Cruel Summer (Freeform)-Teen melodramas are a dime a dozen and a few of them like The Society (Netflix) and 13 Reasons Why (Netflix) have chosen to incorporate life-and-death stakes into their premise rather than something like "The O.C." which went from glittery and fun to heavy only in later seasons.
This series is generally in the former camp but it toggles between three successive years in the lives of two teenage girls as if the editor was fidgeting with a remote control. The two teenagers—privileged, popular Kate (Olivia Holt), and reserved Jeannette (Chiara Aurelia)—have their lives transformed by trauma. Kate is kidnapped and held hostage in a basement for several months while Jeannette is (from our initial point of view) unfairly blamed for the crime.
Over the course of three years, we see the two transform from relatively innocent to jaded individuals and the series does a pretty impressive job of developing these characters if you can get over the mood whiplash. Kate and Jeannette and the support systems around them don’t feel overly archetypal though there is one exception in Kate’s haughty socialite mother (played by the ordinarily awesome sitcom actress Andrea Anders).
There is plenty of mood whiplash as there seems little rhyme or reason to the editing but the season mostly works. Additionally, it takes about seven out of ten episodes for this show to get into the “I’m hooked” territory which is way too long for a serialized show. On the whole, it’s watchable at every stage, so that’s enough to keep one going.
Mosquito Coast (Apple TV)-I previously reviewed this show about two episodes in when I felt it had potential through the mysteries of what’s not revealed about the characters.
After making it to the end of the seven-episode first season, I’m having much more trouble recommending this. In the mold of "Prison Break", "Breaking Bad", and more recently "The Americans" or "Ozark", this is one of those shows where characters are pushed on all ends to impossible situations. It’s as if there is a linear relationship between how much tension you infuse a show and how well it’s received.
Well, not according to me. I never bought the “I’m doing it for my family” excuse of Walter White and I buy it even less here with the character of Allie Fox (Justin Thoreaux). Very often these shows make for characters far less likeable or sensible than they’re meant to come across. In this case, Allie Fox has so many deadly bands of baddies after him, it’s generally a miracle if he can survive longer than five minutes. For him to carry his kids into such danger is either underestimating how much of a liability he is (doubtful) or supremely selfish.
The original book and film adaptation are about attempting to create a paradise abroad but this is mostly like watching “The Bourne Ultimatum”: Any philosophical points the work is trying to make plays second fiddle to the extremely engrossing action. Credit goes where it’s due: The action scenes are extremely good, but without more, it’s just a narratively inconsistent action flick.
Home Economics (ABC)-Mostly an effort to fill the safe family programming hole left by “Modern Family” except this is a bit more generationally horizontal than vertical. The series centers on the lives of three adult siblings whose kids are roughly the same age. Their parents (Nora Dunn and Richard Kind) make occasional appearances but are safely in recurring guest star territory while the kids are about as important to the formula as “Everybody Loves Raymond”: Screen time is doled out to them if it helps develop one of their parents’ arcs. Frankly, they could have recast the kids in between episodes and I wouldn’t have noticed.
On to the roll call! Jimmy Tatro plays a well-off financial trader who’s a bit difficult to buy considering this actor has appeared quite convincingly in a number of dim guys (from my small sampling). Topher Grace plays a novelist with a bit of neuroticism. Their sister, played by Caitlin McGee, is a lesbian who casually spouts off terms like male privilege and microaggressions. All three are married and all three have kids. The spouses are pretty disposable except Saturday Night Live alum Sasheer Zamata pops up as Caitlin McGee’s other half. Way to bounce back, Sasheer!
As a 30-something with no kids and wife (and highly self-conscious about it), I started the show thinking “what’s in it for me?” until I started to see how well the show poked at the thin veneer of marital bliss.
Within a couple episodes, Tatro’s character gets divorced. In one episode, it’s revealed that neither Topher Grace nor his wife have any ability to attract the opposite sex anymore. As for McGee’s holier-than-thou wokeness, the show does an excellent line of lampooning her occasional moments of self-righteousness without ever showing her beliefs to be unworthy.
The show might not be ambitious, but it’s disarming and has the potential to be consistent entertainment.
We Are Lady Parts (Peacock)-Growing up Jewish, I was never exposed to much about Islam culture and I’m going to take a wild stab here and guess that many of you weren’t either. Perhaps, that’s why I’ve responded like a delighted visitor to shows like “Little Mosque on the Prairie” and “Ramy” which have taken me to a world I might have never seen before.
Part of my fascination is because the way that Islam has been subtly villainized in my upbringing has given me a curiosity of exoticism about the culture. However, there’s a lot of inherent conflict in any practicing Muslim dealing with modernity that makes it ripe for drama. In “We Are Lady Parts”, all the contradictions of modernity and Islam are milked for great character drama among an ensemble that spans the biggest contrasts of the Muslim community in London.
The dominant storyline in fiction of religious Islam, Judaism, and Orthodox strands of Christianity (such as Mormonism) is young people defining themselves against their parents’ expectations of restraint and tradition. This is why it’s such an effective 180 that the protagonist, Amina (Anjana Vasan), is a prim and proper by choice (and more so than her parents, even) because she’s all about husband chasing. Through convoluted circumstances, she meets a quartet of young women who want her to join their rock band. The first season can be seen as a battle for Amira’s soul with the punk rockers on one side and her prom and proper friends which are more “Sex and the City” annoying then what passes for Muslim stereotypes these day. There’s also a nicely meandering love story underneath the story.
One beautiful thing about the show is that while this quartet of punk rockers doesn’t lack for the requisite anti-authoritarian streaks, they still exist within the confines of Islam. The band manager, Momtaz (Lucie Shorthouse), for instance, smokes and works in a lingerie shop, but we never see her without her niqab.
House Broken (Fox)-On what could be the next big thing in Fox’s animation block, Lisa Kudrow plays a poodle, Honey, who leads a therapy group for all the neighborhood pets. There’s a lot of low-hanging fruit here for the jokes—simply imagine what your pet would say if they could talk to a therapist and viola! – but the jokes really hit, so I’ve been gobbling it up so far. There’s also the typical anthropomorphic tics that you see Seth MacFarlane occasionally do with Brian on “Family Guy” (why I predict this will catch on). These anthropomorphic jokes are about 15 times more frequent but I’ll let it slide because, hey, funny is funny.
It also helps that Lisa Kudrow injects Honey with a mix of spunk and relatable aimlessness that makes her character wonderful. Beyond her, the ensemble is a little bloated but there are some highlights in there. In particular, Will Forte voices a turtle who’s in love with a croc shoe and Jason Matzoukas is a neglected cat with one eye.
To Tell the Truth (ABC)-This game show format has been done before since the 1950s with What's My Line. A group of celebrity panelists try to guess about people with unusual hobbies or claims to fame. With a good host, good guests, and the right finesse, it’s a timeless formula. In the three episodes, I saw the guest panelists and contestants kept things moving along at a jaunty pace so I’m satisfied. The cherry on top is that host Anthony Anderson has his mom on as a fourth panelist of sorts and that’s the sort of randomness that shakes things up.
