THE OFFER: Amazon Prime/Paramount: 10 episodes

Five stars, Binge-worthy

You don’t need to be a fan of the movie The Godfather to enjoy this dramatization of how the blockbuster film came to be, but it enhances your enjoyment of this well-made series if you are. From the optioning of Mario Puzo’s novel to the Oscar ceremony where The Godfather won awards for Best Picture, Best Leading Actor (Marlon Brando) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola), The Offer takes you on a journey into Hollywood power plays, artistic battles, corporate control, and mob influence as members of the mafia go from opposing the film to endorsing it. Sometimes funny, sometimes gripping (even when you know the ending), but always entertaining, The Offer also captures Paramount’s climb from the basement to king of the hill in the early ’70s with a string of hits (Rosemary’s Baby, Love Story, The Godfather) led by frenetic studio head Bob Evans, whose obsession with The Godfather might have played a role in the breakup of his marriage to Ali McGraw. (And if you want more, pick up a copy of Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli, by Mark Seal, a book that covers all this material and more.)

ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING, SEASON TWO: Hulu: 10 episodes

Five stars, binge-worthy

A fan of the first season of this clever series, I found the second one delivered the same poignant and funny moments, as well as masterful performances, even if it dragged a teensy bit in the middle episodes. This season finds Mabel (Selena Gomez) a prime suspect in the murder of an antagonist to the three main characters (played by Gomez, Steve Martin, and Martin Short), all residents of an old New York apartment building. As in the first season, celebrities make an appearance (in this case Amy Schumer playing herself), and Tina Fey and Amy Ryan reprise their roles as a true-crime podcaster and criminal, respectively. The Amy Ryan scenes deliver a great punch when Steve Martin’s Charles Haden-Savage character breaks up with her in a unique way. When the episodes start to drag a little in that dreaded middle, the “fans” of the three main characters’ podcast act as something of a Greek chorus urging them to get on with the story, one of the many cleverly satisfying aspects of this magnificently written and performed series. But Only Murders in the Building isn’t just a comic mystery series. It’s also a tale of loneliness and complicated family relationships that make you ache for the main characters as they stumble their way to the mystery’s solution. The final episodes, where all the suspects are gathered together, Agatha-Christie style, delivers laughs as well as a satisfying denouement. Samsung TV owners, be warned, however: Hulu is updating their service, which means certain brands of Samsung won’t be able to stream their offerings.

ANNIKA: Amazon Prime/Masterpiece: 6 episodes

Three stars

Likeable actor Nicole Walker stars as the chief of a special maritime detective unit in Glasgow in this one-mystery-per-episode series that is a bit uneven but not unpleasant. The gimmicks here are that the mysteries take place on the water and the lead character addresses the camera throughout each show, telling us about life and various Nordic and/or Greek gods whose stories have a connection to what’s going on in each episode. Except for the fact that the murders take place on boats or in the water, this might as well be a standard British mystery series. Don’t expect CSI-type shots of divers retrieving evidence from the sea floor. No budget for that, I guess. And Walker, who shone in the series Unforgotten, sometimes disappoints with her technically perfect but ultimately thin delivery. You can almost hear her counting beats as she pauses. Worth a watch if you can’t find anything else.

ECHOES: Netflix: 7 episodes

One star, unfinished

An evil twin story, Echoes starts well as sister Leni briefly disappears, then is found, though ostensibly hurt by a concussion, but her twin Gina is missing, and she tries to hide this because she and Gina have had a switch-lives-every-year thing going on and maybe were once involved in an accidental death by arson but who knows which one is which and who did what. Hopelessly confusing in a deliberate way that seems more desperate than clever, Echoes lost me after the second episode.

***

Libby Sternberg is an author whose novel Daisy, praised by Booklist as an “original and charming” take on The Great Gatsby, will be released in hardcover in October by Bancroft Press.