📺 Move fast and break things...
It’s gonna be May. Here’s what we’ve been thinking about in the last days before JT’s immortal words become reality: the final parts of both Grace and Frankie and Ozark premiere on Friday. Jess is excited about Under the Banner of Heaven with Andrew Garfield coming out on Thursday, and Jenni is spending her week binge-watching Selling Sunset (review coming soon) after crying over The Blind Side for the third time.
In today’s edition:
Comedy: Mr. Mayor
Drama: The Morning Show
Anthology: Roar
Reality: Alone
— Jenni Cullen and Jess Spoll
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Where we each choose a recent-ish show to review and feature.
If you’re sick of continuously rewatching 30 Rock, try… Mr. Mayor
Keywords: sitcom, local politics, antics
Watch if you like: 30 Rock, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Veep
Jess’s Rating: B
The sitcoms that come from the minds of Tina Fey and Robert Carlock — 30 Rock, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Great News — are an acquired taste. They are a unique blend of cynical and silly with a hefty dose of pop culture references. I haven’t always been the biggest fan, but I think they’re onto something great with their newest venture, Mr. Mayor.
The premise itself is a bit of satire: Mayor Bremer, played by Ted Danson, is a retired billionaire with no political experience whatsoever. But rather than casting him in a villainous light, à la Jack Donaghy, Bremer is earnest and extremely likable. His staff includes a bunch of quirky characters including his workaholic deputy mayor, Arpi (Holly Hunter), the foil to Bremer’s buffoon of a boss. Hunter’s portrayal of Arpi is easily the standout of the show.
Mr. Mayor started out like many other NBC sitcoms: the first season was uneven and mostly ignored. I found it to be a good watch, but I can’t say that I was overly enthused about watching the second season. You’d be right to guess that I was proved wrong, since I’m writing about it now. The show found its footing in this second season and it’s been consistently funny. If it follows the path of the NBC sitcoms before it, it will just keep getting better.
Length: 22-min runtime, 2 seasons / 16 episodes with new episodes on Tuesdays
Watch on: Hulu / Peacock / NBC
If you miss The Newsroom, try… The Morning Show
Keywords: workplace drama, A-list cast
Watch if you like: The Newsroom, Sports Night, Scandal
Jenni’s Rating: B- (after 4 episodes)
Jennifer Anniston, Steve Carell, Reese Witherspoon...the cast of The Morning Show is so star-studded I could take up my whole review just listing names.
Premiering in 2019 as Apple TV’s flagship series, the show’s first season centers around a Matt Lauer style #MeToo scandal at a popular network morning program. Anniston plays the successful co-anchor left without her on-air partner of 15 years (Carell) after he is accused of sexual misconduct and fired in the middle of the night. She works to deal with the politics of the morning show world in the aftermath of the scandal as well as a new, fiery, slightly less seasoned co-anchor.
With so many incredible actors involved, it seems like there is major potential for the side characters and their different roles in the fictitious UBA Network TV Universe to be fleshed out as the series continues. Unfortunately, I’ve heard the show gets messy in Season 2, and I wouldn’t be surprised if my interest peters out before Season 3 comes along, but so far I’m enjoying getting sucked into the drama.
Length: 1-hr runtime, 2 seasons / 10 episodes per season [renewed for S3]
Watch on: AppleTV+
Where we feature a show that you may have been tempted to check out, but we’re here to tell you…it might not be worth it. 🤷♀️
Roar
Keywords: anthology series, drama-comedy, feminism
Jess’s Rating: D
I was excited when I heard about Roar, a feminist anthology series featuring a bunch of big names like Nicole Kidman and Issa Rae, but it let me down so hard.
There are 8 episodes in the series and each focuses on a different story. Think Black Mirror or The Twilight Zone, but with a focus on issues that women face in the world today. Similar to the aforementioned shows, Roar is not entirely of this world; the show leans heavily on magical realism as its vehicle for feminist messages. For instance, in one episode, a woman feels invisible in a business meeting, and then she literally becomes invisible.
It pains me to give this one such a low rating because relevant topics are being covered in these 8 episodes: balancing motherhood with a career, objectification, navigating professional spheres as a Black woman, and so on. But at best, the show lacks any subtlety or nuance in the allegorical tales, and at worst it doesn’t actually say anything about the topic that it’s supposedly highlighting. Instead of a novel exploration of what it means to be a woman, we’re given something more akin to Katy Perry’s “Roar” — a blandly stated cliché that wants to be empowering but ends up feeling pandering.
— Jess
Length: 30-min runtime, 1 season / 8 episodes
Watch on: Apple TV+
Where we give our takes on reality TV and give unscripted shows a time to shine.
Alone (2015 - Present)
Reality genre: survival, competition
Watch if you like: Man vs. Wild, Naked and Afraid
Alone. Is. Bonkers. The premise of this competition reality show is that ten hardcore survival experts try to stay alive and sustain themselves in extreme conditions with the hope of winning a big pot of money. It’s a “last wo/man standing” kind of situation, but the thing is, no one knows when the other contestants have tapped out, or how many are left, so you just kind of have to...keep going. At the beginning, they’re dropped ~alone~ in their remote locations with limited materials (I think they get 10 items of survival gear from a pre-approved list). They’re far enough away from the others that they won’t cross paths and there’s not even a film crew. The participants are trained to operate their own cameras and set up their own shots.
If you can, I recommend watching with a group of friends in a cabin where you can all argue about who has the best strategy and shout at the TV about the amount of fat content in different types of animals. (Trust me you learn a lot about fat vs. protein in this show). But watching these people do incredible things on a laptop while you belatedly spring clean is pretty satisfying too.
— Jenni
Length: 60-90-min runtime, 9 seasons / 90 episodes total
Watch on: Hulu, Netflix, History Channel
Your shows, returned:
Made for Love, Season 2: Premieres April 28 on HBO Max
Undone, Season 2: Released April 29 on Amazon Prime
Grace and Frankie, Season 7 (Part 2): Released April 29 on Netflix
The Real Housewives of Atlanta, Season 14: Premieres May 1 on Bravo
The Circle, Season 4: Released May 4 on Netflix
Girls5eva, Season 2: Premieres May 5 on Peacock
Upcoming new releases:
Under the Banner of Heaven: Premieres April 28 on Hulu
The Offer: Premieres April 28 on Paramount+
Shining Girls: Premieres April 29 on Apple TV+
Ten Percent: Premieres April 29 on AMC+
I Love That For You: Premieres April 29 on Showtime
Who Do You Believe?: Premieres May 4 on Hulu
The Staircase: Premieres May 5 on HBO Max
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Premieres May 5 on Paramount+
The Pentaverate: Released May 5 on Netflix