TV Diary
a) "Sirens"
"Sirens" is a really entertaining Netflix miniseries with Meghann Fahy and Milly Alcock as sisters, and Julianne Moore as Alcock's boss who comes between them. And because you're meant to not really know whether Moore is a sinister or sympathetic character at first, she's kind of entertainingly aloof but Fahy and Alcock are great and really feel like stars in it. Fahy played poised, classy characters in "The White Lotus" and "The Perfect Couple" but goes against type as kind of a grungy, rough-around-the-edges character in "Sirens," and boom, I am way more attracted to her now, which feels kind of funny and predictable to me. It was based on a play and is only five episodes, but I found myself wishing there was more of it or that it could continue with a second season, because it's really in the last couple of episodes that you get this great ensemble cast interacting, including Kevin Bacon, Glenn Howerton, Josh Segarra, and Bill Camp, and a standout Felix Solis.
Like "Sirens," "The Better Sister" is about two estranged sisters with very different personalities, one upwardly mobile and the other struggling, in this case played by Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks. This story is a bit darker and more fraught, though, with a murder mystery and sort of a love triangle. I'm only a couple episodes in but pretty interested to see how this whole thing unfolds.
c) "Dept. Q"
Netflix doesn't make a lot of shows that feel like HBO-level prestige TV, but occasionally they have a miniseries that's of that caliber, and "Dept. Q" is the third one created by Out of Sight screenwriter Scott Frank, after "Godless" and "The Queen's Gambit." The premise of "Dept. Q" feels a little like a network procedural, with a police officer who survived getting shot in the line of duty being put in charge of an inauspicious cold case department, but the writing and acting really elevates it. The therapy scenes with Matthew Goode and Kelly MacDonald are so compelling, and the reveal about Chloe Pirrie's character at the end of the first episode was some brilliant storytelling.
d) "Adults"
FX's new sitcom about twentysomethings has been compared a lot to "Overcompensating, the Amazon sitcom about college students that I wrote about last time in this space. Both shows co-star Owen Thiele and have similar marketing. I think both shows are a little hit-and-miss but "Adults" is funnier and more overtly satirical, the third episode in particular got some big laughs out of me, and Lucy Freyer and Amita Rao are both really cute. The 'five or six young guys and girls in NYC' genre of sitcom is a little stale but at least it's closer to "Broad City" than "Friends," even if both those templates are probably a bit dated at this point.
e) "Duster"
"Lost" is one of those shows that made so many actors into stars. But 20 years later, we're finally at a point where the "Lost" cast doesn't feel ubiquitous anymore, outside of maybe that one antivaxxer lady who plays the least popular superhero in the entire MCU. And Josh Holloway was such a charismatic standout on the show that never really seemed to spin that into bigger projects, so I'm glad that J.J. Abrams has created a show that seems expressly designed to show Holloway at his best, as a getaway driver for a criminal enterprise in the '70s. It's just good pulpy fun with a great cast (and, as always, Greg Grunberg as the Abrams charity case). Rachel Hilson's character is from Baltimore and Holloway calls her 'Baltimore' the same way he used to call Kate 'Freckles' on "Lost."
f) "Motorheads"
Scoring a TV series with popular music is a delicate art and I had a lot of fun diving into that world for a piece last year. And "Motorheads" is a prime example of how it can go wrong, with nearly every scene in the first episode soundtracked by a recent Top 40 hits by Teddy Swims or Olivia Rodrigo and so on (and not a single Motorhead song!). It's already a pretty mediocre show about street racing teenagers, but the wall-to-wall pop hits just makes the whole thing feel dumber and more pandering.
Not a great show, but considerably more high quality than any other Tyler Perry sitcom I've seen, Terri J. Vaughn is a good lead.
h) "Poker Face"
Very happy this show is back. I hope Rian Johnson keeps creating new projects, but I wouldn't mind terribly if he just went back and forth between new Knives Out movies and seasons of "Poker Face" for a decade. The episode with John Mulaney and Richard Kind was particularly entertaining and kind of closed the door on one plot point in a good way so that Natasha Lyonne's character isn't just on the run in every episode.
