📺 No feelings. Sounds cool.
A new German thriller and the final season of our favorite British teen comedy-drama
Happy Thursday. We had cause to celebrate this week: the WGA announced on Tuesday that its strike was officially over after agreeing to a tentative deal with the AMPTP that the WGA deemed “exceptional.” Yay! The deal still has to be ratified by the union’s members, but the writers are allowed to return to work. And in hopeful news, SAG-AFTRA announced that they will be meeting with the AMPTP for bargaining on Monday.
By the way, we want to take a moment to say thank you for reading Double Take and letting us tell you what (and what not) to watch each week. <3 If you’d like to help us out, please spread the word to your friends and family by using the button above, and earn some perks for yourself along the way! It really means a lot.
In today’s edition:
Weekly Watchlist
Dear Child (Netflix)
Sex Education - Season 4 (Netflix)
— Jenni Cullen and Jess Spoll
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This newsletter was written during the WGA and SAG strikes, without the work of the actors and writers, the shows we review wouldn’t exist.
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.
Gen V (Season 1) — Set alongside the events of Season 4 of The Boys, this spin-off is set at a college for superheroes in training.
Watch on Prime Video: September 29 (3 of 8 episodes, then weekly)Great British Bake-Off (Season 14 / Collection 11) — Also known as The Great British Baking Show in the US and Canada, this delightful baking competition series returns along with a new batch of home bakers who will battle it out to be star baker.
Watch on Netflix: September 29 (1 of 10 episodes, then weekly)Chucky (Season 3, Part 1) — The infamous killer doll is back for another season of murderous escapades.
Watch on SYFY/Peacock: October 4 on SYFY/October 5 on Peacock (1 of 4 episodes, then weekly)Lupin (Season 3) — France’s most wanted gentleman thief is planning his most intense heist yet.
Watch on Netflix: October 5 (all 7 episodes)Our Flag Means Death (Season 2) — This historically-inspired off-beat comedy from Taika Waititi sets sail for a second season.
Watch on Max: October 5 (3 of 8 episodes, then weekly)Everything Now (Season 1) — Drawing comparisons to Heartstopper and Sex Education, this new series follows a 16-year-old girl who returns home after a lengthy recovery from an eating disorder, only to find that the world has moved on without her.
Watch on Netflix: October 5 (all 8 episodes)Loki (Season 2) — The first MCU series to get a follow-up season, Loki is back and sees Tom Hiddleston reprise his role as a variant of the god of mischief.
Watch on Disney+: October 5 (1 of 6 episodes, then weekly)
Our thoughts on brand new streaming content, and where you can watch.
Dear Child
Keywords: thriller, dark, German, limited series
Watch if you like: Room, Sharp Objects, Black Bird
Jess’s Rating: B-
It’s hard to imagine that the audience would be very large for a German-language, intensely dark thriller series, but Dear Child has been in the Top 10 TV Shows on Netflix for 3 weeks running, so I guess I’m underestimating our society’s fascination with psychologically disturbed criminals. It’s a quick but certainly not easy binge, and please note the following content warnings before deciding to watch: mental and physical abuse, rape, suicidal ideation, violence.
Adapted from a novel of the same name by Romy Hausmann, Dear Child is a German miniseries that tells the bleak tale of a mysterious woman’s near-death escape from brutal captivity. While she’s lying in the hospital, a local policeman pieces together that she could be the same girl who went missing from the town 13 years earlier. The series flips back and forth between the recent past and present, depicting both the detectives’ investigation into the mystery and the time that the woman and two young children spent locked in a windowless home subject to the cruelty of an unknown, faceless captor.
This series was gripping from the beginning — a requirement for any good thriller. But it differs from something like Gone Girl or Big Little Lies in that it’s genuinely harrowing. The series isn’t as interested in crazy plot twists as it is in exploring how traumatic events affect the lives of not only the victims, but those connected to victims of violent crime. Unlike some shows in the mystery genre that take the “slow burn” approach, the central puzzle here is revealed somewhat quickly, with just a few questions left for the end. This shifts the main intrigue of the story off of the mystery and onto the psychological make-up of the characters.
Although it’s executed well enough, there isn’t a good reason that this needed to be a 6-hour series. The characters are well developed, but not as fully as you might expect for the length, and there isn’t anything within that we haven’t seen before. It’s still a solid series, with an absorbing mystery and convincing performances— but I’d only recommend it if you’re ready for deeply upsetting content.
— Jess
Length: 50-min runtime, Limited Series / 6 episodes
Watch on: Netflix
A popular and beloved show has come to an end. Here’s what we thought about its final bow.
Sex Education
Keywords: coming-of-age, British, teen, comedy drama
Watch if you like: Never Have I Ever, Derry Girls, End of the F***ing World
Jenni’s Rating: A-
Sex Education is at face value a show about a sex therapist’s son who winds up reluctantly dispensing intimacy and relationship advice to his high school classmates. Under the surface, though, it is so much more. Sure there are some raunchy scenes and horny teens you may expect given the title, but this smart, funny series focuses more on the psychology of growing up and accepting yourself — and those around you — than anything else. Who would have thought that a show so weird, graphic, and gross at times could also be so incredibly feel-good, earnest, and wholesome?
It’s a hat trick of superb casting, aesthetic, and writing that marks Sex Education as one of the best Netflix original series of the past few years. All of the characters are fantastic and well-rounded, bolstered by pitch-perfect performances by actors (Gillian Anderson, Emma Mackey, Asa Butterfield, Ncuti Gatwa?! the list is too long) who make every interaction in the series feel genuine. Representation is also a high point in this show that never fails to develop fully three-dimensional roles, despite a wide supporting cast.
The setting also has a hand in just how sweet and satisfying Sex Education is. Who wouldn’t want to watch a handful of zany teen romances set in a bucolic retro-styled UK countryside? Factor in the witty banter and well-timed jokes; every element and choice in this show serves to balance some of the heavier or hornier topics it covers with trademark levity and taste.
Alas, all good things must end. The fourth and final season premiered last week, bringing this joyful, beautiful show to a close. And unfortunately, I have to admit the last 8 episodes lack a bit of the magic that filled the seasons before it. While I appreciate that it is time to say goodbye to these characters and ultimately enjoyed watching the final season, the episodes feel a little rushed and slightly hollow in comparison to the rest. Maybe it’s the heavier-handed lessons or the attempt to give everyone a “satisfying end” that bogged down the plot. Whatever the case, Sex Education is still a delight to watch, and a slightly disappointing finale does nothing to diminish my love for the nerdy, hopeful, hilarious series as a whole.
— Jenni
Length: 60-min runtime, 4 seasons / 32 episodes
Watch on: Netflix
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