TV Reviews
House of the Dragon Episode 4: The Worst People in Westeros, Ranked
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for House of the Dragon, Season 1 Episode 4, “King of the Narrow Sea.”] Game of Thrones was a show that became famous for the shades of grey to be found in its heroes and villains alike, and so far the prequel series House of the Dragon has shown every indication of following in that proud tradition. Thus, Consequence is happy to introduce Who’s the Worst Person in Westeros, a weekly ranking of House of the Dragon‘s most important characters, and just how unsavory they ended up being each week. Everyone on screen, including dragons, is eligible for this list (though expect for the show’s series regulars to be heavily featured from week to week). Advertisement Episode 4, “King of the Narrow Sea,” is especially full of misdeeds, as a homecoming...
Reboot Review: An Uneven but Entertaining Hollywood Satire
The Pitch: A reboot is considered to be a death knell in the current entertainment landscape, a clear indicator of a risk-averse industry out of original ideas and desperate to recycle old ones to save themselves from major financial loss. Most reboots simply pander and rehash their concepts in order to satisfy their fanbases. Once in a blue moon, though, resurrecting a piece of intellectual property can actually lead to something subversive, a chance to fix poorly aged elements or find fresh, new stories to share with contemporary audiences. Enter young indie filmmaker Hannah Gilman (Rachel Bloom), who wants to reboot the (fictional) 2000s multicam sitcom Step Right Up for Hulu. Instead of repeating all the original’s broad, Full House-inflected humor, however, Hannah envisions the new se...
With Its Season 4 Finale, What We Do in the Shadows Confirmed It’s a Legend In the Making
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers through the Season 4 finale of What We Do in the Shadows, “Sunrise, Sunset.”] Some comedy series premiere in a blaze of glory before eventually losing some of their luster — the joke of the premise wasn’t enough to sustain more than five episodes, or the writing of Season 2 never lived up to the promise of Season 1. Which is why it’s so satisfying to watch the Season 4 finale of What We Do in the Shadows and know that this is a series that’s well on its way to becoming an iconic tentpole for FX. FX isn’t a network known for hasty cancellations, with many of its shows running for as long as the creators want to keep doing them (meaning four seasons for Atlanta, and infinity seasons for It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia). But it was still eye-o...
Showtime’s American Gigolo Is More Sad than Sexy: Review
The Pitch: Male prostitute Julian Kaye’s leisurely life of bedding wealthy older women and driving nice cars around southern California is suddenly disrupted when he’s framed for the murder of a client. It’s the role that made Richard Gere a household name in Paul Schrader’s 1980 film American Gigolo, but in Showtime’s new series of the same name, Julian is played by Jon Bernthal, the sensitive tough guy who’s become a burgeoning sex symbol in his own right with a string of memorable TV roles in The Walking Dead, The Punisher, and this year’s We Own This City. Julian, who has no memory of the night of the murder, confessed to the killing, and was sentenced to 15 years of prison. After Detective Sunday (Rosie O’Donnell) uncovers evidence that exonerates him, though, Julian is a free man who...
Cobra Kai Strikes Hard Through an Operatic, Over-the-Top Season 5: Review
The Pitch: As the Bard once wrote, things are rotten in the San Fernando Valley. Under the mentorship of obscenely wealthy karate villain Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith), Cobra Kai won last year’s All-Valley tournament — due in no small part to Silver’s illegal intervention. Plus, Silver’s money has given the dojo a facelift, and he plans to expand its no-mercy ethos to kids all over the country. Moreover, he’s framed former sensei Kreese (Martin Kove) for assault, leaving him unfettered control over the dojo while his mentor rots in prison. Our heroes aren’t exactly equipped to combat him, either: The loss at All-Valley months prior has broken Daniel LaRusso’s (Ralph Macchio) spirit, driving him further into paranoid obsession over Silver’s influence on his life. Johnny Lawrence (Willi...
House of the Dragon Episode 3: The Worst People in Westeros, Ranked
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for House of the Dragon, Season 1 Episode 3, “Second of His Name.”] Game of Thrones was a show that became famous for the shades of grey to be found in its heroes and villains alike, and so far the prequel series House of the Dragon has shown every indication of following in that proud tradition. Thus, Consequence is happy to introduce Who’s the Worst Person in Westeros, a weekly ranking of House of the Dragon‘s most important characters, and just how unsavory they ended up being each week. Everyone on screen, including dragons, is eligible for this list (though expect the show’s series regulars to be heavily featured as we progress). In “Second of His Name,” we go on arguably the worst family road trip since that Vacation remake where Chris ...
