Reviews
The Afterparty Review: Apple TV+’s Comedic Murder Mystery Might Be the Most Inventive TV Show of 2022 (So Far)
The Pitch: For those familiar with the work of 21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord, there are a few constants, a major one being their talent for taking a premise and making it simultaneously very clear and simple and also deceptively complex. Apple TV+’s The Afterparty is a perfect example of this, presenting itself initially as a fairly straightforward murder mystery out of the pages of Agatha Christie, with Tiffany Haddish in the Hercule Poirot role. On its own merits, that’s an idea that would be enough to inspire interest, and then Miller (who created the series and directs every episode; Lord serves as an executive producer) adds an additional layer: Every episode, which focuses on one potential suspect’s version of events, also utilizes a different...
Earl Sweatshirt’s SICK!: Flawless Rapping That Doesn’t Overstay Its Welcome
How does one find the perfect words to describe life-changing events, the oppressiveness of living in a constant state of stress caused by a pandemic, and reflections of the past? Nobody pays me enough to answer that question. Luckily, I don’t have to, because Earl Sweatshirt discovered the cheat code. SICK!, his fourth album, is inspired by this moment in time. But it’s not just the COVID in the air on his mind. Since the last time we heard him in 2019, Earl said “hi” to fatherhood, cut back on his alcohol, and rediscovered his religion. Any one of those things is enough to pen something the size of a Greek epic poem. But all three? And in the face of, well, all of this? That’s a lot to process. The mere fact Earl only took 25 minutes to say it all with his chest is a testament to his tal...
How I Met Your Father Review: Hulu’s Sequel Series Has Some Scraps of Potential
The Pitch: Somewhere in the vast wide multiverse, there is a planet Earth where, in the year 2022, the How I Met Your Mother spin-off series How I Met Your Dad is just now reaching its eighth season, with star Greta Gerwig thinking longingly about the indie film about growing up in Sacramento that she always wished she’d have a chance to direct. That planet Earth is not our planet Earth, where, in the year 2022, How I Met Your Dad ended as a 2014 CBS pilot that never made it to series, Greta Gerwig’s 2018 film Lady Bird received five Oscar nominations, and Hilary Duff is now starring in How I Met Your Father, a spiritual and literal sequel to the long-running CBS sitcom about the world’s most long-winded parent giving his kids way too much information about his past dating life. Does Sophi...
Naomi Review: Ava DuVernay Brings a New Type of Superhero Story to the CW
The Pitch: Naomi lives inside the difference between an origin story and a coming-of-age story. The CW’s newest superhero story features Kaci Walfall as the titular teenager, who was already living a pretty interesting life before the possibility that she might have superpowers became a possibility. Based on the first two episodes, the first season (which won’t be crossing over with the rest of the Arrow-verse) is set up to offer an extended look at Naomi’s dawning realization of her own abilities, while also contending with the day-to-day realities of being a modern-day teenager. The show’s success is dependent on how much you want to see both of those elements play out, but thanks to Walfall’s charismatic performance, Naomi’s story proves easy to connect with. Not Your Ordinary Teen Supe...
Wolf Like Me Review: Josh Gad and Isla Fisher’s Quirky Genre Romance Feels a Little Too Forgettable
The Pitch: The new Peacock series Wolf Like Me is a sweet and quirky dramedy that makes great use of the talents of Isla Fisher and Josh Gad. It also, however, happens to fall into too many of the traps which doom the original series being made today for streaming. Again, the show itself is fine. But it can’t escape the category of being just forgettable enough to potentially doom it to obscurity; lingering forever in the corners of streaming services, joining its spiritual sisters Gypsy, Homecoming, Maniac, and countless others. The Reason Why This Review Isn’t Very Long: The central twist of Wolf Like Me is one that Peacock would prefer not get spoiled prior to premiere — in fact, the screeners were sent out with this note from creator Abe Forsythe: “I’d love for audiences to go into wat...
A Remarkable Zendaya Anchors Euphoria Season 2: Review
The Pitch: HBO’s provocative teen drama returns on Sunday, January 9th, and while plenty of things have changed for the characters in this neon-soaked, nightmarish dreamscape of Southern California, so much is still the same. That’s the thing about addiction, isn’t it? It’s a cycle that’s very, very hard to break. But we as the audience are once again in the hands of young addict Rue as our omniscient narrator, who continues to be lovingly brought to life by Zendaya, the youngest person ever to win an Emmy for Best Actress for a Drama Series. Still Don’t Know Her Name: “I don’t think I’m a good person.” Repeated like a refrain, delivered like a prayer, this sentence is a concise summary of many of the central struggles in Season 2 of Euphoria. To that end, things pick up in fairly familiar...
