📺 High Potential, Nobody Wants This, Grotesquerie...
plus 4 new streaming movies & 6 new and returning TV shows this week
Happy Thursday. It’s been a big week for network TV premieres, and a big win for fans of procedurals. High Potential (crime procedural), Rescue Hi-Surf (first responder procedural), Brilliant Minds (hospital procedural), Murder in a Small Town (detective procedural) and Doctor Odyssey (medical procedural) all premiered in the last few days. I’ve reviewed one of those this week, but stay tuned for future Double Take editions for more.
In today’s edition:
Weekly Watchlist
Nobody Wants This (Netflix)
High Potential (ABC/Hulu)
Grotesquerie (FX/Hulu)
— Jess Spoll
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Below is a selection of new shows and movies premiering this week. Our unabridged list of September releases, including theatrical releases and streaming debuts, is available here and published monthly for our premium subscribers.
Killer Heat (Movie) — Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, and Richard Madden star in this crime-mystery drama about twin brothers caught in a violent love triangle.
Watch on Prime Video: September 26Nobody Wants This (Season 1) — Adam Brody and Kristen Bell star in this rom-com about an agnostic podcast host and an unconventional rabbi who find themselves drawn together.
Watch on Netflix: September 26 (all 10 episodes)9-1-1 (Season 8) — The Los Angeles first responders return for more high-pressure and shocking situations.
Watch on ABC/Hulu: September 26/27 (1 episode, then weekly)Colin From Accounts (Season 2) — Ashley and Gordon (and Colin, of course) are back for more vulnerability and laughter in this Australian sitcom.
Watch on Paramount+: September 26 (all 8 episodes)Grey’s Anatomy (Season 21) — Even without Ellen Pompeo (sort of…she still guest stars frequently), this long-running medical drama lives on.
Watch on ABC/Hulu: September 26/27 (1 episode, then weekly)Doctor Odyssey (Season 1) — Joshua Jackson stars as the on-board doctor for a luxury cruise ship in this medical procedural drama.
Watch on ABC/Hulu: September 26/27 (1 episode, then weekly)Wolfs (Movie) — George Clooney and Brad Pitt team up for this action-comedy about a professional fixer hired to cover up a high-profile crime.
Watch on Apple TV+: September 27Apartment 7A (Movie) — Julia Garner and Dianne Wiest star in this prequel to Rosemary’s Baby.
Watch on Paramount+: September 27Will & Harper (Movie) — In this documentary, Will Ferrell embarks on a cross-country road trip with his close friend of 30 years who has just come out as a trans woman.
Watch on Netflix: September 27The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (Season 2) — Melissa McBride returns as Carol in the second season of this spin-off, now sub-titled The Book of Carol.
Watch on AMC/AMC+: September 29 (1 of 6 episodes, then weekly)
Our thoughts on brand new streaming content, and where you can watch.
Nobody Wants This
Keywords: rom-com, witty, Jewish representation
Watch if you like: Jane the Virgin, Single Drunk Female, Gilmore Girls
Jess’s Rating: A-
As a millennial, obviously I was excited about a romcom starring Veronica Mars and Seth Cohen — sorry, Kristen Bell and Adam Brody — but I truly did not expect it to be so delightful and witty. The dialogue is snappy, the banter is feisty, and the chemistry is potent. In other words, it’s everything you want in a romcom.
Loosely based on the life of creator Erin Foster, the series centers on Joanne (Bell), a chronically single woman who co-hosts a dating podcast with her sister, and Noah (Brody), a rabbi who is hipper than the typical congregation leader. After meeting through a mutual friend, the two find themselves inexplicably drawn together despite their different backgrounds and external criticism. Rounding out the cast are scene stealers Justine Lupe (Succession) as Joanne’s sister and Timothy Simons (Veep) as Noah’s brother.
