In addition to keeping up with The Good Fight and Ted Lasso (seems like people either really loved or really hated the latest Christmas-themed episode; I liked it but admit I found it a bit jarring that the show hit pause on several promising plot lines so Ted could wear a Santa hat), I also got caught up in The White Lotus, a series that everyone on Twitter is apparently watching. Lotus has its first-season finale tonight, and while I’m an episode behind right now, I’m sort of pushing myself to see it through.
There are standout performances by Steve Zahn and Jennifer Coolidge, but the show’s just not clicking for me so far. Bad things happen to mostly awful people and one dies, but we don’t know who yet. The show takes place in Hawaii and is apparently trying to make some meta-commentary on white privilege but as Mitchell Kuga writes for Vox, the show treats most of the native Hawaiians as little more than plot devices for the dreadful vacationers, so what’s The White Lotus actually saying? I guess we’ll find out?
Now on to the new batch of trailers:
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Dopesick
This miniseries is based on the Beth Macy book “Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors and the Drug Company that Addicted America,” and there’s your plot right there in the title. A pharma company causes a drug epidemic by misrepresenting its new painkiller OxyContin as having a low risk of addiction. Michael Keaton, Peter Sarsgaard, Michael Stuhlbarg, Will Poulter, John Hoogenakker, Kaitlyn Dever, Phillipa Soo, and Rosario Dawson star in Dopesick, which comes to Hulu on October 13th.
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Impeachment: American Crime Story
The story of former President Clinton’s impeachment and his affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky is retold in this series “through the eyes of the women at the center of the events,” according to FX Networks’ promo copy. That’s promising, because the way Lewinsky was treated in the press at the time this all went down (recall that it was referred to as the “Lewinsky scandal” not the “president abuses his authority” scandal) was shameful. Lewinsky serves as executive producer on the series, which is promising as well. Sarah Paulson, Beanie Feldstein, Annaleigh Ashford, Margo Martindale, Edie Falco, and Clive Owen star in Impeachment which premieres on FX September 7th.
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Clickbait
Regular guy Nick Brewer disappears, presumed kidnapped, and later appears in a livestream holding signs that claim he abuses women and has murdered one as well. Once the stream reaches 5 million views, according to his signs, Brewer will die. Is he being set up, or is something dark lurking beneath the family-man façade? Each episode of this limited series is told from a different character’s point of view. Adrian Grenier, Zoe Kazan, and Betty Gabriel star in Clickbait, which premieres on Netflix August 25th.
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Prisoners of the Ghostland
You can certainly say one thing about Nicolas Cage: He doesn’t choose boring roles. And right here in this trailer, he’s quoted as describing Prisoners of the Ghostland as “the wildest movie I’ve ever made,” so that’s something, right? He plays a criminal in a bomb suit who has to venture into the titular Ghostland —which looks kinda Mad Max-y and kinda Blade Runner-y— to rescue the missing granddaughter of a crime lord. He’s got five days before the bombs, strategically placed on his body, go off. There’s some kind of nuclear explosion involved, too and of course Cage punches some guys and does his usual half-brooding/half-glowering look. Bill Moseley and Sofia Boutella star along with Cage in Prisoners of the Ghostland, which comes to theaters and on demand September 17th.
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Midnight Mass
From Mike Flanagan, the creator of The Haunting of Bly Manor and The Haunting of Hill House, comes this limited series about isolated Crockett Island, which is experiencing unexplained supernatural events— are they miracles? Eh, not likely. Zach Gifford, Hamish Linklater, Kate Siegel, Annabeth Gish, Henry Thomas, and Michael Trucco are among the cast of Midnight Mass, which arrives on Netflix September 24th.