The 355 Review: Predictable Twists Bog Down This Lady Spy Thriller
The Pitch: There is a certain sub-genre of films, largely action films, that belong to a very specific time and place — an idyllic lazy Saturday afternoon, that post-lunch or brunch drowsiness kicking in as you nestle into your couch at home, searching for something to watch that won’t require too much effort to engage with on your part. The kind of movie you might watch with your dad over the holidays, just because it’s on cable. What The 355 offers up is a perfect Saturday afternoon dad movie, but instead of starring Stallone or Eastwood or Bronson, it stars five women with six Oscar nominations and two wins between them. (And was written by the creator of NBC’s Smash!) Approached with those sorts of low expectations, the new action drama starring Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Penélo...
The Weeknd Unleashes Purgatory Dance Fantasy on Dawn FM
You are sitting in a car. The car is stuck in a tunnel; gridlock traffic. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel. You are waiting your turn. All you can hear is the car radio. The smooth-talking DJ is guiding you forward, to “accept your fate with open arms.” Sounds like purgatory, huh? That’s the idea. And that deathly DJ? It’s Jim Carrey. Oh, Canada. As The Weeknd descends further into conceptual madness, his fifth album Dawn FM, out Friday (and announced only earlier this week), unfurls a vaguely existential playlist — songs welcoming listeners to the “painless transition” of the great beyond. While the metaphor is somewhat trite, the execution is sharp; a seamless, afternoon-drive radio airplay, with scene-setting jingles and a quippy, psychedelic ad for “Afterlife,” billed as an abs...
Peacemaker Review: The Suicide Squad Spin-Off Series Soars Like a CGI Eagle Thanks to Its Ensemble
The Pitch: If you watched The Suicide Squad last year and got told that one of the characters would be getting a spinoff TV show, would Peacemaker (John Cena) have been your first guess? Even with the post-credits scene setting up the series, probably not. Nonetheless, James Gunn‘s first major TV project takes this blunt instrument of an anti-hero and uses him as the base for an at times strange, at times pretty fun action-horror adventure. (The term “superhero”… does not feel particularly applicable, in this case.) “Previously, in The Suicide Squad…” That’s not a bit — that’s literally how the first episode of Peacemaker opens, treating the film like the true pilot episode of the series. (Which, it could be argued, it was.) What’s important to remember from that movie, if August 2021 is u...
A New Adaptation of Around the World in 80 Days Has Exactly the New Year’s Energy We Need: Review
The Pitch: In terms of literary adaptations, Around the World in 80 Days hits right in the sweet spot established by decades of Masterpiece programming in general and the BBC adaptation of Sherlock in particular. But there’s one huge exception to this: Unlike Sherlock, which is a series that worships the concept of genius, 80 Days features a protagonist who’s far more often in over his head. Set in 1872 (the same year that the original Jules Verne novel was published), 80 Days is an adventure inspired by a bet: specifically, the bet made by eccentric gentleman Phileas Fogg (David Tennant) that he can circumnavigate the globe in the time period allotted. Eighty days might sound like a lot of time, but when one’s primary means of transportation are ship, train, or camel, it’s a frightfully s...
Cobra Kai Is Still Nostalgic Fun, But Starts to Pull Its Punches in Season 4: Review
The Pitch: At the end of Season 3, things were changing for the inexplicably-karate-obsessed denizens of Encino, California. Sensei John Kreese (Martin Kove) is now fully in command of Cobra Kai, with Johnny Lawrence’s (William Zabka) troubled son Robby (Taylor Buchanan) now his trusted sempai; the school’s firmly back on its ‘strike hard, strike fast, no mercy’ kick, especially in a softened Lawrence’s absence. But as a new year (and a new karate tournament) dawns, Lawrence has one way of getting Kreese out of town for good: if either he or his former-rival-turned-reluctant-ally Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) can get their dojos to win the All-Valley, Kreese is gone forever. It’s a tall order, considering that a) Johnny and Daniel-san’s decades-long rivalry still simmers below the su...
Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts Is More About the Memories Than the Magic: Review
The Pitch: You’ll spend a lot of time thinking about chairs, while watching Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts. Not just who’s sitting in them, and where, and with who, but the chairs themselves: plush vintage armchairs, high-backed wooden thrones, and the wide spectrum of options in between. The anniversary special dropping on New Year’s Day is a loving look back at the global phenomenon, as told by the stars and directors involved with the journey along the way. It also, despite best efforts made to add some visual flair in the form of wandering about archived film sets, is about 80 percent just footage of people sitting and talking. While tracking the chairs people are sitting in is oftentimes necessary to understand the context of the soundbite you’re hearing, overall th...
