Review: Who would have thought that a hoax would be as much fun as the real thing? While networks have tried reality shows that use fakery and tricks, going back to FOX’s Joe Millionaire, and even prank shows like Candid Camera, 2023’s Prime Video series Jury Duty took things to a new level. Structured as a criminal trial, everyone other than the central character in the show were actors. Star Ronald Gladden experienced the bizarre, surreal events, including movie star James Marsden as a fictionalized version of himself, as if they were really happening, which only added to the hilarity of seeing him try to keep it together. Featuring familiar faces like Kirk Fox and Lisa Gilroy, the series was a huge success, garnering multiple awards and nominations at the Emmys and Golden Globes. With the twist revealed, how could the series return for a second season? The answer is to change the venue, setting, and circumstances entirely, while keeping the central twist that everyone is in on the hoax except for one person. Jury Duty Presents Company Retreat delivers the same kind of humor as the original series, but with a style closer to sitcoms like The Office, resulting in a very funny continuation of the winning formula.

The eight-episode second season of Jury Duty takes place at a small company called Rockin’ Grandma’s Hot Sauce, run by Doug (Jerry Hauck), who is retiring and handing the reins of CEO over to his business school-dropout son, Dougie Jr (Alex Bonifer). As head of HR, Kevin Gomez (Ryan Perez) is preparing for the annual company retreat and hires a temporary worker, Anthony, to serve as his assistant. Anthony is open and excited to work at the company and is not put off by the documentary crew filming the events. In this day and age of everything being recorded, suspicions seem relatively low among the young employee who is there to work, regardless of the strange things happening around him. As Anthony joins Kevin for the week-long retreat, things quickly go sideways as HR violations, faux pas, office romances, and more come together as the Rockin’ Grandma employees put on a great show of seeming like a real company.

Company Retreat uses the remote setting of the title event to create sitcom situations, but in a realistic environment. Anyone who has worked in a professional setting understands that there are people you connect with and people you are forced to tolerate. There are bosses who are nice to work for and others who are the bane of your existence. NBC’s The Office figured out these dynamics and mined them for comedy, and Company Retreat does the same thing. While everyone in the first season played strangers pulled together for jury duty, the cast of season two has to convincingly play long-time coworkers while also convincing Anthony that they are not actors. Through the season, Anthony plays along and even adds a major amount to the narrative that would not have worked with anyone else. Because Anthony is game, the season works so much better, and the cohesive ensemble made me forget multiple times that this is not a real company, even when things get way stranger than you would think they could, including plot twists, cameos, and a satisfying pair of final episodes.

Moving from three rooms in a courthouse to an expansive set that includes multiple buildings, locations, and a vast outdoor area makes Company Retreat logistically impressive compared to its predecessor. It also helps that the cast has some talented actors who you may recognize from other shows. No one is nearly as recognizable as James Marsden was in the first season, but the authenticity everyone brings makes this feel like a believable workplace. With scripts in place outlining where the writers wanted the series to go, they had to adapt along the way when either Anthony did not do what they expected or the story’s natural evolution demanded it. Factoring in a potential merger between Rockin’ Grandmas and another company or characters, every episode of this season builds on what came before it and presents like a fully scripted series, but one where you cannot expect the central figure to do what you expect. Had I not known the conceit behind this series, I would have enjoyed it just as much as a sitcom. In fact, it works better as a successor to The Office than the spin-off series, The Paper.

Created by The Office writers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupinsky, Company Retreat follows the formula of the NBC sitcom the pair wrote fifteen episodes of, including the fan favorite “Michael Scott Paper Company”. Eisenberg and Stupinsky used their experience to craft the concept of Jury Duty, but the team that developed season two really invested in making it feel authentic by drawing on what fans loved about Dunder-Mifflin’s cast of characters while also making Company Retreat feel realistic. Jake Szymanski (Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates) directed the entire first season and returns to oversee all eight episodes of the sophomore run. The illusion of the series is maintained throughout, letting the viewer feel as if the truth could drop at any moment and reveal to Anthony that he is actually inside a television show. Because they keep it moving all season naturally, once the truth is revealed, it is incredibly funny to watch and surprisingly heartfelt. I won’t spoil how this season ends, but I enjoyed it a lot more than I did the first time around.

Jury Duty won over audiences by being incredibly funny and twisting the idea of a sitcom by using the tools and techniques of reality television. Company Retreat doubles down by taking the strongest elements of one of the most influential sitcoms of all time and melding it with the formula of Jury Duty. Company Retreat is one of the funniest shows so far this year, and it works way better than I was expecting. The entire cast does a fantastic job of being believable as coworkers, friends, and adversaries, and audiences will connect with each of them. Watch every episode of this season, and you will enjoy yourself with the last pair of episodes better than the entire first season on their own.

Jury Duty Presents Company Retreat premieres on March 20th on Prime Video.

Jury Duty Presents Company Retreat

GREAT

8

The post Jury Duty Presents Company Retreat TV Review: A real person gets stuck in a reality show version of The Office appeared first on JoBlo.

Review: A few months ago, I tried reading the first volume of Tadashi Agi‘s Drops of God manga, and I must confess, I could not get into it. I found an inherent snootiness in the writing, with descriptions of the wine that went overboard, giving the book an air of pretentiousness I couldn’t stomach. So, when I heard Drops of God was getting a new anime adaptation, I didn’t think much about it. However, when a screener for the first episode crossed my inbox, I decided to crack open a bottle of 2022 Anubis from Caduceus Cellers I’d been holding onto and give it a swish.

To my surprise, Drops of God went down smooth. Under Yu Mitsuru’s pen, the first episode of the series forgoes the arrogance I’d found in the manga, replacing it with passion for presenting wine as a spirit with a rich history, and characters who are as interesting and mysterious as the lengths some will go to when hoping to discover the perfect bottle. Instead of feeling out of my depth (after all, I know next to nothing about wine), I found this version of Agi’s story charming, and immediately considered giving the manga another shot.

In Drops of God, Shizuku Kanzaki, the blood-related son of the world-renowned wine critic Kanzaki, finds his world turned upside-down when his father unexpectedly dies of pancreatic cancer. In Kanzaki’s will, he establishes a contest between Shizuku and Issei Tomine, a skilled wine expert whom Kanzaki adopted one month before his death. With his 12 billion yen wine collection, property, and other assets hanging in the balance, Shizuku and Issei must locate 12 bottles of mythical wine from across the globe to win their father’s fortune.

While Issei uses his training and years of expertise to identify wine, Shizuku relies on memory, his nose sniffing out notes and ingredients like a god-tier sommelier awakened from a deep slumber. When Shizuku inhales the wine, he’s transported to another time and place. To depict this transportation, the animation team uses beautiful, fractal artwork that’s a cross between a kaleidoscope of stained glass and all the fancy labels you see on wine bottles at your local liquor store. The effect is gorgeous, dazzling, and wholly appropriate, given the show’s subject matter.

From their first meeting, Shizuku and Issei establish a fun rivalry that I’m interested in watching evolve as the series continues. While others look down on Shizuku for his lack of wine knowledge, Issei knows not to underestimate his opponent. Meanwhile, the first episode introduces Miyabi Shinohara, a sommelier-in-training who recognizes Shizuku’s uncanny ability to identify ingredients with his powerful sense of smell. Miyabi is adorable, observant, and encouraging. She’s everything Shizuku needs to boost his confidence and hone his skills. I like Shizuku and Miyabi’s chemistry so far, and the duo’s willingness to help one another despite only knowing each other for a short while.

I don’t think Drops of God will be for everyone, but I think it has potential to become one of this year’s best anime dramas. It’s self-serious, which adds an undercurrent of hilarity to the circumstances. Still, it also instills an appreciation of wine making, one of humankind’s oldest methods of getting sloshed and sharing stories with others. In my experience, what makes wine special is its history. Each seed, every grape, comes from a different part of the world. Everything matters when you’re making wine: the grapes, the soil, the sun, the vintage. It all adds up to an experience that differs with every bottle. I hope that the rest of Drops of God is as delicious as this first episode. Salude!

Drops of God

GOOD

7

The post Drops of God Review: The Anime Adaptation of Tadashi Agi’s Wine-Centric Manga Goes Down Smooth for a Taste of Animated Drama appeared first on JoBlo.

Review: When I was young, I believed in magic. Without too much investigation, I became convinced that Muppets operated by sheer will, their movements and speech the result of conjuring animation with unknown forces. I didn’t know about the puppeteers. The raised sets. The back pain. Eventually, magic became an unattainable bit of whimsy, confined to cinema and to magicians who obscured their tricks. In Coco’s world, magic is a secret, something ordinary people cannot be allowed to touch, lest we all pay for the consequences.

Director Ayumu Watanabe‘s adaptation of Kamome Shirahama’s Witch Hat Atelier is like a fairy tale come to life, with Coco’s journey marked by redemption, curiosity, and temptation. She wants to learn magic fast, to undo the damage she’s caused by accidentally casting a forbidden spell. She’s an ordinary girl, but the witch who takes her on as an apprentice, Qifrey, believes she can achieve far more. Together, alongside a group of other young witches-in-training, Coco and Qifrey work to uncover the origin of the book Coco used to cast the taboo spell.

The overall look of Witch Hat Altelier is compelling and beautiful. I meant it when I said the show looks like a fairy tale book come to life, with animation sequences that rival the attention to detail of a Studio Ghibli feature. The bulk of Witch Hat‘s design is clean, serene, and tranquil. However, Wantanabe peppers the show’s overall look with sequences that mimic the manga’s art, giving something back to fans while treating audiences to a different style, tone, and almost woodcut look. The change is not subtle, but fleeting, becoming a fun visual treat that gives specific lore drops a unique presentation.

I immediately took to Coco (voiced by Rena Motomura), whose desire to explore magic is admirable and genuine. She desperately wants to be a part of the mysterious world beyond the veil of ordinary understanding. Still, when she finally gets a taste and the spell backfires, Coco can’t help but feel ashamed and afraid. This reluctance leads to Coco having a challenging relationship with magic, both as an ordinary person and someone whose previous attempt at creating magic caused harm. To fix her mistake, she’ll need to learn, but the odds, and even those meant to show her the way forward, are keeping things from her. All these elements make Coco a fun character to follow throughout the story, making her journey complicated and fraught with self-doubt.

Meanwhile, Mr. Qifrey reminds me of Howl (voiced by Natsuki Hanae), from Howl’s Moving Castle, but with soft-touch professor energy. He’s stern with Coco, but fair. She’s meddling in things beyond her understanding, and that makes her dangerous. Instead of taking a hard approach to her education, Qifrey trusts Coco and instructs his other students, Agott (Hibiku Yamamura), Tetia (Kurumi Haruk), and Richeh (Hika Tsukishiro), to aid her in her studies. It’s a nice change of pace when compared to the well-trodden trope of “reluctant professor begrudingly trains inept student.”

It’s early in the series, though I could envision myself as a fan of Agott, Tetia, and Richeh. Each young witch-in-training brings something different to the table. Agott is moody and competitive, but also temperate and aware of his experience over Coco. Agott’s jealousy and distrust of Coco will eventually lead to something tragic, but I don’t know that for certain. On the other hand, Tetia is a ball of energy who adores the idea of having a new student in the house. She wants to ask questions, shout, play, eat good food, and share her love of magic. I couldn’t help but warm to her right away. Then there’s Richeh, my favorite of the bunch. Richeh is your prototypical sleepy/goth character. She’s laid back, always sounds like she’s half-awake, and her dialogue is a mixture of keen observation and low-key snark. I often find myself drawn to this type of character. They make me laugh, and they’re usually hiding more power than they let on. I can’t wait to see what Richeh can do.

Witch Hat Altelier is off to a fantastic start. The story is tragic and intriguing, while the art is gorgeous, comforting, and engaging. I like that the animators add “a little extra sauce” to the presentation for more dynamic sequences, but reserve the added flair for select moments. It’s not too much of a good thing. It’s just right. Makes it special when it happens. As long as the animation remains on point and the story continues to grow in spellbinding ways, I could see Witch Hat Altelier becoming a fan favorite among anime fans, much like Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is becoming a big part of conversations this year. More, please!

Witch Hat Altetier

GREAT

8

The post Witch Hat Atelier Review: The anime adaptation of Shirahama’s manga is a compelling tale of forbidden magic and redemption appeared first on JoBlo.

Review: If you are wondering what The Comeback is and how it is already on its third season, you have missed out on one of the best comedy series of the last twenty-five years. Created by Friends star Lisa Kudrow and Sex and the City creator Michael Patrick King in 2005, The Comeback originally chronicled a reality-show comeback for sitcom actress Valerie Cherish, played by Kudrow. The first season became a modest hit, airing on HBO after Entourage, but was unceremoniously cancelled. After making countless lists of the decade’s best shows, The Comeback returned for a second season in 2014, which was met with critical acclaim. Now, twelve years after season two, Kudrow and King have reunited for the third and final season that takes aim at the current state of small-screen programming and the looming spectre of artificial intelligence. Loaded with cameos and smart dialogue, The Comeback makes its triumphant return, and it is so much better than we could have wanted.

Season three begins in 2023 with Valerie Cherish (Lisa Kudrow) splitting with her longtime documentarian, Jane Benson (Laura Silverman), who sees no point in continuing to record the sitcom actress. Left with her social media intern, Patience (Ella Stiller), Valerie heads to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, where A.I. was the hot topic of contention. The series then shifts to 2026, where Valerie struggles to find any consistent work while her husband, Mark (Damian Young), is filming a reality show about finance bros. Valerie’s publicist and manager, Billy Stanton (Dan Bucatinsky), lands the actress a project at the recently reformed television conglomerate NewNet, where new CEO Brandon (Andrew Scott) offers her the lead in a sitcom written entirely by artificial intelligence. Signing an NDA and earning an executive producer credit, Valerie sets off to try to make A.I. scripts sound funny. Working double duty as cast and producer, Valerie must navigate this new frontier of television while trying to create the most traditional project: a multi-camera sitcom.

The eight-episode third season of The Comeback shifts a bit away from the entirely found-footage style of the first two seasons. Blending handheld mobile phone footage, documentary crews, and traditionally filmed sequences, this season is as hilarious as the first two but with a very timely edge about the growing paranoia and anxiety around A.I. in the workplace. By using a similar formula to the first season of The Comeback, which saw Valerie at the cutting edge of the reality television genre, this season takes us behind the scenes of a typical studio audience sitcom, but one with a secret technology at its core. With showrunners Abbi Jacobson and John Early, as well as old friends returning from prior seasons, the set of Valerie’s new show, How’s That?, is a chaotic experience for the veteran performer. New additions to the cast include Tim Bagley, Matt Cook, Barry Shabaka Henley, Brittany O’Grady, and Zane Phillips, as well as cameos from famed sitcom director Jim Burrows (Frasier, Friends), who plays a fictionalized version of himself.

While I appreciated the first two seasons, this third season is the best the series has been. The humor is fantastic and plays to Lisa Kudrow’s strengths as an actress, drawing on a character she created at the Groundlings before starring on Friends. Kudrow is a gifted performer, and she gets to evolve Valerie Cherish from being a self-absorbed diva to something much more interesting here. Valerie has always wanted fame, success, and acclaim, and this season of The Comeback gives her more to do across the entire production of her sitcom, as we see her grow. There are also several dramatically tinged moments that refer back to events from previous seasons and to the hole left by the passing of Valerie’s longtime friend and hairdresser, Mickey (Robert Michael Morris). These smaller, emotional moments are embedded within the larger comedy of the season narrative, which follows the sitcom from inception to release and all of the challenges in between. This includes a ton of famous actors playing themselves and fictional characters throughout Valerie’s final journey back to the limelight.

Series creators Michael Patrick King and Lisa Kudrow shared credits on the first two seasons, along with a writing team, with King also helming several episodes. This season finds the duo serving as the primary writers on all episodes, with King directing. There is a very clear structure to this season that works as a standalone for anyone who has not seen the first two seasons, while also providing a satisfying level of closure to subplots and relationships that go back to the very first episode. It is amazing that a series of fewer than 30 total episodes spread over three decades can connect so satisfyingly. That is a testament to King and Kudrow, who never lose sight of the story they are trying to tell, while keeping the focus on Lisa Kudrow as a performer. Kudrow is such an underrated actress, and The Comeback is a showcase for every ounce of her talent. The entire cast is great, especially Damian Young and Dan Bucatinsky, who are the main supporting players, but this is Kudrow’s show, and she owns it from start to the perfect final scene of the finale.

Other recent films and series have tackled the presence of A.I. in Hollywood, but none have done so as deftly and hilariously as The Comeback. While A.I. is a major factor in the third season’s plot, The Comeback uses the technology as a plot device without actually using it to create the story. It is at once an indictment of the potential replacement of human writers and a haunting, Black Mirror-esque cautionary tale, but told in a deeply funny television series. Lisa Kudrow’s performance as Valerie Cherish will go down as one of the best characters in contemporary television, and The Comeback has now wrapped up one of the most solid shows of all time. The Comeback is a funny insider look at the world of Hollywood and television, but it is also just a really enjoyable character-driven series that will have you laughing the entire time.

The Comeback premieres on March 22nd on HBO.

The Comeback

GREAT

8

The post The Comeback Season 3 TV Review: Lisa Kudrow returns to blend reality TV and A.I. in the long-awaited final series appeared first on JoBlo.

Review: It should come as no surprise that the new season of Invincible is as good as the three that came before it. A rarity in any format, Invincible is a mature, hour-long drama that is also hilarious, brutal, sexy, profane, and brilliant, and it showcases excellent animation and some of the best voice acting today. Based on the long-running comic book by Robert Kirkman, Invincible‘s fourth season finally reaches the long-awaited showdown between Earth’s heroes and the intergalactic empire that opposes them in the most epic run of story the series has had to date. Led by Steven Yeun, Gillian Jacobs, and J.K. Simmons, who are all as good as ever, the fourth season of Invincible adds a bunch of new talent to the ensemble for a season that proves this is the series that can change any of the holdouts not wanting to take a cartoon seriously and give them a reason to tune in.

The core story of Invincible has centered on Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun) coming to terms with the superpowers he inherited from his alien father, Nolan Grayson, aka Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons). When the world’s most powerful superhero was revealed to be an alien sent to conquer Earth, it led to massive battles in which Mark, known as the hero Invincible, fought his father and saved the world. As the first three seasons progressed, Mark came to terms with the weight of being a hero in a series of high-stakes story arcs that eventually led to a showdown with Conquest (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) at the end of the third season, with Mark deciding he would kill, but only for the right reasons. This set up what fans of the comics have been waiting for and the central element of this season: The Viltrumite War. Viltrum, Omni-Man’s homeworld, has been a looming threat since the series began, and now fans get to see what this series has been heading towards for years.

