Ben Travers Writer Indiewire

Ben Travers

TV Critic

Ben Travers is the New York-based TV Critic and Deputy Editor at IndieWire, where he’s been writing reviews, analyzing industry trends, and interviewing key figures since 2014. He is the 2021 winner for Best Entertainment Commentary at the Southern California Journalism Awards, and a 2020 finalist for Best TV Critic at the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards. Ben helped launch IndieWire’s Consider This series, which advocates for each year’s most deserving awards contenders, and he was on set for “Veep’s” final day of filming. (Seeing Julia Louis-Dreyfus eviscerate another human being live, in person, changed him forever.) A lifelong student of Sylvester Stallone and more-recent scholar of “The Leftovers,” “Better Things,” and “BoJack Horseman,” he is also an experienced moderator, having led conversations for the Television Academy, Screen Actors Guild, PaleyFest, SXSW, ATX TV Festival, and San Diego Comic-Con (at Hall H, in front of 6,000 screaming fans). Prior to joining IndieWire, Ben served as an editor and critic at PopMatters, as well as a production assistant on major motion pictures. He holds degrees in journalism and cinema from the University of Iowa. He loves puns, baseball, black coffee, and soft sweatshirts. Follow him on Twitter @BenTTravers and Instagram @BenTravers5

Latest by Ben Travers
'Fightland' is a new series on Starz following Duke (played by Howard Charles), a former boxer plotting revenge
British Rocky Breaks Bad
After being set up by his promoter, a former heavyweight boxing champion battles Britain's criminal underworld to avenge his brother's murder in Starz's blunt-force and brainless action series.
'Diarra from Detroit' Season 2 stars Diarra Kilpatrick as Diarra Brickland and Shannon Wallace as Chris
For the "Forever" Fans
While tracking down her landlord's missing desk, a self-appointed P.I. sees her first paid gig spiral into a murder investigation, love triangle, and citywide treasure hunt in Diarra Kilpatrick's fun-first summer noir.
'Furious' is a new Hulu series starring Emmy Rossum, Scoot McNairy, and Quincy Tyler Bernstine, shown gathered around a coffee table examining documents
“Did You Like the Way It Felt?”
The creator behind "New Girl," "Dying for Sex," and "The Dropout" changes lanes once again — and once again thrives, this time with a crime drama about a rookie FBI agent hunting a serial killer who's offing bad men.
'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Season 4 stars Ethan Peck as Spock, shown holding a drawing of a cat
'Star Trek: Event Horizon'
As a prequel series approaching its predetermined endpoint, Season 4 faces familiar struggles. But as a return to the franchise's fun, curious, episodic storytelling, it's also making the most of the time it has left.
'Carrie,' the series adaptation of the Stephen King book, stars Summer H. Howell as Carrie White and Samantha Sloyan as her mother, Margaret
TIFF
The episodic section launches with "Below," starring Josh Hartnett and Mackenzie Davis, with additional premieres of Shawn Ryan's "American Hostage" and the new season of "Slow Horses."
KING OF THE HILL Season 15 will be released on Hulu in July 2026
Make TV Last Again
After so many bad, short-lived, and malformed TV revivals, has Hollywood conditioned audiences against reinvesting in their favorite characters — even when streamers release seasons worth watching?
'The Hawk' stars Will Ferrell as Lonnie in the new Netflix series about golf, bad dads, and bad men
Toxic Golf Syndrome
In his latest outlandish sports story, Ferrell plays Lonnie "The Hawk" Hawkins, a washed-up golfer who makes one last run at the PGA Tour, despite pleas from his son and ex-wife to end the madness.
'Ride or Die' stars Hannah Waddingham as Judith Burton, aka Whiptail, in the new Amazon series
“Hire Your Best Friend”
Best friends Debbie (Octavia Spencer) and Judith (Hannah Waddingham) are put to the test when the latter is outed as an international assassin and the former's family ends up at the center of a hit.
'Lucky' is a new series starring Anya Taylor-Joy on Apple TV
Olyphant Summer Continues
A whiz-kid con artist plans for early retirement after one last job, only to be duped by her new husband (Drew Starkey), pestered by her rapacious papa (Timothy Olyphant), and pursued by both a mob boss (Annette Bening) and the FBI (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor).
The Five-Star Weekend series stars D'Arcy Carden as Brooke, Regina Hall as Dru-Ann, Chloë Sevigny as Tatum, Jennifer Garner as Hollis, Gemma Chan as Gigi, shown here posing for a photo
Timothy Olyphant, You Dog
Following a recent widow trying to restart her life with a little help from her friends (and a ginormous oceanfront mansion), Peacock's adaptation of Erin Hilderbrand's novel can be the kind of silly, stupid hang worth savoring, when it's not adrift in prosaic melodrama — and sometimes, even when it is.
'Little House on the Prairie' on Netflix stars Alice Halsey as Laura Ingalls, Crosby Fitzgerald as Caroline Ingalls, Skywalker Hughes as Mary Ingalls
Could Be Wilder, Though
Inspired by Laura Ingalls Wilder's 1935 novel (and indebted to NBC's '70s TV series), Netflix's adaptation follows the Ingalls family as they head for Kansas to stake a claim on their own American homestead, only to discover their brightest future waits beyond those fabricated walls.
'Industry' Season 4 stars Myha'la as Harper
Emmys
"DTF St. Louis" surged past "Love Story" in a Limited Series upset, "Widow's Bay" pulled in a massive haul, and "Your Friends and Neighbors" earned a shocking Best Drama Series nod... and nothing else.
Top of The Line Weekly
A weekly digest that captures the best of our Top of the Line coverage.

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