off)
• 16″ MacBook Pro M5 Max (18C CPU, 40C GPU, 48GB, 2TB, Standard Display): $4,499 ($500 off)

For even more discounts and easy price comparison across retail and CTO models, be sure to check out our MacBook Pro Price Guide.

New York became the first state to halt data center construction after Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order today that temporarily bars the state from approving new permits for large projects.

Hochul’s order applies to data centers 50 megawatts or larger, potentially affecting more than a dozen projects. The state’s Department of Environmental Conservation will not issue any permits that haven’t already been completed.

While resource concerns have fueled some of the backlash, broader concern about AI has been behind much of it as well. A recent Pew Research report found that only 10% of Americans were more excited than concerned about AI use in daily life, and just 23% felt that the technology would have a positive impact on how people do their jobs. Less than a quarter of the general public feels that AI will give the economy a boost, and less than a third were confident that the government would regulate the technology responsibly.

“Progress shouldn’t arrive with a higher utility bill, deleted water supply, or noise pollution,” Hochul said at a press conference in Brooklyn. “These data centers can only be built, should only be built in places that want them. So they will never be exempt from local zoning, local approvals.”

The moratorium will be lifted once the state finalizes an environmental review process for data centers, which Hochul expects will take about a year. Hochul’s office is also considering requiring data centers to pay into a fund that would support the state’s electrical grid, and she would like to prevent hyperscale data centers from receiving tax benefits. 

Hochul’s executive order arrives as more stringent measures are moving through New York’s legislature. Last month, the legislature advanced a bill that would pause construction of data centers larger than 20 megawatts for one year, while another still in committee would institute a three-year moratorium.

The average data center built in the last few years has been smaller than 100 megawatts, but those in development are expected to be much larger as AI drives computing demands higher. Through 2030, nearly a quarter of new data centers will exceed 500 megawatts, according to BloombergNEF, driven by increasing AI investment.

The idea of a data center moratorium has been debated at the state and federal levels, but New York is the first to put one into practice. In December, more than 230 organizations called for a nationwide pause on new data centers. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has also proposed a nationwide moratorium, though it hasn’t received much traction. More recently, Maine’s legislature passed a bill that would have paused construction on new data centers until November 1, 2027, but Gov. Janet Mills vetoed it.

Just years ago, data centers were sought after by states eager to secure new development projects, but recently, public sentiment on data centers has soured as new projects have grown in size. The scale and pace at which they’re being constructed has started to strain the electrical grid in addition to regional resources like water and farmland. Two-thirds of respondents to a recent poll said they were concerned about data centers driving up electricity prices. Another survey found that people would rather have an Amazon warehouse in their backyard than a data center.

Hochul’s order could be setting up for a clash with the Trump administration, which thus far has supported data center development. Last month, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which is led by a Trump appointee, told grid operators to develop special fast lanes to speed data centers’ interconnections. 

Samsung’s next Galaxy smartwatches could last longer than ever, thanks to bigger batteries and more efficient processors.

According to a report from WinFuture, Samsung is set to swap its long-running Exynos smartwatch chips for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear Elite platform. This new chip is built on a 3nm manufacturing process, and as such, should bring a welcome boost to both performance and power efficiency. As a result, everyday tasks might feel snappier while battery life could be extended.

The leak also suggests that memory and storage will vary by model. Samsung is reportedly pairing the new chipset with 2GB of RAM. Alongside that, you get either 32GB or 64GB of internal storage depending on the version you choose.

on-prem

CEO Krishna: Customers blew their Z budgets on servers and storage before prices spike, Q2 financials ‘disappointing’

IBM says customers spooked by soaring demand for AI infrastructure raided their mainframe budgets to stockpile servers, storage, and memory instead, knocking Big Blue’s flagship Z business off course.

Ahead of its full calendar Q2 earnings release next week, IBM took the unusual step of publishing preliminary quarterly results alongside a letter from CEO Arvind Krishna explaining why the numbers fell short of expectations.

The biggest disappointment came in Infrastructure, where revenue fell 7 percent, despite what IBM had previously described as the strongest launch of a mainframe generation in its history.

The culprit wasn’t a sudden loss of affection for mainframes, according to Krishna, but a last-minute scramble to secure hardware increasingly caught up in the AI spending boom.

