by Julian Spivey “Barry,” Bill Hader and Alec Berg’s HBO dark comedy about a hitman who wants to become an actor and the violent hijinks that ensue, was a unicorn of a television show in that it’s a mixture of dark, brooding, violent drama with frequent laugh out loud humor made it the most unique show on television for its terrific four-season run. *Spoiler Alert* If you haven’t finished the series don’t go any further! The series ended on Sunday, May 28 with an episode simply – and ultimately humorously – entitled “Wow.” The exclamation is a great title for such a series finale. We knew going in that “Barry” and many (if not all) of the show’s characters were going to have unhappy endings. Before the season even premiered in mid-April I remarked to a friend that I wasn’t sure any of the show’s five main characters – Barry, Sally, Gene, NoHo Hank or Fuches – would survive the season. So, if you were hoping for a happy ending for “Barry” I’m not sure what show you’ve been watching for four seasons, especially the super dark final two. The penultimate episode, “A Nice Meal,” ended with NoHo Hank, the always brilliant Anthony Carrigan, kidnapping Barry’s wife (or maybe still just girlfriend – did we ever find out if they were married during that “missing years”) Sally Reed, the stunning Sarah Goldberg, and John, Barry’s son, in hopes of luring Barry out for The Raven (formally Fuches), played by one of television and film’s all-time great character actors Stephen Root. The finale ends with Barry (Bill Hader) in a shopping center of some sort loading up on a militia’s worth of firearms and walking down a busy children’s toy aisle in a terrific satire of how truly fucked up America is before getting into his car and heading toward his final showdown. Except, Barry was late to his final showdown. While he was driving to the meetup to rescue Sally and John, NoHo Hank and Fuches were having their own showdown that quickly turned into a Tarantino movie. All Fuches wanted out of Hank was to be truthful with himself and admit aloud that he had his boyfriend and business partner Cristobal (the wonderful Michael Irby) killed. It was something Hank would rather die than come to terms with and the bloodiest scene in “Barry” history takes place between Hank’s crew and The Raven’s crew and damn near everybody dies. We see Hank mortally wounded. We see a dazed Sally screaming for her son. We see Fuches had intentionally fallen on the young boy to save his life before getting back on his feet and leading him outside. Barry arrives at this point. John runs to his father. Barry and Fuches have a nice little silent moment of understanding and then Fuches/The Raven disappears into the darkness, presumably never to be seen again. The camera quickly goes back inside for Hank’s final seconds as he reaches for the hand of his business’s Cristobal statue and the two are reunited in death. Hank was very possibly my favorite character on “Barry,” he was no doubt the funniest character of the show, and Carrigan’s performance is one that I hope finally wins an Emmy this fall. I think his ending was deserved – something the “Barry” finale did right by most of its characters. I also feel the end to Fuches’ character was also deserved, even if it was one of the more surprising endings for me. I really thought Fuches would die at Barry’s hand this season. The episode, moving along quickly as “Barry” episodes always do – even in the end they fit the episodes into a swift-moving 30 minutes, goes to a hotel scene where Barry, Sally and John are all lying in bed and Sally, coming to grips with everything, tells Barry he needs to turn himself in and put an end to the entire thing. In his usual denial of reality, Barry declines. The next morning Sally and John are nowhere to be seen and Barry assumes they’ve gone to the house of their former acting teacher Gene Cousineau, played by Henry Winkler in his Emmy-winning role. It is here where Barry, somewhat surprisingly, meets his end. It’s not surprising that Barry dies. I figured the entire season Barry would meet his end with the show ending, but the fact that Hader and company chose to do it with an entire third of the episode’s runtime remaining was shocking. Gene shoots and kills him (with Rip Torn’s “prop” gun – one of the show’s great lines of the season), finally avenging the death of Janice Moss in season one. It was over just like that. No major shootout and death in a blaze of glory that Barry had envisioned for himself earlier in the episode. Barry was offed the exact same way he offed those he was ordered to kill – unceremoniously. Barry, the character, got an ending he deserved. The episode quickly jumps forward another eight years or so to find Sally as a high school acting