NOW SEE THIS

MARCH 26, 2021

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.

Once More Unto the Beak

The Mighty Ducks are back and this time they're the bad guys! That's the inverted premise of Disney+'s The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, which begins its run this week. Emilio Estevez returns and Lauren Graham is a valuable new addition in a series that probably isn't good, but might be good enough for some fans. For a very, very different piece of intellectual property tweaking, you can check out Netflix's The Irregulars, about a group of London street urchins who help Sherlock Holmes and Watson crack a supernatural case threatening our reality. Notice that I say you "can" check it out, not necessarily that you should.

Holding Out for a Hero

Having sat out last week's The Falcon and the Winter Soldier vs. Zack Snyder's Justice League showdown, Amazon is ready to jump back into the superhero fray with Invincible, an animated adaptation of Robert Kirkman's comic. THR's Inkoo Kang felt that the ultra-gory homage to, and satire of, '80s/'90s cartoon heroes wasted a lot of its more interesting ideas. I thought the vocal cast, including newly minted Oscar nominee Steven Yeun, Sandra Oh, J.K. Simmons, Gillian Jacobs, Jason Mantzoukas and more, kept things entertaining. And if that's not your thing, there's still a new Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode on Disney+, as well as an interview with head writer Malcolm Spellman on this week's TV's Top 5 podcast.

We Don't Need Another Hero

This is the first weekend in a while without a big-title movie premiering on a major streaming platform, though you've got Godzilla vs. Kong at midweek on HBO Max. If you're looking for longform entertainment and you've finished all of your Oscars homework, HBO's Tina Turner doc, Tina, premieres Sunday after launching at this year’s virtual Berlin Film Festival. THR’s chief film critic David Rooney called it "simply the best." Like all good things, that's both a reference and a review!

Passoverboard

A happy and reflective Passover to those who observe. For reasons best understood by not-me, The Ten Commandments has been appropriated by Easter and isn't broadcasting or available to stream for free this weekend. Fortunately, you have Passover-themed options aplenty including the "Exciting and New" episode of Transparent (Amazon), the "The Seder" episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO Max) and "Seder Anything" from Gossip Girl (HBO Max). But really, I'm going to assume everybody is doing the traditional double bill of “A Rugrats Passover" (Hulu, Paramount+) and Uncut Gems (Netflix).

Honoring George Segal

An Oscar nominee and winner of a pair of Golden Globes as a young leading man and comic scene stealer on the small screen, George Segal died this week at 87. Segal had been co-starring on ABC's The Goldbergs since 2013, and the entire series, as well as his NBC sitcom Just Shoot Me!, are available on Hulu. For vintage cinematic Segal, Amazon Prime has the motherlode with California Split, Fun With Dick and Jane, The Owl and the Pussycat and Ship of Fools, while HBO Max boasts Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Flirting With Disaster.

Honoring Jessica Walter

It remains a crime that Jessica Walter never won an Emmy for Arrested Development in a performance that belongs on the Mt. Rushmore of TV moms. The actress, who did win an Emmy for NBC’s Amy Prentiss, died this week at 80. The bulk of her cinematic standouts — The Flamingo Kid, Play Misty for Me, Grand Prix — aren't easily streamable, but Arrested Development is on Netflix and Archer is on Hulu, and if you watch the "Eve of Destruction" episode of Just Shoot Me!, you'll see Bye Bye Braverman and Retired at 35 co-stars Walter and Segal together.

This Week's THR Staff Pick

Canadian bureau chief Etan Vlessing raves, "Prepare to go under with the Belgian-Dutch crime drama Undercover. The Netflix series in season one sees police agents Kim and Bob infiltrate a crime gang to bust up drug kingpin Ferry Bouman by posing as holidaymakers in a trailer park. The police duo, and viewers, are soon immersed in a world of double-crosses, clashing egos and covers threatened with unmasking. The second season sees illegal weapon sales replace drug deals as Bob again goes undercover, and eventually rogue, on a horse riding ranch to take down vicious arms dealers."

Is this e-mail not displaying correctly?
View it in your browser. 

©2021 The Hollywood Reporter, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC. 11175 Santa Monica Boulevard Los Angeles, CA, 90025 All rights reserved.

MARCH 26, 2021

UNSUBSCRIBE 

MANAGE PREFERENCES

PRIVACY POLICY

TERMS OF USE