“In the last few weeks of June, we saw clients shift their quarterly capex spend toward servers, storage, and memory purchases to secure supply-constrained infrastructure ahead of expected price increases,” Krishna wrote. “This dynamic impacted client buying patterns.”

IBM had expected some disruption from supply chain pressures, he said, “but we did not anticipate the magnitude of the capex reprioritization.”

That’s an unusually candid admission from a company whose Z mainframes remain one of its highest-margin businesses. Customers, it seems, preferred to refresh infrastructure they fear might soon become more expensive or harder to obtain.

The spending shift also rippled through IBM’s software business because fewer mainframe deals meant weaker sales of the transaction-processing software that typically accompanies them.

Krishna pointed to another factor as well, saying clients were distracted by “rapidly evolving, industry-wide cybersecurity concerns” during the quarter, though he offered no further details on what those concerns were or how they affected purchasing decisions.

IBM was willing to shoulder some of the blame. “These conditions require our teams to execute perfectly, and this quarter we faltered,” Krishna wrote. “We did not adapt and move quickly enough, and numerous large deals failed to close on the timelines we expected, driving the majority of our shortfall.”

Not everything disappointed. Red Hat revenue grew 11 percent, recent acquisitions including HashiCorp and Confluent performed strongly, and IBM’s Distributed Infrastructure business posted record reported growth of 37 percent, driven by Power servers and storage systems. 

Still, the quarter offers another sign of how the AI infrastructure race is reshaping enterprise IT budgets. For at least one quarter, customers decided the safest investment wasn’t the newest mainframe – it was buying as much in-demand hardware as possible before someone else did. ®

Data from Morgan McKinley suggests that job applicants may have tough times ahead, in a landscape that is swaying slightly in favour of the employer.

Irish professionals services company Morgan Mckinley has today (14 July) published the latest Morgan McKinley Ireland Employment Monitor, which explores Ireland’s professional jobs market. 

The report found that the current employment landscape comes with some challenges for job applicants, particularly as wage pressures for employers ease and hiring continues to slow. 

Job openings in Ireland fell by 7.2pc in Q2 of 2026 and were shown to be down almost 10pc year-on-year. While the number of jobseekers fell by 6.8pc quarter-on-quarter, the figure was still 18.4pc higher than the previous year. 

According to Morgan McKinley, the data is indicative of a more disciplined, employer-led market, in which employers are still recruiting but permanent headcount may struggle as organisations prioritise cost, productivity and workforce planning.

The report said, “Q2 was not a broad downturn, but it did mark a reset in hiring discipline. Demand remained active in roles linked to regulation, risk, infrastructure, transformation, AI, data and specialist project delivery. Broader expansion and non-essential replacement hiring became harder to justify.”

Trayc Keevans, the global FDI director for Morgan McKinley Ireland, said, “The professional employment market is entering a more disciplined phase. Employers remain active but are placing greater emphasis on hiring with precision. Companies still have work to deliver, but they are being far more cautious about adding permanent headcount. 

“That is why hiring processes are slower and vacancies are lower, as organisations balance growth ambitions with cost management, while contract talent continues to provide the flexibility many businesses need.

“The result is a clear shift in bargaining power. Employers have more choice, wage pressure has eased and candidates are having to work harder to show why they should be hired. A strong CV is no longer enough on its own. Employers want evidence of impact, whether that is improving performance, adding value, reducing risk, managing change, or helping a business become more productive.”

Flexibility

Not wanting to stay static, Morgan McKinley found that employers are eager to keep projects moving onwards, without the financial responsibility of adding permanent headcount. As a result the report noted that contract and temporary hiring are gaining ground, particularly across technology, life sciences, multilingual roles, marketing, supply chain, projects, transformation and change.

Return-to-office expectations also tightened. While companies continue to facilitate hybrid working, data shows that three days in the office is becoming the default and many employers are gradually inching closer towards the original four or five days on site. Morgan McKinley suggested that this is causing friction among candidates who still place a high value on flexibility.

Keevans explained that AI is giving employers cause to reconsider the structure of current roles.

She said, “If parts of a job can be automated, simplified or absorbed by existing teams, employers will question whether that role needs to be replaced in the same way. 

“That does not mean AI is about to wipe out professional jobs. The more immediate impact is fewer automatic replacements, more pressure on routine administrative and operational work and greater value placed on judgement, commercial thinking, regulation, client management and technical expertise.