teacher celebrating the end of a triumphant school play. She seems to have gotten the happiest ending of all of the characters, though it’s still not what she envisioned for her life. The Sally ending felt the least involved in the series finale, but honestly, the character and Goldberg’s Emmy-worthy performance were the highlights of the whole final season. This is where the finale gets a bit wonky for me and I still have questions as of the time of this writing and might for some time. The show ends with John, probably now 16 or 17 years old, going over to a friend’s house to watch a movie. It turns out to be the Barry/Gene movie the studio was planning to make years earlier. It’s an incredibly corny film, a nice satire of what Hollywood will do to a true story, but in the film, we see that Gene Cousineau has been turned into the villain – an acting teacher who gets in with the mob and has Janice murdered. Barry is the hero of the story, attempting to stop Gene before being murdered by him. The film (and humorously the TV series) ends with cards showing that Gene is serving prison time for the murders of Janice and Barry and Barry was viewed as a hero and buried with full military honors. Barry got to be both the heroic figure and star he wanted to be. Gene is the only character who I’m not sure got the ending he deserved. Sure, Gene’s ego is about as big as they come, but does that mean he deserves to be viewed the way he will be for life and spend the rest of his days in prison for crimes he had no part in? Also, I’m bugged by how such a strong and smart character like Jim Moss, played by Robert Wisdom in a nice recurring role, could be duped into thinking such a thing. It seems out of character for Jim Moss. I likely would’ve gone a different way with the final scene of the series and the wrap-up of the Gene character, but I’m sure Hader and company had a point to ending it the way they did and maybe one day they’ll share it. Either way, I thought it was a pretty good series finale for one of the greatest shows of the last half decade on television.
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The Word Podcast's Julian Spivey is joined by Brittany Oviedo to discuss the series finale and final season of the award-winning HBO dramedy "Barry," starring Bill Hader.
Six New Series from Disney+, AppleTV+, Hulu and Peacock Featured in May's Streaming Recommendations5/1/2023 by Julian Spivey Bupkis – Peacock – Thursday, May 4 Pete Davidson’s first regular post-‘SNL’ gig is the new Peacock action-comedy “Bupkis,” premiering Thursday, May 4. The show is supposedly a “heightened, fictionalized version of Pete Davidson’s life.” Davidson is a polarizing figure in show business as viewers either seem to be really into him or absolutely can’t stand him. I seem to be one of the few, personally, who can take him or leave him based on the content. A fictionalized version of his own life feels like something that might be done well, but it also feels like something Davidson’s done before (though I haven’t gotten around to seeing the Judd Apatow-directed “The King of Staten Island” yet). The most intriguing things about “Bupkis” are the talented supporting cast which includes Emmy-winner Edie Falco and Oscar-winner Joe Pesci, who was essentially talked out of retirement for the role, as well as the question – where is the action part of “action-comedy” going to come from? I’m at least intrigued to find out how “Bupkis” goes. Class of ’09 – Hulu – Wednesday, May 10 Brian Tyree Henry. That’s all I need to know about “Class of ‘09” and I’m in. Henry’s performance on FX’s “Atlanta” was one of my favorite TV performances of the last decade and his Oscar-nominated performance in “Causeway” was just as excellent. He’s easily one of the most naturalistic actors currently in Hollywood. “Class of ‘09” is a limited suspense thriller, premiering on Hulu on Wednesday, May 10, that follows a class of FBI agents in three different points of time dealing with major changes in the U.S. criminal justice system. The series also features Kate Mara, Jake McDorman and Sepideh Moafi. The Muppets Mayhem – Disney+ - Wednesday, May 10 All right, Disney and The Muppets Studio, I’m going to give The Muppets one more chance. I really enjoyed the short-lived ABC ‘Muppets’ series, but ever since the company brought its shows to the Disney+ streamer I’ve found them to be too kiddie for my tastes. And, while The Muppets are certainly family-friendly, at their best they have something for the adults too. Honestly, I’m only going to give this series a shot because I love Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem Band and the idea of a show revolving around the band trying to make it in the modern music world is sheer