While the third season of Invincible was excellent, it was more introspective, with Mark rebuilding his life after coming to terms with his father’s true identity. At the same time, Nolan’s understanding of what he loved about his wife, Debbie (Sandra Oh), and his son served as the start of a redemption arc for a seemingly unredeemable character. This season finally pairs Mark and his father against the Viltrumites while also tackling other villainous threats, while juggling the interpersonal drama between the main characters and the overall ensemble. This does mean that the first several episodes of this season are spent treading water a bit as subplots are tied up, leading towards the large-scale action coming to the planet. We get to see various relationships, including those between Debbie and Paul (Cliff Curtis) and Mark and Eve (Gillian Jacobs). Eve, who lost her powers at the end of the previous season, is dealing with her own set of challenges, which causes a rift with Mark, and the pair tries to navigate it, but it is one of the least interesting parts of the series. In fact, some of the strongest moments this season involve supporting players like Mark’s half-Thraxan brother, Oliver (Christian Convery), who has aged up to a teenager.

Robert Kirkman’s series has long benefited from a massive cast of veteran voice performers, including John DiMaggio, Mark Hamill, Fred Tatasciore, and Kevin Michael Richardson, alongside recognizable screen talents such as Andrew Rannells, Walton Goggins, Zachary Quinto, Clancy Brown, Sterling K. Brown, and Seth Rogen. This season adds a bunch of new guest actors, including Lee Pace as Thragg, Djimon Hounsou as Space Racer, Danai Gurira as Universa, and Matthew Rhys as Dinosaurus. Rhys is probably the most anticipated new addition, with fans awaiting the dinosaur warrior whose interactions with Mark are highlights of the season. The blend of comic book action with behind-the-mask drama has long been one of Invincible‘s defining characteristics, showcasing the prestige drama quality the series offers more than you might expect from an animated series. But the massive cast also leads to a challenge in giving the narrative the proper balance across the eight-episode seasons.

Having only seen the first six episodes of the fourth season, I noticed the continuing trend from prior seasons that finds Mark a bit whinier than he needs to be, with his moody nature sometimes detracting from the story’s momentum. There is also the challenge that series creator Robert Kirkman is adapting his own comic book and is trying to fit a lot of story into a small number of episodes. Each of the four seasons of Invincible has been eight episodes long, and it sometimes feels like the story could use a couple more chapters each year to give the story room to breathe. The concern is that Kirkman and his writing staff don’t always use the time to their advantage, with the balance between subplots and the core narrative often at odds. Still, Invincible looks far better than many animated series, with the writing of a higher caliber than some live-action series, including other superhero series airing. Overall, there is far more to enjoy in this series than there is to complain about.

The fourth season of Invincible continues to deliver some of the highest-quality storytelling out there, live-action or otherwise. Steven Yeun, J.K. Simmons, and Gillian Jacobs, along with the massive returning ensemble, and newcomers that keep this series feeling on par with the best shows on any platform. The battle-heavy focus this season and the focus on the long-developing war with intergalactic bad guys take this series to a new level, with the already confirmed fifth season poised to have one hell of a new bar to reach. Invincible is a series that continues to redefine how superhero and comic book tales can be adapted while preserving the tone, feel, and style of the page. This is one of the smartest and funniest shows out there, and this may be the best season yet.

Invincible premieres with three episodes on March 18th on Prime Video.

Invincible

GOOD

7

The post Invincible Season 4 TV Review: The animated series goes to intergalactic war and it was worth the wait appeared first on JoBlo.

Review: As someone who has been a fan of Taylor Sheridan’s work for years, I have grown tired of his formula in his recent series. The oversaturation of Yellowstone has led to diminishing returns for what was once television’s premiere franchise. With Sheridan’s last few series achieving hit-or-miss results with the recent CBS spin-off Marshals all but shooting Yellowstone to put it out of its misery, the super-producer is back with his new project, The Madison. Originally billed as a potential spin-off of Yellowstone, I can thankfully say this series is not only distinct from the Dutton family legacy but also completely different from any other Taylor Sheridan series to date. The six-episode first season of The Madison is being released in two batches of three episodes each and will surprise fans hoping for cattle-rustling, body-disposing, and law-breaking subplots that Yellowstone became synonymous with. Instead, The Madison is a gut-wrenching emotional portrait about love and family in the face of adversity and turmoil. Taking the best dramatic beats of his previous projects and grounding it in drama rather than melodrama, The Madison is the best series Taylor Sheridan has created yet.

Unlike any other Taylor Sheridan-produced series, The Madison is not about crime, violence, revenge, or anything truly illicit. The Madison centers on Stacy Clyburn (Michelle Pfeiffer) and her husband, Preston (Kurt Russell). Married for over forty years, the Clyburns have risen to the heights of wealth and live in luxury in New York City with their daughters, Abby (Beau Garrett) and Paige (Elle Chapman). A staple of the social elite, the Clyburns spend time apart through the year when Preston stays in remote Montana with his brother, Paul (Matthew Fox), on a ranch with no indoor toilet and sparse amenities. Stacy, not an outdoorsy type, stays in contact via phone and video chat with Preston but maintains the divide between Madison Avenue and Madison County, Montana. When a tragedy strikes the family, the Clyburns relocate to the Montana ranch to try to pick up the pieces. This, of course, takes the family out of their comfort zone and forces them to reassess what truly matters in their lives.

Through these first six episodes, there is a clear difference between the Clyburn family and the Dutton clan from Yellowstone. While the Duttons were born and bred in Montana, the Clyburns are outsiders who embrace the wide-open sky country to varying degrees. Stacy begins to open herself to appreciating what Preston and Paul love about Montana, which allows Michelle Pfeiffer to deliver one of her most impressive performances. Stacy Clyburn must contend with an emotional weight from all sides in this series, and Taylor Sheridan has crafted a character that gives Michelle Pfeiffer a chance to embrace a full range of emotions, always authentically and believably. Kurt Russell serves as the bridge between the city and the expansive ranch, playing Preston as a sage, wise father and husband, while Matthew Fox portrays Paul as fully embodying the Montana lifestyle and eschewing the comforts of urban life. Fox and Russell are solid as siblings, but it is the chemistry between Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell that anchors The Madison in the same way that Beth and Rip served as the romantic core of Yellowstone, but in this series, that vitality and love are paramount to what makes it easy to care about The Clyburns.

As easy as it is to like Pfeiffer, Russell, and Fox, it is a bit more challenging with the younger members of the family. Having only experienced lives of privilege, the shift to Montana is jarring for Abby, Paige, and their families. Abby (Beau Garrett) comes to Montana with her two daughters, Bridgette (Amiah Miller) and Macy (Alaina Pollack). Divorced, Abby has always been supported by her parents and is trying to start over out west. Younger daughter Paige (Elle Chapman) travels with her husband Russell (Patrick J. Adams) and is one of the hardest characters to like in this series. It is always enjoyable to watch rich people deal with adversity, as we enjoyed in Succession and similar shows, but the Clyburn children and grandchildren try the audience’s patience as much as they stress Stacy and Preston. But their collective journey is at the core of The Madison and those they meet in the new world of Montana, including neighbor Cade Harris (Kevin Zegers) and his wife, Kestrel (Danielle Vasinova), as well as local sheriff’s deputy Van Davis (Ben Schnetzer). The locals are all welcoming of the Clyburns, but the cultural differences between the locals and the New Yorkers are played partially for laughs, but never to the point of turning this into a dramatic take on Green Acres. There is also a nice guest turn from Will Arnett that continues the comedic actor’s shift to dramatic roles. There is an authenticity in this journey that clicks from the outset.

Taylor Sheridan, who wrote all six episodes of the first season, has reconnected with the majestic presence that made Montana a character in its own right rather than just a setting in Yellowstone. The poetic and lyrical beauty of Montana is a major element of this series, drawing inspiration from the late Robert Redford’s film A River Runs Through It, which factors into the first episode of The Madison. Sheridan opted not to direct The Madison, instead turning the reins over to frequent collaborator, Christina Alexandra Voros. Voros helmed multiple episodes of Yellowstone, 1883, Lawmen: Bass Reeves, and the upcoming The Dutton Ranch. Her approach to capturing the natural landscape of Montana is balanced by her crisp capture of New York City, with the dichotomy between the two main settings informing the tone and development of the characters. Voros’s experience translating Taylor Sheridan’s writing is an advantage in bringing The Madison to life, but she does not rely on the same formula we have seen before. From the score by Yellowstone veteran composer Breton Vivian to the cinematography, The Madison looks and feels like a wholly new dimension of Taylor Sheridan we have never seen before.

The Madison works as well as it does because it is nothing like Yellowstone. Taylor Sheridan has crafted a story about conflict that is devoid of criminal violence, but other forms of violence can wreak havoc on people. This series relies on the core themes of family, romance, and trauma, not for entertainment, but to showcase the depths of perseverance and resilience in the face of the hardest experiences people can go through. I had started to think that Taylor Sheridan was only capable of soap operas, crime thrillers, or a blend of the two, but The Madison has redeemed him in a way I did not expect. This is a touching drama that will hit you emotionally and gut-wrenchingly, but will also leave you wanting to take stock of your own family and relationships. The Madison is a journey that is worth investing in and leaves enough threads open to keep you wanting to come back for more when season two debuts.

The Madison premieres on Paramount+ with three episodes on March 14th.

The Madison

AMAZING

9

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Review: David E. Kelley has been a staple of television storytelling since he got his break writing for L.A. Law in the 1980s, before breaking out with Doogie Howser, M.D., and Chicago Hope. With The Practice andAlly McBeal to his credit, Kelley segued into more mature storytelling with Big Little Lies and The Undoing for HBO as well as Presumed Innocent for Apple TV. Kelley’s latest project is the adaptation of the best-selling novel Margo’s Got Money Troubles, featuring Elle Fanning, Nick Offerman, and Kelley’s wife, Michelle Pfeiffer. A blend of comedy and family drama, Margo’s Got Money Troubles is premiering at SXSW before it hits Apple TV in April, and we got a chance to check it out. Boasting a phenomenal cast, the series is a new benchmark for Elle Fanning, who has transformed from a talented child actor to one of the most dynamic performers in Hollywood. Combining timely subject matter with staying true to the source material, Margo’s Got Money Troubles is a great addition to the Apple TV library.

Elle Fanning plays Margo Millet, a talented college freshman with aspirations to be a writer. When her literature professor, Mark (Michael Angarano), praises her work, the two begin a romantic affair that leads to Margo getting pregnant. Keeping the child, Margo must contend with being a single mother with no steady income. That is when Margo discovers OnlyFans, and her financial issues may be solved. But exposing yourself physically and emotionally comes with all sorts of repercussions, which Margo must face alongside her blended family, including her mother, Shyanne (Michelle Pfeiffer), and her estranged father, former pro wrestler Jinx (Nick Offerman). What follows over the eight-episode series is a story that is both profoundly funny, emotional, and relatable, even if you are not a fan of, well, OnlyFans. Chronicling motherhood in the twenty-first century from the vantage of a new generation of parents, Margo’s Got Money Troubles is a beautifully written ode to new parents and their parents.

While Elle Fanning is no stranger to nudity in her films, it is jarring how much we see her nude in Margo’s Got Money Troubles. The twenty-seven-year-old has been in revealing roles in The Neon Demon and The Beguiled, but this series treats the sexually provocative nature of sex work as an art form rather than pornography. That means that while there is an erotic angle to the nudity on display, it is portrayed frankly and just as much for laughs as it is as a turn-on. It also helps that Margo is a realistic character who navigates the pitfalls of being a single parent, along with the stress of scrambling to make ends meet while also dealing with her estranged parents. Michelle Pfeiffer, sporting veneers and a tight-fitting dress, plays Shyanne as a reluctant grandparent preparing to marry church president Kenny (Greg Kinnear). Keeping her drinking and promiscuous ways a secret, Shyanne wants to protect Margo from the same mistakes she made when she was younger. Enter Jinx, who recently got out of rehab and was not around for Margo’s childhood. Now looking to make up for it, Jinx serves as a manny to his grandson while also pining for the missed opportunity he had with Shyanne. Fanning, Pfeiffer, and Offerman all play well off of one another, and all three have an effortless family dynamic that lets you root for them because you deeply care for them from the very beginning.

While the focus is squarely on Elle Fanning as Margo and her parents, the entire cast gets plenty of room to shine. Michelle Pfeiffer has a solid combination of very different roles hitting the air around the same time, between this and The Madison, two showcases for her talents. Nick Offerman, known mostly for his comedic work, is underrated as a dramatic actor, with this character ranking alongside his turns in Devs, The Last of Us, and last year’s Death by Lightning. The supporting cast is all great, with Thaddea Graham playing Margo’s cosplaying wrestling-fan roommate, Susie, and Rico Nasty and Anora’s Lindsey Normington playing Margo’s OnlyFans collaborators, KC and Rose. Marcia Gay Harden appears as Mark’s mother, Elizabeth, while David E. Kelley’s star from Big Little Lies and The Undoing, Nicole Kidman, plays Lace. I won’t spoil how Kidman factors into the story, but it is a fun change of pace for the acclaimed actress. The overall structure of Margo’s Got Money Troubles keeps each episode at about 30 to 40 minutes, keeping you engaged throughout. Most of the core supporting players get ample screen time along with some fun wrestling cameos that will keep the WWE fans entertained.

Based on the novel by Rufi Thorpe, Margo’s Got Money Troubles hails from David E. Kelly, who wrote three episodes and co-wrote two with Eva Anderson. Anderson wrote an episode solo, along with Boo Killebrew and Keiko Green. Some elements from the novel are rearranged or excised to improve narrative flow, but most of the series remains faithful to the source material. Director Dearbhla Walsh helmed four episodes, including the first and final chapters, with Loki helmer Kate Herron and Alice Seabright each directing two apiece. The opening credits feature a catchy remix of Robyn’s “Blow My Mind,” which sets the tone for this series. Produced by A24, Margo’s Got Money Troubles is a timely series with an indie vibe and sensibility, and it’s easily enjoyed by all ages. The subject matter may be controversial for some, but David E. Kelley approaches it without judgment, unlike some of the characters in the story.

I was sold on Margo’s Got Money Troubles based on the trailer, but it was the earnest performances from Elle Fanning, Nick Offerman, and Michelle Pfeiffer that kept me coming back for more. Each chapter is engaging, sweet, and makes you feel good, even when you start to feel bad when things go wrong for the characters. The series finale manages to upend expectations by offering a happy ending, but not a flawless one. I know that Margo’s Got Money Troubles is designed as a limited series that covers the events of the novel, but this could easily be a cast of characters worth revisiting to see where they go next. David E. Kelley has experience expanding source material into ongoing shows (Big Little Lies), but if the story of Margo and her money troubles ends here, it will have been a satisfying journey.

Margo’s Got Money Problems premieres on April 15th on Apple TV.

Margo's Got Money Troubles

GREAT

8

The post Margo’s Got Money Troubles (SXSW) TV Review: Elle Fanning plays a single mom on OnlyFans in this comedy-drama appeared first on JoBlo.

Review: Patricia Cornwell’s mystery novels featuring medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta have been perennial best-sellers since the first book, Postmortem, hit bookshelves in 1990. With twenty-nine books published over thirty-five years, it is surprising that it has taken this long for the character to get adapted for screens. After attempts by Demi Moore and Angelina Jolie failed to reach the big screen, Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis have finally adapted the novels into a streaming series. Produced by Blumhouse and created by Liz Sarnoff, Scarpetta is not a straight adaptation of the Cornwell novels but instead uses the source material to create a wholly original story that stays true to the title character and the supporting players fans of the books have been waiting to see on screen. Scarpetta is an interesting blend of storylines set in both the past and the present as it tackles a shared mystery spanning almost three decades.

Scarpetta introduces audiences to the titular character, who is a Chief Medical Examiner in Virginia. Having returned to the state after years in Boston with her husband, Benton (Simon Baker), Kay Scarpetta (Nicole Kidman) arrives just as a dead body is found matching a similar murder the doctor investigated twenty-eight years earlier. As the eight-episode first season unfolds, the story of the past and present investigation unfolds simultaneously in each episode. In the early 1990s, the rookie medical examiner is played by Rosy McEwen, who does a solid job of emulating Nicole Kidman both physically and performance-wise. We also meet Scarpetta’s friend, retired detective Pete Marino, played by Bobby Cannavale in the present and Jake Cannavale, Bobby’s son, in the past. Kay’s sister, Dorothy Scarpetta, is a major factor and foil for Kay. Jamie Lee Curtis plays her in the present with Amanda Righetti in the past. Kay’s niece, Lucy Farinelli-Watson, is played by Ariana DeBose, with Savannah Lumar taking on the role in the past scenes. Hunter Parrish portrays the younger Benton. Each character has connections between the two cases, which evolve our understanding of the relationships with each new chapter.

For fans of the books, the mystery set in the 1990s follows the first Scarpetta novel, Postmortem, pretty closely, down to the names of the victims and the prime suspect, Matt Petersen, played by Graham Phillips and Anson Mount. But while the past storyline features characters from the novel, like reporter Abby Turnbull (Sosie Bacon), state’s attorney Bill Boltz (Mike Vogel), and others, the motives and core mystery at play are original to the series. This allows the two time periods to evolve almost like parallel series that could have been released as distinct shows with distinct casts, but the blending of past and present gives Scarpetta a distinct feel unlike any other procedural or mystery series. It also helps that while both casts are very good, the present-day ensemble is one of the best you could ask for. Nicole Kidman has been playing a wide range of roles over the last several years, but Kay Scarpetta is unique. A trained medical doctor and lawyer, Scarpetta’s past has helped shape her into a hard-nosed investigator, but one who will do whatever it takes for justice. That can sometimes lead her down a path you would not expect a heroic protagonist to take, but it works. Kidman brings an edge to her portrayal of the main character, who must balance the most disturbing of cases with the stress of her complicated home life.

What makes Scarpetta unique beyond the blended story across two different time periods is the family dynamic. Mixing up the chronology of the books, Scarpetta heavily focuses on Kay’s adversarial relationship with her sister, Dorothy. Jamie Lee Curtis chews the scenery as the loud and brash Italian-American Dorothy whose daughter, Lucy, was taken in by Kay when she was a child. In the current story, Ariana DeBose plays Lucy as a recently widowed tech entrepreneur who is mourning her wife and obsessed with an A.I. program of her. This causes a rift amongst the family as Dorothy and her husband, Pete, and Lucy are living with the newly relocated Scarpetta and her husband. Under one roof, the stress is at a maximum and it gives a levity to moments in the series that are otherwise bleak, violent, and disturbing. Add in Benton’s work with a unit of the FBI where he is partnered with Sierra Patron (Anna Diop) and there are a lot of characters to track in multiple time periods.

