SERIES PREMIERE: Look, let’s be honest. Almost any series would be a comedown, arriving in the time slot just vacated by Fargo. But Tyrant arrives with a premiere episode so heavy on exposition, and so familiar in its basic structure – beat by beat, it starts out, pretty much, as The Godfather with mosques – that it doesn’t impress so much as make you question where it’s going. But give executive producer Howard Gordon, whose credits almost include 24 and Homeland, points for setting this drama in a tumultuous Middle Eastern country, even if it is fictional. For a full review, see Eric Gould’s The Cold Light Reader.

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