📺 Fran Fine would never cross a picket line
The Summer I Turned Pretty S2, Tour De France: Unchained, and The Lazarus Project
Happy Thursday. The WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes continue, and while SAG has confirmed that entertainment critics and journalists can continue working as normal “without crossing the picket line”, we at Double Take want to stand in solidarity with the strikers as effectively as possible. After today, Thursday newsletters may look a little different for a while. We will likely focus on recommending and reviewing content from productions that are not linked to AMPTP companies. Thanks for supporting us and the people who make the content we love to talk about!
In today’s edition:
The Summer I Turned Pretty (Season 2)
Tour De France: Unchained
The Lazarus Project
— Jenni Cullen and Jess Spoll
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This newsletter was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the shows being reviewed here wouldn't exist.
These popular shows came back with new episodes. Here’s what we thought and where you can watch them.
The Summer I Turned Pretty - Season 2
Keywords: teen drama, rom-com, coming of age
Watch if you like: To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, XO Kitty, Never Have I Ever
Jess’s Rating: C-
If you liked the first season of The Summer I Turned Pretty and you were hoping for more escapism and happy summer vibes in its follow-up season, then you might be in for a disappointment. These episodes are full of angst and grief, and there are hardly any beach or pool scenes. Life can’t always be fun and sunshine-y, but I guess I’d hoped that this lighthearted series could still be.
Season 2 jumps forward in time from the ending of the first season, with some key events having taken place during the time-jump. The trio’s beloved beach house is about to be put up for sale, and the majority of the season centers around their attempts to prevent that from happening. Beyond that motivating premise, the love triangle between Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah is the true focal point, and it’s become tiresome. How many times can one teenager flip-flop between two brothers? Just pick one, Belly! We’re supposed to believe that she has deep love for each of them, but that gets harder to believe the more she ditches one for the other. Also, the teens are going through genuinely tough times, and they seem to have no respect or empathy for each other. The first season’s strength was in its portrayal of genuine friendships, family dynamics, and budding romances, and it seems like this season tossed all of that out the window in favor of needless, over-the-top drama.
The characters’ poor decision making aside, a bigger issue is the clunkiness of the narrative structure of this season. The first few episodes rely heavily on short flashbacks to fill in the gaps left by the time jump, but there’s seemingly no reason why these events weren’t portrayed linearly, other than to mimic the structure of the books. And perhaps I willfully overlooked this during Season 1, but Lola Tung (Belly) is acting laps around Christopher Briney (Conrad) and Gavin Casalegno (Jeremiah); the chemistry is feeling incredibly one-sided. There are still reasons to watch this season of The Summer I Turned Pretty, namely the 9 Taylor Swift songs scattered throughout the soundtrack, but this felt a lot more like a show specifically for teens than the first season did.
—Jess
Length: ~45-min runtime, 2 seasons / 15 episodes (3 of 8 episodes in S2 are available now)
Watch on: Amazon Prime
Our thoughts on brand new streaming content, and where you can watch.
The Lazarus Project
Keywords: sci-fi, action, drama
Watch if you like: The Devil’s Hour, Tenet, The Man in the High Castle
Jess’s Rating: B
What if you were reliving the same 6 months over and over again but you didn’t know it? For most people in The Lazarus Project, that’s their burden to bear. But a few select people are not only aware of the time-loops, they’re causing them. They belong to a secret organization whose mission is to stop the world from apocalyptic events, and their fail-safe device is a time machine. When humanity is headed towards extinction, the members of Lazarus reset time to a yearly checkpoint and do it all over again.
Time loop stories are plentiful, but this series brings emotional depth to the tired trope. Our entry point to the story is George (Paapa Essiedu), an app developer and new recruit to The Lazarus Project. When he experiences a personal cataclysmic event, he is faced with an ethical quandary: should he intentionally bring about the world’s destruction so that time can be reversed once again? Essiedu perfectly portrays the everyman who has gotten in over his head, displaying an impressive range as he takes his character through the gradient of morality. His emotional journey throughout the season grounds the story amidst a heavy action and sci-fi backdrop.
Sometimes a show like this starts off strong or has an interesting premise but doesn’t stick the landing. But I found myself increasingly engaged over the course of the 8 episodes, unable to stop watching. Between the action sequences, the quick pace, and the compelling philosophical questions, The Lazarus Project is a fun and engaging watch.
—Jess
Length: 45-min runtime, 1 season / 8 episodes (7 available now)
Watch on: TNT
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Tour de France: Unchained
Keywords: cycling, documentary, international
Watch if you like: Eat. Race. Win., Formula 1: Drive to Survive
Jenni’s Rating: B
Tour de France: Unchained follows eight different cycling teams as they compete in the 109th edition of the famously grueling, month-long bike race.
I happened to time my watch of this docuseries with the final weeks of this year’s Tour de France, which really heightened my viewing experience. Since the episodes were all filmed last year, there are plenty of returning riders and teams to recognize and root for. Also, thanks to the talking head interviews in the series and inside view into team dynamics, I feel like I know more about these athletes’ personalities and backgrounds, making the emotional payoff of a win (or pain of a loss) much higher.
Unchained does everything a good sports doc should do — magnifying tension, providing beautiful landscape and action shots, and forging an emotional connection between the viewer and the athletes. It also makes some mistakes. The series assumes a lot of upfront knowledge about the cycling world and the Tour in particular. I think the first episode would’ve benefited a lot from a better overview about the different stages of the competition, how the points work (there are points??), and what different titles and accolades the riders are working toward. It’s not as simple as “the person over the finish line first wins.”
But, with a little googling to set things straight, this series is great for anyone who loves a good story about perseverance, teamwork, and testing the limits of human ability. I tend to get misty-eyed at hard-won victories and teammate sacrifices, and boy did the final episodes of Tour de France: Unchained deliver.
— Jenni
Length: 45-min runtime, 1 season / 8 episodes
Watch on: Netflix
Sad news about SITP 😔