Created by Liz Sarnoff who also wrote the series alongside Matthew Zucker and Iturri Sosa, Scarpetta pulls from Sarnoff’s extensive experience writing for marquee series including NYPD Blue, Deadwood, Lost, and Barry. Sarnoff knows procedurals, drama, and handling multiple timelines as well as anyone and it shows in this series. There are no prompts to the shifting time periods with past and present following each other from scene to scene. But, it never gets confusing as the narratives complement each other naturally and inform one another. It also helps that David Gordon Green handles directing duties on multiple episodes including the premiere and finale. Best known for directing a trilogy of Halloween movies as well as comedy series The Righteous Gemstones and Vice Principals, Green shows a proficiency in handling the darkness of Scarpetta with some of the lighter moments of familial strife. Green is joined by Shogun and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power director Charlotte Brandstrom who combine to give Scarpetta a cinematic look.

With all eight episodes dropping at once, Scarpetta is a solid binge that will keep you guessing from the first episode to the last with a final scene that will have viewers waiting to find out what the hell just happened. A second season seems to be a foregone conclusion with a powerhouse duo of Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis anchoring this long-awaited series. Patricia Cornwell’s novels have been giving a unique adaptation that will please long-time fans as well as those tuning in based on the cast alone. I was not expecting to like this series as much as I did with the two leads delivering on the trailer with the unique blend of time periods setting Scarpetta apart from any other mystery or procedural series on today. Scarpetta is a perfect example of an adaptation done right by keeping the core of what makes the books so popular but remixing it in a way that keeps everyone ont heir toes for what could come next. Whenever a mystery is solved and I didn’t see it coming, that is a good sign that the series is worth checking out.

Scarpetta premieres on March 11th on Prime Video.

Scarpetta

GOOD

7

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Review: Who needs Disney to resurrect its Pirates of the Caribbean franchise when we’ve got One Piece? For my money, Netflix‘s adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s legendary series displays all the best parts of a rollicking pirate adventure, then washes it down with a swallow of rum, zany characters, impossible powers, and a treasure chest filled with lessons about friendship, camaraderie, and surrendering to the unknown. After a knock-out first season, released in 2023, One Piece returns as Luffy (Iñaki Godoy), Nami (Emily Rudd), Roronoa Zoro (Mackenyu), Usopp (Jacob Romero), and Sanji (Taz Skylar) head for the Grand Line, an expanse of ocean of mythical proportions, where the One Piece treasure lies in shadow.

The word that I keep returning to while trying to describe One Piece: Season 2 is impressive. From the jump, it’s crystal clear that Netflix, along with the help of Tomorrow Studios, believes in One Piece as something worth pouring some money into. Not to knock Netflix’s output, but more often than not, it feels like they cut corners while presenting other programming with abysmal lighting, too much/shoddy CGI, and cliffhanger endings that go nowhere when the streamer decides to cancel a series after its first season. One Piece: Season 2 is the polar opposite of that, with every aspect of the show coming off as a point of pride, with spectacular, practical set design, inspired costumes, and whip-smart writing across the board. Even the CGI is precisely what it needs to be when used sparingly and to significant effect.

While One Piece: Season 2 is a visual spectacle, it’s the spirited performances by every cast member that make this installment of the franchise a fun, memorable, and lively experience. Every actor involved with Netflix’s One Piece understands the assignment. Everyone plays their roles with such gusto and unabashed love for the source material that, at times, I forget I’m watching a live-action version of the beloved anime. The new season includes plenty of Easter eggs for fans, deep cut character introductions, villainous guest spots, and surprises that keep you on your toes, never knowing who or what could show up next.

The core cast continues to entertain, with Godoy, Rudd, and Mackenyu clearly having lots of fun as Luffy, Nami, and Roronoa Zoro. Godoy is practically bursting at the seams as Luffy. At the same time, Rudd does an excellent job breaking down Nami’s walls as she embraces her new life as an essential member of the Straw Hat crew. Mackenyu gets to slice and dice like never before, especially during a scene akin to The Bride fighting the Crazy 88 army in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol. 1.

Still, the spotlight shines even brighter on Jacob Romero and Taz Skylar as Captain Ussop and Sanji, respectively. While I enjoyed Ussop in the first season, his character had yet to come into his own. In the new season, Romero works wonders to make Ussop a more enjoyable character to follow and root for as he sorts out his insecurities and finds his inner pirate warrior. Meanwhile, Skylar brings depth and sincerity to Sanji in the new episodes. I’ve always liked Sanji, but he’s even better here, particularly when an act of poisoning threatens Nami’s life, and he becomes a concerned caregiver for his dear friend.

Rounding out the Straw Hat gang this season are Charithra Chandran as Miss Wednesday and Mikaela Hoover as the voice of Tony Tony Chopper. Chandran adds some much-needed femininity to the Straw Hat crew. She’s mysterious, cunning, and in awe of the Straw Hats’ dynamic. She desperately wants to be part of their gang, but her commitment to her people keeps her from living her own dream. Miss Wednesday gradually lets her guard down, becoming a strong member of the group, and the show is better for her contributions. At the same time, Tony Tony Chopper is a fun, fan-favorite addition to the group. Chopper is a reindeer who ate a Devil Fruit, transforming him into a walking, talking, transforming ally and would-be doctor. Hoover is excellent as the voice of Chopper, while the character, with his tragic backstory, brings more drama to the deck. One episode of the season tells Chopper’s origin in great detail, a tale that’s equal parts dark and endearing.

Adding to the sophomore season’s deluge of fan-favorite characters are Lera Abova as Nico Robin/Miss All Sunday and David Dastmalchian as Mr. 3. Abova is a scene-stealer if I’ve ever seen one. With her ability to teleport her limbs (even through flesh and blood), Nico Robin saunters through the new season of One Piece like a runway model on fire, her attitude and unnerving power striking curiosity and fear into all who gaze upon her beauty. Meanwhile, Dastmalchian chews the scenery as Mr. 3, a demented villain whose talent for creating art with “unbreakable” wax. Dastmalchian plays Mr. 3 with an unhinged swagger that gives pompous as much as it gives dangerous. He’s the type of villain who will try monologuing you to death before his hubris leads to his downfall.

There are almost too many inspired performances to highlight, such as Mark Harelik and Katey Sagal as Dr. Hiriluk and Dr. Kureha, respectively. Both actors are featured prominently in the Tony Tony Chopper-centric episode, with Harelik playing a doctor searching for a cure-all while caring for a young Tony Tony Chopper. At the same time, Sagal’s Dr. Hiriluk is a witchy booze hound with a more stern approach to her profession. Harelik and Sagal nearly steal the episode from Chopper, though all three work together in concert to present a heartfelt origin story for one of the franchise’s most beloved characters.

The second season of Netflix’s One Piece is epic, sprawling, and offers more variety than the first regarding character introductions, jaw-dropping set pieces, and imaginative ways of recreating Oda’s legendary creation in live-action. The show never shies away from its anime roots, choosing to revel in One Piece‘s swashbuckling silliness, extreme sense of style, and powerful messages of optimism, adventure, and making your dreams come true. Hollywood often portrays pirates as crude, covetous villains of the high seas, but One Piece flies a different Jolly Roger, one that stands for exploration of strange lands, forging of unbreakable bonds, and limitless possibilities in the face of the impossible and strange. I can’t get enough of this series, and hope that Netflix continues to believe in it as much as Luffy does in his dream of one day becoming the King of the Pirates.

One Piece

AMAZING

9

The post One Piece: Season 2 Review – The Straw Hat Gang’s Journey Along the Grand Line is Everything a Pirate Adventure Should Be appeared first on JoBlo.

Review: Bill Lawrence is on a hot streak these days. With Ted Lasso, Bad Monkey, and Shrinking all hits for AppleTV, the Scrubs creator went back and revived his beloved medical sitcom just a few weeks ago and is now poised to deliver yet another instant classic, this time for HBO. Partnering with frequent collaborator Matt Tarses, Lawrence’s new series, Rooster, has the same heart and soul as his aforementioned sitcoms, with a great cast at its core. Led by Steve Carell, Rooster also features Scrubs star John C. McGinley, Ted Lasso‘s Phil Dunster, Danielle Deadwyler, and Connie Britton along with newcomers Lauren Tsai and Charly Clive who all inhabit, Ludlow College, a fictional New England liberal arts college that serves as the setting for bestselling author Greg Russo to experience higher education at a very different phase in his life than you would expect. Relatable and, above all, funny, Rooster is really good.

Steve Carell stars as Greg Russo, a best-selling author of popular fiction novels, who gives a talk at the same university where his daughter (Charly Clive) works. There to check up on her after her husband Archie (Phil Dunster) left her for another woman, Greg is offered a job by Walter Mann (John C. McGinley), the college’s president, to serve as writer-in-residence for the semester. Greg, who is divorced himself and looking for a chance not only to help his daughter but also to shake himself out of his midlife doldrums, takes the semester-long job and moves to campus. Greg never attended college, so his experience now as a teacher, parent, and single guy is put to the test as he navigates modern higher education and its pitfalls. This creates many obstacles, some of which are far more complex than you might expect. But they all share the same wit and authenticity we have come to expect from Ted Lasso and Shrinking.

Having seen the first six episodes of the eight half-hours that comprise the first season, I loved every minute of Rooster. Steve Carell has long been one of the funniest actors working and manages to balance his dramatic side with his comedic timing masterfully. Carell plays Greg as a relatable guy who wants the best for his daughter but doesn’t always know how to let her fail safely on her own. Through the series, Greg learns to let Katie be on her own, even as she gets into her own complex emotional knots. Charly Clive is a great choice as Katie is very much like her father, and both parent and child get themselves into some crazy situations. Whether it be a fire, a fight, or a human resources violation on campus, both Carell and Clive are great on their own or when Greg and Katie present a united front. The supporting cast is very good to boot, with Danielle Deadwyler playing Dylan, another professor who befriends Greg and must navigate campus politics. Phil Dunster, who was brilliant as Jamie Tartt on Ted Lasso, plays a very different but equally charming role here alongside Lauren Tsai as Sunny.

As he tends to do, John C. McGinley delivers a standout performance as Walt, the quirky college president who is a friend and mentor as well as a boss to most of the ensemble. McGinley is forever associated with playing Dr. Cox on Scrubs, and Walt is very much like that role. Both characters are blunt and honest while harboring a deeply supportive core. McGinley is always a treat to see in comedic roles, and his long association with Bill Lawrence helps them maintain consistency in their collaborations. There are minor roles from Connie Britton, Annie Mumolo, and Alan Ruck, as well as Steve Carell’s wife, Nancy Walls, that round out this ensemble. There are also fun roles for newcomers, including students on campus, that add to the depiction of a New England institute of learning. Memorable students include Tommy (Maximo Salas), who is a fan of Greg’s novels, and Ronni (Sophia Macy), who is not. Comedian Robby Hoffman is a fun addition as Sunny’s roommate. All of these actors, newcomers and veterans alike, make up an ensemble without a weak spot.

Created by Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses, who also serve as writers on the series, Rooster is directed by Jonathan Krisel. Best known for creating the brilliant Zach Galifianakis series Baskets, Krisel captures the odder elements of the characters in Rooster without overplaying them. There are small moments that pepper the quirkier side of this series, but they never overshadow the natural awkwardness of situations. Krisel takes the writing from Lawrence and Tarses and lets it play out with the actors’ charisma and energy, without hitting you over the head with cues to laugh. Rooster has another enviable soundtrack full of deep-cut songs, classic tracks, and contemporary music that would make for a fantastic mixtape. Bill Lawrence’s sense of humor has always been welcome on television, and I am glad to see yet another great project getting a major release, this time on old-fashioned HBO, where it will be a solid one-two punch with DTF St. Louis on Sundays.

Rooster is another winning comedy from HBO and represents another investment the cable network makes in mature storytelling from the best talent. Bill Lawrence’s roster of shows across platforms is an impressive mix of shows about finding the funny in the dramatic. These shows work because they never pander or rely on artificial scenarios to build the comedy; instead, they find it in what makes us all deeply flawed human beings. Steve Carell is a unique actor who can play a silver fox in equal measure with a clumsy dork and still make us laugh as much as we empathize. Rooster could have turned into a college romp about sex, drugs, and discovering yourself. Actually, it is all of those things, but it does it without turning into a mockery of itself. Rooster is another great show from one of the top television creators working today.

Rooster premieres on March 8th on HBO.

Rooster

AMAZING

9

The post Rooster TV Review: Steve Carell and Bill Lawrence deliver another winning HBO comedy appeared first on JoBlo.

Review: While it has been over a decade since directing his last feature film and four years since his underrated science fiction series The Orville went off the air, Seth MacFarlane has found a balance in his trademark brand of humor showcased in animated projects like Family Guy and American Dad, with a heartfelt nostalgia for 1990s sitcoms with Ted. A prequel to his hit movies starring Mark Wahlberg, the first season of Ted was a hit for Hulu despite the hefty cost of creating a series with a CGI lead character. Back for a second run of eight episodes, Ted is just as hilarious as ever and continues to combine the cutaway gag approach of MacFarlane’s animated shows with a hefty dose of classic sitcom shenanigans. This season of Ted is every bit as good as the first season, with some fun surprises along the way.

Ted follows a very loose narrative about young John Bennett (Max Burkholder), a high school senior living in Framingham, Massachusetts, with his best friend Ted (Seth MacFarlane), a teddy bear that John wished to life. After a Hollywood success came crashing down, Ted moved home with John and his parents, Susan (Alanna Ubach) and Matty (Scott Grimes). The Bennett family also took in Matty’s niece, Blaire (Giorgia Whigham), who is a liberal college student who often butts heads with Matty. Aside from appearances by some family members and the dynamic amongst the Bennetts, most of Ted is episodic, with each half-hour working as a standalone that can be watched in any order. This season features episodes about 900 numbers, adultery, sexual incontinence, and lots of weed. Ted himself gets to have a sexual relationship this season, along with multiple complex schemes that get John and Ted into all sorts of trouble at school and at home.

In almost every way, Ted the series plays like a live-action Family Guy. Each episode features at least one scene of John and Ted one-upping each other with profanity-laced pop culture jokes, as well as an increased use of non-sequitur cutaway jokes. The gags always start with someone making a reference before it happens on screen. While Family Guy tends to take these to an extreme, Ted incorporates them into the real world a bit better. Something new this season is also my favorite episode of the show to date: the third episode, “Dungeons & Dealers,” which centers on John and Ted playing Dungeons & Dragons alongside their family. The episode shifts between the characters playing the role-playing game in their basement and a full production of the characters in fantasy regalia fighting monsters and elements from the iconic game. Like Seth MacFarlane’s animated odes to Star Wars, this is a fun twist on the comedy formula and shows the potential for what a crass comedy could look like with swords and sorcery.

This season includes guest stars from other Seth MacFarlane projects, including a mini-reunion from The Orville. While Scott Grimes starred on the FOX series, his co-stars Penny Johnson Jerald and Peter Macon appeared as characters at the local high school. Everyone continues to hit the high notes for their characters with Grimes playing Matty as an Archie Bunker-esque lout, Alanna Ubach as the sweet but naive Susan, and Giorgia Whigham as the smart and independent Blaire. Max Burkholder continues to portray John Bennett as a lovable dork with his stoner attitude and teenage hormones, allowing his escapades with Ted to feel more juvenile and fun than they did on the big screen, with Mark Wahlberg aging out of such shenanigans. But Seth MacFarlane remains the scene-stealer. Ted is just as realistic on the small screen as he was in the feature films, and MacFarlane’s skill as a voice actor allows him to nail each and every joke. The use of profanity and sexual content is more blatant than in animated fare airing on network television, but Ted manages to push close to the line without crossing it.

Written by Aaron Lee, Dana Gould, Chelsea Davison, Julius Sharpe, and the showrunners, Paul Corrigan and Brad Walsh, Ted covers a lot of material spanning John’s senior year of high school. The flow of time is often irrelevant in this series, but there is a loose arc that follows the characters through the school year, with the last season set during John’s junior year. All eight episodes are directed by Seth MacFarlane, who also co-wrote a couple of episodes. There is a heavier dose of the 1990s this season with jokes referencing everything from Bill Clinton and O.J. Simpson to the Pizza Bagels jingle and more. For anyone who grew up in the mid-90s, Ted is a love letter to the commercials, songs, and trends of the era, and struck me as far funnier than those younger than I am. You don’t have to be a product of the ’90s to appreciate this season, but it definitely will help you understand some of the deeper cut jokes. Nevertheless, Ted is chock full of jokes and references that will land for the majority of viewers, and I found myself laughing harder at this show than I have at any other Seth MacFarlane series in a long time.

What sets Ted apart from Seth MacFarlane’s other film and television work is the heart at its center. Where the Ted movies were about the eternal bond of male friendship, the series is more about family and growing up. While Family Guy and American Dad are also about family, Ted serves as a parallel to iconic sitcom families throughout the decades, told through the crass wit of Seth MacFarlane. I like spending time with these characters and knowing that they do not grow or evolve or permanently change after each half-hour is up, and they go right back to being their ridiculous selves in time for the next wacky situation. Ted is a funny series that should have been stupid, but, like the movies, it defies expectations and delivers a show that cannot help but make you laugh, shake your head, and occasionally recoil in surprise before laughing a lot more.

Ted‘s second season premieres on March 5th on Peacock.

Ted

GREAT

8

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Review: Pairing Jason Bateman and David Harbour as a pair of guys in their late forties who forge a new friendship looked like a match made in comedy heaven based on the trailer for DTF St. Louis. Midlife crises and adultery have been fodder for films and shows before, but with two actors who can handle comedy and drama in equal measure as they plumb the depths of toxic masculinity, it is boosted by showrunner Steve Conrad, who has a penchant for taking audiences in directions they may not be ready to venture. Co-starring Linda Cardellini, Richard Jenkins, and Joy Sunday, audiences are not ready for where DTF St. Louis is going, but I am not entirely sure I know where that final destination will be. Nevertheless, the journey is just starting to get interesting.

Set in suburban St. Louis in 2018, DTF St. Louis introduces us to local weatherman Clark Forrest (Jason Bateman), who befriends newly hired sign language interpreter Floyd Smernitch (David Harbour) when Floyd pulls Clark out of the way of getting killed by a flying stop sign during a live report of a tornado. The two men could not be more different. Clark is a local celebrity who lives with his wife and two daughters in relative comfort. Floyd is struggling financially and emotionally with his wife, Carol (Linda Cardellini), and with forging a bond with his stepson, Richard (Arlan Ruf). When Clark confides in Floyd that he heard about a new app called DTF St. Louis, the new friends decide to confide in each other about pursuing extramarital affairs. The wrinkle that Steve Conrad adds to the mix is within the opening minutes of the series, we learn that Clark and Carol are having an affair and that Floyd ends up dead at a local swimming pool. What follows is a mix of murder mystery and examination of the challenge of being an adult stuck in middle age.

