TV Diary
The Apple TV+ miniseries "The Shrink Next Door" is based on a podcast of the same name that told the true story of a therapist who sort of took over the life of one of his clients. And apparently Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd decided to co-star in this before they were sure who would play which character, although they quickly decided that Rudd would be the doctor, Ike, and Ferrell would be the patient, Marty. And that in and of itself is an interesting choice, because I think the average casting director would right off the bat make Rudd the put upon straight man and make Ferrell the manipulative weirdo. But I think it's ultimately a better show with Ferrell in the more dramatic and vulnerable (but still often very funny) role and Rudd in the charismatic, mysterious and slightly sinister role. But Kathryn Hahn is really stealing a lot of scenes from both of them in this thing.
The first episode of "Yellowjackets" was really great, one of the most promising dark cable dramas to come along in a while, about a group of women who survived a plane crash 25 years ago when they were on a high school soccer team together and had to survive in the wild for over a year. I tend not to be a fan of movies or shows that jump back and forth between two time periods where a younger cast and an older cast portray the same set of characters, partly because invariably one set of actors is better or more interesting than the other, or it just gets hard to believe that it's the same characters in both timelines. But the '90s flashbacks on "Yellowjackets" are equally as compelling as the present day scenes with the more recognizable cast (Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci, Melanie Lynskey) and this is a pretty dark, messed up story.
c) "Swagger"
"Swagger" is an Apple TV+ drama about the world of teen basketball stars who are being scouted to eventually play in the NBA, and Kevin Durant is an exec producer, so it's partially based on his experiences and takes place in his hometown, Seat Pleasant, Maryland. I live 20 miles away, so a lot of what I like about the show is the local color of the Prince George's County setting, characters listening to Go-Go, stuff like that. The younger members of the cast are just kinda passable actors, but I think the show can be pretty compelling when the focus is on the main character's mother, played by Shinelle Azoroh, and his coach, played by O'Shea Jackson Jr.
d) "Invasion"
With a $200 million budget for the first season, Apple TV+'s "Invasion" is probably the first series about an alien invasion that's as big and slick as movies like Independence Day or War of the Worlds. But since it is a series, they can and do take their sweet time working up to the spectacle, bouncing between several different characters in different places around the world just before and just after the invasion starts. You don't see any kind of alien until briefly at the end of the 2nd episode, and it isn't until the 5th episode that people stop calling it "the terrorist attack" and start using words like "alien" and "extra-terrestrial." The most recognizable actor, Sam Neill, is one of the focal points of the first episode, but he basically hasn't been seen at all in the next 5 episodes. So far it's all compelling enough and the rare deployments of CGI aliens are impressive, but I hope they're going somewhere to pay off all this wheel-spinning.
This dark fantasy series on Peacock is pretty good, I'm impressed that Krysten Ritter directed half the episodes, the special effects are not super expensive but look good and it's a pretty charming character-driven show underneath all the high concept stuff.
Apparently this Disney+ show is based on R.L. Stine books, it's kind of fun to see a horror anthology aimed at kids and mild scares and silly premises, the production values and acting are pretty good but it's a little cheesy for my taste.
"Head Of The Class" is the kind of middling late '80s sitcom that I probably watched half the episodes of in syndication growing up that still managed to leave very little impression on me or any memory of laughing at anything. So for HBO Max to revive the series really feels like everybody's scraping the bottom of the IP barrel. I thought maybe with Bill Lawrence exec producing it would be up to his standard of shows that often seem unpromising but turn out to be really enjoyable, but the first episode just made my eyes roll a lot, a bunch of teenagers talking earnestly about 'cancel culture.'
h) "Succession"
One of the things I really enjoy about "Succession" in its third season is that they've gradually let the WayStar executives who have to deal with the Roy family's antics (Gerri, Frank, Karl, Hugo) be a bigger part of the show and it's just hysterical watching these suits try to keep it together while Logan and Roman and Kendall and Shiv are running around like maniacs. Adrien Brody was also surprisingly really good in his first episode of the show.
i) "Love Life"
I really enjoyed the first season of "Love Life" starring Anna Kendrick last year, and the second season, which pivots anthology-style to a new protagonist played by William Jackson Harper (a casual acquaintance of Kendrick's character, so it's all in the same universe), may be even better. I particularly like that each season has its own narrator, with the great Keith David for this one. Creator Sam Boyd and his writers really create three-dimensional characters with relatable lives, giving you the satisfaction of some traditional rom-com beats but managing to subvert them without Apatow-style shouting matches and slapstick. But more than the Kendrick season, the Harper season really gives you a main love interest to root for through it all, partly because Jessica Williams is a very natural dream girl for you to want him to end up with. But they have great onscreen chemistry and both are allowed to be flawed, complex characters who don't always get along, and once again the 10-episode journey in "Love Life" really moved me.
j) "South Side"
I missed this Chicago-based sitcom when it debuted on Comedy Central a couple years ago, but I've been catching up now that the second season is on HBO Max. And it's just incredibly funny, the joke density is almost on a "30 Rock" level, all these inspired, unexpected one-liners coming at you when you least expect it. The whole cast is great but the scenes with Officer Goodnight and Officer Turner are definitely my favorites.
