TV Reviews
Tuca and Bertie Season 2 Is Beaker and Better Than Ever: Review
The Pitch: Birdtown’s most endearingly dysfunctional duo is back, and they haven’t really changed that much. Toucan Tuca (Tiffany Haddish) is the same boisterous, ebullient, troublingly irresponsible thirtysomething she always was; same with Bertie (Ali Wong), a neurotic songbird wrestling with deep-seated impostor syndrome and a stable, if unexciting, relationship with longtime live-in boyfriend Speckle (Steven Yeun). Bertie’s shopping around for the right therapist to figure out her myriad personal issues, including reeling from the sexual harassment she experienced at the hands of a celebrity chef she worked under last season. Tuca, for her part, wrestles with her neediness and insomnia, and the sudden responsibilities thrust upon her by a rapidly passing sense of adulthood. Togeth...
Could the Friends Reunion Special *Be* Any More Nostalgic?: Review
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-05-26T19:02:54+00:00“>May 26, 2021 | 3:02pm ET The Pitch: Seventeen years after Ross (David Schwimmer), Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), Monica (Courtney Cox), Chandler (Matthew Perry), Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow), and Joey (Matt LeBlanc) walked out of their New York City apartments and off the air in 2004, the six are finally back together for a one-off reunion special on HBO Max. But where most networks are dusting off their old properties for decades-late revivals, Friends: The Reunion is content to simply be a look back at the show that took the world by storm for a solid decade, and launched its cast into movie stardom. The One With the Origin Story: Let’s get this out of the...
SNL’s Season 46 Finale Certainly Felt Like the End of an Era
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-05-23T15:18:42+00:00“>May 23, 2021 | 11:18am ET Editor’s Note: All season long, Jesse Hassenger has been reviewing SNL for Consequence. He returns today with some thoughts on the show’s finale. You can revisit his other pieces here. It was a weird season of Saturday Night Live, and the show acknowledged that right upfront during its Season 46 finale. As part of the show’s ongoing vamping over what to do for cold opens now that they aren’t tackling President Trump on a weekly basis, the final opening sketch of the season went both self-referential and sentimental. For the former, the cast reflected on the past year-plus of pandemic comedy, making semi-pointed jokes about the reckless...
Elon Musk’s SNL Debut Was Smug, Off-Putting, but Mostly Just Boring
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-05-09T15:06:31+00:00“>May 9, 2021 | 11:06am ET After a relatively quiet post-election season that saw Saturday Night Live relax and refocus on the funnier, weirder whims of its talented and oversized cast, the show grabbed more headlines over the past month by booking billionaire troublemaker and rocket enthusiast Elon Musk to host. This wasn’t an unprecedented move; depending on one’s opinion of Musk, it lands somewhere between the affable-if-suspect dorkiness of booking rich guy Steve Forbes, who hosted after the end of his presidential campaign in 1996, and the beyond-suspect awfulness of booking rich guy Donald Trump, who has hosted twice, once during his own presidential campai...
The Mosquito Coast Is a Slow Burn That Ultimately Pays Off: Review
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-28T15:00:30+00:00“>April 28, 2021 | 11:00am ET The Pitch: Allie Fox (Justin Paul Theroux)– an ambitious yet incredibly flawed man — goes on the run with his family as government agents zero in on their location. Along the way, they find that peril comes in many forms and the consequences may outweigh even the loftiest ambitions. This seven-part series, adapted from Paul Theroux’s 1981 novel of the same name, highlights man’s flaws as well as the unrelenting power of the environment. The Unseen Friend and Foe: While the series may be about civilization’s own imperfections, it’s hard to miss the presence of Mother Nature. Throughout each episode, viewers are transported to stunning...
Pose Closes with an Emotional, Iconic Finale in Season 3: Review
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-27T17:10:42+00:00“>April 27, 2021 | 1:10pm ET The Pitch: Several years have passed since we’ve checked in with the stalwart, fierce queens of the House of Evangelista; it’s 1994, and the drag scene — and their lives — have changed in numerous ways. Gone is the underground feel of the ballroom, replaced by younger generations who look for cash prizes before a feeling of community, and HIV/AIDS continues to rip through New York City’s queer population like a plague. Blanca (Mj Rodriguez) juggles house motherhood with a new career as a nurse’s aide and a stable relationship with a handsome doctor (Hollywood‘s Jeremy Pope). Pray Tell (Billy Porter), meanwhile, drowns the sorrows...