As St. Louis detective Donoghue Homer (Richard Jenkins) and suburban special crimes officer Jodie Plumb (Wednesday‘s Joy Sunday) begin to unravel clues as to how Clark, Floyd, and Carol were interconnected, DTF St. Louis unfurls a web of lies and misdirection that keeps you guessing from one episode to the next. Having seen four of the seven episodes of this series, each of which clocks in close to a full hour, it is difficult to pinpoint where this story is going. The trailer does a great job of making you think you are in for a black comedy version of the Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis comedy Hall Pass, but DTF St. Louis feels closer to the Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson film, Friendship. This is a stark drama with a bleak sense of humor that often borders on the surreal. You will laugh as much as you cringe at some of the things in store during this series that are underplayed in such a way that you cannot help but laugh. David Harbour, who packed on weight for the role, often wears ill-fitting clothes that expose his gut or chest, yet the actor brings a physicality to playing Floyd that works within the show’s context. A running joke about Carol dressed as an umpire, and Clark’s recumbent bicycle, is just a teaser of the strangely hilarious feeling of this series.

With each successive episode of the series, DTF St. Louis defies expectations and is constantly shifting what you think is happening and the motivations behind the actions of the main characters. At its core, this series is about the tenuous friendship between Clark and Floyd and the rift it causes in just a few short months. By the end of the first episode, you may think you know where the story is going, and it takes a different direction in the next chapter. The satirical edge to the humor in DTF St. Louis is at odds with the heartfelt story at the center, which also clashes with the investigatory side of the narrative. Richard Jenkins and Joy Sunday play investigators from completely different generational backgrounds, and yet their conflicting approaches to solving crimes make them better partners than any of the romantic entanglements in this series. Sunday offers the most notable female presence, aside from Linda Cardellini’s Carol, a dual-layered character not dissimilar to the last several turns by the actress. Cardellini and Bateman are excellent here, balancing their different visages in public and private, while David Harbour remains a major factor in every episode despite his death in the premiere.

Creator and showrunner Steven Conrad wrote and directed the entirety of DTF St. Louis, a series that flies in the face of his more emotionally aspirational screenplays for The Pursuit of Happyness, Wonder, and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Conrad’s small-screen efforts, Patriot, Perpetual Grace, LTD., and Ultra City Smiths, teased some of the darker elements the writer/director had up his sleeve, but DTF St. Louis is a wholly different story that I did not expect from him. There is no rush in any of these episodes, which take their time to develop a creeping sense that something bad is coming, followed by something worse, and it almost always comes to fruition, but not in the way you might expect. There is a quirkiness to this series that feels authentic yet slightly off from reality, without ever venturing too far into anything that feels unrealistic. It is a strange balance that kept me from laughing out loud at the bizarreness of this story, and yet I could not stop watching. Jason Bateman, who has been on a creative roll as a director and producer, lends his support behind the scenes even though he never gets behind the camera.

DTF St. Louis is not the series I expected from the trailer, but it is also a perfect example of the under-the-radar brilliance HBO brings to the screen. Similar to The Chair Company, DTF St. Louis has the potential to be a breakout pop culture hit, and with each chapter creating a twistier and stranger mystery, I cannot wait to see where the story ends up. Because I am basing this review on the first four episodes, I am with you all in not knowing how this story will end, but Steven Conrad kept me laughing and nervous for four consecutive episodes, and I have no doubts it will continue through the final three. Jason Bateman, Linda Cardellini, and David Harbour are a perfect trio that somehow make DTF St. Louis the most uncomfortably sexy comedy series of all time.

DTF St. Louis airs Sundays on HBO.

DTF St. Louis

GREAT

8

The post DTF St. Louis TV Review: Jason Bateman and David Harbour are best friends in HBO’s hilarious dark new series appeared first on JoBlo.

Review: When it was first announced that Guy Ritchie would be executive producing and directing a series called Young Sherlock, I was prepared to explore the early days of the version of Holmes played by Robert Downey Jr in the pair of hit feature films. Based on a series of young adult novels by Andrew Lane, Young Sherlock is a new interpretation of the title character in his early twenties, before his successful career and partnership with Dr. John Watson. Boasting familiar characters like Lestrade, Mycroft Holmes, and James Moriarty, Young Sherlock is a fun and original take on Sherlock when he was a troublemaker and instigator before he had a full grasp on his skills as a private investigator. Featuring a charismatic Hero Fiennes Tiffin in the lead, Young Sherlock is one of the most fun takes on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary creation in a long time.

In the original Sherlock Holmes stories, the detective’s age is never specified, but the character states that he began his career during his undergraduate days. Young Sherlock centers on the nineteen-year-old Holmes (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) after a stint of petty crime forces his elder brother, Mycroft (Max Irons), to bail him out and send him to Oxford to work his way back into good standing. It is there that Holmes meets brilliant student James Moriarty (Donal Finn) and the pair instantly hit it off. They also meet visiting Chinese dignitary Princess Gulun Shou-an (Zine Tseng), a guest of Sir Bucephalus Hodge (Colin Firth), who is opening a new science building on campus. When a treasured artifact is stolen, and a murder occurs, Holmes is a suspect and teams up with Moriarty to clear his name, uncovering a complex mystery that connects to Sherlock’s past. Each of the eight episodes in this first season connects to a larger story, but the individual chapters keep you guessing as to what wrinkle could be uncovered at every turn, resulting in a fascinating and fun season.

By taking the story back to before we meet Sherlock Holmes, Hero Fiennes Tiffin is able to play with the character’s underdeveloped skills before he has honed himself into a master detective. Tiffin draws on trademark elements of other Holmes performances, such as the Mind Palace made famous by Benedict Cumberbatch’s portrayal in Sherlock and the impulsivity of Jonny Lee Miller’s version in Elementary. The younger Sherlock does not have the fighting skills we saw in Robert Downey Jr.’s big-screen interpretation, but Tiffin pulls it all together into a fresh performance. Where the classic stories hinge on the dynamic between Holmes and Watson, Young Sherlock presents an all-new pairing of Holmes and Moriarty before an event turned them into mortal enemies. The Wheel of Time’s Donal Finn delivers the best Moriarty since Andrew Scott’s brilliant performance by making the future professor Holmes’ equal. Tiffin and Finn spar beautifully as friends and partners, with several key sequences showcasing their one-upmanship and teasing trademark elements that connect Young Sherlock to the canon of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Of the legacy Holmes characters we meet, Max Irons’ Mycroft and a young constable named Lestrade, but the expansion of the Holmes family to include his mother, Cordelia (Natacha McElhone), and father Silas (Joseph Fiennes, Tiffin’s uncle), as well as a sister named Beatrice, gives new insight into the developmental side of Sherlock. Seeing the Holmes clan interact is a highlight of the series, but the ensemble cast is substantial and includes other famous faces. Colin Firth has fun as the pompous Bucephalus Hodge, while Zine Tseng (3 Body Problem) is phenomenal as a foil for Sherlock, both romantically and intellectually. Both Joseph Fiennes and Colin Firth appear in less than half of the season, but their presence is important to the plot. Both the elder and younger Fiennes get to share some pretty intense scenes together, but it never feels like stunt casting. Tiffin and Finn anchor the series, and a great cast brings something dynamic that keeps it from deviating from the core mystery.

While Guy Ritchie has become synonymous with his kinetic and heavily stylized approach to directing, Young Sherlock shares virtually no visual similarities with his Sherlock Holmes films. Of the eight episodes, Ritchie directed the first two, with Anders Engstrom helming the next three, and Dennie Gordon and Tricia Brock directing the remaining chapters. Ritchie has matured as a filmmaker and, in his reunion with Hero Fiennes Tiffin, having previously directed him in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, still has a pulse that keeps it from feeling like a stale period drama. There are moments in his episodes that use some of his trademark techniques, like stuttered editing, slow motion, and anachronistic music, but it is much more subtle than even in his previous small-screen project, Netflix’s The Gentlemen. Showrunner Matthew Parkhill drew inspiration from Andrew Lane’s Young Sherlock Holmes novels, but forges a wholly original glimpse into a period in Sherlock Holmes’ life we know virtually nothing about. It also blends the strongest characteristics of the Sherlock Holmes character and brings us how he grows into the legend.

In some ways, Young Sherlock feels like the Holmesian equivalent of the Star Wars prequels, showcasing a hero and a villain we previously only knew as one another’s nemesis. Taking things back to the origin of both Sherlock and Moriarty and centering on a relationship that rivals that of Holmes and Watson was a bold choice that works very well. I had a blast with this series that shifts from a kinetic Guy Ritchie project into a love letter and homage to the world of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, while keeping the period feel of Victorian England at its core, and modernizing the pulse with a modern flair. With a solid decade of space between where we find the character in this first season and when he finally comes into his own, the game is afoot for Young Sherlock to give us lots of mysterious adventures for seasons to come.

Young Sherlock premieres on March 4th on Prime Video.

Young Sherlock

GREAT

8

The post Young Sherlock TV Review: Guy Ritchie directs Hero Fiennes Tiffin in a reinvention of the classic character appeared first on JoBlo.

Review: Acting as the subject of a television series is not a new concept. The metafictional world of stage productions has blurred the line between reality and performance since the art form’s inception. The 1938 play Our Town by Thornton Wilder took it to the next level and has been regularly performed ever since. In the new comedy series American Classic, that stage play gets a new lease on life in the small town of Millersburg under the guidance of fallen actor Richard Bean, who rediscovers his roots and love of performance while encountering family drama along the way. Led by Kevin Kline in the lead along with Laura Linney, Jon Tenney, and many more, American Classic takes the small-town stage used to great comedic effect in shows like Schitt’s Creek and the film Waiting for Guffman, and blends it with a funny story about a family with theater in their blood as they try to save their hometown.

American Classic opens with Richard Bean (Kevin Kline) debuting his new Broadway production of King Lear, only to go viral and step away from New York City to wait out the bad publicity. Learning his mother has died, Richard returns to his Pennsylvania hometown for the funeral. His brother, Jon (Jon Tenney), runs the theater founded by their father, Linus (Len Cariou), and their late mother, Ethel (Jane Alexander), along with Jon’s wife, Kristen (Laura Linney), who used to be in a romantic relationship with Richard. While seeing his hometown struggling in the dire economic climate post-COVID, Richard decides to stage Our Town with local townspeople and his own niece, Miranda (Nell Verlaque), who wants to become an actor. Over the eight-episode series, Richard must figure out how to mount the production despite the obstacles in their path, while reconnecting with his family years after he let his fame get to his head.

Kevin Kline is perfectly cast as Richard Bean. Kline has a long and illustrious career on stage that eclipses even his acclaimed work in Hollywood. Here, he portrays Richard with an Olivier-esque accent and carries himself as if he were the greatest thespian of all time. His small-town roots betray his New York lifestyle, and it sometimes feels like a fish out of water returning to once again be the odd man out. Richard, as a performer, is clearly talented, and as the series progresses, Kline shows him re-engage with where he started as his production begins to come together. It also means that the relationships with his family members create additional strife, especially since Kristen also serves as the Mayor of Millersburg. With a real estate developer, Connor Boyle (Billy Carter), looking to buy property in the town for cheap and the town at risk of even staying in existence, Richard sees his play as more important than ever, much to the chagrin of his agent, Alvy (Tony Shalhoub), back in New York.

The Bean family is central to the story, with all three generations adding to the plot, but the ensemble of supporting cast members is a great expansion of the everyman approach Richard brings to his staging of the play. From casting doctors and local people in similar roles, Richard finds something magical to hone in on. There is also a hilarious performance from Elise Kibler as Connor Boyle’s girlfriend, Nadia Romanova, who is enamored with Richard and wants to be an actor herself. Jessica Hecht also appears as Richard’s ex-wife, Polly, and Stephen Spinella plays New York Times theater critic Xander with Aaron Tveit as his husband. Everyone adds to the story, which takes the play from the earliest stages of mood boards and set design through casting, rehearsals, and eventually the performance itself. Each half-hour episode flies by and makes for a breezy watch that will have you caring about every character, even the ones we would normally treat as antagonists. American Classic is less about the triumph over a villain and more about how a love and appreciation of the arts can help even a dying town thrive.

The series comes from co-creators Michael Hoffman (Soapdish, One Fine Day) and Bob Martin (The Prom), who wrote six of the eight episodes of the season, with Ellen Fairey scripting the other two. Hoffman reunites with Kline, whom he directed in the 1999 film version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Hoffman directs six of the eight episodes of the season, with Tricia Bock helming the other two. The small-town feel of the series lends a sense of realism to American Classic, with many of the actors feeling like natural performers plucked from the production location, including Ajay Friese, Joseph Morales, and Matt McGrath. There is potential for this series to continue for multiple seasons, with each year focusing on a new stage production out of the Millersburg theater owned by the Beans, thanks to the nice combination of actor and theater inside knowledge that Hoffman and Martin bring to the story, coupled with the charming feel of the series as a whole. From musical numbers performed by Tenney, Linney, and Kline to several full scenes performed from Our Town, American Classic lives up to its name.

American Classic is not just for fans of Broadway or stage plays. In fact, you don’t really need to know anything about musicals or acting to appreciate this story. American Classic is a nice comedy that boasts solid performances, especially from Kevin Kline and Laura Linney, who have excellent chemistry together. Michael Hoffman and Bob Martin pack a lot of story into these eight half-hour episodes, and the season ends at a point that left me wanting to revisit these people for another season. This is a low-stakes comedy that is fun and funny without needing to be edgy or crass, but does not shy away from profanity or mature subject matter. American Classic is one of the more enjoyable new comedies I have seen in quite some time, and I hope it sticks around for an encore.

American Classic premieres on March 1st on MGM+.

American Classic

GOOD

7

The post American Classic TV Review: Kevin Kline and Laura Linney lead a comedy about family and theater appeared first on JoBlo.

Review: As the dramatic saga of Yellowstone came to a close on screen and behind the scenes just over a year ago, the Taylor Sheridan-created series was poised to launch multiple spin-offs. From the Rip and Beth series, The Dutton Ranch, to the 1923 sequel titled 1944, and the tangential series The Madison, there are so many shows set to continue the story from where the 2024 finale left off for the powerful Montana family. The first series to hit broadcast, however, is the vastly different Marshals. Led by Luke Grimes reprising his role as Kayce Dutton, Marshals is the first Yellowstone series to debut on network television and will eschew the soap-opera dramatics of the original series, instead placing Kayce in a police procedural. If the idea of an NCIS or CSI-style Yellowstone series appeals to you, then Marshals will be right up your alley. As a fan of the Yellowstone franchise, I feel it is my duty to let you down easily and say that not only is Marshals the weakest series to bear Taylor Sheridan’s name, but it is also not a very good cop show.

At the end of Yellowstone, John Dutton (Kevin Costner) was dead, and Beth (Kelly Reilly) killed Jamie (Wes Bentley) in revenge before Rip (Cole Hauser) disposed of his body. Kayce (Luke Grimes) returned the Yellowstone land to the Broken Rock Reservation while keeping a parcel for his family to live on. As Marshals starts, Kayce is approached by his Navy SEAL commander, Pete Calvin (Logan Marshall-Green), who is running a team out of Montana at the behest of U.S. Marshal Harry Gilford (Brett Cullen). Reluctant at first, Kayce serves as a guide to Calvin and his team, comprising Andrea Cruz (Ash Santos), rookie Miles Kittle (Tatanka Means), and former ATF agent Belle Skinner (Arielle Kebbel). When a bomb is set off that impacts Broken Rock chairman Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham), Kayce is deputized and joins Calvin’s team to bring the criminals to justice. In typical procedural fashion, some bad guys are apprehended within the one-hour running time, and Kayce makes the decision to join the marshals full-time to help bring the rest to justice.

Only the first three episodes of Marshals were made available for this review, and it was immediately apparent that the lack of direct involvement from Taylor Sheridan results in a series that feels dissociated from Yellowstone. There are countless references to events from the main series and to the Dutton clan’s lingering reputation, including Marshal Harry Gilford stating he has a past with John Dutton that leaves him distrustful of Kayce. Each of the three episodes shares some overarching threads related to the bomb in the first episode, but the central storylines are standalone while pulling on elements from Yellowstone, such as the divide between ranchers and Broken Rock, the sale of the Dutton land, and acts by the Dutton family to skuttle an airport and hotel that would have brought jobs and money to Montana. There is also a direct connection to the dumping ground for bodies known as The Train Station that factors into the second episode. The series tries to show the two halves of Kayce’s life, which audiences can easily discern by his hat. If Kayce wears a cowboy hat, he is working his ranch and dealing with personal matters. When he dons a fatigue-colored baseball cap emblazoned with an American flag, he is in Marshal mode.

While each episode opens with a crime followed by an investigation, a shootout, or a chase, and eventual capture or death of a perpetrator. The episodes also try to show Kayce acclimating to his new job while using his Navy SEAL experience to unify his fellow marshals into a team. Yellowstone gave Luke Grimes the chance to show Kayce as someone who did not want to carry the burden of the Dutton legacy, and how he fought his instincts to be a killer or a criminal like his family members. Marshals undoes all of the character development as Kayce is now seemingly reconciled to kill without a second thought, as his body count is fairly substantial in just this trio of episodes. Grimes has moments interacting with Gil Birmingham and Mo Brings Plenty that call back to Dutton family history, and he gets to spout some cryptic dialogue about family, legacy, and honor, but so much of this series is reliant on formulaic cops-and-robbers storytelling that it does not resonate with what made Yellowstone so popular. I found myself shaking my head and rolling my eyes at the cliché stories in these first episodes and how repetitive it is to see the team gear up, kick ass, talk about it back at the office, shed some brief backstory on one another, and repeat.

The spin-off is created by showrunner Spencer Hudnut, who oversaw The Blacklist: Redemption and the seven-season Paramount+ series SEAL Team. Hudnut’s experience writing about military units and balancing their work and home lives is lifted right into Marshals while peppering in elements from the characters created by Taylor Sheridan and John Linson. Hudnut wrote the first episodes of the series with Dan Mazer, Abi Morgan, Tom Mularz, and Craig Thomas credited on subsequent chapters. Directors include Christopher Chulack (SEAL Team) and Greg Yaitanes (House of the Dragon). The production values are impressive for a network series and use the same Utah locations used for the first three seasons of Yellowstone. A lot of the look of Marshals aligns with the amount of money Paramount dumped into Yellowstone, but using the beautiful natural landscape of the American West for gunfights and car chases feels wasteful at best. The series tries to balance the Yellowstone dynamic by featuring moments of country music in bars and conversations about the region’s history, but it comes off as filler padding an otherwise generic series.

Marshals prominently features the signature Yellowstone insignia in all marketing, with every episode showing how indebted the series setting is to Taylor Sheridan’s flagship series, but there is little here that adds to the legacy of the show that inspired it. If anything, Marshals undoes the virtuous redemption Kayce Dutton achieved over the five seasons of Yellowstone and will leave dedicated fans scratching their heads over why. Marshals has the production values of a major project, but ranks nowhere close to any other series in the library of Sheridan-produced or created projects. Marshals will undoubtedly be a hit for CBS as audiences still flock to anything with the big Y logo emblazoned on it, but this show is a forgettable procedural that fits the brand of shows that CBS is known for, but does not capture what drew people to Yellowstone in the first place.