“The risk for employers is mistaking caution for strategy. If they hold back too much, they may find themselves short of the skills they need when momentum returns.”

Sector by sector

Taking a closer look at how different industries performed, technology hiring remained active but was more selective in Q2, with the strongest demand being for Dublin-based contract roles in AI engineering, full-stack development, data, cloud, DevOps and governance. 

The financial services space was also found to be relatively steady, albeit cautious, with hiring efforts focused primarily on replacement roles, internal progression and specialist skills linked to regulation and client demand. 

Risk, compliance, regulatory reporting, credit risk, AML, KYC, pensions and financial crime remained active areas, while climate, green energy and infrastructure projects supported demand for corporate finance, financial modelling and lending expertise.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, due to the nature of the work and the steady rise of contract employment, Morgan McKinley’s report indicated that employers are relying on temporary and contract talent to balance project delivery in the life science and engineering sectors. Demand was strongest across QC, quality assurance, clinical trials, automation, validation and process engineering. 

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I am, by every reasonable measure, a serial plant killer. I’ve lost count of the pothos, the peace lilies, the one very expensive fiddle-leaf fig that judged me silently for a month before giving up entirely. My problem was never a lack of love. It was that I’d either drown them out of guilt or forget they existed for a fortnight, with no middle ground. So when I started leaning on Gemini for the odd everyday question, letting it babysit my plants wasn’t some grand plan. It happened almost by accident, and now my flat looks like something a person with their life together would own.

It started the way most of my plant emergencies do, with a leaf going a color it definitely shouldn’t. Instead of doom-scrolling through contradictory Google searches like I usually would, I snapped a photo, handed it to Gemini, and asked what was wrong. What I got back was a proper answer, and it was the first of many.

Apparently, I was loving my plants a little too much

The feature that really won me over was Gemini Live. Instead of trying to describe what I was seeing, I could simply point my phone at a struggling plant, snap a photo, and ask what was wrong. It would identify the plant, explain what it was noticing, and tell me what was most likely causing the problem.

One time, I noticed a few leaves turning yellow and immediately assumed I wasn’t watering the plant enough. I was already reaching for the watering can when Gemini pointed out the opposite: I’d actually been overwatering it. The soil was staying too wet, and my help was actually making things worse. That completely changed how I look after my plants. I no longer have to guess whether I’m dealing with root rot, a nutrient deficiency, or something else entirely. I just take a photo, get an easy-to-understand explanation, and know what to try next. For someone who isn’t exactly a gardening expert, that’s been surprisingly reassuring.

I finally stopped killing things with kindness

The biggest lesson Gemini taught me had nothing to do with fertilizers or fancy plant care tricks. It was knowing when not to do anything. Before this, I thought being a good plant parent meant watering my plants whenever they looked a little sad. Gemini helped me understand that every plant is different. The pothos sitting in my bright window, for example, dries out much faster than the one tucked away in a darker corner. Instead of following a rigid watering schedule, it encouraged me to check the soil first and only water when the plant actually needed it.

Looking back, I realized most of the plants I’d lost weren’t neglected — they were over-loved. Having something explain that in simple terms completely changed my approach. These days, I’m much more comfortable leaving my plants alone, and ironically, they’re healthier because of it.

The best plant care tip? Stop relying on your memory

My problem was never knowledge alone; it was consistency. I’d learn the right thing to do, only to completely forget to do it. So I started asking Gemini to help me build an actual schedule, plant by plant, and to remind me when things were due.

I can ask it to set reminders, and because it ties into the rest of Google’s world, those nudges actually reach me instead of dying in a notes app I never open. Every few days I get a prompt telling me which plants need checking, and instead of a chaotic once-a-month panic, watering has become a five-minute habit. For someone who could never stick to a routine on their own, having one gently handed to me made all the difference. I even started using it for the bigger decisions. When I wanted to move a plant to a brighter spot, I asked whether the new window got too much harsh afternoon sun. When one outgrew its pot, I asked when and how to repot it without shocking the roots. It’s like having a patient friend who happens to know a great deal about plants and never gets tired of my basic questions.