This show always gets a little darker than I expect it to be, I'm not familiar with the books but I just kind of assume it's kid stuff and then it gets pretty bleak here and there. I never get used to the thing where people stick magical keys into their heads, though, it just looks ridiculous.
l) "Dickinson"
"Dickinson" is back for its 3rd and final season, and the previous season just aired earlier this year, but I feel like I'm still just getting a handle on its weird mix of biography, satire, and artistic interpretation of Emily Dickinson's life. I like it the overt comedy of the Toby Huss and Jane Krakowski scenes, and the absolutely ridiculous cameos like Billy Eichner as Walt Whitman and Nick Kroll as Edgar Allen Poe, but then it still tries to pay some sincere tribute to the power of Dickinson's poems in a way that can sometimes feel tacked-on. Also, they killed off the character named Shipley, I'm taking that a little personally.
Between "Dickinson" and the upcoming premiere of "Hawkeye" and this animated series on Netflix, Hailee Steinfeld is having an extremely busy November. Apparently "League of Legends" is a video game or something, I've never seen it, but this show has a pretty cool, unique animation style.
A cute little Disney+ series of shorts where the snowman from Frozen does his own reenactments of other Disney movies like Aladdin and the Lion King, they're very quick but amusing, the Moana one is my favorite.
o) "Fairfax"
This Amazon animated series satirizes streetwear hypebeast culture, which is certainly a ripe subject for skewering, but it doesn't make me laugh too much, its idea of clever is a Supreme-style brand/logo everyone covets called 'Latrine.'
A really good Netflix animated series from the director of The Book of Life, sort of a fantasy thing about a Mayan or Incan-type indigenous culture in Central America. I put it on for my 6-year-old and he loved in, watched every episode in a day.
This Netflix animated series is about some Australian wildlife expert guy who is not Steve Irwin, it's pretty funny but I really hate the look of the animation.
r) "Dr. Brain"
"Dr. Brain" is the very silly name of both Apple TV+'s live action South Korean series and the animated South Korean series it's based on. The title feels like it fits a cartoon better, but the story, about a scientist who hacks into the brains of dead people (and cats), works well enough in a live action context.
Apparently the prime minister of Sweden was assassinated in 1986 and there were almost as many ambiguities and conspiracy theories as the JFK assassination, including one suspect who was convicted and then acquitted and then people figured out that one of the witnesses could've been the real murderer many years after he died. This Netflix drama about it is pretty good but I'm mostly just amazed that this all really happened and I'd never heard of it.
Like another recent Netflix series about a serial killer in Asia, "The Serpent," I found the docuseries "The Raincoat Killer" interesting because you think of serial killers as kind of a primarily American phenomenon but there are also stories like this guy in 2000s South Korea who went around bludgeoning dozens of people with a hammer.
This Netflix docuseries is about the investigators of famous serial killer cases, it kind of makes a good counterpart to "Mindhunter" but it also just kinda reminds me how annoyed I am that "Mindhunter" isn't coming back for a third season.
A Netflix true crime thing about a teenager who disappeared in Spain, really sad story.
I always really liked Michelle Trachtenberg, it makes me sad that the first thing I've seen her on in ages is hosting this Tubi true crime show that has terrible production values, I don't know why she isn't getting steady acting work, she's still cute.
This Peacock show where four kids do their own version of "The Tonight Show," and interview Jimmy Fallon and ?uestlove and some celebrities that kids would know like JoJo Siwa, is a pretty cute idea, I like it.
This Hulu series hosted by David Chang is really interesting, it's about the food industry, restaurants and delivery and manufacturing and all the logistical aspects of the labor and the changing technology, really thoughtful look at complex issues that's steeped in appreciation of food and food workers.
"Swap Shop" is an AM radio show in Tennessee where people can call in and swap their collectibles and other belongings, so for the Netflix series about the show, they had to add an additional rhyme to the title. It's a charming little show, I don't watch this kind of thing much but the people on it are likable.
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on Monday, November 15, 2021 at 9:45 AM.
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