genius to me – if it’s done right. High Desert – AppleTV+ - Wednesday, May 17 Patricia Arquette’s performance on AppleTV+’s “Severance” was one of the best performances and for sure the scariest performance on television last year. Since it doesn’t appear season two of that series is coming around any time soon, I’m happy to see Arquette try her hand at comedy (with some action thrown in) in AppleTV+’s new series, “High Desert.” Arquette plays Peggy Newman, a middle-aged woman who makes the life-changing decision to become a private investigator following the death of her mother. The series, premiering Wednesday, May 17, features supporting performances from Brad Garrett and Matt Dillon. Platonic – AppleTV+ - Wednesday, May 24 I’m sure Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne no doubt have great chemistry together after playing a married couple in multiple “Neighbors” movies (though I haven’t seen any of them). The duo is reuniting once again, but this time to play a couple of friends approaching midlife who reconnect after a rift kept them apart for many years. American Born Chinese – Disney+ - Wednesday, May 24 I’m not a big Disney+ fan. Just not really into series with incredibly vast universes based on previous I.P., which is mostly what the streamer serves in. But the fact that Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu all coming off the Best Picture Oscar-winning “Everything Everywhere All At Once” all appear regularly in the new series “American Born Chinese,” based on the 2006 graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang, has my interest piqued. I’ll follow those three anywhere right now. by Julian Spivey When James Corden’s tenure as host of CBS’s ‘Late, Late Show’ began in 2015 it felt like a breath of fresh air for late-night television. I’ll never forget how he wrapped his first week by doing an entire show from a local person’s house – a total rando he just knocked on the door of – with guest Jeff Goldblum in tow. It was one of the wildest things I’d ever seen in decades of watching late-night television. Corden, like no other late-night TV talk show host before him, also brought the medium into the social media age with quick bite bits like Carpool Karaoke and Crosswalk the Musical that played perfectly on YouTube or on social media sites. Sure, Jimmy Fallon had beat him to the punch by a few years, but Fallon’s bits on ‘Late Night’ and later ‘The Tonight Show’ were never cultural touchstones like Carpool Karaoke. Corden also revolutionized the way the talk format was done on late-night talk shows bringing the multiple guests at the same time method used by Graham Norton on his U.K. show to the States. This is something that I don’t believe had been done regularly on a late-night U.S. talk show since “The Dick Cavett Show” in the ‘70s, and I’m not sure if it was even the main format for that show. The allure of the double interview was the first thing about Corden’s ‘Late, Late Show’ to wear off for me as a viewer. Sure, it could lead to fun camaraderie moments among celebrities, but it wasn’t as intimate as the solo interview and could occasionally lead to awkward pairings – like a fairly recent episode I saw with actress Jamie Lee Curtis and stand-up comedian Nate Bargatze as the guests. The format probably worked well for Corden, as he’s never been a strong interviewer, but more of a buddy to the guests on his show. I really do appreciate the interview aspect of the late-night talk show format, even if many viewers likely turn off these shows after the comedy portion of the first half has ended. I was a regular, if not almost every night viewer of Corden’s show for his first few years and enjoyed it, at least for the comedy bits and Corden’s personality – which we’ve come to find might be more of a put-on than most in his shoes or maybe he just occasionally has moments of unpleasantness like the rest of us do (the ordeal with a famous restauranteur last year harmed him in the public eye more than it probably should have). But at some point – and I can’t quite put my finger on when exactly, but it was definitely before the pandemic altered the way late-night television was produced in early 2020 – I went from a regular Corden viewer to almost not watching the show at all. I think this has a bit more to do with my life and a large number of worthy TV shows to watch than anything he or the show really did – but I still watched Stephen Colbert’s ‘Late Show’ and Seth Meyers’ ‘Late Night’ pretty frequently and Fallon’s ‘Tonight Show’ semi-regularly. I found Corden’s show to be the fourth and later fifth-best late-night show on broadcast television. Despite Corden changing late-night TV and bringing it in many ways into the modern era I found that