Of the three main Roy children, Shiv (Sarah Snook) has always been the hardest to pin down. They're all terrible people, sure, but Shiv is terrible in a slightly more intangible way than the others. With Roman (Kieran Culkin), it's easy: the guy mockingly ripped up a million-dollar check in front of a working-class kid in the first episode, so no one needs to strain any muscles explaining why he's a bad guy.

Meanwhile, Shiv has a decent understanding of how to at least appear as a respectable person, which means most of her worst moments have an asterisk next to them. Yes, she intimidates a sexual harassment witness into dropping her case, but she does so with -- what looks like, at least -- a surprising amount of empathy and honesty.

When Shiv's telling the witness about all the ways going public would disrupt her life, none of that's a lie,...