Netflix’s Yasuke Brings New Flair to the Samurai Anime: Review
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-26T20:50:17+00:00“>April 26, 2021 | 4:50pm ET The Pitch: Yasuke (LaKeith Stanfield) isn’t your typical feudal samurai warrior, and no one will let him forget it: He’s Black. During an age of honor, tradition, and uniformity, the infamous Black Samurai’s high rank makes him a target in a world full of bigotry. But after a lifetime of pain and blood, all he wants to do is live peacefully. Unfortunately for him, that doesn’t seem to be what fate has in mind. Based on the historical figure of the same name, Yasuke follows the samurai as he abandons retirement to help transport a mysterious, magical child (Maya Tanida) to safety. The series combines the creative vision of LeSean Thoma...
Big Shot Scores While Relying on Familiar Sports Tropes: Review
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-19T21:30:25+00:00“>April 19, 2021 | 5:30pm ET The Pitch: It’s The Mighty Ducks with high school girls’ basketball instead of hockey, as an hourlong TV show instead of a movie. Another Underdog Story: That pitch may seem reductive, but Big Shot really doesn’t have much on its mind — at least in the three episodes made available to critics — aside from being a redemption story with youth sports as the backdrop, as a plucky, young team turns its prospects around thanks to a new coach who doesn’t really want to be there. A major difference is in the ages of the students. Whereas the original Mighty Ducks were pre-teens, the players here are teenagers, thus enabling co-creator David E...
Mare of Easttown Shows the Emotional Labor of Caregiving: Review
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-18T22:20:33+00:00“>April 18, 2021 | 6:20pm ET The Pitch: Mare Sheehan (Kate Winslet) is a local hero in the titular small Pennsylvania town. Twenty-five years after making the game-winning shot in a high school basketball tournament, she’s now a police detective and local savior of sorts. But community faith in Mare is beginning to wane as she has not been able to find Katie Bailey (Caitlin Houlahan) a young mother who disappeared and is presumed dead. The murder of another young mother on the one-year anniversary of Katie’s disappearance reignites the cold case and plunges Mare into a word of dark cruelty and impossible choices. Craig Zobel’s new HBO miniseries is a dour, but re...
Netflix Strikes Reality Television Gold with Season Two of the Trendy, Bubbly The Circle: Review
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-18T19:50:25+00:00“>April 18, 2021 | 3:50pm ET The Pitch: Against all odds, in one of its many, many endeavors to try and become the premiere destination for streaming content, Netflix has ended up as one of the most surprising forces in reality television. Between the national treasure/’90s revival Queer Eye, the Malibu moguls on Selling Sunset, and the charmingly inept Nailed It, Netflix hosts a remarkably diverse array of reality shows at its viewers’ fingertips. There’s one reality series, though, that rises above the rest — the rare bird that’s not only a great reality show, but a timely, vibrant one with a truly exciting premise. I’m talking, of course, about The Circle, whi...
Netflix’s Dad Stop Embarrassing Me! Falls Short as a Hip Family Sitcom: Review
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-14T23:51:28+00:00“>April 14, 2021 | 7:51pm ET Meet the Family: Before Netflix’s new sitcom Dad Stop Embarrassing Me! premiered today, early trailers provided high hopes for the premise. At an initial glance, the series — created and starring comedian Jamie Foxx as Brian Dixon — revolved around a widowed father attempting to catch up with his Gen-Z daughter, Sasha (Kyla-Drew). Sure, it relied on a common-but-true trope of young women viewing their aging, out-of-touch parents as humiliating, but it also appeared to highlight impactful and sweet moments between them. Foxx’s relationship with his daughter, Corinne, now 27, served as the inspiration for the show’s scenes. While Corinn...
Them: Covenant Explores the Horror of Suburban White Supremacy: Review
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-09T18:16:56+00:00“>April 9, 2021 | 2:16pm ET The Pitch: Henry Emory (Ashley Thomas) wants a piece of the American Dream. After a brutal tragedy, he and his wife Lucky (Deborah Ayorinde) move their two daughters Ruby (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and Gracie (Melody Hurd) across the country for a fresh start. But the promise of this dream hides a cruel and violent foundation of racism, and the Emory family faces resistance immediately upon arrival at their new home in an all-white LA suburb. Led by housewife Betty Wendell (Alison Pill), the neighbors embark on a vicious campaign of harassment to drive the Emory’s out. But there are malevolent forces working from within the house as well ...