I kind of liked things the way they had always been - monologue (something Corden paled in comparison to Colbert, Meyers and Jimmy Kimmel in and it wasn’t even close), comedy (Corden’s strong suit) and interviews (again, Corden paled drastically, especially to Colbert). I watched the final week of ‘Late, Late Show’ episodes to see how Corden and the show sent themselves off into the sunset. And even though the occasion of it being the show’s last week was brought up often during the first three shows of the week they didn’t really have a whole lot of sense of finality to me. I felt like they could’ve been your average episodes with celebrities like Ray Romano pitching their latest work. There was also a primetime special broadcast on Thursday (April 27) before the finale regular show that featured the final Carpool Karaoke bit but I haven’t watched it yet (not sure I ever will). But the finale on Thursday had some great moments that will stand among some of the best in Corden’s run on the show. I really loved a pre-taped sketch involving all of the current broadcast late-night TV show hosts (Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyers) popping up at Corden’s house (in a dream) to essentially send him off into retirement with threats about not giving away late night secrets like not actually watching every project the guests on the shows are in and the fake laughter when a guest tells a boring or uninteresting story. The part of the bit I loved the most was the David Letterman cameo – Letterman is always going to be my late-night guy of choice. The final guests on the ‘Late, Late Show’ were pop music sensation and dear friend of the show Harry Styles and actor Will Ferrell. Upon announcing Ferrell as the show’s last guest, the veteran funny man walked down the aisle toward the stage from the back as probably a thousand or more guests have done before but was carrying a sledgehammer. Ferrell has had numerous classic late-night TV bits throughout the years on various shows hosted by the likes of Letterman, Fallon and Conan O’Brien, but destroying Corden’s desk with a sledgehammer before the final interview could take place is right up there with the best of them. Ferrell is a first ballot late-night TV Hall of Famer for sure. These finales always get emotional, especially when it comes to personalities who’ve come into our homes four-to-five nights a week for eight years in Corden’s case. He got emotional when talking about the job, his crew, his writers and the band led by comedian/musician Reggie Watts. He also said, “This show is everything I wanted it to be.” The show then took its final commercial break before returning to send the show off in the only way Corden could possibly have done it – via song. It was a song about the joys of the show and the love of its audience and Corden could barely make it through the final bit filled with emotion. And that was that. After nearly 12,000 episodes at the helm, Corden was done as host of the ‘Late, Late Show.’ More so disappointing to me was that it wasn’t just Corden’s finale but the show’s in general as CBS has decided to go in another route after nearly 30 years with the hour following Colbert – a mistake, in my opinion, that will leave Meyers and NBC’s ‘Late Night’ as the only post-Tonight Show/Late Show/Jimmy Kimmel Live late-night talk show on broadcast television. It feels like the first nail in the late-night TV coffin and even though I can see reasons why the format might not be long for this world it’s always been a format I’ve loved and I think is important for television, especially for those of us night owls. by Julian Spivey Well, it finally happened. After almost 13 full seasons and 270 episodes a white character has finally been arrested on the CBS police procedural “Blue Bloods.” On the most recent episode titled “The Naked Truth,” directed by Donald Thorin Jr. and written by Nicole Abraham and Daniel Truly, a white man was arrested for serial jaywalking in the nude. “After 13 years, we thought the least we could do is throw a white guy in as the perpetrator. We’ll get back to the usual suspects – black men with the occasional black woman, Asian man and Hispanic man thrown in next week,” said Truly. Fans were shocked when in the first 10 minutes of Friday’s episode Det. Danny Reagan (played by Donnie Wahlberg) and his partner Det. Maria Baez (played by Marisa Ramirez) slapped the handcuffs on Whitey Whiteman (played by Tanner Smith IV) for the serial nude jaywalking. This led to some distaste from viewers online, like Houston Osteen who tweeted: “Wait? They arrested one of us. ‘Blue Bloods’ has gone woke. I’m never watching another episode again.” “Blue Bloods” has a history of being perhaps the most pro-police, least