My plants finally found someone who understood them

I never planned on becoming someone who cared this much about plants. I just got tired of buying them, watching them slowly struggle, and eventually having to throw them away. Somewhere along the way, between asking Gemini why a leaf looked unhappy and letting it remind me when to water, I went from constantly replacing plants to actually keeping them alive. Now my home is filled with greenery that is genuinely growing. And the best part is that I didn’t suddenly develop a magical green thumb. I just stopped guessing and started understanding what my plants actually needed.

If you’re someone who loves the idea of having plants around but somehow turns every new one into a rescue mission, this is probably the easiest place to start. Take a photo, ask a question, and let Gemini help you figure out what your plant is trying to tell you.

The frustrating science of keeping your ears from doing their job.

Passive noise canceling means physically blocking your ears

BJ Day Stock/Shutterstock

Active noise canceling creates anti-noise to prevent you from hearing sound

Max Miller for Engadget

Apple TV doesn’t need the “Plus” in its name for me to write something positive about the streamer’s library. I could just let the 89 Emmy nominations Apple received this year do the talking. None of these noms are for the platform’s hits like Severance and Ted Lasso, which absolutely says something about the quality of programming you’re potentially missing out on.

Apple relies mostly on organic discovery and word of mouth for its titles to take off, so it’s not necessarily that you’re not paying attention. You haven’t seen commercials or marketing campaigns for shows like Widow’s Bay, because that’s just not how Apple rolls. 

It’s an interesting way of putting movies and TV shows out into the world — and it’s made Apple TV feel way more like a secret club you’ve been let into. 

To help you on your journey, I’ve compiled the guide below to the best shows Apple TV has to offer. I’ll be updating this list regularly, so please check back for additions. I put together a separate list of Apple TV’s best sci-fi TV shows, too. So check that out when you’re done here.

Read more: Apple TV Review: Small Library but the Quality Is Top-Notch

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Cape Fear, from show creator Nick Antosca and executive producers Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, differs a bit from the 1991 and 1962 classics, but honors them both, as well as the original novel, The Executioners. It’s a modern-day noir that ramps up the tension and violence and keeps the stakes high throughout each episode. Javier Bardem’s Emmy-worthy turn as Max Cady, which somehow outdoes Robert De Niro’s, outshines everything else and is reason alone to watch.

Criminal Record is a British crime series that follows two rival detectives — the older, jaded DCI Daniel Hegarty (Peter Capaldi) and the younger, motivated DS June Lenker (Cush Jumbo) — as they’re forced into an alliance to enforce justice amid the polarizing backdrop of modern-day London.

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Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed

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Apple TV’s Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed is a comedy thriller about a woman who connects with a camboy online, only to become the victim of a twisty blackmail scheme. The series also stars Jake Johnson and Murray Bartlett, so it features sturdy talent throughout this bingeable show.

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Margo’s Got Money Troubles

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Based on the book of the same name by Rufi Thorpe, Margo’s Got Money Troubles follows the struggles of a young woman with a new baby who turns to cam girl work on the internet to help pay the bills. Elle Fanning stars opposite Nick Offerman and Michelle Pfeiffer, who really are a match made in comedy heaven.

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What happens when a pandemic grips the globe, making everyone extremely happy? That’s the question at the center of Pluribus, Vince Gilligan’s latest TV project. The series, now the most-watched Apple TV show ever, follows a relatively unhappy woman named Carol (Rhea Seehorn) as she navigates this unsettling new reality. Can she find a way to save the world? Or will she eventually become a part of this odd hive mind?

Apple’s military drama is based on real events and takes inspiration from Donald L. Miller’s book of the same name. The series follows the members of the 100th Bomb Group (aka the Bloody Hundredth) as they battle the Nazis during World War II. It has a stacked cast, including the likes of Austin Butler, Callum Turner, Anthony Boyle and Barry Keoghan. Masters of the Air was produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.

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This conspiracy thriller, inspired by Mick Herron’s first novel in his Zoë Boehm series, begins when a child goes missing after a house fire. A concerned neighbor (played by Ruth Wilson) forms an unlikely partnership with Zoë (the books’ titular private investigator, played by Emma Thompson) to look for the kid. In the process, a conspiracy is uncovered, leading the duo down an unexpectedly dark path. 

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Kristen Wiig leads a phenomenal cast in Palm Royale, a campy satire that follows Maxine (Wiig), a woman who will do whatever it takes to get into the Palm Royale beach club. The series, which takes on classism, ambition, privilege and greed, also stars Ricky Martin, Josh Lucas, Leslie Bibb, Laura Dern, Allison Janney, Carol Burnett and John Stamos.

