📺 Dramatic pause...
Happy Thursday. It’s a grey and rainy day on the east coast — perfect weather for cozying up with a cup of [insert hot beverage of choice] and trying out a new show you heard about in your favorite newsletter. Just a thought…
In today’s edition:
The Midnight Club
Derry Girls
A Friend of the Family
Catherine Called Birdy
— Jenni Cullen and Jess Spoll
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Where we each choose a recent-ish show to review and feature.
If you’re in the mood for a spooky mystery, try… The Midnight Club
Keywords: horror, supernatural, teen drama
Watch if you like: The Haunting of Hill House, American Horror Story, Archive 81
Jess’s Rating: B
Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass) is back with another conceptual horror series for Netflix, and just in time for spooky season. The Midnight Club follows Flanagan’s normal formula — a group of people, some with shady secrets, are mixed up in some supernatural stuff. Like the others before it, it’s more eerie than scary, but it does have some jump scares.
The Midnight Club is set at Brightcliffe Manor, a hospice for terminally ill teenagers. The series follows the young residents of Brightcliffe: a salutatorian, a track star, a gamer, a deadbeat, and so on. It’s basically a twisted version of The Breakfast Club. Local lore surrounding the hospice suggests that the land has magical healing powers and that an ill-fated cult, prior to the manor being a hospice, met their demise in the basement after a healing ritual gone wrong. Our dying protagonist signs herself in after hearing about the magical properties of the place, but soon finds that the manor has some chilling surprises for her.
Just like The Haunting of Hill House, the spooky plot devices in this series are a thin veil over the deeper messages of grief and love. Much of each episode is spent on character development, learning more about the teens and their hopes and fears. But I was a bit disappointed that the mysteries of the manor and the shadowy figures within seemed to be an afterthought for much of the time. In the end, I discovered that the series was not a miniseries, but the first season of a longer show — a first for the Flanagan-verse, and a surprise to me. That may explain why this first season seemed to drag on. Although I wish that more had been revealed in these 10 episodes, I did enjoy watching them, and I would definitely tune in for a second season.
Length: 50-min runtime, 1 season / 10 episodes
Watch on: Netflix
If you’re looking for a new comfort sitcom, try… Derry Girls
Keywords: comedy, coming of age, northern Ireland
Watch if you like: Freaks and Geeks, My Mad Fat Diary, Sex Education
Jenni’s Rating: A+
Big News: This series has officially entered my ‘comfort show’ rotation. Feel free to applaud.
Derry Girls follows the lives of four Irish Catholic friends (and one tag-a-long English cousin) growing up in the 1990s during the final years of the Troubles. Though set within the framework of political unrest and cultural divide of those times, the show’s focus is really on the everyday high school dramas and absurd situations that the main group frequently gets itself into. The eccentric (quickly lovable) characters and their relationships with one another are the main reason to watch, though the incredible one liners and Irish slang come tied in a close second. Special shout out to my favorite character, Sister Michael, whose dry sarcasm almost fools me into wishing I’d gone to Catholic school.
On the rare occasion that Derry Girls does lean into the seriousness of the political situation, I think the series walks the perfect line — allowing those moments to be emotionally provoking or touching without dimming the joy of these teenagers’ lives and still granting the main gang their frivolous fun.
The third and final season arrived on Netflix last Friday, and while I’m so sad to see it end, I’ve already planned my next rewatch.
Length: 30-min runtime, 3 seasons / 19 episodes
Watch on: Netflix
Our thoughts on brand new shows that we watched, and where you can watch them.
A Friend of the Family
Keywords: true crime dramatization, kidnapping
Watch if you like: Abducted in Plain Sight, The Thing About Pam, Candy
Jess’s Rating: B
If you’ve been around here for a while, you might remember that I’m somewhat critical of true crime dramatizations. The TL;DR is that many of these dramatizations focus more on the villain than the victims, and they often do not receive permission from the families of the victims before going forward with their production. When I saw that Peacock was releasing A Friend of the Family, my research showed that the main victim of the true story is actually a co-producer of the series, and particularly wanted the show made. She hopes her story will serve as a warning to families who think something like this could never happen to them. So, with her blessing, I decided to watch.
A Friend of the Family is a dramatization of the true story of the kidnapping of Jan Broberg. The Brobergs were a happy family in Idaho when they met the Berchtolds at their local Mormon temple in the 70s. They became fast friends, and the families spent much of their time together. Unbeknownst to the Brobergs, the patriarch of the Berchtold family, Bob, had developed a fixation on Jan, their 12-year old daughter. Bob kidnaps Jan and effectively brainwashes her, convincing her that an alien race depends on her having sexual relations with him.
This series does an excellent job at telling the story of this family’s darkest period without ever blaming them or casting them in a judgmental light. And that’s no small feat. When the documentary about the case aired on Netflix a few years ago (Abducted in Plain Sight), the family got a ton of backlash about their naïvety in trusting someone so obviously devious. A Friend of the Family, with masterful performances by Jake Lacy as the villain and Anna Paquin as the victim’s mother, depicts how a sociopath can deceive kind and trusting people with ease, and to no fault of the victims. The episodes are slow, but to the benefit of fleshing out these characters in enough detail to understand their motivations. I hope that more true crime dramatizations take a page from AFotF’s book and put this much care and research into sharing victims’ stories.
— Jess
Length: 60-min runtime, 5 episodes available so far with a new one each Thursday
Watch on: Peacock
Catherine Called Birdy
Keywords: period fiction, coming-of-age, comedy
Watch if you like: Little Women, Enola Holmes, Emma
Jenni’s Rating: C
90’s kids: Do you remember the historical children’s novel from our youth about a 13-year-old girl in 13th-century England who schemes to foil her father’s attempts to marry her off to the highest bidder? This is that story! But now it’s a movie starring Bella Ramsey (of Game of Thrones fame) that was adapted and directed by Lena Dunham and produced by the folks behind Love Actually and Emma.
I was honestly pleasantly surprised by this retelling. Ramsey’s Birdy is just as spunky as I remembered, and while she is the main spark guiding the film, the story on the whole is light and fun. Not to mention, the cast is quite studded with incredible stars like Andrew Scott, Billie Piper, and Joe Alwyn. Russell Brand even makes a brief appearance.
Though based on a children’s book, I think you could enjoy this adaptation at any age. Especially if you’re in the mood for something feel-good. It’s nice to see a movie treat teenage girls with the respect they deserve and I’m quite excited to share it with my niece and nephew once they hit middle school.
— Jenni
Length: 108-min runtime
Watch on: Amazon Prime
Your shows, returned:
Winter House, Season 2: Premieres October 13 on Bravo
Miss Scarlet and the Duke, Season 2: Premieres October 16 on PBS
Step Up, Season 3: Premieres October 16 on StarzÂ
Love is Blind, Season 3: Premieres October 19 on Netflix
Inside Amy Schumer, Season 5: Premieres October 20 on Paramount+
One of Us is Lying, Season 2: Premieres October 20 on Peacock
Upcoming new releases:
The Watcher: Premieres October 13 on Netflix
The Playlist: Premieres October 13 on Netflix
Shantaram: Premieres October 14 on Apple TV+
High School: Premieres October 14 on FreeveeÂ
American Horror Story: NYC: Premieres October 19 on FX