Contributor: Paul Asay

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

The Goodwin Games

Benjamin Goodwin was not a good father. Now he wants to make up for that … from beyond the grave. Let the sitcom games begin!

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The Blacklist

This is a crime thriller where few people actually wear black or white hats—but there’s always plenty of Red.

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Game of Thrones

UPDATED REVIEW: Is it good to be the king? We don’t even want to be in this kingdom.

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The Spy

Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest endeavor on Netflix is about as far from Borat as it could be.

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Wisdom of the Crowd

CBS’s new drama asks provocative questions about the future of crimefighting. But like similar shows, it comes with its own content issues, too.

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Pretty Little Liars

Millennials behave badly here. Their parents can be worse. And all those pretty faces don’t make all that content any less ugly.

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Anne With an “E”

This reimagining of Anne of Green Gables, can be, like its title character, sweet. But it has its sour moments, too.

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Cedar Cove

If television is comfort food, this is its homemade meatloaf.

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Family Tools

Just because a sitcom includes the word family in its title doesn’t mean it’s a family show. Let’s put this another way: Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor wouldn’t even recognize this family business.

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Catch-22

Hulu’s adaption of Joseph Heller’s revered 1961 satire mingles comedy, cynicism, sex and horrific violence.

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TURN: Washington’s Spies

In terms of problematic content, James Bond would feel right at home in this Revolutionary War espionage drama on AMC.

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Amish Mafia

UPDATED REVIEW: Do the Amish really have their own mafia? Discovery says yes. So what follows here is a lesson in not believing everything you see on TV.

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Hoarders

We talk a lot about our American penchant for stuff and how we can’t ever get enough of it. But for some people, that’s not hyperbole: It’s reality. And it makes for very sad reality TV.

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Napoleon Dynamite

Can Napoleon Dynamite blow up TVs like he did movie screens back in 2004? Or will he end up getting squished like a pocketful of tater tots?

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Wipeout

Based on a handful of masochistic Japanese game shows, Wipeout pits colorful contestants against cartoonish obstacle courses.

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