Marshals premieres on CBS on March 1st.

Marshals

BELOW AVERAGE

5

The post Marshals TV Review: Luke Grimes leads the Yellowstone franchise into the world of police procedurals appeared first on JoBlo.

Review: The idea of a small-screen series expanding on the big-screen Monsterverse sounded great, especially when it landed Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell playing the younger and older versions of the same character. But, despite Apple Studios providing a substantial budget, the first season of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters was a bit underwhelming. Focused more on the family secrets that connected half-siblings, Monarch had what amounted to mere cameos from Godzilla, and instead focused on giving us a lot of new creatures created just for the series. While the characters grew more interesting as the season went on, the finale promised a bigger sophomore run. Picking up from that cliffhanger, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is bigger and better in season 2, with Kong getting a good amount of screen time and a deeper understanding of the overarching Monsterverse mythology.

The first season of Monarch shifted between 2015 as Cate Randa (Anna Sawai) searched for her missing father, Hiroshi (Takehiro Hira), and discovered he had a second family in Japan. Joining her half-brother Kentaro (Ren Watabe) and his ex-girlfriend May (Kiersey Clemons), the trio runs afoul of Monarch agents hunting them and the files they believe their father has in his possession. They discover Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell), co-founder of Monarch, with Bill Randa (Anders Holm) and Cate and Kentaro’s grandmother, Keiko Miura (Mari Yamamoto). In flashbacks to the late 1950s, we see Bill and Keiko team with younger Lee (Wyatt Russell) to battle Godzilla and other MUTOs around the world, which connects to the present-day storyline. In the season finale, Lee is seemingly lost in a newly discovered world that connects Earth with Hollow Earth, known as Axis Mundi, while rescuing an unaged Keiko who disappeared decades earlier. At the very end, the crew and Monarch find themselves on Skull Island just as Kong is about to arrive. Season two begins as Kong defends his island, and the giant ape’s presence throughout the season adds to the increased scope and energy of this ten-episode run.

My biggest complaint about the first season was the tease of Godzilla and Kong but with limited screen time for either titan. The back half of the first season finally brought all of the main characters together which streamlined the momentum of the series leading into season two. The second season still features regular flashbacks featuring Wyatt Russell and Anders Holm but the present day storyline is much more engaging. With Cate and Kentaro reunited with their father and their grandmother, the focus shifts to finding Lee Shaw who is lost in Axis Mundi. By rescuing him, the family inadvertantly unleash another monster, Titan X, who becomes the focus of the narrative through this batch of episodes. We also get the introduction of a new antagonist, Isabel Simmons (Amber Midthunder), a very wealthy businesswoman with the resources to equal Monsterverse organizations like Monarch and Apex Cybernetics. As the Randa clan face their family trauma while May also tries to find her place in the grand scheme of things, the presence of Titan X and other MUTOs keeps them busy.

Having the father-son duo of Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell play the same character in different eras continues to work as both mine their performances to different effect. Wyatt plays Lee Shaw as hopelessly in love with Keiko Miura despite knowing she is in love with her husband, Bill Randa. In the present day, Kurt gets to enjoy the freedom of portraying Lee with more of a Han Solo energy and the potential to finally get the girl after Bill Randa passed decades earlier in Kong: Skull Island. The dynamic between Mari Yamamoto and both Russells propels the series along and makes their story more intriguing than in season one. Since season one, Anna Sawai won countless awards for her performance in Shogun and she continues to shine as Cate learns of a special ability she can harness that adds to the mythology of the Monsterverse and creates tension between her and her brother. Ren Watabe and Sawai were somewhat at odds in season one but the direction this story takes the Randa family is so much more interesting this time around. Kiersey Clemons and Joe Tippett also get a lot more to do this season with May and Tim serving as both solid supporting players as well as key factors into the season-long arc.

Series co-creator and showrunner Chris Black returns to write the opening episode with Dan Dworkin, Kari Drake, Ralph Eggleston, Andrew Colville, Maria Melnik, Joe Pokaski, Mariko Tamaki, and Tanner Hansinger along to script the season. The first season balances multiple time periods, new monsters, and a globe-trotting adventure while trying to fit into the broader world from the Godzilla x Kong feature films. By keeping the action about a decade in the past (2015-2017), Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is able to avoid events from the new Monsterverse films while also informing the mythology in unique ways. The special effects are significantly better and I enjoyed the focus on Kong rather than Godzilla this season. It also helps that the story is much easier to follow with the characters unified in each time period. Yes, there are moments where characters have to pair off and follow sideplots, but the overall direction feels more coherent and well-structured. Returning director Hiromi Kamata and new hemer Lawrence Trilling do a solid job of making Monarch: Legacy of Monsters look like it could exist on the big screen while maintaining the energy and flow audiences rely on when committing to a television series.

With a prequel centered on Wyatt Russell’s version of Lee Shaw and the season setting up a great direction for a third run, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters improves upon the first season in every way. The story is stronger and the characters have improved with the Russells doing a fantastic job of turning Lee Shaw into one of the better protagonists on television. With the memorable theme and score from composer Leopold Ross and a lot of easter eggs and surprises, audiences will definitely find a lot to root for in this season. I cared more about Godzilla and Kong when I saw the first season rather than a bunch of generic creatures, but this season introduces a bunch fo MUTOs that are cool to see on screen as showrunner Chris Black has figured out how to balance the cinematic franchise with the television one. I hope this series keeps improving as I had a blast with this season of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and cannot wait to see more.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season two premieres on February 27th on AppleTV.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

GOOD

7

The post Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 TV Review – The Kong and Godzilla series gets even more epic appeared first on JoBlo.

Review: If you are like me, you did not expect the reunion of This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman and star Sterling K. Brown to be one of the best science-fiction-murder mysteries in years. Paradise kept its true story a secret until the series premiered, shocking audiences with a twist: the story took place in an underground bunker after a cataclysmic event destroyed life on Earth. With each new reveal about the titular paradise and the secrets orchestrated by Samantha Redmond (Julianne Nicholson), the story shifted from a whodunit about who murdered President Cal Bradford (James Marsden) into a dystopian and post-apocalyptic drama. For season two, Fogelman and Brown defy all expectations and take the story in a direction fans of the first season will not see coming, while deepening what we know about the world inside and outside the bunker. Paradise delivers a fantastic sophomore run that once again blends genre storytelling with soapy elements, resulting in one of the best shows on the air.

The first season of Paradise opened with the murder of President Cal Bradford and the investigation spearheaded by lead Secret Service agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown). Through flashbacks, we learn that tech billionaire Samatha “Sinatra” Redmond and elite leaders prepared a bunker to survive a supervolcano eruption that caused a worldwide tsunami and killed the majority of humanity. As the season progressed, a rift developed between those in control of the bunker and those who realized they were being lied to. To avoid an uprising, Redmond reveals the truth to Xavier that the world outside was not destroyed by thermonuclear weapons but instead was subjected to an EMP. As the weather recedes, Redmond learns that there are survivors, including Xavier’s wife, Teri (Enuka Okuma). Xavier sets out to find Teri, leaving his children in the Colorado bunker. Season two continues the divide between those in control of the bunker, along with new obstacles both in the outside world and the artificial town created by Redmond.

With the first season ending, setting the table for where Paradise would head next, I did not anticipate the format Dan Fogelman’s writing staff would implement. Without divulging any spoilers, the premiere episode of season two gives us a flashback to introduce new cast member Shailene Woodley as Annie. It may seem strange to detour the main storyline at the very start of the second season, but Annie’s experiences during the years after the tsunami are integral to where this season is headed. The episode also introduces Link (Thomas Doherty) and gives us the long-awaited look at the outside world immediately following what is referred to as The Day. With Paradise debuting with three episodes at once, audiences will learn what happened to Xavier after leaving Colorado, as well as what is happening inside the bunker after the uprising is quelled. This includes what happens to Nicole Robinson (Krys Marshall) and double agent Jane Driscoll (Nicole Brydon Bloom), as well as Xavier’s kids Presley (Aliyah Martin) and James (Percy Daggs IV), Cal Bradford’s son Jeremy (Charlie Evans), and Dr. Gabriela Torabi (Sarah Shahi).

It was very difficult to review the first season of Paradise without being able to address the twist at the end of the series premiere, but with that out of the bag, season two is chock full of plot twists, reveals, and flashbacks that shed light on elements we did not even think to question in the first season. Nicole Brydon Bloom gets a lot of development as Jane’s past is examined, and how her murderous skills factor into the new world order. We also get a decent amount of screentime from James Marsden and Jon Beavers in flashbacks throughout the season, which gives us additional insight into the characters’ contemporary motivations. Having seen seven of the eight episodes, I am left with a bombshell in the penultimate episode, leaving me with over a month before I find out how this season will conclude and set the stage for what will surely be a third-season renewal.

Directors Glen Ficarra & John Requa return to helm the first two episodes of the season, with season one veteran Hanelle Culpepper directing the final two. Ken Olin and Liza Johnson directed two episodes each in the middle of the season. Showrunner Dan Fogelman co-scripted the premiere episode with Eric Wen, with Jason Wilborn, Scott Weinger, Stephen Markley, Katie French, Nadra Wdatalla, Melissa Glenn, John Hoberg, and Seena Haddad writing the rest of the season. The palace intrigue and murder-mystery elements that drove the first season still exist, but in a much smaller capacity, as Paradise introduces many more plot elements. There is a power vacuum within the bunker, along with new challenges from survivors who know where the underground city is located in Colorado. Outside, the post-apocalyptic world has given rise to factions, but Paradise does not follow the same path as The Last of Us or The Walking Dead. There is a sense of hope in this series that, despite death looming in many episodes, shows humanity to be inherently more good than we often see when the end of days is presented on screen.

Paradise was a welcome surprise that kept me glued for the entire first season. With great cover songs of popular tracks that add to the series’ narrative feel, this series hit hard. Season two takes a different direction, maintaining the balance of flashbacks and contemporary storytelling while giving us multiple concurrent storylines that make up the bulk of the eight-episode season, introducing us to brand-new characters and deepening what we know of the original ensemble. With a lot on the line after seven episodes, I am convinced that this season is going to conclude with a shocking cliffhanger that will keep us all on the edge of our seats as we await another year of theories and anticipation. Sterling K. Brown is once again a solid lead who anchors the emotional core of this series, which is a different mystery from last year’s but every bit as engaging and entertaining. Paradise is once again one of the best shows of the year right at the start of 2026.

Paradise season two premieres with three episodes on February 23rd on Hulu.

Paradise

GREAT

8

The post Paradise Season 2 TV Review: The hit series sends Sterling K. Brown into the outside world appeared first on JoBlo.

Review: If you are reading this, you may be wondering why in the hell JoBlo.com is reviewing a docu-series about America’s Next Top Model. We are equal-opportunity offenders at this site and are open to watching and critiquing all sorts of movies and shows, but there is a lot we don’t get to analyze. But when a series strikes a chord, as Reality Check has since its Netflix premiere, we have to give it a shot. A three-part deep dive into the hit reality series America’s Next Top Model, Reality Check is a look at the creation and legacy of a series that looks very different in hindsight than when it originally aired on network television in 2003. With creator Tyra Banks, judges J. Alexander and Jay Manuel, and producer Ken Mok providing interviews along with many former contestants, Reality Check looks at the impact that America’s Next Top Model had on reality television and the dark side of some of the controversial elements that made it into the series.

Comprised of three hour-long episodes, Reality Check starts with the infamous moment when Tyra Banks yelled at a contestant and launched a thousand memes across the internet. Now something of a punchline since leaving the air eight years ago after twenty-four seasons, America’s Next Top Model was a product of its time and the shifting cultural standards in Hollywood in the early 2000s. From the days of dial-up internet, America Online, and more, the reality series was unlike anything on TV and launched countless imitators during its run as one of the most-watched shows on the air. America’s Next Top Model existed before HD programming, and it was one of the last two series to switch to high definition. That should tell you both how fast technology moves and how long this series was on the air. The brainchild of supermodel Banks, who wanted to present a program that showed that models are more than vapid eye candy, the series was a benchmark for early LGBTQ representation on network television as much as it was a controversial contributor to toxic definitions of beauty, health, and more.

The first episode of the series shows the unexpected success of the lower-budget first season and how judges like Janice Dickinson helped shape the series format. The quick pop culture success of the first season of America’s Next Top Model is chronicled through first-hand accounts from Banks, Alexander, and Manuel, as well as producers and executives. The subsequent seasons become more controversial as Reality Check dives into an episode that captured a sexual assault on a contestant but recorded the moment for dramatic intensity. There were also poor choices made involving inappropriate sexual contact between a male model and a contestant, a contestant pressured into major dental surgery, and a truly shocking decision to have a competition featuring all the contestants wearing black and brownface. Most of the judges and producers acknowledge the poor decisions in hindsight, but they do not all seem very contrite, especially Tyra Banks, who holds to a fairly resigned apology while also claiming she did not know any better at the time.

The documentary presents many of the contestants who do not hold back with how disappointed they were in how they were shown on camera. Some of these contestants, Giselle Samson, Ebony Haith, Keenyah Hill, and Danielle Evans, are damning in their opinions of how they were treated during production. The documentary addresses the idea of weight and eating disorders and how plus-size models were handled during the competition, but it does not reference larger controversies, including the treatment of model Winnie Harlow, who has vitiligo, or transgender model Isis King. The fact that the documentary sticks to the relatively safer controversies of the show is underwhelming in the larger scheme of things, but it does provide an indictment of how television executives sacrificed safety and good taste in pursuit of ratings.

Directed by Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan, Reality Check uses extensive archival footage from the twenty-four competitions aired over fifteen seasons, serving as a time capsule of how the world watched America’s Next Top Model. The inclusion of behind-the-scenes and news footage provides a full portrait of the series, with the new interviews offering an opportunity for the creative talent on camera and behind the scenes to own up to their decisions while also offering new insight into how and why the series became as popular as it did. I had expected Tyra Banks to be a bit more transparent about the series, but seeing as she is still hopeful the show could make a comeback, it is not surprising that Loushy and Sivan push the envelope just enough to seem impartial despite the documentary repeatedly including caveats that the show is a product of its era and thus excused from some terrible decisions.

The nostalgia cycle is shortening by the day, and a tell-all retrospective about a show that was on the air less than a decade ago seems a bit unnecessary. I had hoped this docu-series would delve more into the darker side of America’s Next Top Model, but Reality Check is just safe enough to still make the reality series feel like a guilty pleasure worth binging when there is nothing else to watch. Overall, this is an interesting look at a show that helped redefine what reality television is. This is also a shocking reminder of how quickly things can change when a camera is chronicling everything and when it can sometimes go too far. Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model is definitely a must-watch for fans of the series or for anyone who wants to see how a show like this could last as long as it did. You will surely be surprised that some of these things happened as recently as they did.

Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model is now streaming on Netflix.

Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model

AVERAGE

6

The post Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model Review – An unfiltered look at the toxic reality series appeared first on JoBlo.

Review: Eagle! From 2001 through 2010, Scrubs was one of the most original and beloved sitcoms on television. Created by Bill Lawrence and starring Zach Braff, Donald Faison, and Sarah Chalke among an ensemble of quirky characters, Scrubs was a heartfelt comedy that blended surreal fantasy sequences with touching emotional moments. For its last season, the series took a detour that did not live up to the eight that came before it, but the charismatic friendship between Braff and Faison has remained strong in a T-Mobile advertising campaign over the last few years. With Bill Lawrence on a roll with his hit series Ted Lasso and Shrinking on AppleTV, it came as no surprise that a revival of Scrubs would be in the works. The first season of Scrubs could have been another nostalgia-laden attempt to cash in on IP by Disney, but it turns out that the return of the doctors at Sacred Heart is as good as the original series was at its peak.

Sixteen years after the original series concluded, Scrubs opens with John Dorian (Zach Braff) working as a concierge doctor in the suburbs when he stops into Sacred Heart to visit a patient. While there, he is reminded of what drew him to medicine in the first place, and it reignites his desire to teach the next generation of doctors. If you watched the ninth season of Scrubs, you know that was kind of the direction the series was headed in, and it didn’t click despite memorable turns from Dave Franco, Eliza Coupe, and Kerry Bishe. In the revival, Scrubs returns the focus to JD, Turk (Donald Faison), Elliot (Sarah Chalke), and Carla (Judy Reyes), along with returning supporting characters like The Todd (Robert Maschio), Hooch (Phill Lewis), and Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley). Some characters are not back including JD’s nemesis The Janitor (Neil Flynn), Dr. Kelso (Ken Jenkins), Laverne (Aloma Wright), or the late Sam Lloyd who played Ted Buckland, but the originals who reprise their roles slip right back into character along with some new developments to their portrayals that incorporate the fifteen years since we last saw them.

The first season of the new Scrubs shifts the dynamic a bit by having the legacy characters now serve as teachers and mentors, which also means the new doctors and interns need to be as interesting and worth investing in as we felt JD, Turk, and Elliot were on their first day. These new characters include hospital admin Sibby (Vanessa Bayer), who keeps everyone in check from an HR perspective, and JD’s new rival, Dr. Eric Park (Joel Kim Booster). The interns include Serena (Ava Bunn), Asher (Jacob Dudman), Blake (David Gridley), and surgical interns Amara (Layla Mohammadi) and Dashana (Amanda Morrow). In the four episodes made available for this review, the student doctors experience cases that push their skills and experience, but the tutelage of the veteran docs and nurses provides both generations with comedic fodder that never feels plodding while also allowing the writers to explore the different perspectives each doctor brings to the equation. Scrubs definitely has a better balance by not trying to replicate the original cast, instead giving us a solid supporting ensemble.

Luckily, the writers decided not to shift the narration away from Zach Braff as they did in the last season of the original run. Braff and JD are inseparable at this point, and hearing him reflect on the episode’s events, especially with almost 20 years of additional experience as a doctor, adds some heft to the new episodes. His relationships are largely the same as in the original series, but everyone is at a different juncture in their lives, which enriches the story. I won’t spoil what has happened to the main cast since we last saw them, but the writers wisely do not try to act as if this is just the tenth season. These episodes really resonated with me as a viewer because I remember watching the original series when it was airing, and this season nails what worked best in the early seasons without reducing any of the characters to catchphrases. In fact, as the trailer shows, they mock some of the original run’s trademarks by showing how they just don’t work in 2026 as they did twenty years ago.

Series creator Bill Lawrence handed over the day-to-day duties of the new Scrubs to Aseem Batra, who worked on the original series, who scripted the premiere episode with Tim Hobert. Subsequent entries written by Amy Pocha, Seth Cohen, Mathew Harawitz, Michael Hobert, Aaron Lee, Mark Stegemann, Sophie Zucker, Aseem Batra, and Christopher Eddins & Brianna Porter. The premiere episode is directed by Zach Braff, best known for his feature films like Garden State, but who also helmed six episodes of the original run of the series. The show’s visual style and cutaway gags remain consistent, even as some elements, like the iconic opening credits, are slightly adjusted to align with the 2026 setting. Despite not being directly involved as writer or director, Bill Lawrence’s recent experience with his hit AppleTV shows comes full circle as Scrubs retains the emotional maturity that makes the funny moments funnier and the serious moments all the more dramatic.