progressive series on primetime television and has taken a stance on controversial policing topics in the past. But for some of its audience the most controversial thing the series, led by veteran actor Tom Selleck, has ever done is bring a white man to justice – even if that white man was released on bail moments later. “Blue Bloods” showrunner Kevin Wade understands the controversy wrought by Friday’s episode but is encouraging fans to continue with the show as he promises the series won’t stray from its usual bad guys anymore. “We always try to be true to real-world events and policing and we know that police in the real world mostly arrest men of color and we will continue to focus on that aspect of policing,” Wade said. He added: “We’ll stop focusing on ticky-tack crimes like nude jaywalking and get back to the real threats on the streets of New York like selling loose cigarettes.” “Blue Bloods” was recently renewed for a 14th season by CBS. by Julian Spivey Schmigadoon! (Season 2) – AppleTV+ - Wednesday, April 5 The first season of AppleTV+’s musical-comedy “Schmigadoon!,” which is a loving parody of classic Hollywood musicals, aired in the summer of 2021 and although it’s cast – lead by Keegan-Michael Key and Cecily Strong – was terrific it was a minor letdown (worth finishing, but not as good as it could have been). That first season focused on a story that was an homage to ‘40s and ‘50s musicals like in the vein of Rodgers & Hammerstein, so not really my jam personally. Season two, which will be set in Chicago, will be an homage to musicals from the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s – so probably more Stephen Sondheim. This gives me some hope for a better second outing. Tiny Beautiful Things – Hulu – Friday, April 7 “Tiny Beautiful Things” is certainly the kind of title you’d expect for a Hulu limited series (and it’s from Reese Witherspoon’s production company that did “Little Fires Everywhere”). The series is based on Cheryl Strayed’s best-selling book of the same name and stars Kathryn Hahn, always reliable onscreen, as Clare, an advice columnist who becomes famous while her own life is falling apart. The series, which premieres Friday, April 7, co-stars Quentin Plair, Tanzyn Crawford and Sarah Pidgeon. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Fifth & Final Season) – Amazon Prime Video – Friday, April 14 I might be in the minority on this, but I’m not ready for Amazon’s comedy series “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” about the trials and tribulations of a divorced wife and mom who becomes a struggling stand-up comic, to come to an end. Some viewers and critics alike feel as if the show has lost its way, but it still provides stellar episodes, scenes and entertains me quite a bit. I hope the show is able to wrap up nicely, but I’m going to miss the Maisels, Weissmans and especially Susie Myerson. John Mulaney: Baby J – Netflix – Tuesday, April 25
John Mulaney’s previous Netflix comedy specials “The Comeback Kid” (2015) and “Kid Gorgeous” (2018) have been laugh riots but an awful lot has happened in his life since those moments from getting a divorce to entering rehab for a drug addiction. It’ll be interesting to see if any of those momentous life moments make the set of his newest Netflix comedy special “Baby J,” which premieres on Tuesday, April 25. One thing I hope Mulaney doesn’t touch upon is seemingly every comedian’s favorite topic of the moment: cancel culture. Mulaney has been one of the best stand-ups in the business for more than a decade now, so I’m sure “Baby J” won’t disappoint. Saint X – Hulu – Wednesday, April 26 Hulu has made a name for itself with limited stories based on novels – just look at the first selection on this month’s list – and on Wednesday, April 26 comes another in “Saint X,” based on Alexis Schaitkin’s 2020 bestseller. “Saint X” follows a young woman’s mysterious death during a Caribbean vacation and her sister’s search for answers years later. The psychological drama, starring Alycia Debnam-Carey, will be told in multiple timelines and from multiple perspectives. by Julian Spivey Daisy Jones & the Six – Amazon Prime Video – Friday, March 3 A miniseries about a fictional rock band in the ‘70s Los Angeles music scene is right up my alley. “Daisy Jones & the Six,” which will consist of 10 episodes, is based on the popular 2019 novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Created for Amazon by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, the series stars Riley Keough as the titular Daisy Jones and a supporting cast featuring Sam Claflin, Camila Morrone and Suki Waterhouse. The story will be told in documentary style, which could be a pro or con depending on how you feel about the