I've never really watched any Gundam stuff so I didn't really understand what was going on this new one, I just thought it was funny that the title looked like someone just mashed their head on the keyboard.
This Chinese drama on Netflix is kind of sweet, about a woman who sees her high school crush again as an adult and they become roommates. It's got 32 episodes in one season, though, so I doubt I'll keep up with it.
This Thai show is literally about a florist investigating a murder, so I feel like the title is spot-on.
This Korean romcom is about a potato researcher falling in love, and while the title isn't as evocative as "Death and the Flowers," I would say once again it's a good name. I kind of wish American shows had more premises like these shows.
m) "Medusa"
This Colombian thriller gets right to the point, opening the first episode with a sexy scene on a yacht and then the yacht exploding. I didn't really care enough to keep watching and find out what's really going on, but I appreciated how they hit the ground running.
n) "Screwballs"
This is a 'retro' Korean variety show on Netflix, so I guess it's kind of like that old Comedy Central show "Viva Variety," or at least that's my frame of reference, it mostly just makes me feel like I don't understand the Korean comedic sensibility.
A charming, wacky show about Korean nightlife, from the perspective of the titular host who doesn't usually spend time in social clubs.
Paul Reubens filmed 40 hours of interviews for a documentary about his life before he died in 2023, and he never even told the filmmakers that he had cancer. And I kind of like that director Matt Wolf includes a lot of candid moments of Reubens and Wolf talking in between takes, fighting a little for control of the film, Reubens still just comes off so brilliant and funny even when he's just screwing around and antagonizing the director. I was 9 years old when Reubens was arrested, and it left a strong impression on me as a kid, that I didn't really understand the controversy that derailed the career of the star of one of my favorite shows. And I respect him as a performer and artist even more now after watching this, and loved the look behind the curtain at how it all came together, it was cool that they got to interview Tim Burton about Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. I hated seeing that Reubens and Phil Hartman had stopped speaking and Hartman said some negative things about him after the arrest, though.
It's only been three years since Naomi Judd committed suicide and left behind a note asking that her daughter Wynonna not be allowed at her funeral. So man, this is another really emotionally raw docuseries, I'm a little surprised Wynonna and Ashley wanted to do something like this, but it's interesting stuff and has some happy memories and fun show business lore too.
Conan O'Brien was never exactly a straight man in his comedy, but on "Late Night" he was ultimately the host in the suit who mostly bounced off people in interviews and sketches. So what I really enjoy about his late career renaissance and things like his "Hot Ones" episode and "Conan O'Brien Must Go" is that he really gets to ham it up and be the chaotic person that other people bounce off of and react to. It feels like they're sneaking more celebrities into the second season but I don't mind, the Javier Bardem bit in the Spain episode is great.
A docuseries about women getting a chance to break into the very male-dominated field of Formula One racing, pretty cool.
On a similar tip, this Freeform series is about women's bull riding, feels a little slicker and less like a documentary but not necessarily in a bad way, just a different storytelling approach.
u) "Yes, Chef!"
Most competitive cooking shows inherently involve yelling and high pressure situations and big personalities, but I think it's pretty corny that NBC put together this show where they explicitly sought out cooks who have anger issues or problems working others and slapped the catchphrase from "The Bear" on it as the title.
A lovely little nature doc about penguins. There's one very stressful scene where one of the little adolescent penguins can't keep up with his group and they have to leave him behind, and it's such a relief when he pulls together and catches up, I really thought he was a goner.
Apparently Ewan McGregor has done several travel series with his friend Charley Boorman since 2004's "Long Way Round" where they go on motorcycle road trips together. I'd never seen any of the previous ones, but this one where they ride through Scotland is fun, I really want to see Scotland in person one day.
Most Netflix dating shows are pretty braindead, but this one's worse than usual.
The Chicago incidents of people dying after taking Tylenol that had been laced with cyanide happened in 1982, the year I was born, and remained such a huge deal for so many years that I definitely remember hearing about it a fair amount as a child. But I really didn't know what happened in detail, and god, the interviews with people whose loved ones died are just wrenching.
It's kind of funny to me that Costner blew up his late career renaissance on "Yellowstone" partly to direct a few movies but also I guess to do this low budget History Channel filler.
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