| | | | | | 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. |
‘Paradise’ by the [Dash]Bored Light I liked the standalone season two premiere of Hulu’s Paradise, even if it forced me to dwell on unanswered questions like, “How would somebody living in Graceland without power or water for 600+ days have pooped and showered?” and, “It took 600 days post-apocalypse for somebody to have thought to break into Graceland for provisions?” But, having seen the next six episodes, I feel the same way about Paradise’s second season as I did about Fallout ’s: Namely, that in splitting up its storylines and separating each group of characters, the show has created a frustrating split between the pieces that work for me (anything with Sterling K. Brown, basically) and the pieces that feel like roadblocks distracting me from the pieces that work for me. The series remains packed with performances I like, including Krys Marshall, Nicole Brydon Bloom and midseason guest star Cameron Britton, but in branching out beyond the bunker, Paradise has become just another “disparate group of people making their way across the post-apocalyptic landscape” show, a genre that television reliably over-indexes on. |
Paradise by ‘Survivor’-ed Light I’ve watched 48.5 seasons of Survivor — I quit Survivor 41 midway — recapping at least a quarter of them and doing exit interviews for nearly as many. So it makes me a bit sad how apparently out of touch I am with the fandom, based on the voting for elements of the democratized Season 50. Weird popular choices aside, I loved this week’s premiere, all three hours (shorter if you watch now on Paramount+) of it. Things I enjoyed most: the budding Rizo/Colby mentorship; the hilarity of Ozzy insisting, once again, that he’s learned from his myriad Survivor losses; Mike White parlaying his White Lotus riches into a six-pack; the return of puzzle-solving Christian; all of the quality time the expanded episode permitted for attempted conspiring. I didn’t love the second of two eliminations in the premiere, though it added drama, nor did I appreciate being reminded what a visually diverse game this used to be when they filmed in places other than Fiji. Still, after a smartly protracted run of seasons without returning players, I was amazed at how many players from this pack of all-stars I was truly pleased to have back. Be sure to read all of THR’s Survivor coverage, courtesy of the great Terry Terrones. |
| | | Conrad Pain I jokingly mentioned on Bluesky that HBO should be marketing DTF St. Louis as being “from the visionary creator of Perpetual Grace, LTD,” which successfully sold the show to … one reader. That’s the nature of creator Steven Conrad’s fame. The guy has made some big movies, including The Pursuit of Happyness, but his TV credits are extremely niche and beloved by a minuscule audience. DTF St. Louis — part murder mystery, part bromance, part American Dream satire — will probably attract a bigger audience due to stars Jason Bateman, David Harbour and Linda Cardellini. Expect some of those viewers to tune out early when the show tends toward coarse broadness, missing the impressively empathetic swerve in the third and fourth chapters. Not getting the whole season for my review was a real limitation, because I can imagine a handful of ways this limited series could coalesce into something brilliant and a dozen ways it could coalesce into something bad. We’ll see! And if you don’t know Conrad’s TV work, Perpetual Grace LTD isn’t streaming anywhere, but I strongly recommend Patriot on Amazon and Ultra City Smiths on AMC+. Neither will be for everybody, but there are definitely people out there who haven’t even heard of either who will love both. |
Get Richmond or Die Tryin’ I said that there’s a better-than-average chance that the seven-part DTF St. Louis could become something bad by its conclusion, but those odds are better than on Amazon’s The Gray House . I’ve seen the latter in its entirety and it is, sadly, very bad. The Civil War spy drama has a great story and some of the talent associated with it — John Sayles as co-creator, Roland Joffé as director, Mary-Louise Parker among its stars — is top tier, but the fictional contrivances required to stretch the project to eight episodes, along with some hammy, caricatured performances, sink it. If you’re looking for a series with a similar historical backdrop and action trappings, check out Underground, which aired on WGN and is streaming on Hulu, while Apple’s Manhunt is a vastly superior Civil War-adjacent historical thriller. Keep an eye out, though, for Gray House star Amethyst Davis, a relative newcomer who should get some well-deserved visibility even in this dud. |
Fleming and Ha-ing Every once in a while, it’s fun to watch a standup special from a performer you’ve never seen, but whom all the comedy cool kids seem to love. Case in point: Chris Fleming: Live at the Palace , which debuts on HBO on Friday night and will stream, naturally, on HBO Max. I knew nothing about Fleming other than buzz, so the 75-minute special was a real treat, driven by their astonishing and exhausting stage energy, which includes dancing, relentless pacing, elaborate physical impressions and even a climactic musical number. Fleming deservedly praises the spotlight operator, but credit as well to Bill Benz, whose directing responsibilities here far outstrip the normal standup grammar of alternating bland close-ups and medium shots. Fleming is adept with voices and characterizations, but what they do best is circuitous stories with unlikely angles — cast-iron skillets, middle school tuba players, the cultural sadness of geriatric millennials — that culminate in exceptional wrap-up punchlines. The ending of the Terry Gross/Adam Driver story — Fleming, long curly hair flying everywhere, has an uncanny resemblance to a youthful Terry Gross — was a standout for me. Definitely worth checking out one of comedy’s rising voices. |
Things Are ‘Bluff’ All Over The weekend’s big theatrical release is Scream 7, which annoyed our Frank Scheck because of the franchise’s inconsistent swapping between Arabic and Roman numerals in its titles (and because, apparently, the once-sharp franchise has lost its edge). So maybe you wanna stream a new feature? Amazon has The Bluff, a swashbuckler featuring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Karl Urban, a 19th century period piece that Rahul Desai of THR India calls “watchable and forgettable at once.” Amazon also has the post-Beatles Paul McCartney documentary Man on the Run, which our Sheri Linden praises for its style and energy. Our Richard Lawson was less pleased with In the Blink of an Eye, which had a poorly received Sundance premiere — Lawson insists “It’s not that bad” — but features an ensemble cast led by Rashida Jones, Daveed Diggs and Kate McKinnon as part of an epic narrative that I’m not even gonna try to summarize. |
| | | |
Commentaires
Enregistrer un commentaire
Thank you to leave a comment on my site