format. Chris Rock: Selective Outrage – Netflix – Saturday, March 4 Netflix was the first successful streaming platform, but when it comes to producing a live event it’s pretty much the last of the streaming services to do so. Most streaming services like AppleTV+ and Peacock have been doing live broadcasts with sporting events, while Disney+ had the high profile and very successful Elton John U.S. farewell concert in November. Netflix, which has been the home for many of the best stand-up comedy specials over the last decade, is popping its live telecast cherry with a live stand-up performance by Chris Rock on Saturday, March 4 – which is sure to draw a massive audience, especially by those hoping to see Rock mention the infamous slap at the Oscars less than a year ago. The live event will take place at 9 p.m. (CST) from Baltimore. If you can’t watch the special live, have no fear, it will remain on Netflix following the live performance. Ted Lasso (Season 3) – AppleTV+ - Wednesday, March 15 The long-awaited third season of the multiple-time Emmy-winning AppleTV+ comedy series “Ted Lasso” will premiere on Wednesday, March 15 nearly a year-and-a-half after the end of the second season. The delayed third season will pick up where season two left off with our lovable AFC Richmond soccer coach Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) dealing with the aftermath of his assistant Nate (Nick Mohammed) turning to the dark side to coach a rival club. It feels like this could lead to a darker season of the series than we’ve seen before, but I’d still expect much of the feel-good laughter we’ve gotten in the past. It’s been long rumored that the series was only planned for three seasons potentially making this the show’s swan song, but an official announcement has not been made on that. Swarm – Amazon Prime Video – Friday, March 17 It’s somewhat surprising to see Donald Glover come out with another TV series this quickly after the final two seasons of his critically-acclaimed “Atlanta” wrapped on FX last year. The new series “Swarm,” which premieres Friday, May 17 on Amazon Prime Video has mostly been kept hush-hush so we don’t know much more than it will be a horror series about a young woman whose obsession with a pop star takes a dark turn. That young woman will be played by Dominique Fishback, who had a star-making turn in the 2021 film “Judas and the Black Messiah.” Glover will not be an actor in “Swarm,” like he was in “Atlanta,” but will serve as co-creator and has at least co-written and directed the pilot episode. Many of the best episodes of “Atlanta” played out like horror movies, which is a good sign for “Swarm.” Rabbit Hole – Paramount+ - Sunday, March 26 Kiefer Sutherland’s return to television comes in the original Paramount+ spy thriller “Rabbit Hole,” premiering on Sunday, March 26. Sutherland stars as private espionage agent John Weir who has been framed for murder by a mysterious world-controlling power. It feels like “The Fugitive” but with bigger stakes and threats. by Julian Spivey Poker Face – Peacock – Thursday, February 2 OK, so technically Peacock’s new mystery series “Poker Face,” starring Natasha Lyonne and created by “Knives Out” director/writer Rian Johnson, premiered last week in January with its first four episodes, but its fifth episode drops Groundhog Day, so let’s make like Bill Murray and give ourselves a re-do. “Poker Face” sees Lyonne as Charlie Cale who has the special gift of being able to tell when someone is lying just by looking at them. It’s sort of a “Columbo” for today’s generation of TV viewers. The pilot, which featured a superbly sleazy performance by Adrien Brody in a supporting role, was excellent and I can’t wait to see what’s up ahead for Charlie. It’s probably the most promising and most likely stand-out series from Peacock thus far. New episodes of the series will drop on Thursdays. Dear Edward – AppleTV+ - Friday, February 3 Jason Katims is one of my all-time favorite TV writers and showrunners thanks to his work on “Friday Night Lights” and “Parenthood,” but since then he’s fallen on some hard times with three straight series being canceled after one season (even though I enjoyed the only one of the three I saw (“Rise”) and his most recent “As We See It” on Amazon Prime Video was well-received by critics). His latest, this time for AppleTV+, is “Dear Edward,” based on the bestselling 2020 novel by Ann Napolitano, about a 12-year-old boy who is the only survivor from a plane crash and the relationship he forms with the grieving family members of the ones who didn’t survive. The series stars newcomer Colin O’Brien in the titular role with Taylor Schilling as the aunt who takes him in and Connie Britton, reuniting with Katims after their work together on ‘FNL.’ The first three episodes premiere on Friday, February 3 with new episodes coming every Friday until the season wraps. Bill Russell: Legend – Netflix – Wednesday, February 8 Bill Russell, who died in July of last year, was such an important and giant figure in the National Basketball Association (NBA) that the league announced it would retire his No. 6 jersey league-wide shortly after his death. He was a towering figure, not just on the basketball court where he dominated the game and won more championships than any player in league history, but also as a civil rights leader. I can think of few better ways to celebrate Black History Month with media than with Netflix’s two-part documentary series “Bill Russell: Legend,” directed by Sam Pollard, about this amazing man. Sharper – AppleTV+ - Friday, February 17 AppleTV+ doesn’t have too many original films debuting on its service, but it has had a pretty good track record with them – most notably Oscar Best Picture winner “CODA.” Its latest is “Sharper,” a psychological thriller by director Benjamin Caron and written by Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka, about a young man who exacts revenge on his family for not accepting him and cons the rich to gain the wealth he desires. The film, which premieres Friday, February 17, stars Julianne Moore, Sebastian Stan, Justice Smith and John Lithgow. Hello Tomorrow – AppleTV+ - Friday, February 17 Billy Crudup has been the best thing about AppleTV+’s drama series “The Morning Show,” even winning an Emmy for his first season performance, and while that show will return at some point (even if I’d be OK if it didn’t), Crudup is debuting his new AppleTV+ series “Hello Tomorrow” on Friday, February 17. “Hello Tomorrow” is told in a world that both feels retro and modernistic, which should be a fun setting, in which a charismatic salesman (played by Crudup) leads a team of associates trying to revitalize their customers’ lives by selling timeshares on the moon. The series co-stars Hank Azaria, Haneefah Wood, Alison Pill and Jacki Weaver. While the trailer makes everything seem cheery and bright you can just feel something sinister bubbling beneath. by Tyler Glover Edward Scissorhands.
Beetlejuice. The Nightmare Before Christmas. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. All of these films are classics that millions of filmgoers love all around the world. They all blend comedy, horror and science fiction perfectly. They are also all directed by the acclaimed director Tim Burton. So, when it was announced that Netflix would be ordering an ‘Addams Family’ pilot with Burton as an executive producer and director, my hopes were incredibly high for it. This is definitely the kind of project right up Burton’s alley. The series called “Wednesday” does not disappoint. The series follows Wednesday (Jenna Ortega), Morticia and Gomez’s daughter, who is expelled from her school for putting live piranhas in the pool for the boys’ swimming team after they were bullying her brother, Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez). As a result, she is put in her parents’ alma mater, Nevermore Academy, a school for monstrous outcasts. While attending the school, she reluctantly befriends her roommate Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers). She is completely different from Wednesday. She is the Galinda to Wednesday’s Elphaba. Wednesday also starts falling for a fellow student, Tyler (Hunter Doohan). Because of her psychic abilities, she starts to investigate a string of murders. Gwendolyn Christie stars as Principal Weems and in one of the best casting decisions this year, Christina Ricci (who played Wednesday in “The Addams Family” films) plays a botany teacher. The performances in this series are top-notch. Ortega plays Wednesday with all of the gloom and doom you would expect but also makes audiences fall completely in love with her. Christie as the Principal truly shines in a role that is a vast contrast from her previous television role in HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” This show allows us to really see more of what Christie is made of and she delivers. Catherine Zeta-Jones, who plays Morticia in a guest-starring role, makes you wish she was on the screen more. Her Morticia is 100 percent spot on. If Zeta-Jones does qualify for Best Guest Actress in a Comedy Series at the Primetime Emmys, I would love to see her nominated and win that category. This series also shines from fantastic writing. It truly is a binge-worthy show, and this is coming from someone who has only ever binge-watched two other Netflix shows (“Squid Game” and “Bridgerton”). Some shows can suffer from relying so much on a mystery that you do not get to fully