STREAMING TIP

Dark Winds Season 2

AMC/AMC+

This truly excellent TV series, based on the sublime mysteries by Tony Hillerman about Navajo Tribal policemen Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, and set on tribal lands in New Mexico in the 1970s, is back for a six-episode sophomore season. We’re only two chapters into this, and if memory serves the plot is based on the spooky and disconcerting “People of Darkness” novel from the late Hillerman’s catalog. The genuineness of Navajo culture within the overarching Anglo society — and the tensions and overlaps thereof — are developed with elements of noir, mysticism and intricate plotting. Series leads Zahn McClarnon (Leaphorn), Kiowa Gordon (Chee) and Jessica Matten (police sergeant Bernadette Manuelito) are just superb.

— Rick Koster

STAGE TIP

Here You Come Again

Terris Theatre, Chester

Goodspeed has reopened its Terris Theatre for the first time since the pandemic with this frothy, slight but very fun musical in which an imaginary version of Dolly Parton visits a young man at a crossroads. He was trying (unsuccessfully) to be a comic in New York City but returned to his Texas hometown when the coronavirus descended. He’s back living in his parents’ attic in mid-2020 and is trying to figure out his life. Dolly serves as his fairy godmother/kindly therapist. Tricia Paoluccio is absolute perfection as Parton, and she sings Dolly’s greatest hits with elan. Matthew Risch is winning, too, as the guy trying to find himself. The show is by Paoluccio, Bruce Vilanch, and Gabriel Barre, who also directs and choreographs. “Here You Come Again” runs through Aug. 26.

– Kristina Dorsey

BOOK TIP

Hidden Pictures

Jason Rekulak

Proving that there’s no end to the Possessed Kids, Haunted House and Possibly Unreliable Female Narrator books, “Hidden Pictures” also proves that, in the hands of a writer like Jason Rekulak (and collaborative illustrators), there’s plenty of fresh angles left to explore. Narrator Mallory Quinn, a former track star-turned-junkie, is a year-and-a-half into recovery and gets a job as an on-site babysitter for a wealthy young couple. Her ward is their adorable 5-year-old, Teddy, who has a penchant for drawing that suddenly escalates not only in skill but in terms of a series of very disturbing images. This coincides with Mallory’s eerie experiences in the guest cottage she’s living in, and suggests a dark power in the woods beyond the property. Utilizing “Teddy’s drawings” as a narrative device — as evocatively supplied by artists Doogie Horner and Will Staehle — to augment his assured prose and escalating tension, Rekulak delivers a masterful work of fright.

— Rick Koster