📺 Little, but fierce
Welcome to Thursday. Even though it feels like Wednesday, the NFL season does in fact kick off today. Ever think this newsletter would be your window into sports? It’s a surprise to me as well. One of us is part of a fantasy football league for the first time and the other actually knows how the sport works. Anyway, here are the TV recs you all signed up for.
In today’s edition:
The Chair
The Patient
The Rehearsal
— Jess Spoll and Jenni Cullen
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Where we each choose a recent-ish show to review and feature.
If you love Sandra Oh and New England fall, try… The Chair
Keywords: workplace drama, heartfelt, wry
Watch if you like: Please Like Me, Catastrophe, Grey’s Anatomy
Jenni’s Rating: B-
At a fictional, ivy league-esque university, Professor Ji-Yoon Kim (Sandra Oh) becomes the first woman of color to be named English department chair. Unfortunately, her celebration is short lived as she quickly gets swept up in the dizzying demands and high expectations that come with heading a failing department. She just wants to ensure the tenure of a young black colleague, help her fellow English professors get the respect they deserve, navigate her relationship with a grieving crush/friend/coworker, and parent her strong-willed adopted daughter. Is that too much to ask?
Once again, Sandra Oh plays a professional trying to do the best possible job when circumstances seem determined to conspire against her. Though supported by a very solid ensemble, she is without a doubt the best part of this series. Her performance is somehow both irreverent and earnest, empathetic, and hilarious.
One minor critique is that The Chair is incredibly short for everything it seems to want to achieve — in the six episodes of the first season, it starts to tackle many of the institutional problems within academia along with explorations of personal relationships between the characters. I’m really hoping it gets a second season to flesh out some more of the dangling storylines.
Length: 30-min runtime, 1 season / 6 episodes
Watch on: Netflix
If you’re in the mood for something short and suspenseful, try… The Patient
Keywords: drama, psychological thriller, serial killer
Watch if you like: Dexter, Mindhunter, Misery
Jess’s Rating: B
The Patient is the story of a therapist, Alan, who is held captive by a serial killer, Sam, who just wants to get better. Sam has a compulsion to kill people and he wants Alan to keep him from doing so. Steve Carell and Domnhall Gleeson play the therapist and the serial killer, respectively.
So far, the series takes place almost entirely in the serial killer’s basement, except for flashbacks in which we see the therapist’s former life with his late wife. Most of the action consists of brief conversations between Alan and Sam and the show’s unconventional (for a drama) 30-min runtime means there’s never a dull moment, but with only one episode being released each week, it’s hard to keep the momentum up.
In fact, the worst thing that I have to say about The Patient is that the episodes are way too short. And yes, I sort of mean that in the “I just really love this show and want more of it” way, but it’s also a bit frustrating. I’ll keep coming back — not just because each episode ends on a cliffhanger, but because Carell and Gleeson are putting in the performances of their careers.
Length: 30-min runtime, 3 episodes available with new ones each Tuesday
Watch on: FX / Hulu
Where we give our takes on documentaries, docu-series, and reality TV and give “unscripted” shows a time to shine.
The Rehearsal
Keywords: docu-series, social experiment, meta comedy
Watch if you like: Nathan for You, How to with John Wilson, Synecdoche, New York
Jenni’s Rating: ???
If you have any issues with second-hand embarrassment or hovering in a zone of mild moral confusion and discomfort, I suggest you sit this one out.
The initial premise of this series is an exploration into social anxiety and the idea that if we could just rehearse life’s big moments and think through every possible contingency it would make the real events easier — less scary. As someone who used to rehearse or write down anything she would have to say over the phone (be it ordering pizza, making a dentist appointment, etc.) I could definitely relate.
But Nathan Fielder, as usual, takes “committing to the bit” to a whole new level. So much so that as the episodes go on, it becomes hard to tell what’s real and what’s fake. Who’s a hired actor on a set vs. a participant? What’s there by chance and what’s been staged? The longer you watch, the less you know what’s really going on.
I’ve heard people describe the show as exploitative, and at times Nathan does seem like a cold robotic mastermind. But at others, he seems sincere in his attempt to understand the pattern of events and fix things he’s let go awry with the participants. However, even his “atonement” leads to a spiral of further preparations, rehearsals, and impersonations. The final episode left me staring at the TV a little peeved and a lot confused as to whether I actually enjoyed the show or just got sucked in by the “snake eating itself” of it all.
The Rehearsal is bizarre and unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I suppose at the very least, if you ever feel a little crazy in your social anxiety, this show might make you feel validated and less alone. Does that make it good? I don’t know, and you’re just going to have to deal with a “???” rating for now.
— Jenni
Length: 30-min runtime, 1 season / 6 episodes
Watch on: HBO Max
Your shows, returned:
The Good Fight, Season 6: Premieres September 8 on Paramount+
Central Park, Season 3: Premieres September 9 on Apple TV+
The Rings of Power, New episode out September 9 on Amazon Prime
Cobra Kai, Season 5: Premieres September 9 on Netflix
The Handmaid’s Tale, Season 5: Premieres September 14 on Hulu
Atlanta, Season 4: Premieres September 15 on FX/Hulu
Upcoming new releases:
Last Light: Released September 8 on Peacock
Wedding Season: Released September 8 on Hulu
The Serpent Queen: Released September 11 on Starz
Heartbreak High: Released September 14 on Netflix
Vampire Academy: Released September 15 on Peacock