9 shows I'm watching in January

A few romcoms, time travel, Billie Piper, and a sprinkle of apocalypse.

9. Modern Love: Amsterdam (Prime Video)
My score: 40/100

Modern Love, the Prime Video anthology adaptation of the popular New York Times column, now has a Dutch spin-off. The original, English-language series was always uneven—I will never forget Minnie Driver’s episode about selling her beloved car and Anne Hathaway’s bipolar episode. Other episodes were much less memorable.

Unfortunately, the Amsterdam-based series didn’t click with me. I found it at times overly traumatic and dark (especially since I watched over the holidays). The show could have mined its setting further, I don’t feel like I got a proper sense for Amsterdam as a city. And I can’t even say it was an easy, casual watch. But the queer-centric episodes (one of them by Anne+ creator Maud Wiemeijer, who I interviewed last year) were enjoyable enough.

Is it gay? Episodes 3 and 5 are gay, you’re welcome.

8. Welcome to Chippendales (Hulu)
My score: 55/100

What ultimately began as a fun, flashy series about the creation and rise of the still-in-business male strip club franchise eventually devolved to the point where I wondered if any of the characters were actually properly fleshed out. Yes, Chippendales does have plenty of flashy strip scenes with tear-off pants, Annaleigh Ashford doing cocaine with Juliette Lewis, and Murray Bartlett yelling about his entrepreneurial frustrations, which are all fun and games, but by the end of the eight episodes I don’t think I really cared about the downfall of Chippendales founder Somen "Steve" Banerjee (played by Kumail Nanjiani) and his immigrant to murderer storyline.

Is it gay? Murray Bartlett and Andrew Rannells are a couple here, and the show has general queer energy, but nothing that compelling.

7. Kindred (Hulu)