NOW SEE THIS

OCTOBER 09, 2020

Welcome to Now See This, THR chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg's weekly viewer guide newsletter dedicated to cutting through the daunting clutter of the broadcast, cable and streaming TV landscape! Comments and suggestions welcome at daniel.fienberg@thr.com.

First Time Was a Great Time. Second Time Was a Blast. What About the Third Time?

Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff, a lively journalistic exploration of the Mercury Seven, is one of the great nonfiction books of the past 50 years, while Philip Kaufman's 1983 screen version is a triumph of pacing, casting, scoring and sheer technical ambition. As for Disney+'s new series adaptation? It's fine. It's bright, polished and can't, in any way, echo the personality of Wolfe's prose, but if you figure Disney+'s core audience may not know either previous incarnation? This one's for them!

Come 'Bly' with Me

Mike Flanagan's Netflix follow-up to The Haunting of Hill House adapts Henry James' The Turn of the Screw with spooky style, a top-notch ensemble — Victoria Pedretti, Rahul Kohli, T'Nia Miller and kids Amelie Bea Smith and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth are standouts — and, unfortunately, very few scares. Maybe the "It's a love story, not a ghost story" explanation will play better for you than it did for me.

Jewel of the Nyle

Netflix's Deaf U, executive produced by America's Next Top Model winner Nyle DiMarco, probably isn't exactly what you're expecting. THR's Inkoo Kang wanted more context in this exploration of students at Gallaudet, the top-tier university for the deaf and hard of hearing. This is fair. But at 20-ish minutes per episode, the show is probably intended more as an unscripted soap than an in-depth docuseries. As such, with layers of The Hills-esque contrivance, it's full of fun, likable featured characters navigating sex, romance and lives you don't often see depicted on TV. You'll cheer, you'll boo, you'll laugh, you'll perhaps cry and maybe you'll learn a thing or two.

'Hubie' Dooby Doo, How Are You?

Nobody, and I mean nobody, knows how to follow up critically acclaimed work like Adam Sandler. Punch-Drunk Love (streaming on HBO Max) was followed by Mr. Deeds. Funny People (on Starz OnDemand) was followed by Grown Ups. And after a winter in which he generated Oscar buzz for Uncut Gems (available on Netflix), Sandler's latest is Netflix’s Hubie Halloween. Could it possibly be OK? Actually, THR's John DeFore deems it "silly, overstuffed and as sweet as anything Adam Sandler has done." In a good way! 

Mo' Canada

Have you just finished Schitt's Creek? Are you looking for something new to watch with the prerequisite that it has to be Canadian? Want to talk with me on Twitter about what I'm bingeing myself right now? Well, I finally started Letterkenny on Hulu, and I've gone through three seasons in record time. Like Schitt's Creek, Letterkenny has a big heart, but it's much less family-friendly, much more profane and much more verbally dexterous. I already love the entire cast, especially K. Trevor Wilson and Michelle Mylett. For more all-ages Canadian programming, people swear by Kim's Convenience, streaming on Netflix. I'll get there next.

Goodbye, Columbus Day

Those observing Columbus Day on Monday should definitely watch "Christopher," the worst Sopranos episode ever made. If you are, instead, celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day and you have Kanopy access, check out the seminal American Experience documentary We Shall Remain. But also ask yourself why American TV has done so poorly depicting the Native American experience. For a different indigenous perspective, Acorn premieres the second season of the Australian drama Mystery Road on October 12.

This Week's THR Staff Pick

Executive editor David Katz writes: "The journalist in me isn't ready to say whether HBO's The Vow — a propulsive 9-part deep dive into the sex cult that ensnared several Hollywood types — is documentary filmmaking at its most responsible. The one-time members on camera seem to have a little too much say in crafting their narratives and excusing their culpabilities. But it's undeniably compelling, with goldmine footage of convicted leader Keith Reniere, alleged recruiter (and former Smallville actress) Allison Mack and a still-to-be-resolved rescue by actress Catherine Oxenberg of her daughter. It's so thorough that it should render all future Nxivm projects moot — of course, this being Hollywood, there's probably already a few additional scripted iterations on the way. "

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OCTOBER 09, 2020

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