Scrubs, despite an underwhelming final season, returns just as strong as the original series in its prime. The emotional elements and the comedy work hand in hand, allowing the characters to have evolved in some ways but remaining their rambunctious and silly selves we first met back in 2001. If this revival doesn’t click with audiences, Scrubs will at least have redeemed itself with a much more fitting final chapter. I have no doubt that long-time fans and new viewers alike will discover the new Scrubs and love every minute of it. I found myself smiling and laughing out loud in equal measure. Some other recent revivals have felt wooden, and the jokes missed more often than they hit, but Scrubs is a perfect example of revisiting a classic series and doing it right. I love that this show is back and hope that it sticks around for another decade.

Scrubs premieres on February 25th on ABC.

Scrubs

AMAZING

9

The post Scrubs TV Review: The beloved comedy returns as one of the best series revivals ever appeared first on JoBlo.

Review: Netflix original series have been hit-or-miss over the years, with some shows becoming massive pop culture mainstays, while others have been underwhelming at best. In the wake of Stranger Things ending its epic run, the streaming platform has been looking for its next substantial hit. A few years ago, Netflix debuted The Night Agent and The Recruit, two espionage series with very different tones. While The Recruit did not make it past season two, The Night Agent has improved with each new chapter. The third season of the series amps up the action and intensity, continuing directly from where the sophomore season ended. Despite the loss of Lucianne Buchanan as Rose Larkin, The Night Agent is better than ever with new co-star Genesis Rodriguez and the return of familiar characters from the first season as they take on the biggest conspiracy yet.

Season two elevated Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) from answering calls for the Night Action department to a field operative. Pulled back in and reunited with Rose Larkin, the series introduced an illegal intelligence dealer, Jacob Monroe (Louis Herthum), who blackmailed Peter into working for him. Peter’s superiors orchestrated a double agent plan, but only if Rose were sent far away for her own safety. This season begins with Peter playing both sides of his relationship with Monroe, a dangerous game that involves Monroe’s illicit dealings with the newly elected President, Richard Hagan (Ward Horton). As Peter and the Night Action team try to discover Monroe’s true identity, Peter connects with reporter Isabel de Leon (Genesis Rodriguez), whose investigation into money laundering, discovered by an analyst (Suraj Sharma), could be the key to revealing the truth. As Peter must once again save the day, his actions defy the sitting President of the United States and could alter the scope of power forever.

The third season of The Night Agent does a damn good job of emulating the best high-pressure moments from shows like 24, delivering them in a propulsive mystery full of shocks and twists throughout the entire ten-episode run. The series spends a great deal of time with Peter actively in the field investigating various leads that lead to fist or gunfights, as well as car chases. The action is intense and features some of the best stuntwork this series has yet to feature. The story also spends a great deal of time within the confines of the White House as President Hagan and his wife (Jennifer Morrison) deal with the political ramifications of what is going on. The White House scenes allow for the return of Secret Service agent Chelsea Arrington (Fola Evans-Akingbola), whom we last saw briefly at the end of season two. Splitting time between Washington, DC, and the globe-trotting Peter, The Night Agent never ceases to keep the momentum at a high speed. The series also gives Peter a partner, Adam (David Lyons), and a deadly adversary in the assassin known only as The Father (Stephen Moyer).

While I was underwhelmed by the first season of The Night Agent, I found myself enjoying the consistency of the second season even more. I was sad to learn Lucianne Buchanan was not coming back for the third season, but it works out well as the cast changes offer a reset of sorts for the characters around Peter Sutherland. Gabriel Basso has grown to know Peter inside and out, and this season offers more glimpses into his past and his formative years. Last season focused on his father’s traitorous past, and this year, we learn more about his relationship with his mother. The change also gives Gabriel more opportunities to portray Peter as a full agent rather than a rookie or someone’s partner, which helps build his prowess. It also works that the writers do not force Genesis Rodriguez’s Isabel to be a new love interest for Peter, but a colleague and friend who has her own set of skills, which are vital to uncovering the plot at the core of the season. I am also glad to see Fola Evans-Akingbola get a lot more to do compared to her dialogue-heavy role in the first season.

Series creator and showrunner Shawn Ryan (The Shield) did not script any episodes this season and instead handed over writing duties to Munis Rashid, Anayat Fakhraie, Seth Fisher, Eileen Myers, Corey Deshon, Imogen Browder, Andres Smith, and Aiyana White. Five of those writers have worked on the first two seasons of the series and have once again crafted believable, realistic characters who defy cliches and stereotypes. Guy Ferland and Adam Arkin return to direct the first four episodes of the season, with Paric Barclay, Hiromi Kamata, and Billy Gierhart on the remaining six. The filmmakers do solid work in giving this series a cinematic feel through location shoots and high-quality production values, keeping The Night Agent looking and feeling like a long-form movie rather than a television series. By keeping a mix of veterans who have worked on the prior seasons and newcomers with deep experience directing and writing for the small screen, Netflix and Shawn Ryan have found a balance that allows The Night Agent to finally hit a stride that works better than the first two seasons combined.

The Night Agent is a great example of popcorn entertainment that can be enjoyed without caveats or disclaimers. This series is well-written and action-packed, never succumbing to genre tropes, and it drives the story. Gabriel Basso has come into his own in this role, and it shows that he and the character are evolving in lockstep. There are a few detours in the plot this season and a surprisingly cliffhanger-free ending that sets up a fourth season while also bringing this chapter of the story to a satisfying close. The Night Agent has never tried to one-up itself in scale or scope, but has season after season focused on honing the story to make it more propulsive and worth investing in. As a three-season arc, The Night Agent has come full circle but is nowhere near the end of the line. While Netflix renewed The Night Agent for a third season before the second debuted, I am convinced the reception for this new batch of episodes will secure a fourth season for Peter Sutherland and the Night Action team.

The Night Agent’s third season premieres on February 19th on Netflix.

The Night Agent

GOOD

7

The post The Night Agent Season 3 TV Review: Third time’s the charm for the Gabriel Basso-led spy series appeared first on JoBlo.

Review: Back during the NFL playoffs, NBC aired a special screening of the pilot episode of The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, the new sitcom from Robert Carlock and Sam Means. Executive produced by Tina Fey, The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins blends the successful mockumentary format seen in The Office, Modern Family, and Abbot Elementary. Enlisting 30 Rock star Tracy Morgan in the title role and bringing in Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe alongside him, this sitcom is another surreal and hilarious show that takes aim at the National Football League in the way that Tina Fey’s 30 Rock skewered NBC and its various parent companies. Co-starring Erika Alexander and Saturday Night Live veteran Bobby Moynihan, The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins is the best network sitcom in a long time.

The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins follows the title football star years after being unceremoniously banned from the NFL. After a career of fame and celebrity, Reggie (Tracy Morgan) is desperate to remove the stain on his legacy and get back into the public’s good graces. With his best friend and former teammate Rusty (Bobby Moynihan) on board to help, Reggie hires documentary filmmaker Arthur Tobin (Daniel Radcliffe) to film a documentary about his career and journey back to the NFL. Reggie’s manager, Monica (Erika Alexander), who is also Reggie’s ex-wife, is against the documentary and what it could reveal about the former player’s life. In Reggie’s corner are his young fiancée, Brina (Precious Way), and his son, Carmelo (Jalyn Hall). As Arthur tries to create a special image of Reggie, the ensemble grows closer while pursuing various schemes and ploys to show the world that Reggie is more than a degenerate gambler who was caught betting on NFL games.

Having seen all ten episodes of the first season of The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, I know a couple of things for certain. First, I know that Tracy Morgan is hilarious at playing variations of the same character. Reggie Dinkins shares a lot in common with his 30 Rock character, Tracy Jordan, and his The Last O.G. role, Tray Barker. Morgan has a distinct delivery he honed during his tenure on SNL, and he keeps a lot of his 30 Rock demeanor while playing Reggie. Reggie, as a former athlete, has a slightly different vantage point, but his obliviousness to certain common courtesies remains. The biggest difference is the documentary-style approach in this series, which shows us Reggie on and off camera and just how similar he is in both capacities. Secondly, this series confirms just how hilarious Daniel Radcliffe is. Known for his iconic movie roles and his ability to sing and perform on stage, Radcliffe expanded his comedy resume here after four distinct roles on the TBS sitcom Miracle Workers. Radcliffe plays Arthur Tobin as a take on countless filmmakers who have made the jump from indie cinema to big studio filmmaking, with a very specific jab at Marvel Studios films that factors into why Arthur has decided to take on Reggie’s documentary project. Both Morgan and Radcliffe have radically different approaches, but they work well together.

Each episode of the series follows an overarching narrative throughout the season as Reggie and Arthur work to make the documentary, but the episodes also stand alone and can be enjoyed independently. With roadblocks and schemes factoring in from episode to episode, we get to know the backstory about both of the main characters, as well as Bobby Moynihan’s Rusty and Erika Alexander’s Monica. Moynihan is great as a broadly comic supporting player, while Living Single veteran Alexander allows Monica to play things straight but also get involved in some of the zanier subplots. All ten episodes offer memorable moments that rival later seasons of 30 Rock and Parks & Recreation, since these actors feel like they have a good grasp of who their characters are. Both Precious Way and Jalyn Hall offer fun supporting roles that add to the plot rather than serve as mere backup characters. Way portrays Brina as a fully rounded character, not a trophy girlfriend, while Jalyn’s Carmelo gets to add some fun asides and candid interviews that flesh out each episode. The entire cast gets a decent amount of screentime to shine, and everyone is up for the goofy humor as much as the natural comedy of the story itself.

While Tina Fey does not have any direct writing or creative input on The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, the series feels like a natural successor to both 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Co-creators Robert Carlock and Sam Means both worked on those aforementioned comedies and imbue this series with the same sense of humor. Writing three episodes together, the rest of the writing team includes Phil Augusta Jackson, Meredith Scardino, Evan Susser, Grace Edwards, Auguste White, Mamoudou N’Diaye, Neda Jebelli, Bradley Gill Lewis, and Vivianne Nguyen, who boast experience writing for Parks & Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Insecure, Key & Peele, Space Force, The Four Seasons, and more. Led by director Rhys Thomas (Documentary Now!), The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins follows the expected structure of a half-hour network sitcom but plays as if it could have easily been a streaming project. The comedy pushes the envelope without being unnecessarily crass, making fun of professional athletes as much as it does of the NFL itself. Thankfully, the NFL has a sense of humor and allowed the use of its logos and insignias, which has given the series much more credibility.

While many were underwhelmed by The Paper as a successor to The Office, I appreciate how The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins follows in the footsteps of 30 Rock but differentiates itself in many ways. Tracy Morgan and Daniel Radcliffe are a comedy duo I never expected to work as well as they do, but their chemistry and charisma elevate this show to the point of deserving your attention. You don’t have to be a football fan to find this series funny, but sports buffs will get a lot of the references peppered throughout the series. At just ten half-hour episodes, The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins is worth watching week to week and is an easy candidate for a multi-season run. The entire ensemble is great and brought a lot of laughs that I didn’t know I needed. I would say check this out as it airs to incentivize NBC to bring it back for multiple seasons, but The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins is definitely going to be an easy binge once it hits Peacock.

The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins premieres February 23rd on NBC.

The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins

GOOD

7

The post The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins TV Review: Daniel Radcliffe and Tracy Morgan score with this mockumentary comedy appeared first on JoBlo.

Review: Super-producer Ryan Murphy hit the zeitgeist hard when he expanded his American Horror Story anthology format to multiple other genres and focuses. From major media coverage in American Crime Story and American Sports Story to legendary rifts in Feud to serial killers in Monster and more, Murphy’s name recognition has launched audiences into deep-dive series chronicling some of the most infamous events of the twentieth century through today. In fact, we just reviewed yet another recent series from him, The Beauty, which is strikingly different from this one. The newest addition is Love Story, an anthology that explores the rise and tragic ends of famous couples. The first season focuses on the romance and marriage of America’s prince, John F. Kennedy Jr., and his wife, Carolyn Bessette, which ended as publicly as it began. With a style and tone very different from those of previous anthologies produced by Ryan Murphy, Love Story is a well-acted and emotionally resonant look at the parts of John and Carolyn’s relationship the public did not get to see, and represents the least stylized and least pulpy project of any Ryan Murphy-produced series.

I have watched every Ryan Murphy-produced series to date and have enjoyed some far more than others. His recent success with his true crime projects often overshadows the fascinating true Hollywood stories he has shepherded to Netflix and FX, but I understand how some audiences may be worried that Love Story will follow in the sensationalized style of the Bill Clinton-centric Impeachment: American Crime Story or the melodramatic angle of the fashion designer biographic series, Halston. The Kennedy family is the closest thing the United States has to the fascination the world had with Princess Diana and the British Royal Family, and that serves as a key theme throughout this first season of Love Story. Having seen eight of the nine-episode series, I found Love Story to be a much more interesting look behind the Kennedy mystique than I was prepared for. The opening episode begins with the take-off of the fateful final flight that would result in the deaths of John and Carolyn, along with Carolyn’s sister, but it is presented respectfully and without any sort of tabloid or expose tone. In fact, what works for (and against) this series is that Love Story may be too respectful at times.

The early episodes of the series show how Carolyn Bessette (Sarah Pidgeon) and John F. Kennedy Jr (Paul Kelly) met while she was working for Calvin Klein (Alessandro Nivola) and he had just broken up with Daryl Hannah (Dree Hemingway) and had failed the New York State bar exam for the second time. Under pressure from his mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (Naomi Watts), to enter into a relationship with a suitable woman, John was instantly smitten with Carolyn, and the two fell hard for each other. As their relationship deepens, the immense pressure of living under constant media scrutiny takes its toll on the couple, both behind the scenes and in the public eye. Both Sarah Pidgeon and Paul Kelly are impressive physical matches for playing Bessette and Kennedy, but both actors are up to the task of handling the dramatic burden of this story without becoming caricatures, and give us a reason to invest in this tragic story from the very beginning. With each successive episode, there is no doubt about the chemistry between Pidgeon and Kelly, and how effortlessly they make these two figures look. That also makes the burden of celebrity and the Kennedy legacy on both of them all the harder to watch as Carolyn struggles and John tries to help her without knowing how.

The historical context of Love Story is accentuated by dozens of needle drops of memorable hit songs from throughout the 1990s, some in succession, one after the other. The premiere episode alone has a soundtrack’s worth of music, with the soundtrack almost eclipsing the story itself. The supporting players include Naomi Watts (in her fourth Ryan Murphy project) giving a decent impression of Jackie O, Grace Gummer as John’s sister Caroline, Leila George as Kelly Klein, Sydney Lemmon as Lauren Bessette, and Erich Bergen as Anthony Radziwill. Calista Flockhart portrayed Lee Radziwill in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, which gives this series a companion feel to that excellent entry, but Love Story spends most of its time focused on John and Carolyn, with Pidgeon and Kelly often carrying the bulk of the heavy lifting. Whether they are acting opposite each other or amongst the ensemble, both young actors are excellent and up to the task. What sometimes detracts from the series’ momentum is the knowledge that everything is going to end tragically, and it feels inescapable, but the actors both make a concerted effort to keep their performances in the moment, which helps the series feel worth investing in as much as The Crown did for the Diana and Charles drama.

The first season of Love Story was created by Connor Hines and was based on the book Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy by Elizabeth Beller, who wrote six of the nine episodes alongside Juli Weiner, who wrote two episodes, and D.V. DeVincentis and Kim Rosenstock, who each wrote one. Max Winkler directed the first episode, while the rest of the season was helmed by Jesse Peretz, Gillian Robespierre, Crystle Roberson Dorsey, and Anthony Hemingway. The series’s consistent storytelling and style embrace the wealth of the Kennedy clan and the pressure the paparazzi put on the young couple, with the penultimate episode a standout as everything between John and Carolyn comes to a head in the wake of Princess Diana’s public death. Almost the entire episode takes place in the couple’s apartment, where they go back and forth with their deepest fears and feelings. It is surely one of the best episodes of television this year and from the last few seasons.

Having not seen the season finale but fully prepared for where the story will be going, Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette has proven to be a surprise in many ways. I did not expect a Ryan Murphy-produced project to be this conventional. While some who go in for the over-the-top and heavily stylized shows like Feud, American Crime Story, and Monster may be a bit let down by the straighforward style of Love Story, it works as a more engaging and respectful take on the tragedy of the young Kennedy couple. It may be a bit too reverential at times, but this is a good dramatic retelling that combines romance with historical accuracy. I am sure that audiences will connect with Paul Kelly and Sarah Pidgeon who are surely going to become hot talents after this series hits the air.

Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette premieres with three episodes on February 12th on FX.

Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette

BELOW AVERAGE

5

The post Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette TV Review – A dramatic retelling of the tragic true fairy tale romance appeared first on JoBlo.

Review: Of the countless movies I loved growing up, The ‘Burbs holds a special place in my heart. Starring Tom Hanks, Carrie Fisher, and Bruce Dern, The ‘Burbs is an incredibly quotable blend of comedy and horror directed by genre legend Joe Dante. Released in 1989, the film has been a cult classic for decades and remains one of the most hilarious and memorable examples of why movies from the Eighties are still better than a lot of the stuff we get today. When I first learned they were remaking The ‘Burbs as a streaming series, it felt as sacrilegious as rebooting Citizen Kane or Casablanca. Expanding from a feature film into an eight-episode binge, this new take on The ‘Burbs is not a remake in the traditional sense but draws inspiration from the original movie to craft a whodunit set in the idyllic cul-de-sacs of suburbia. Led by Keke Palmer and Jack Whitehall, I am happy to say that The ‘Burbs is a very different project from the beloved 1989 film, and other than the title and general plot, this version shares little in common with the movie. The result is a fun little comedy that has some creative twists and turns, working as its own thing without besmirching the original.

This new iteration of The ‘Burbs is set in the quaint community of Hinckley Hills, where new parents Samira (Keke Palmer) and Rob Fisher (Jack Whitehall) have moved into Rob’s childhood home, a gift from his recently retired parents. Used to living in the city, Samira and Rob are adjusting to life on a cul-de-sac where every neighbor is up in everyone else’s business. An attorney, Samira, cannot help but struggle with not working while Rob heads to work as a book editor each day. With infant son Miles in tow, Samira befriends the widowed Lynn (Julia Duffy), former Marine Dana (Paula Pell), and the quiet and idiosyncratic Tod (Mark Proksch). The quartet is all curious when the abandoned Victorian house across the street is suddenly sold after sitting vacant for decades, following the disappearance and suspected murder of a young woman named Allison Grant. Samira is immediately suspicious of the new owner, Gary (Justin Kirk), and begins her own makeshift investigation with Lynn, Dana, and Tod. This leads to misunderstandings and dangerous situations as the new friends begin to uncover evidence of past crimes and potential new ones.