care for the characters, but this is not the case here. The writing allows us to see all of the characters and their complexities. We grow to care for them and become very invested in them. This is definitely something that great storytelling and great television should do. The show definitely satisfies viewers while also leaving us wanting more. “Wednesday” is currently streaming on Netflix. by Aprille Hanson-Spivey In episode five of season one of ABC’s “Alaska Daily,” there’s a short conversation revealing why this show is so important. It’s between publicly disgraced journalist Eileen Fitzgerald, played by the masterful Hilary Swank, and Defense Secretary Raymond Green (James McDaniel) who belittles her seemingly washed-up career thanks to her failed reporting attempt at catching him in a corruption scheme:
“It’s all very embarrassing what’s happened to you. Big stories out of your reach now, you’re spinning out in the boonies.” “Are you making fun of my current employer?” “The Daily Alaskan is a step above a high school yearbook.” “Mr. Secretary, few things could make me happier than watching you underestimate the power of a local newspaper. They may not be fancy and it may be far from the halls of power in D.C., but it's sure a hell of a lot closer to the truth. I’ll buy you a subscription when I write my story.” That exchange is a synopsis of why I love ABC’s “Alaska Daily.” The show is a love letter to local newspapers, and I’ve been waiting for it. For 12 years, I’ve worked professionally as a journalist, but I’ve been an ink-stained wretch since I fell in love with journalism at 13 years old. I’ve worked for various newspapers throughout my career – daily, bi-weekly, weekly, niche and local/statewide. It’s been a weird time for me to watch “Alaska Daily,” as it’s the first time I’m not working for a newspaper – diving instead into the world of content writing for a statewide health system. There are moments I’ve watched with mournful nostalgia and other times I’ve smirked in agreement when they’ve revealed the problems that plague journalism these days. Journalism-based shows are nothing new. Think “The Newsroom” and “Murphy Brown,” both classics but focused on broadcast journalism. For years, I’ve been saying we need a T.V. show about a print-based newsroom. Sure, several movies highlight the ins and outs of newspaper life, but many of those also tend to focus on national outlets – The Washington Post, The New York Times. “Alaska Daily” explores the ups and downs of what local newspapers across this country face each day, complete with a talented cast and an all-star in Swank at the top of the masthead. And in my greatest Stefon ‘SNL’ impression, I’ll say enthusiastically, “This show has everything!”
As national media outlets descend into their city as a young white girl falls off a cruise ship spurring a massive search, the staff of the Daily Alaskan keeps the focus on what matters locally. Why are so many resources deployed on this girl, while a young native woman is missing simultaneously? It’s the only news outlet focusing on what matters to their community. It even hits on the dangers of being a reporter when Fitzgerald is continually threatened for her work. While at my first job at a statewide daily paper, I remember opening a racist letter with a white powdery substance sprinkled in the envelope after covering a story about a local Black cultural center. It triggered a lockdown in our newsroom while a hazmat team came in to confirm it was, in fact, crushed up Tylenol and not anthrax – and this was about 10 years ago. The threats journalists receive today I’m sure are much worse and more frequent. The ones Fitzgerald endures unfortunately match the tone of today’s society. All while diving into this world, it’s doing service to a real-life story – shining a spotlight on the abuses of native women. The show was inspired by The Anchorage Daily News and Pro Publica series “Lawless Sexual Violence in Alaska,” written by Kyle Hopkins, who serves as a show producer. “Alaska Daily” is the show society needs right now. Against the backdrop of local newspapers folding or being bought up by major conglomerates who outsource the news, subscriptions dwindling and society turning its trust to social media and talking heads on cable news, the show reveals the true dedication of a local staff and the necessity of having a local watchdog. I hope people are watching and understand this isn’t just fiction. It’s up to us as a society to support local journalism because once that’s gone, we’ll all sure as hell be farther from the truth. “Alaska Daily” returns to ABC on Thursday, Feb. 23. The first six episodes can be seen on Hulu and ABC.com. |
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