Steve Carell and Domhnall Gleeson Square Off In FX’s Riveting Psychothriller The Patient: Review
The Pitch: Psychotherapist Alan Strauss (Steve Carell) is a man in the grips of mourning — not just for the recent loss of his wife (Laura Niemi) to cancer, but also for his strained relationship with his son Ezra (Andrew Leeds), whose choice to become an Orthodox Jew has drawn a deep rift against his more liberal Jewish father. But Alan receives the challenge of a lifetime in the form of Sam Fortner (Domhnall Gleeson), a new patient who seems cagey, mysterious, and unable to truly open up. Turns out, that’s because Sam is a serial killer, one desperately searching for a way to stamp out his compulsions, and he hopes that Alan’s expertise can help. In classic serial-killer fashion, that means kidnapping Alan, chaining him to the basement of his mother’s remote house out in the woods, ...
Welcome to Wrexham Review: Watching Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds Buy a Sports Team Is Damn Compelling
The Pitch: English: PitchAmerican: FieldWelsh: Traw In 2020, Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds bought a Welsh football team. Neither of them had ever been to Wales before taking such an enormous leap, let alone Wrexham. Nor had either of them ever followed the English football league, let alone the fifth-tier Wrexham Red Dragons. And yet, they saw some real potential both in the club (which is the third oldest football team in the world and the oldest professional club in Wales — they even play at the Racecourse, the oldest international football pitch in the world, est. 1807) as well as in the residents of Wrexham. Potential for historic sporting success, sure, but also the potential for an incredible story. And so they started making this docuseries. And then they bought the club. (Y...
Echoes Review: A Fascinating Story Gets Undermined by a Thirst for Twists
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers through the Season 1 finale of Echoes, “Falls.”] The Pitch: What if two adult identical twins swapped places every year, unbeknownst to everyone in their lives? Such is the premise of Netflix’s Echoes, a show that opens on a shrewd and successful author named Gina (Michelle Monaghan), who lives an exceedingly normal life in an austere Los Angeles mansion with her doting therapist husband, Charlie (Daniel Sunjata). Living in Mount Echo, a modest farm town halfway across the country, is Gina’s identical twin sister, Leni, a ranch owner with a hearty southern drawl and permanently braided hair. Every year on their birthday, Gina and Leni switch places for a year, unbeknownst to anyone else: From their accents to their devoted husbands to Leni’s ...
House of the Dragon Review: A Beautifully-Made History Lesson From an Ugly Fictional World
The Pitch: Perhaps you are a carbon-based life form with an Internet connection and/or cable TV subscription, and thus are aware of the existence of a little show called Game of Thrones, which for a few years there was pretty dang popular. Well, here’s some more of it! Specifically, here is House of the Dragon, HBO’s prequel/spinoff that does not involve Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, but does hope to capture the imagination of an ever-fickle viewing public. To that end, we return to King’s Landing 172 years before the birth of Daenerys Targaryen (House of the Dragon is very specific on this point), where Daenerys’ ancestors still hold the very familiar-looking Iron Throne. Though we begin with the line of succession in flux, as a ruler without heirs has to make a choice...
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Is as Funny, Charming, and Occasionally Awkward as Its Heroine: Review
The Pitch: What if there was a lady… who was also a Hulk? And also a lawyer? Yeah, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law pretty much tells you exactly what the show is from the start. Quite literally, in fact: The newest Marvel series to come down the Disney+ pipeline features newly minted meta-human Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) speaking directly to the audience about how her life recently got upended by an accidental exposure to her cousin Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo)’s blood. Because Jen and Bruce are related, Jen’s able to survive the sudden infusion of gamma particles into her system, and she also manages to get a handle on being a Hulk with a working human brain relatively quickly. But while she’s learning control over her new persona (with the advantages and disadvantages that accompany it)...
The Undeclared War Is a Prescient But Ponderous Cyberthriller: Review
The Pitch: It’s 2024, and a post-Brexit Great Britain faces a general election beset on all sides with misinformation, anti-government grievance, and stark division on all sides. What’s more, a foreign cyberattack hits the country’s Internet access, hitting everything except social media. Luckily, it hits the same day 21-year-old student Saara Parvan (newcomer Hannah Khalique-Brown) starts her work placement stint at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the UK’s first defense against cyberterrorism. She quickly figures out how to disable it, and even finds a second exploit that would have further crippled England’s infrastructure. It’s a hollow victory, though, as the young Muslim woman struggles to fit into the “tediously male, stale, and pale” organization even after her im...
