📺 New TV: 'Lessons in Chemistry' and 'The Fall of the House of Usher'

also this week: two new series and three returning shows

Happy Thursday. In some unusual streaming service news — it looks like Netflix is planning to open brick-and-mortar stores. In a few years, fans will be able to buy merchandise, eat branded food, and have immersive experiences based off of the streamer’s programming at their local ‘Netflix House’. Next step, Netflixworld?

In today’s edition:
Weekly Watchlist
The Fall of the House of Usher (Netflix)
Lessons in Chemistry (Apple TV+)

— Jess Spoll and Jenni Cullen

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This newsletter was written during the SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the work of the actors, the shows we review wouldn’t exist.

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We keep an eye on all of the new streaming content that is set to premiere. Here’s a list of new shows and movies to watch this week.

Photo: Prime Video (Upload)

• Wolf Like Me (Season 2) — The Isla Fisher and Josh Gad-led horror series (that Jess recently reviewed the first season of!) returns.
  Watch on Peacock: October 19 (all 7 episodes)

• Bodies (Limited Series) — Four London detectives in four different time periods stumble upon the same mysterious corpse.
  Watch on Netflix: October 19 (all 8 episodes)

• Upload (Season 3) — This sci-fi comedy from Greg Daniels (The Office) is back for a third season of afterlife antics.
  Watch on Prime Video: October 20 (2 of 8 episodes, then weekly)

• Fellow Travelers (Limited Series) — Created by Ron Nyswander (Homeland) and based on the novel by Thomas Mallon, this miniseries is an epic love story and political thriller chronicling the volatile romance of two very different men (Jonathan Bailey and Matt Bomer) who meet in McCarthy-era Washington.
  Watch on Showtime: October 27 (1 of 8 episodes, then weekly)

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Our thoughts on brand new streaming content, and where you can watch.

The Fall of the House of Usher

Photo: Netflix

Keywords: horror, dark, thriller
Watch if you like: The Haunting of Hill House, Castle Rock, Midnight Mass
Jess’s Rating: B+

Director Mike Flanagan is well known for his spine-chilling fare and The Fall of the House of Usher marks his 5th (and final) horror series with Netflix after The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, and The Midnight Club. Like the previous offerings, Usher leans on a mix of traditional horror elements — think jump scares and crescendoing music — to propel you through a sorrowful tale laden with deeper meaning.

In this new limited series, the CEO of a pharmaceutical company stands trial for the overprescription of addictive pharmaceutical drugs. Shortly after the judicial proceedings begin, he finds his children meeting unusual, grisly fates. Although the title is taken from one Edgar Allan Poe short story, the series draws inspiration from many of Poe’s works: The Tell-Tale Heart, The Pit and the Pendulum, and others that you might recognize if you’re a Poe fanatic or if your 10th grade teacher also made you sit through a Poe unit. For the Poe acolytes, there are many easter eggs and details from his life, poems, and stories to uncover. And for those who have never read a single of his stories, there’s still fun to be had, but you might wonder why some of the macabre elements are as bizarre and ghastly as they are.

Like Hill House, this series is at its best when it highlights individual characters and dives into their psychological complexities. Here, the family at the center of the drama is not only a thinly veiled allusion to the Sackler family, but also draws clear inspiration from the Roys of Succession. The eldest boy is an entitled man-child, the oldest daughter a vain but insecure power-hungry businesswoman, the next son a self-obsessed party boy. Similarities aside, this series manages to carve out its own space within the genre of capitalistic satire. What works less well is the overabundance of Poe. Although the plot is only loosely inspired by the medley of Poe stories that the series name and episode titles are taken from, there are many instances of characters reciting lines from his poetry, and these stand out as awkward and forced. But those moments are easy enough to look past; it’s not his best work (it can’t touch Hill House), but Flanagan has once again delivered an entertaining Halloween treat.

— Jess

Length: 60-min runtime, Limited Series / 8 episodes
Watch on: Netflix

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Lessons in Chemistry

Photo: Apple TV+

Keywords: drama, miniseries, book adaptation
Watch if you like: The Queen’s Gambit, Mad Men, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel