📺 The second half is a heartbreaker
Hi from Jess! Jenni is currently backpacking in Norway (I’m jealous too), so you’re stuck with me for the next two weeks.
In today’s edition:
The Resort
Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin
Uncoupled
— Jess Spoll
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Where we choose a recent-ish show to review and feature.
If you like offbeat humor and mysteries, try… The Resort
Keywords: dark comedy, crime thriller, mystery
Watch if you like: The White Lotus, Palm Springs, Search Party
Jess’s Rating: B+
The creator of the 2020 genre-bending movie Palm Springs is back, this time with a series that is equal parts crime mystery and dark comedy.
The Resort follows a couple, Emma (Cristin Milioti) and Noah (William Jackson Harper), who celebrate their 10th anniversary with a trip to Mexico. While on an excursion, Emma finds an old cell phone that she discovers is related to a 15-year-old unresolved case of two missing tourists, Sam and Violet, from a neighboring resort. The series bounces between Emma and Noah investigating the old mystery and Sam and Violet’s days leading up to their disappearance.
The casting is truly impeccable here: Cristin Milioti (Made For Love, HIMYM) is always charming and is particularly good in this genre, William Jackson Harper proves that he has range outside of his breakout role in The Good Place, and Nick Offerman (Parks and Rec) excels in a role that explores his softer side. Beyond that, the show is fast-paced, the mystery is compelling, the offbeat humor is fresh, and I’m already sad that the season will be ending soon. If you don’t have a Peacock account, well, I don’t really blame you, but it’s worth borrowing a friend’s or signing up for the trial just to watch this.
Length: 30-min runtime, 6 episodes out with new ones on Thursdays
Watch on: Peacock
Our thoughts on brand new shows that we watched, and where you can watch them.
Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin
Keywords: horror, teen drama, reboot
Watch if you like: Pretty Little Liars, Riverdale, Cruel Summer
Jess’s Rating: B
Pretty Little Liars was a mega-hit when it premiered in 2010 on ABC Family, so it’s not hard to imagine why there was interest in rebooting the series within a mere 5 years of its final episode. While the original series was tense and twisty, it was fairly tame. It was, to be fair, airing on a Disney-owned television network. Much to my glee, the new series is darker and much scarier, and appeals to a broader audience.
The central plot remains the same: a group of high school girls begin receiving threatening messages from a mysterious figure known as “A.” But that’s where the similarities between Original Sin and the original series end. It’s actually not as much a reboot as it is a new creation with the same basic premise. And while the original girls were haunted by their own pasts, in the new series, the friends are haunted by the crimes of their mothers. This gives the show an opportunity to lean into a retro vibe — all the rage right now — and to pay homage to 90s slasher films like Scream.
So far, the series has a lot of potential, and since it isn’t connected to the original directly, it’s very accessible for new fans. (Or for people like me who gave up on the original after the first season). It’s campy but it’s self-aware, it stars a group of teens but it doesn’t rely on the usual clichés of teen dramas, and it’s scary but also fun. Original Sin seems to understand what made the first series so addictive, but has made it less shallow, more diverse, and more mature.
— Jess
Length: 1-hr runtime, 1 season / 10 episodes
Watch on: HBO Max
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. 🤷♀️
Uncoupled
Keywords: comedy, relationships, NSFW
Watch if you like: Sex and the City, Emily in Paris, Cougar Town
Jess’s Rating: C
Uncoupled stars Neil Patrick Harris as Michael Lawson, a well-off Manhattan real-estate agent whose 17-year relationship ends when his partner breaks up with him out of the blue. Confused and heartbroken, he tries to re-enter the dating scene as a gay, middle-aged man, to find that he’s woefully out of touch with dating in this era.
Darren Star, creator of Sex and the City, Emily in Paris, and Younger, excels at creating glossy surface-level television, and this falls squarely within his normal offerings. It has the promise of exploring what it’s like to be middle-aged and suddenly single again, but it doesn’t get deep enough for that. Neil Patrick Harris is giving it his all but he’s playing a generally unlikeable character who is sad and bitter and self-aggrandizing. Marcia Gay Harden, playing one of Michael’s clients, is excellent too, but her character is one-dimensional, as are the majority of the other players.
This series wouldn’t have been made a decade ago, and I appreciate it as a sign of progress. But the jokes feel dated, making the show feel like a comedy from a decade ago, otherwise. It worked well enough as background entertainment, but I wouldn’t recommend it otherwise.
— Jess
Length: 30-min runtime, 1 season / 8 episodes
Watch on: Netflix
Your shows, returned:
Selena + Chef, Season 4: Premieres August 18 on HBO Max
Making the Cut, Season 3: Premieres August 19 on Amazon Prime
Kevin Can F**k Himself, Season 2: Premieres August 22 on AMC
Archer, Season 13: Premieres August 24 on FXX
Upcoming new releases:
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law: Premieres August 18 on Disney+
The Undeclared War: Premieres August 18 on Peacock
Bad Sisters: Premieres August 19 on Apple TV+
Echoes: Released August 19 on Netflix
House of the Dragon: Premieres August 21 on HBO Max
Mo: Released August 24 on Netflix
Welcome to Wrexham: Premieres August 24 on FX/August 25 on Hulu
Everything I Know About Love: Premieres August 25 on Peacock
The End is Nye: Premieres August 25 on Peacock
Mike: Premieres August 25 on Hulu
Little Demon: Premieres August 25 on FXX / August 26 on Hulu