Across the eight-episode first season, The ‘Burbs pays homage to the 1989 film through some clever visual easter eggs and surprises I will not spoil here. Each episode is titled after a quote from the movie, with some of the quotes directly factoring into the plot, including the goddamn brownies and sardines. The horror bent that director Joe Dante used to great effect is replaced with a more whodunit, true-crime angle that emulates Only Murders in the Building, delivering off-kilter black comedy wrapped in a healthy dose of mystery. This also means the series is heavy on red herrings, with the misdirections coming rapid-fire from the first episode’s cliffhanger, all the way through the season finale. Because The ‘Burbs is structured as an ongoing series rather than a limited project, the story answers many questions while leaving others open-ended in the hopes of a sophomore run. With the majority of the references to the movie used up over this season, I wonder what the show will use to differentiate itself should it come back for more. One thing is for certain: the cast is more than up to the challenge.

Keke Palmer has already proven to be a dynamic lead in both films and television shows, and The ‘Burbs offers her the opportunity to stretch her comedy and dramatic skills at the same time. Paired with the hilarious Jack Whitehall, the duo make for a believable couple. Their circle of friends and foes is also solid, with Julia Duffy and Paula Pell having a great time as the slightly older Lynn and Dana, both of whom bring relationship drama and distance to the story. Mark Proksch plays Tod as almost a carbon copy of Colin Robinson from What We Do In The Shadows, and it is still incredibly funny in this series. Kapil Talwalker plays Rob’s childhood best friend, Naveen, a very charming character who adds another layer to the ensemble’s comedic chops. Justin Kirk portrays Gary as the menacing new neighbor, but he does not carry the same level of creepiness as any of the Kopeks from the 1989 film. Danielle Kennedy plays HOA president Agnes as a fun antagonist, while JoBlo.com favorite Chad Lindberg is a nice addition as the oddball garbage man, Walters.

Created by Celeste Hughey (Palm Royale, No Good Deed), The ‘Burbs boasts original film writer Dana Gould as an executive producer alongside Seth MacFarlane, although the Family Guy creator does not have any direct participation in the creative elements of the series. Directing duties fell to Rachel Goldberg, Yana Gorskaya, and Nzingha Stewart, who all make great use of the intricately designed sets of the cul-de-sac and surrounding neighborhood. Because the series streams on Peacock, there is no shyness about profanity or a bit of gore, which adds to the show’s intensity. Most of the episodes clock in at over forty minutes, giving this take on The ‘Burbs a lot more space to develop than the 1989 film did in under two hours. Celeste Hughey and writers Zora Bikangaga, Madie Dhaliwal, Rachel Shukert, Neil Reynolds, Amy Aniobi, William Yu, and Hakim Hill do a solid job of incorporating callbacks to the original The ‘Burbs while also aiming to make this series its own thing. Overall, the comedy elements balance with the mystery, even if, looking back, it feels like a lot of tangents and misdirections to get to where the series finally ends up.

I wanted to write this review to decry the foul, horrible abomination of remaking one of my favorite movies and a cult classic. I was pleasantly surprised by the fun this series brings while keeping the audience guessing about who the villains really are, all the way through to the finale. While only eight episodes, I came away from The ‘Burbs feeling like I spent a lot longer getting to know the residents of Hinckley Hills. Should The ‘Burbs get renewed for a second season, I hope the writers are able to keep the mystery engaging and full of humor like this first season without diminishing returns. There is potential to explore Mark Proksch’s character and delve further into Dana, Todd, and Naveen, but you may wonder whether there is enough material to sustain another full run of episodes. Thanks to Keke Palmer and Jack Whitehall’s chemistry and presence, The ‘Burbs is nowhere near the disaster I anticipated and is actually a decent binge.

The ‘Burbs premieres all eight episodes on February 8th on Peacock.

The 'Burbs

GOOD

7

The post The ‘Burbs TV Review: The remake of the 1980s cult classic is better than expected appeared first on JoBlo.

Review: Since the Oscar-winning film The Muppets reinvigorated the Jim Henson-created franchise for a new generation, Disney has tried multiple small-screen iterations that have failed to reach the same level of success. From the short-lived ABC mockumentary sitcom in 2016 to the social media-styled The Muppets Now in 2020 and The Muppets Mayhem in 2022, none of these projects has come close to the impact that The Muppet Show had back in 1976. To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the original variety show, producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have brought back The Muppet Show‘s classic format for a new generation of audiences. While billed as a one-off, this new take on The Muppet Show more than deserves to become an ongoing series.

Clocking in at just half an hour, there is a lot packed into this one-off The Muppet Show special. Rather than treat it as a tribute to the original series or a retrospective of any kind, The Muppet Show plays just like a new episode of the variety series. Kermit the Frog is frantically trying to get the show in order while chaos backstage runs rampant around him and Scooter. All of the classic Muppets show up, including Miss Piggy, Gonzo the Great, Fozzie Bear, and Rowlf the Dog. Sam the Eagle, the various pig Muppets, and Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem appear in varying capacities, but the show’s original format remains intact. There are quite a few callbacks to recurring bits from The Muppet Show, but refreshed for a new generation. What stays the same is the madcap pacing, the frenetic performances, and the subtle blend of adult humor within the show’s all-ages formula.

The marketing of this special is heavily focused on the appearances of executive producer Seth Rogen, Maya Rudolph, and guest host Sabrina Carpenter. Of the three, Carpenter is a deliberate attempt to cater to a specific demographic that may have aged out of watching The Muppets or who will check it out based on the singer’s fanbase. Much like Saturday Night Live capitalizing on whoever the popular actor or singer is, this episode of The Muppet Show should entice a lot of viewers who will find that Sabrina Carpenter is very game to participate in the zany antics in both sketches in the show within the show, as well as the backstage storyline that wraps around the episode.The Muppet Show incorporates a good deal of music, and having Carpenter and others sing a mix of contemporary and classic tunes adds to the show’s delightfulness.

The Muppet Show benefits from not being stuck with narrative storytelling in the same way long-form series have been. It also does not need to pack in a complicated story and can stick to being a variety show. The sketches are brief and less developed than classic sketches from the original series, but they still work. It may be a challenge, given this is a half-hour episode, but if The Muppet Show in the 1970s could do it, this iteration should be able to as well. The appearances by Seth Rogen and Maya Rudolph are glorified cameos, but that is also likely due to the episode’s constricted running time. These are nitpicks in the overall scheme of things, as I had fun with the episode as a whole. It will be interesting to see if it is padded to an hour when it airs on ABC, as the screener I was provided clocked in at a full 30 minutes, leaving no room for commercial breaks like a typical network 22-minute sitcom.

Directed by Alex Timbers,The Muppet Show benefits from the director’s experience helming comedy and stage specials like Alex Edelman: Just for Us and John Mulaney: Baby J. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have no writing credits on the special, which falls to Albertina Rizzo and Kelly Younger. The episode looks far more polished than the variety show did fifty years ago. The theater setting looks the same as the classic version, as well as the stage shown in the 2011 movie. As a credit to the cast and crew, this special does feel a lot like the Jason Segel film, which blended nostalgia while introducing the characters to a new generation. At its core, The Muppet Show is a fun, light piece of entertainment that serves as a feel-good balm in these difficult times.

My biggest issue with The Muppet Show returning is that this is a very short episode that doesn’t get nearly enough time to do these characters justice. If this were the first episode in a full season, I would be excited to return week after week to see how many old-school sketches could be updated and which celebrity fans of Jim Henson’s creations would be willing to join Kermit and Miss Piggy on stage. As a tribute to the half-century legacy of The Muppets, this special falls a bit short of living up to their iconic status, but it’s also a satisfying return to a type of show we don’t see on the air much anymore. While Statler and Waldorf rip The Muppet Show in this new special, there is little to dislike in this trip down memory lane.

The Muppet Show premieres on February 4th on Disney+ and ABC.

The Muppet Show

GOOD

7

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Review: The decision by Marvel Television to move towards more projects billed as part of their Spotlight banner was a smart one to break audiences away from the seeming reliance on having seen every entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While die-hard MCU fans will tend to tune in to every new entry in the saga, casual viewers can sometimes feel alienated by the dozens of films and interconnected backstories in the superhero franchise. The latest Spotlight entry, Wonder Man, aims not only to deliver a standalone series but also to serve as a satirical look at the Hollywood studio system. Unfortunately, Wonder Man does not deliver in any way despite the charismatic potential in star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and the return of fan favorite Ben Kingsley as Trevor Slattery. Wonder Man is a boring attempt to skewer Marvel Studios and the superhero genre that fails to be entertaining as a series and is a pointless detour in the MCU.

Wonder Man exists in the post-Blip era, a world that has seemingly returned to normal after countless battles between heroes and villains that threatened the planet. In Los Angeles, Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is a struggling actor who has lost yet another minor role after his Method approach alienates him from the crew. When Simon overhears Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley) talking about a casting call for the remake of the 1980s superhero movie Wonder Man, he finds a way to get an audition. In this world, Wonder Man was a cult classic now being remade by reclusive director Von Kovac (Zlatko Buric). Partnering with Trevor to audition, Simon must not only deal with anxiety about the part but also try to subdue his superpowers, which can have devastating consequences. Across the eight-episode series, Simon and Trevor contend with line readings, costume fittings, exposes by entertainment journalists, and more challenges that performers face while also staying a step ahead of Damage Control agent P. Cleary (Arian Moayed).

While billed as a Spotlight series, there is still a heavy reliance on knowing a couple of things about the MCU to garner much enjoyment out of this series. First, Ben Kingsley’s continued arc as Trevor Slattery gets significant screentime in Wonder Man. Begun inIron Man 3 and continued in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Slattery’s journey from actor to stand-in for The Mandarin is a major part of why Trevor meets Simon Williams. Kingsley previously played Slattery as a lush and somewhat of a dunce, but the goofiness of the character is not as heavy here. Yes, he is still a silly character, but his experience and friendship with Simon Williams give him a better purpose in this series. Slattery helping Simon become the actor he strives to be should have a satisfying focus for this series, but the eight half-hour episodes never really amount to anything more than showing the steps of casting, developing, and filming a movie, and the film even skips the production side of the story with a disjointed and rushed final batch of episodes.

As good as Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is as an actor, he never feels like he gets to do much with Simon Williams. While he is in virtually every scene of the series, I never got the feeling that this character’s powers were more than something necessary to qualify this as an entry in the MCU. The same goes for Damage Control, which is beginning to feel like a more sinister organization than we have seen in this franchise so far.

On paper, everything about Wonder Man should have worked. Taking one of Marvel Comics’ most powerful characters and including him in a send-up of the genre the series takes place in could have been a brilliant meta-move by the producers. In the wake of HBO’s short-lived series The Franchise from Sam Mendes and Veep creator Armando Iannucci, as well as the Golden Globe-winning AppleTV series The Studio from Seth Rogen, Wonder Man feels like a superficial spoof of the Hollywood machine that offers little insight we have not seen before.

There is an interesting standalone episode focused on Doorman (Byron Bowers) that explains why super-powered beings are not welcome in Hollywood in this universe, but it ultimately serves little purpose. With cameos from Josh Gad and Joe Pantoliano as themselves, there are some bright spots within the series that end up feeling incredibly wasted as the series plods along with no energy or purpose. There is virtually nothing superhero-related for most of the series outside of a handful of small moments, most of which appear in the trailer.

Created by Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton, who is also helming the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day, with showrunner Andrew Guest (Hawkeye, Brooklyn Nine-Nine), Wonder Man is dropping all eight episodes at once, similar to how Echo hit Disney+ back in 2024. Guest has credits on five of the eight episodes alongside writers Paul Welsh, Madeline Walter, Zeke Nicholson, Anayat Fakhraie, Roja Gashtili, Julia Lerman, and Kira Talise. Cretton directed the first two episodes, with James Ponsoldt (The Spectacular Now), Tiffany Johnson (Poker Face), and Stella Meghie (Insecure) each helming two episodes. Joel P. West (Shang-Chi) reunites with Cretton to score the series.

The scale of Wonder Man is so small compared to every Marvel Studios project to date that I was struggling to get a feel for what the purpose of this series actually is. There is a heavy focus on comedy, but the short season and short episode lengths make it hard to invest or care about the characters and their journey

While many of you have labeled me a Marvel Studios apologist in the past, I have found something to like in pretty much every MCU movie and series so far, even She-Hulk: Attorney-at-Law. Conceptually, Wonder Man was always going to be tricky to get the casual Marvel fan invested in, since most are unfamiliar with the character. Because this series avoids feeling like a Marvel Studios production and focuses on a secondary character and tangential lore in the MCU, it ends up wasting a promising concept with a boring series that fails to be an effective satire and even less effective comedy. I finished Wonder Man, wondering why I spent a full season with nothing to show for it. Wonder Man wastes the great Ben Kingsley and the incredibly talented Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in a lethargic, unengaging series. Easily the worst entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date.

Wonder Man premieres all eight episodes on January 27th on Disney+.

Wonder Man

TERRIBLE

3

The post Wonder Man TV Review: Marvel satirizes Hollywood in their latest Spotlight series appeared first on JoBlo.

Review: Like Ted Lasso before it, Shrinking is the series we all need when things are at their worst. Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence and stars Jason Segel and Brett Goldstein found the heartfelt center of characters being okay with not being okay in the stellar first and second seasons of the AppleTV series, and, after a year off, the series is back and just as good as before. Picking up where things left off, Jimmy and his friends and family are just as dysfunctional as ever, as Jason Segel and his co-stars bring in new faces, including Michael J. Fox, Jeff Daniels, and Candice Bergen, to add to the therapeutic lessons they impart on one another as the audience absorbs the vibes through their device of choice. Shrinking is back and just in time for us to turn away from the news and check in with one of the best ensembles on the airwaves.

The second season of Shrinking added new wrinkles to the various friendships and relationships among the main cast. Jimmy (Jason Segel) and Gaby (Jessica Williams) had a brief fling, Liz (Christa Miller) and Derek (Ted McGinley) dealt with a rift in their marriage, Brian (Michael Urie) and his husband decided to adopt a baby. At the same time, Alice (Lukita Maxwell) and Sean (Luke Tennie) began to come to terms with their respective trauma. Paul (Harrison Ford) stayed a steadfast mentor to all as his Parkinson’s disease progressed. Through all of this, Jimmy found peace with Louis (Brett Goldstein), the drunk driver who killed Jimmy’s wife. With so many people in good places (or at least stable ones), where could season three take everyone? Right from the first episode, Shrinking‘s third season begins presenting new obstacles for everyone, with significant life changes and health scares that shake up the dynamics among many of the characters.

While one episode shorter than the prior season, Shrinking makes excellent use of this eleven-episode run. A lot happens over the course of the season that pushes characters in new directions. Jason Segel’s Jimmy has always been the anchor of this story, and his growth in dealing with the trauma of his wife’s death has evolved into acceptance and an attempt to move on. This is clouded by everyone around him exploring new chapters in their lives, including romantic, career, and health changes, while Jimmy remains somewhat stuck. Jimmy does get to experience some romantic moments himself, but the shadow of his late wife looms over everything he does. But we watch this series because the characters are imperfect, and seeing choices that mimic what we would do makes it very easy to invest in them. Harrison Ford continues to shine in his best performance in decades as the new catchphrase “F*ck Parkinson’s” is repeated like a mantra throughout the season. Ford and Segel share a mentor/parental dynamic that gives this series a foundation, but both get to explore outside of their connection. Ford and Wendie Malick get some great moments, as does Lily Rabe, who returns as Paul’s daughter, Meg.

The various patients that Jimmy, Gaby, and Paul treat are not as much at the forefront this season, but there are significant moments from a psychological standpoint that are just as funny and just as poignant as in prior seasons. The professional lives of the therapists in Shrinking have become more of a portal, allowing viewers to see them as human beings who suffer from the same anxieties and foibles as their patients, which helps this series feel a little more accessible than Ted Lasso’s world of professional athletes. I did not find any moment this season across all eleven episodes that felt inauthentic or contrived. If anything, Shrinking rectifies some of the weaker moments from the second season to strengthen all of the connections forged between these actors. There is more this season for Ted McGinley and Damon Wayans Jr, both standouts through the prior seasons as Derek and Derrick, as well as more for Michael Urie to dig into.

Zach Braff, longtime friend of Bill Lawrence and star of Scrubs, returns to direct episodes this season along with Randall Keenan Winston and Rebecca Asher. While Bill Lawrence does not boast any writing credits this season, Brett Goldstein has two, along with Brian Gallivan, Bill Posley, Ashley Nicole Black, Sofi Selig, CJ Hoke, Zack Bornstein, Rachna Fruchbom, Neil Goldman, and Emily Wilson, all of whom wrote for the second season of the series as well. The consistency in how well the writers and directors focus on these characters is amazing, as is the fact that very little is improvised, giving a lot of credit to the scripters. Christa Miller, in addition to being in the cast, serves as music supervisor for Shrinking and once again provides one of the best soundtracks on television with deep cuts of classic songs and contemporary indie hits. There are very few series that fire on all cylinders as consistently as Shrinking does both in front of the camera and behind the scenes.

While originally envisioned as a three-season series, Shrinking could easily come back for additional seasons, exploring these characters more fully. Without divulging any spoilers, the finale of this third season wraps up the arcs for every character just enough that we could say goodbye and feel satisfied, but there is plenty of open room to keep going. There is an ambiguity at the end of the eleventh episode that does not detract from this story feeling satisfying and complete, and yet there would be no question that a fourth season could take this story further. Nothing in the marketing has declared this to be the end of the series, but like Ted Lasso taking a multi-year pause before coming back for its upcoming fourth season, this may be a good place to step away from Shrinking to allow the characters to breathe before we check in with them again. Whether the end or the end for now, Shrinking delivers another outstanding season of storytelling that left me feeling a whole range of emotions, and I loved every minute of it.

Shrinking‘s third season premieres with two episodes on January 28th on AppleTV.

Shrinking

PERFECTO-MUNDO

10

The post Shrinking Season 3 TV Review: Jason Segel and Harrison Ford deliver another heartwarming and therapeutic season appeared first on JoBlo.

Review: Over the last three decades, Ryan Murphy has produced and created over twenty-four series. From musicals and historical dramas to horror stories and serial killer shows, Murphy has been a writer and director on some of the most over-the-top projects across network television, cable, and streaming. For the first time in his career, Murphy is adapting a graphic novel and has co-written every episode, something he has only done once before. The Beauty, based on the Image series written by Jeremy Haun and Jason A. Hurley, is a phantasmagoric blend of surreal body horror and satire presented with a glossy sheen that is signature Ryan Murphy. Led by a massive ensemble featuring Evan Peters, Anthony Ramos, and Ashton Kutcher, The Beauty is the most cohesive series Murphy has created to date and is gloriously insane in every way. Like most of his non-network shows, The Beauty is not for the faint of heart, but this blend of The Substance with American Horror Story is a solid work of pure entertainment.