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Hijack, like 24 before it, is a terrorist thriller that takes place in real time. The series follows business negotiator Sam Nelson (played by Idris Elba) as he taps into his training to outsmart the hijackers who’ve taken over his flight. Thanks to Elba’s performance and the twisty narrative, this series proves to be a fun, edge-of-your-seat binge.

This five-episode documentary series shines a light on the personal and professional life of filmmaker Martin Scorsese. I was surprised by how heartfelt and engaging this series turned out to be. If you’ve ever wondered how Scorsese became the legendary director he is today, this program is for you. Aside from hearing the stories directly from the man’s mouth, the show features never-before-seen footage and interviews with Robert De Niro, Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mick Jagger, Steven Spielberg, Jodie Foster and Sharon Stone. 

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Seth Rogen co-created and stars in this dysfunctional comedy series about a movie studio’s attempt at staying relevant in Hollywood. Ike Barinholtz, Kathryn Hahn, Catherine O’Hara, Chase Sui Wonders and Bryan Cranston round out the cast. It’s the whopping list of celebrity cameos, though, that really sets this series apart from other comedies. Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Anthony Mackie and more show up in the most unexpected and hilarious ways. There’s nothing else like The Studio on TV. 

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Loot follows Molly Wells (played by Maya Rudolph), who, after getting divorced from her tech billionaire husband (played by Adam Scott), discovers she is $87 billion richer. Instead of living a lavish life, relishing in her newfound status, she decides to lead a philanthropic organization with the goal of giving it all away. Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, Nat Faxon, Ron Funches and Joel Kim Booster also star.

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The Reluctant Traveler With Eugene Levy

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The lack of Anthony Bourdain’s presence on TV has led me to flounder for a worthy host to fill the void. I didn’t expect Eugene Levy to be that guy. It’s all in the title of the show. He’s not a fan of traveling — but he’s taking himself out of his comfort zone and the result is an informative, heartwarming and entertaining series. 

We all know about Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Apple has turned that historical event into a conspiracy thriller that is well worth your time. Manhunt, which is based on the book Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer, throws us into the chase to track down John Wilkes Booth. Anthony Boyle, Tobias Menzies, Hamish Linklater, Betty Gabriel, Matt Walsh and Patton Oswalt star.

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Trying follows Nikki (Esther Smith) and Jason (Rafe Spall), a couple who can’t have a baby. So, they move to adopt. But the process isn’t that simple — especially when you throw their off-beat families and daily chaos into the mix. Trying is a lot of things: a romance, a comedy, a drama. Whatever you want to call it, the Apple TV series is a thoroughly enjoyable watch.

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Jason Momoa stars, served as writer and executive produced the period drama Chief of War. The series tells the story of the unification of the Hawaiian islands against the threat of colonization at the turn of the 18th century. The show features a predominantly Polynesian cast and explores this time in history from the perspective of Indigenous people.

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Acapulco stars Eugenio Derbez as Maximo, a man reminiscing about his younger years working at a hotel in 1980s Acapulco. It’s a light-hearted series that is nostalgic and full of heart, which feels like an anomaly in our current TV era. You want a bright and fun show, with low emotional stakes? This is the series for you.

Slow Horses is the first television series starring Gary Oldman, and that detail, in and of itself, should be enough to get you to tune in. The program is inspired by Mick Herron’s Slough House book series and follows Jackson Lamb (Oldman) and his crew of low-level spies as they face espionage challenges and criminal conspiracies in each season. Three of the show’s five seasons have a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, which it absolutely deserves.  

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Taron Egerton is Dave, an arson investigator, and Jurnee Smollett is Michelle, a police detective, who team up to track down a duo of arsonists wreaking havoc on their community. Smoke is a brooding drama series inspired by true events. There’s a twisty mystery fueling this program, and it boasts a strong cast, which also includes Greg Kinnear, Anna Chlumsky, John Leguizamo, Rafe Spall and Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine.

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If you thought the return of Happy Gilmore was the only golf comedy worth watching, think again. Stick stars Owen Wilson as Pryce Cahill, a jaded ex-golfer who is given a second chance at the sport in the form of a 17-year-old golf prodigy named Santi (Peter Dager). If you’re looking for another feel-good sports series like Ted Lasso, you should definitely give this show a shot.

