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.

The 'Epicenters' Cannot Hold

I don't love the typographical weirdness of its title, and NYC Epicenters 9/11 ➔ 2021½needs to come with a dozen different trigger warnings, but it's a reminder of what a spectacular and passionate documentary filmmaker Spike Lee is. Here, he tackles everything from COVID-19 to the 1/6 right-wing attack on the Capitol to the tragedy of 9/11 through a New York City prism in a way that's sure to make you sad, angry and even occasionally amused. I'd add that if you like Spike Lee in documentarian mode, but haven't seen When the Levees Broke, If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise or 4 Little Girls, they're all on HBO Max.

Livin' on a 'Chair'

Not to be confused with the short-lived ABC game show, The Chair featuring John McEnroe (unavailable for streaming), or Starz's one-season filmmaking reality show The Chair. No, this is a six-episode Netflix comedy co-created by Amanda Peet and starring Sandra Oh. Our Angie Han says that The Chair , which focuses on the newly installed chair of the English department at a New England college, is easy to watch, but a letdown in terms of substance. I thought Oh and co-star Holland Taylor were especially good, and for this son of a former college English department chair, a lot of it rang true. Check out this week's TV's Top 5 podcast for our interview with first-time showrunner Peet.

'Chapelwaite,' 'Chapelwaite' … Don't Tell Me! 

Were you frustrated by The Standon Paramount+ and ultimately disappointed by Apple TV+'s Lisey's Story? Yearning for a good Stephen King adaptation? Unfortunately, Epix's Chapelwaite , adapted very loosely from King's short story "Jerusalem's Lot," is ridiculously padded at 10 hours and takes way too long to really get going. Fortunately, there are good Stephen King adaptations lurking on streaming. There's David Cronenberg's sublime The Dead Zone on Hulu, along with the hit-and-miss series Castle Rock and the solid adaptation of 11.22.63. Assuming you don't want to wait for its next TNT airing,  The Shawshank Redemption  is on HBO Max, which also has the Tim Curry-centric It miniseries. Oh, and I was a fan of the series adaptation of Mr. Mercedes, all of which is on Peacock. 

No, No, 'Annette' 

This week's primary movies-on-streaming options couldn't be more different. Amazon has Leos Carax's Annette, a musical starring Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard and original songs by Sparks. Annette had critics at Cannes scratching their heads. THR's David Rooney called it "a bold experiment that's frustratingly out of tune." On the other hand, "bold experiment" sounds better than "instantly forgettable," which is how Rooney describes Lisa Joy's  Reminiscence, a science fiction drama featuring Hugh Jackman and, if you're a completist, making its day-and-date debut on HBO Max. 

Honoring Sonny Chiba

Legendary martial arts thespian Sonny Chiba died this week at 82, and it isn't surprising that the Japanese legend's film work is available only in limited quantities for easy streaming. What might be surprising is that your best free source for Chiba's impressively varied output is none other than Tubi. The ad-driven streamer has Chiba's The Street Fighter, Return of The Street Fighter and The Street Fighter's Last Revenge — two of the three Chiba films referenced in Quentin Tarantino's True Romance script — as well as The Bodyguard  and Karate Warriors. 

This Week's THR Staff Pick 

Deputy editor Degen Pener raves, "For anyone who is a fan of the Spanish series Elite, set inside a rich private school, the Swedish limited series (there are only six episodes, alas) Young Royals offers a similar milieu of spoiled-brat privileged high school students and a fair amount of scheming. But whereas Elite is pulpy fun, Young Royals surprises with its heartfelt story of a second-in-line Swedish prince who is wrestling with coming out of the closet."