📺 A killer love story...
Welcome back to Thursday. In this week’s news, The Sandman was officially renewed for a second season, Taylor Swift announced her Eras tour, and Heidi Klum dressed up like a worm. And now for some show reviews to carry you into the weekend. Cheers!
In today’s edition:
Wedding Season
Cabinet of Curiosities
Inside Man
Love is Blind - Season 3
— Jenni Cullen and Jess Spoll
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Where we each choose a recent-ish show to review and feature.
If you thought Four Weddings and a Funeral could use a few more chase scenes, try… Wedding Season
Keywords: action comedy, romantic thriller, mystery
Watch if you like: Palm Springs, End of the F***ing World, Search Party
Jenni’s Rating: B-
It’s your classic ‘hopeless romantic meets mysterious potential criminal mastermind’ — we all know this story, right?
Wedding Season is another in growing list of shows and movies (see examples above) that remix the romcom and action drama. The series begins when our resident hopeless romantic, Stefan (Gavin Drea) tries to stop the wedding of his latest fixation, Katie (Rosa Salazar) to the wealthy Hugo Delaney, only to be rejected and ridiculed. A few hours later, Stefan is arrested and learns that eight Delaneys were murdered at the wedding reception, including new husband Hugo, and that Katie, conveniently, has gone missing. Despite any mounting suspicion, when Katie shows up to bust Stefan out of the police station, he follows — if only to learn the truth. Let the love-on-the-run hijinks ensue.
First thing I’ll say is that this show is very bingeable. The twists and cliffhangers in every episode kept me wanting more (even as I got annoyed with the at-times upsettingly gullible Stefan). I do think this series could be a little over-the-top for some — the conspiracy becomes incredibly convoluted and the tone, extremely heightened as the episodes progress. But for me, the chemistry of the cast did a lot to help the push-and-pull between high stakes and endearing, complicated backstory work well. No word yet if there will be a Season 2, but I’ll probably check it out if there is.
Length: 35-min runtime, 1 season / 8 episodes
Watch on: Hulu
If you want to be creeped out, try… Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities
Keywords: horror, unsettling, anthology series
Watch if you like: The Twilight Zone, American Horror Stories, Are you Afraid of the Dark?
Jess’s Rating: C
Cabinet of Curiosities, from Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro, is an anthology series in the vein of Black Mirror and The Twilight Zone. The 8 episodes in the collection all fall under the umbrella of horror, but range from eerie to grotesque to terrifying. Each is based on a short story: two were written by Del Toro himself, while the others were written by writers in the horror genre, including the infamous H.P. Lovecraft. Del Toro picked a different director to helm each episode, giving the series stylistic variety.
Anthology series are a tough sell because each episode has to be compelling enough to stand alone, and the story has to be neatly wrapped up and pack a punch in only 30-60 minutes. While I think Black Mirror does this particularly well, I can’t say the same for Cabinet of Curiosities. I appreciate that Del Toro used his fame to lift up the talents of other creators in the genre and gave them a chance to shine. But as a collection, too many of the episodes are overly predictable and forgettable. If you do want to check it out, I recommend you watch “The Viewing” and “The Outside,” and skip the others.
Length: 60-min runtime, 1 season / 8 episodes
Watch on: Netflix
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. 🤷♀️
Inside Man
Keywords: crime thriller, miniseries, arch
Watch if you like: Blackbird, Mindhunter, The Patient, Hannibal
Jenni’s Rating: D+
The best thing about this show is its cast. And that’s just not enough for me, unfortunately.
Inside Man is a four-part miniseries by Steven Moffat (whose work I usually enjoy) that centers on two seemingly unconnected stories that you can tell will obviously overlap at some point. In one plot line, Stanley Tucci plays a criminologist on death row in Texas, who, for unexplained reasons is allowed to run a makeshift detective agency/crime consultancy while awaiting his execution date. The other follows David Tennant as a vicar in England who makes incredibly stupid decisions in the name of protecting one troubled young man in his parish.
I think my main problem is that the major plot of this entire series hinges on a misunderstanding that I simply did not find believable. But also, they set up “Under what circumstances will a good man commit heinous acts?“ as the intended thought experiment, with the intended takeaway as “See? Anyone will do a bad thing under the right pressure”. But instead my main takeaway was: men in particular can turn violent at any point, yikes, watch your back.
It’s a bit like someone mixed Sherlock with aspects of You, and made both shows 40 times less coherent. Aside from a killer cast (lol), there’s not much I can recommend, except that the theme song gives me Holes vibes which was fun. I had to watch the last three episodes on 2x speed just to get through and see if the end was satisfying. It wasn’t. Inside Man might be for someone else, but it was definitely not for me.
— Jenni
Length: 60-min runtime, 1 season / 4 episodes
Watch on: BBC, Netflix
Where we give takes on docs & reality TV and give ‘unscripted’ shows a time to shine.
Love is Blind - Season 3
Reality genre: dating / romance
Watch if you like: The Ultimatum, The Bachelor, Married at First Sight
The concept of Love is Blind was pretty wild when it first premiered in February 2020. Falling in love with a person that you’ve never seen? Insane. But now that we’re on the third season, the premise isn’t as revolutionary as it once seemed. Maybe it’s because the pandemic changed the way we interact with each other, or maybe it’s because I’ve gotten used to the format of the show after watching the same thing play out 3 times.
If you’re reading this because you’re not sure if you should spend your time watching this newest season, I’ll make it easy for you — don’t waste your time. There is not a single likable person on this season, nor is there a couple that seems to actually be a good match. I’m all for the mindless entertainment of watching the weirdos and the crazies, but that can’t be the whole show! I need at least one couple to root for! I haven’t finished the season yet, so I don’t know who actually gets married, but I sincerely doubt any of these couples are destined to have a long lasting marriage. And there’s really no point to this show if none of the matches even have a shot at making it.
— Jess
Length: 60-min runtime, 3 seasons / 38 episodes
Watch on: Netflix
Your shows, returned:
The Capture, Season 2: Premieres November 3 on Peacock
Manifest, Season 4: Premieres November 4 on Netflix
Young Rock, Season 3: Premieres November 4 on NBC
The Mosquito Coast, Season 2: Premieres November 4 on Apple TV+
The Crown, Season 5: Premieres November 9 on Netflix
Upcoming new releases:
Blockbuster: Premieres November 3 on Netflix
Buying Beverly Hills: Premieres November 4 on Netflix
Dangerous Liaisons: Premieres November 6 on Starz
The Calling: Premieres November 10 on Peacock