Maybe I’ve just been watching too much Emily in Paris, but I had forgotten that a romcom could be sharp, unpredictable, and genuinely funny. The meet-cute between Joanne and Noah had me laughing out loud, surprised and delighted by how fast the one-liners were flying and how electric the chemistry was. Unlike many romcoms that rely on miscommunication to create faux high stakes, the issue of Noah’s faith and family’s conservatism versus Joanne’s atheism and sex-positivity feels like a genuinely difficult conflict to overcome.
Nobody Wants This is set to be everyone’s next obsessive binge watch in Netflix’s slate, and while the formula may be familiar, the Jewish representation, undeniable chemistry between the leads, and surprising earnestness set it apart.
— Jess
Length: 30-min runtime, 1 season / 10 episodes
Watch on: Netflix
High Potential
Keywords: crime procedural, remake, drama-comedy
Watch if you like: Psych, Monk, Bones
Jess’s Rating: B
It’s not common that I like a network procedural drama from the jump, but ABC’s newest iteration may be an outlier. Adapted from a French television series, this new comedy-drama stars Kaitlin Olson as a single mother with three kids who is brought onto the police force as a consultant due to her high intellectual potential. Basically, she’s Sherlock Holmes in the form of a brash woman in a short skirt and pink fuzzy jacket. Not your typical police consultant, but neither was Shawn Spencer. In other words, we’ve been down this block before.
Even though it’s retreading similar ground, High Potential has a lot of charm, and that’s due in large part to the warmth and larger-than-life persona of Olson. Having honed her comedic timing on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and flexed her dramatic side more recently on Hacks, it doesn’t come as a huge surprise that she can elevate a formulaic network series to greater heights. While the outline of the show may have looked rather prosaic on paper, she takes a stale premise and turns it into something worth watching.
Of course, this is still a network procedural, with all the predictability and eye-roll-inducing lines that come with it. But, it looks like High Potential is going the way of Psych or Bones, where the mysteries can be gruesome but the charming buddy-comedy vibes prevail, and I could always use another series like that.
— Jess
Length: 45-min runtime, 1 season / 2 of 10 episodes available so far, new on Tuesdays
Watch on: ABC / Hulu
Grotesquerie
Keywords: horror, mystery, Ryan Murphy
Watch if you like: American Horror Story, Bates Motel, Hemlock Grove
Jess’s Rating: C+
No, it’s not another season of American Horror Story, but I would forgive you for assuming so based on its premise and marketing. Ryan Murphy’s newest horror series Grotesquerie begins with a disturbing murder tableau reminiscent of last year’s slasher flick Thanksgiving plus a bit of biblical foreboding à la Se7en. Niecy Nash-Betts plays Detective Lois Tryon, head of the local homicide department in charge of tracking down a horrific mass murderer. As the investigation goes on, she teams up with a true-crime-loving nun journalist (Micaela Diamond) and deals with her alcoholism, a strained relationship with her daughter, and a husband on life support.
In true Ryan Murphy fashion, these first two episodes hold a lot of disturbing imagery, human depravity, and of course, camp. Thankfully, there doesn’t seem to be quite as much of the latter as is present in other Murphy works, and the show establishes a dark, gritty tone that feels more appropriate for the intense subject matter. Then again, there’s also a scene involving a creepy nurse who [redacted] a coma patient that feels right at home in a Murphy show.
Although the horrors are plentiful, the series is opting for slow-burn dread and eeriness rather than jump scares and suspense. The theatrically disturbing massacres do most of the work, so far, in creating tension. But the problem with using shock and awe to hook viewers is that after the first one or two attempts, it feels manipulatively provocative. That, plus needless exposition and a heavy-handed message about the exploitative nature of true crime — from the king of true crime dramatizations himself — makes this feel like more sensationalist mediocrity from Murphy. The fact that they were using Travis Kelce’s supposed acting debut (he has yet to appear in the series after two episodes) as a marketing tactic should have lowered my expectations, but hey, I’ll try any horror show or movie during spooky season.
— Jess
Length: 45-min runtime, 1 season / 10 episodes (2 available now, new on Wednesdays)
Watch on: FX/Hulu
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