The Beauty opens with the shocking spree that runway model Ruby (Bella Hadid) takes, which involves drinking a lot of water and killing bystanders. Ruby’s rampage ends with a bloody showdown, which engages the attention of FBI agents Cooper Madsen (Evan Peters) and Jordan Bennett (Rebecca Hall), who quickly uncover that the dead models all share DNA and identification with people who were far less attractive mere weeks and months earlier. As the agents, who are also lovers, dig deeper, they begin to learn of a dark web network transmitting bodily fluids to transform people into ideal physical specimens. This also rankles tech billionaire Byron Forst (Ashton Kutcher), who sends an assassin (Anthony Ramos) to take care of any loose ends related to his pharmaceutical creation, The Beauty. Across the eleven-episode season, The Beauty shows the convergence of the authorities and the ultra-elite and powerful Forst, while highlighting the global impact of the new drug.

Like most Ryan Murphy projects, The Beauty finds humor in the darkest and bloodiest subjects. There are many commonalities between this series and both American Horror Story and Murphy’s first major hit, the FX series Nip/Tuck. The pursuit of physical perfection depicted in The Beauty parallels the body horror of Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, but it also draws on contemporary concepts such as incels, Chads, and social media influencers. The mystique of physical attractiveness even impacts Rebecca Hall‘s character. Hall is already a very attractive person, and the idea of her character still having the potential to become more idealized is borderline hilarious. Every character in this series has the potential to be transformed as the narrative progresses, and each new reveal comes with the chance for a disastrous and deadly consequence. When the time finally comes for the FBI, the assassins, and The Corporation to come face to face, the stakes are as high as the very fate of humanity. And, if our species is reliant on only the upper one percent of good-looking people, we are in deep shit.

Peters and Hall make for a charismatic pairing, while Anthony Ramos and Jeremy Pope share some great sequences as well. Ashton Kutcher is fantastic as the series’ villain, one of the most despicable antagonists in any Ryan Murphy series. With more cameos and supporting appearances than any of his previous shows, The Beauty brings back many of the repertory cast from Murphy productions, including Isabella Rossellini, Ari Graynor, Billy Eichner, Jon Jon Briones, John Carroll Lynch, Ben Platt, and Peter Gallagher, as well as Vincent D’Onofrio, Meghan Trainor, Ray Nicholson, Rob Yang, and Lux Pascal. There are even more surprise appearances in this series, which is jammed with sex and violence from the outset. While none of the nudity is explicit, the sexual content is the most intense I can recall in a Murphy series since the Nip/Tuck days. But the blend of horror and humor works, since the lighter elements of the story keep the series from going down the pitch-black path of the anthologies Monster and American Crime Story. Instead, The Beauty borders closer to a humorous twist on a Black Mirror tale.

The eleven-episode series boasts Ryan Murphy in the director’s seat for the premiere and the third episode. Alexis Martin Woodall helms three episodes, with Michael Uppendahl directing five and Crystle Roberson on one. All eleven episodes are written by Murphy with Matt Hodgson (Glee, 9-1-1). The duo is faithful to the comic book that inspired the series, which keeps the narrative moving in a consistent direction, even though there are non-linear tangents in the middle that come off as a bit jarring. The uneven running time for each chapter is also strange, with some episodes clocking in at close to a full hour and others barely cracking twenty-five minutes. This may account for the seven-week release schedule: three episodes on the premiere date, one episode for the next four weeks, and the final two weeks debuting two chapters each. Having seen the entire series, I understand why certain episodes are released together and fully expect audiences to be buzzing online as each shocking chapter debuts.

Maybe it is because it comes from existing source material, or maybe because he and Matt Hodgson wrote the entire series, but The Beauty is the best project from Ryan Murphy in years. As disturbing as American Horror Story and as timely as anything he has done, The Beauty is a darkly bizarre and fun series that is one of the most bonkers shows to debut on American television in a very long time. From the stacked ensemble cast to the copious butts and buckets of blood in every episode, The Beauty is a scary, pitch-black, hilarious series that shows Ryan Murphy still has the skills to deliver the shock value that became his forte at the start of his career. I had a lot more fun watching this series than I ever expected, and I hope audiences are equally entertained.

The Beauty premieres with three episodes on FX on January 21st.

The Beauty

GREAT

8

The post The Beauty TV Review: Ryan Murphy’s latest series is bonkers body horror with an all-star cast appeared first on JoBlo.

Review: The antiquated concept of bank heists has complicated filmmaking and television production. For decades, the idea of masked gunmen storming a bank to steal bags of cash has been a staple of crime stories on screen. Technology has further complicated matters by limiting the physical dollars on site at various locations. That means thieves have to become more savvy and hack their way into the world of online finance. The risk is higher, but so is the potential reward. The new Prime Video series Steal, starring Sophie Turner and Archie Madekwe, takes the concept of a high-stakes digital heist of an investment firm and pairs it with a healthy dose of twists, blurring the lines between good and bad, right and wrong.

The six-episode series opens with the execution of a master plan to rob an investment company in the heart of London. Best friends and coworkers Zara (Sophie Turner) and Luke (Archie Madekwe) are working a normal day at the office when a crew bursts in and holds the entire company hostage. The perfectly timed and plotted robbery takes mere minutes as the thieves have every conceivable turn covered and have no fear in taking the lives of those who get in their way. Both Zara and Luke are stuck in the middle of a plot that sees billions in funds from pensions and investment accounts liquidated in moments, before the armed criminals are gone just as quickly as they arrived. In the immediate aftermath, DCI Rhys (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) questions the various hostages to track down those responsible and begins to question how such a meticulous plot could have taken place.

What unfolds over the next five episodes is a lot of threads knotted and twisted through the season’s narrative. British programming has been excellent at delivering tightly plotted stories in limited episodes for decades, with North America only getting on board in the age of cable and streaming. Because the story at the core of Steal could have worked as a feature film, the narrative avoids the trappings of watered-down or padded programs that run twice or even three times as many chapters. By the end of the first episode, the audience is forced to reevaluate who they think are the good guys and who are the real villains of the piece, while still understanding the nuanced, layered existence of these characters as people. The heist crew and their associated criminal acquaintances often feel like they are pulled from a number of other stock villains from dozens of other shows, but the main characters here are very well designed and are much more than the sum of their parts.

Sophie Turner, best known for her roles in Game of Thrones and as Jean Grey in the X-Men film franchise, has a solid grasp of portraying Zara. As a character who knows and is capable of more than meets the eye, Turner gives her performance a balance of strength and innocence that often allows everyone around her to gloss over what she is capable of. Turner gave a similarly layered performance in the limited series Joan and gets to work her dramatic talents in this series. Archie Madekwe, a scene-stealer in the AppleTV series See as well as the films Gran Turismo, Saltburn, and Lurker, plays Luke as a character way over his head. Luke is as capable as Zara, but his journey to understanding that takes a bit longer. Jacob Fortune-Lloyd plays DCI Rhys as the seminal investigator, but his character’s debts and addictive personality add another layer to the mix as the series unfolds. The three leads work well with a dynamic chemistry that helps propel the series forward through the six hour-long chapters.

Steal comes from creator Sotiris Nikias, whose previous effort was as writer on the film Cafe 404. Nikias has a grasp of weaving the series’s intense main plot without many distractions or unnecessary red herrings. The series does boast multiple misdirects that I feel many viewers will see coming, but the overall story remains on track through the solid finale that pulls everything together in an action-heavy conclusion. Directing duties are split between Hettie Macdonald (Doctor Who, Normal People) and Sam Miller (I May Destroy You, Black Mirror), who each helm three episodes. Like many London-set series, Steal makes great use of the iconic city skyline, even as much of the action is set in interiors that mask the locations. Lots of warehouses, offices, and living rooms keep the story contained, while scenes taking place within the investment company benefit from panoramic views of London. Everyone involved creatively gives the production a boost, amplifying the series’s cinematic quality as much as possible, but Steal still feels like a smaller-scale project.

Steal is an easy series to get into that does not overstay its welcome in the least. Fans of British dramas will recognise many of the supporting players, while those turning in because of Sophie Turner, Archie Madekwe, and Jacob Fortune-Lloyd will be treated to solid performances from all three. The twists in this series keep Steal from feeling stale or predictable, but they are not strong enough to truly distinguish it from every other heist or crime series on television. Steal is entertaining, and I liked it, but it is ultimately not so memorable to warrant a rewatch. Steal does give enough for the performances from all three stars to garner buzz for the projects they work on next. You won’t be disappointed by Steal if you give it a shot, but you won’t be blown away either.

Steal premieres on January 21st on Prime Video.

Steal

AVERAGE

6

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Review: One of the most impactful personalities of the twentieth century across film, television, radio, and stage is Mel Brooks. Just months away from his one-hundredth birthday, Brooks is as lively as ever. With Spaceballs 2 on the horizon and the rewatchability of everything from The Producers to Young Frankenstein and Robin Hood: Men in Tights, there is no question about how much Mel Brooks has impacted multiple generations of comedians, writers, and directors. Director Judd Apatow, one such talent influenced by Brooks, has co-directed the new two-part HBO documentary titled Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man. Split into two feature-length chapters, The 99 Year Old Man is at once a tribute to the living legend that is Mel Brooks as well as a beautiful birthday gift to the man as he nears the century mark. Comprised of new interviews and archival footage, Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man is a wonderful ode to the imprint that Brooks has had on Hollywood and the arts around the world.

The two episodes of Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man each clock in at about 100 minutes each. Part one briefly examines Brooks’ youth and military service before shifting to his early days working for Sid Caesar. Through previous interviews with Dick Cavett, Johnny Carson, and more, Judd Apatow adds contemporary context from Brooks about his formative years and both his first marriage and his second to Anne Bancroft. Experiencing low points after his successful recording of “The Two Thousand Year Old Man” with Carl Reiner, the first episode includes the comedian’s debut directorial effort, The Producers, and his sophomore bomb, The Twelve Chairs, before concluding with the massive game-changer that was Blazing Saddles. Episode two picks up with Young Frankenstein and runs through to the present day, with a look at Brooks’s less successful films like Life Stinks, his starring role opposite his wife Anne Bancroft in To Be or Not To Be, and his eventual acclaim in bringing The Producers to Broadway and setting the record with 12 wins at the Tonys. While we get a look behind the scenes of the various films, the main focus is on how Mel Brooks found his purpose in life and kept positive even when the response was not critical acclaim.

Comprised of interviews with dozens of contemporaries, cast, colleagues, and proteges, the documentary features new interviews with comedians Ben Stiller, Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Sandler, Nick Kroll, Patton Oswalt, Dave Chappelle, Conan O’Brien, Josh Gad, Jimmy Kimmel, Amy Schumer, Sarah Silverman, and Tracey Ullman; filmmakers Robert Townsend, Peter Farrelly, Jerry & David Zucker, Barry Levinson, and the late David Lynch; actors Bill Pullman, Daphne Zuniga, Cary Elwes, Matthew Broderick, and Nathan Lane; as well as Mel Brooks’ four children Stefanie, Nicolas, Eddie, and Max; and granddaughter Samantha. There is also the bittersweet inclusion of interviews with Rob Reiner, the son of Brooks’ best friend Carl Reiner, which serves as another testament to the late director’s impact on film and his lineage. The way his friends and colleagues speak with adoration about Mel Brooks overshadows the negative reviews he garnered throughout his career, with the lasting legacy of love from his fans serving as the driving force behind Mel’s constant success.

Watching this film, it is very clear that Mel Brooks had two loves in his life: Anne Bancroft and Carl Reiner. The fact that Brooks has outlived every one of the comedians and talents who helped him become a success is bittersweet and seeing how the passing of his wife and his best friend left him shaken is heartbreaking to watch, but seeing Brooks remain ever vigilant to get up each day, give himself some mental tests to get started, and still works on projects like sequels to Spaceballs and Young Frankenstein is a testament to his focus. The new interviews with Mel Brooks and his children and granddaughter give some interesting insight into what kind of a father he was, but The 99 Year Old Man is not a no-holds-barred expose. Yes, the film does present Brooks’ shortcomings as a father, but never to a degree that is anything less than reverent for his status as a comedy icon. We do learn about how Brooks’ Jewish identity and experience in World War II helped shape the direction his sense of humor went in, but there are no apologies for any of his actions or creative choices nor should there be.

The two-part documentary is co-directed by Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio. The duo has helmed several documentary projects together, including George Carlin’s American Dream and May It Last: A Portrait of the Avett Brothers. While Bonfiglio remains off-screen, Judd Apatow peeks in during interviews with Brooks, and you can tell it is because of the major impact that the elder statesman of Jewish comedy had on Apatow as a comedian and filmmaker. There have been quite a few documentaries in the past year, including Netflix’s Being Eddie and AppleTV’s Mr. Scorsese, which looked at Eddie Murphy and Martin Scorsese, respectively, but The 99 Year Old Man is a blend of loving tribute and a dive into the behind-the-scenes of Mel Brooks that is not as deep as I would have liked but still incredibly detailed. Including everything about every Mel Brooks project across a century would have been daunting for a long-form series, but Apatow and Bonfiglio do a good job of making the four hours across these two parts fly by.

Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man is the ultimate birthday gift to the legendary comedian that works as a greatest hits supercut of every iconic moment Mel Brooks has been responsible for over the years. Watching this documentary filled me with joy and memories of my experiences watching Mel Brooks throughout my life, and it makes me want to go back and revisit some of his movies that I haven’t seen in quite a while. The 99 Year Old Man proves that laughter can help us through even the most challenging world events, even if it does not necessarily solve them. If Mel Brooks can survive tuberculosis outbreaks, World War II, and the COVID-19 pandemic, still doing it with a smartass demeanor and a smile on his face, the rest of us can learn a lot about what really matters in this world. A great introduction to Brooks for those unfamiliar with his work and a welcome way to reflect on his legacy, Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man is a fantastic watch and one I hope to watch again on June 28th when Mel turns 100.

Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man premieres in two parts on January 22nd and 23rd on HBO.

Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man

AMAZING

9

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Review: Before you groan about yet another spy show, I want you to give PONIES a shot. Set during the height of the Cold War, PONIES could have easily been a throwaway comedy or a lightweight time-waster. I went into the series expecting another formulaic espionage story, but found myself charmed by this series far more than I expected. Much of the credit goes to Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson, who play very different characters who share a Starsky & Hutch-type chemistry. Watching them portray women posing as secretaries to covertly perform missions for the CIA, Clarke and Richardson bring a sense of fun to the intense stakes of PONIES. With a solid supporting cast including Adrian Lester and Vic Michaelis, PONIES is a blast of Soviet-era entertainment.

Initially, PONIES evokes a Soviet-era variation on Mad Men. Bea (Emilia Clarke) and Twila (Haley Lu Richardson) meet in a market and discover they are both married to covert CIA agents working in Moscow. While Bea is college-educated and speaks fluent Russian, Twila is more street smart and unpolished compared to the other American wives working as secretaries. Very early, both women are informed by Dane Walter (Adrian Lester) that their husbands have died in a small plane crash, and the women return home to America. Not comfortable with the unknown, both Bea and Twila lobby Dane to become operatives in Moscow so they can try to discover what happened to their spouses. After lobbying, the CIA director, George H.W. Bush (Patrick Fabian), and the two women return to the U.S.S.R. and receive a crash course in how to be spies.

The eight-episode first season of PONIES is a well-crafted spy story that showcases how both Bea and Twila evolve in their friendship and as operatives in the complex and intricate world of the Cold War. The pair works together and on their own throughout the season to utilize their contact, Sasha (Petro Ninovskyi), and stay ahead of the deadly KGB agent Andrei Vasiliev (Artjom Gilz). As Dane works with his colleague, Ray (Nicholas Podany), to keep the CIA ahead of the KGB, Bea and Twila learn more about their husbands than they had bargained for. They also must contend with their fellow wife/secretary, Cheryl (Vic Michaelis), and maintain their cover. Both women are talented in their own right, and seeing civilians without espionage training pick up the skills of seasoned spies in a short amount of time does require some suspension of disbelief, but the presence that Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson carry on screen makes it easy to forgive any of the unrealistic parts of the show. Clarke is far removed from her Game of Thrones role and plays Bea as a smart yet emotionally driven character. Haley Lu Richardson, best known for her season two role on The White Lotus, is a confident and cool woman in Twila, playing her as both funny and layered.

While Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson are the central highlights of PONIES, the supporting cast is all great additions to the series. Adrian Lester plays Dane Walter as a no-nonsense veteran boss, making for an intriguing balance between the CIA’s standard operating procedures and this risky new approach with Bea and Twila. Equally good is Artjom Gilz as the series’ main antagonist. Gilz plays Andrei as a menacing figure who kills with ease and comes across like a Russian variation on Christoph Waltz’s Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds. John Macmillan and Louis Boyer, and good as the late husbands Tom Hasbeck and Chris Grant, while Nicholas Podany’s Ray and Harriet Walter’s Manya are solid. The scene-stealer in PONIES is Vic Michaelis, best known as the host of the web series Very Important People, who plays rival secretary Cheryl as a twist on Christina Hendricks’ Joan from Mad Men. Michaelis has impeccable comic timing that adds to Cheryl’s mean-girl demeanor, but her dramatic work here is so good that I am glad this character is as significant to this series as it is.

Cat Person and The Spy Who Dumped Me director Susanna Fogel co-created PONIES with David Iserson (Mad Men, Mr. Robot). The pair has created a world that pulls from their experience writing comedic projects as well as thrillers and drama. The layered genre elements in this series give PONIES an eclectic feel that is both funny and intense, without easily fitting into just one genre or another. The directing team also includes Viet Nguyen and Ally Pankiw, with writers Carolyn Cicalese, Amalia Mathewson, and Jordan J. Riggs working on a solid serialized story that flows from one hour-long episode to the next without missing a beat. The plot developments are solid and circle back to crumbs laid down in early episodes, giving me the desire to rewatch those early episodes to see if I missed any clues along the way. The late 1970s setting lends a nice analog sensibility to the production values, which are chock-full of pop culture references to films and music that will give any viewer a feeling of nostalgia without alienating younger audiences.

PONIES is one of the better series from Peacock in a long time and shows how a unique twist on the espionage format can be a differentiator, something that the streaming service did not find with The Copenhagen Test. PONIES works because of its multi-genre approach to storytelling, which stays true to the technological and logistical challenges of 1970s Soviet Russia. It also hinges on the presence and chemistry shared by Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson, who elevate this series on their performances alone. With all eight episodes debuting at once, audiences will get a chance to binge this show and experience all of the twists and cliffhangers in store. I just hope that this story connects enough to garner another season, as I cannot wait to see what Bea and Twila get into next. A nice blend of funny and intense with a fair amount of violence, PONIES is worth checking out.

PONIES premieres on January 15th on Peacock.

PONIES

GOOD

7

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