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Dope Thief is inspired by Dennis Tafoya’s 2009 novel and follows friends Ray and Manny, who decide to impersonate DEA agents so they can steal from drug dealers. Things go sideways when their tiny crime unveils a massive drug operation. Brian Tyree Henry and Wagner Moura lead the series, ensuring this enthralling drama is led by top-tier talent. 

In this dark comedy, Jon Hamm plays defamed hedge fund manager Andrew “Coop” Cooper, who decides to try home invasions as a means of generating income. The twist on that twist? He’s robbing his wealthy neighbors. What he doesn’t expect through all this thievery is the dark secrets he uncovers about the members of this upper-crust community.

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Black Bird is inspired by the true story of Jimmy Keene (Taron Egerton), a man who made a deal with the FBI to go undercover in a maximum-security prison to shorten his sentence. I forgot to mention, this is a place that houses the criminally insane and his mission is to make friends with Larry Hall, a suspected serial killer, so he can discover information about where the bodies are buried. That is, if he can get a confession in the first place. Paul Walter Hauser gives a career-best performance as Hall.

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Based on the novel by Min Jin Lee, Pachinko is a sweeping drama that follows multiple generations of a Korean family from the early 1900s through the 1980s. Seriously, it’s hard to sum up how beautiful and complex the storytelling is in this series in a few sentences. I’ll just say the performances (by Lee Min-ho, Jin Ha, Minha Kim and the rest of the cast), cinematography and conflicts featured here are absolutely fabulous. It’s probably the best show on this entire list, if I am being honest.

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Jason Segel, Harrison Ford and Jessica Williams star in this dramedy series about a broken therapist who strives to piece his life and family back together after a heartbreaking loss. There’s an intriguing balance found when Jimmy (Segel) breaks from professional norms to help his clients heal while seeking to do the same for himself. It’s sad, hilarious, poignant and profound. To me, this is what mental health stories on TV should look like.

When you center a murder mystery in Florida, you have to expect things to get weird. And they do just that in Bad Monkey. It’s a quirky sort of drama that stars Vince Vaughn as Andrew Yancy, a detective-turned-restaurant inspector, who gets sucked into a murder case after fishing a severed arm out of the ocean. Bill Lawrence (of Ted Lasso, Scrubs and Shrinking fame) created the dark comedy, which is inspired by the book by Carl Hiaasen.

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Presumed Innocent, based on the novel by Scott Turow, hails from executive producer David E. Kelley and stars Jake Gyllenhaal as smarmy lawyer Rusty Sabich. Unlike the 1987 movie starring Harrison Ford, this series delves way deeper into the multilayered scandal that put Sabich in handcuffs. The exploration of every character, all of whom seem awful in some way, adds to a morally corrupt narrative that makes this a riveting, albeit sometimes frustrating, watch. 

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Here we have yet another book adaptation to add to this list, and, thankfully, Lessons in Chemistry is a feel-good delight. Inspired by Bonnie Garmus’ book of the same name, the series follows a chemist named Elizabeth Zott (Brie Larson) who finds herself taking a job as host of a cooking show. Being a story that takes place in the ’50s, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Zott faces loads of sexism in the workplace. She perseveres, though, and brings a quirky scientific element to her Julia Childs-like role, making this period piece a fun show to dig into.

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I didn’t know what to expect when I clicked play on Platonic. Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne have co-starred in other projects together, but their delightfully oddball dynamic in this one stands out. The story follows two longtime friends who reconnect in their 40s only to find that, even though they live very different lives, they share common midlife struggles of trying to figure out where they fit in this rapidly changing world. It’s also nice to see a non-romantic exploration of a friendship between a man and a woman. Contrary to what When Harry Met Sally said, it is possible.

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Sharon Horgan created this dark comedy series — which takes inspiration from the Belgian show Clan — about a group of sisters who deal with the fallout of the murder of JP, one of the women’s husbands, who, because of his distasteful behavior, is referred to throughout the show as “The Prick.” The series shifts narrative regularly to reveal bits and pieces behind who killed the man, while showcasing the dysfunctional dynamic between these bad sisters. Horgan stars opposite Anne-Marie Duff, Eva Birthistle, Sarah Greene and Eve Hewson.