Melissa McBride

A theoretically exciting Maggie-and-Carol episode can’t help but feel like a rote diversion.

Television history is littered with the bodies of ill-advised spin-offs. Their corpses, copies of reviews and overnights crumpled in their clawed little hands, defile the memories of the successful shows that spawned them and serve as cautionary tales for every writer tempted to go to the same well twice. However, every once in a while, …