| | | | Welcome to Now See This, THR chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg’s weekly viewer guide newsletter dedicated to cutting through the daunting clutter of the broadcast, cable and streaming TV landscape! Comments and suggestions welcome at daniel.fienberg@thr.com. |
The 'Dying' Game How can you be an Emmy winner and five-time Oscar nominee and still be underrated? I give you Michelle Williams who, 22 years after Jen Lindley shed her mortal coil, still surprises me every time she's onscreen. With FX's eight-part Hulu limited series Dying for Sex, the shock is not, of course, that Williams could be so good playing a woman dying of cancer and coping with childhood trauma, but rather how frequently hilarious she is doing it. Expect yet another Emmy nomination for Williams, plus nods for Jenny Slate, who delivers the show's biggest emotional punch and its funniest punchlines, and Rob Delaney, a master of beautifully toxic love stories. I don't think every aspect of Dying for Sex works — the line between kink-shaming and kink-embracing gets really blurry, and I probably agree with our Angie Han that in its desire not to wallow in misery, the narrative rushes through a lot of complicated emotions — but I laughed some, cried a bit and marveled at Michelle Williams consistently. |
'Pulse' and Minuses The Pitt has been the spring's big word-of-mouth streaming hit in large part because of how well it has blended broadcast and streaming storytelling. Netflix's Pulse, despite a decent cast and some effort at binge-friendly serializing, mostly just feels like the sort of so-so broadcast procedural I'd check out on within two episodes, which I did here, though Angie insists if you have a Grey's Anatomy itch, this will scratch it (I found it generally chemistry-free). Speaking of shows that feel like broadcast shows only worse, Amazon's The Bondsman features an excellent Kevin Bacon as a bounty hunter who's murdered and brought back as, well, a bounty hunter for the Devil, but it's The CW's Reaper with lower production values and less charm. Reaper is streaming on CWTV.com. |
| | | How to Get Away with Mulder David Duchovny is a novelist, director and the star of The TV Set, but for the purposes of History's Secrets Declassified with David Duchovny, he's one thing and one thing only: Fox Mulder. The grab bag nonfiction series, which premiered on Friday (April 4), with episodes streaming on History.com subsequently, features Duchovny wryly taking viewers through various exposed government secrets, many of which have been featured on Unsolved Mysteries and its countless imitators. The best thing about Secrets Declassified — other than the score and reenactments that positively scream, "Be more like The X-Files!" — is that even if you've seen more in-depth explorations of the brief vignettes covering topics like "Extreme Missions," "Black Sites" and "Secrets of the Skies," Duchovny and company never linger long enough on any subject for boredom to ensue (or for much knowledge to be gleaned). Everything is a bit superficial in the three installments I've watched, but I appreciate the way this show attempts to deliver a younger and more diverse slate of expert talking heads. |
Our Flagg Means Duke It's Final Four weekend for both the Women's and Men's NCAA Tournament, and while March Madness has felt perhaps a bit less "mad" this year, both brackets have been winnowed down to a quartet of powerhouses with so much brand name clout that the "underdog" — the only non-top seed — in the group is the UConn women. On Friday, ESPN focuses on the women, with Texas and defending champions South Carolina, followed by UConn (led by presumptive WNBA top draft pick Paige Bueckers) and UCLA. The men grab the spotlight on Saturday with all four No.1 seeds playing on CBS, with Florida and Auburn in an SEC showdown — Florida won their lone previous meeting this year — and then Houston and Duke (led by presumptive NBA top draft pick Cooper Flagg). |
Honoring Val Kilmer An eccentric oddball who looked like a movie star, Val Kilmer's best performances mirrored that split, combining a commanding presence and an off-kilter sensibility to strong effect. Kilmer died this week at the age of 65, having participated in the Amazon documentary Val , a fine overview of his life and work. While several of my favorite Kilmer films — Real Genius and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang! in particular — are only available for rental, his career peaks are fairly well represented across a variety of streamers. Work your way around the streaming dial with Tombstone (Hulu), Willow (Disney+), Top Secret and The Doors (Pluto TV), Heat (Netflix), Top Gun (Paramount+) and Batman Forever (Max). |
Honoring Richard Chamberlain One of the many deficiencies of the streaming landscape was exposed this week with the death of Richard Chamberlain, at 90. Dubbed the "King of the Miniseries," back before the genre was rebranded "limited," Chamberlain's biggest television successes — the medical series Dr. Kildare and the minis Shogun and The Thorn Birds — are only available as rentals. His big screen output is a bit elusive as well, especially the Musketeers trilogy, but you can catch my favorite of his films, Peter Weir's spectacular The Last Wave, streaming on Max. You can also see Chamberlain's pair of Allan Quatermain adventures, King Solomon's Mines and Lost City of Gold , on Amazon. I still feel like a lot of people might have really wanted to watch the original Shogun in the past year. Pity it's in limbo. |
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