📺 Peanut butter does not turn
Happy September 1st to all who celebrate. Welcome to the unofficial start of soup season, your pumpkin spice latte era, your ‘commitment to iced coffee no matter the temperature’ quarter. It’s still definitely summer and hot as blazes where we are, but can’t you just feel all those fall shows lurking on the horizon? What a time to be alive.
In today’s edition:
A League of Their Own
Bad Sisters
Never Have I Ever (Season 3)
Surface
— Jess Spoll and Jenni Cullen
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Where we each choose a recent-ish show to review and feature.
If you love a good underdog story, try… A League of Their Own
Keywords: baseball, comedy-drama, 1940s
Watch if you like: Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, GLOW, Dickinson
Jenni’s Rating: B-
This was the kind of show where every episode got better than the last. Unfortunately that meant it had a bit of a slow start and I really had to convince myself to hang in there past the second episode.
The premise of A League of Their Own is taken from the 1992 movie of the same name — a fictionalized account of the real All-American Girls Baseball League that formed during WWII and gave women a chance to play professional baseball. But the origin story serves mostly as a skeleton to hang new material on. The team name is the same (The Rockford Peaches), but the characters are different, the stories and backgrounds explored are more varied (think: fewer white, straight main characters), and the series skews just slightly more drama than comedy. Starting pretty much from scratch makes the storytelling of this version feel much more contemporary, though the plot and conflicts remain firmly rooted in the 40s.
The best parts about the series so far are the cast and characters. If you’re a fan of any recent sitcoms (who isn’t?) you will likely recognize many of the stars — Abbi Jacobson, D’Arcy Carden, Nick Offerman, Kate Berlant — to name drop a few. I can’t think of a single character I dislike; the whole Peaches team is incredible, and the supporting friends and family are just as great. The show is rife with compelling romances and beautiful friendships. My main criticism is that I wish the series would lean a little more into the sports drama. I really was hoping for like, 45% sports, 55% everything else, and it’s honestly more of a 20/80 split. Ah well, there’s no crying in baseball.
Length: 60-min runtime, 1 season / 8 episodes
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
If you love the murder-comedy genre, try… Bad Sisters
Keywords: dark comedy, murder investigation, Ireland
Watch if you like: Dead to Me, Fargo, Barry
Jess’s Rating: B
At a glance, Bad Sisters might remind you of Big Little Lies: a coastal town where a husband is dead and a group of women come under investigation. But where Big Little Lies was dark and tragic, Bad Sisters is satirical and funny.
Bad Sisters follows the five tight-knit Garvey sisters after the sudden death of one of their husbands. Although the widow is grieving, the other four sisters are most certainly not. In fact, they plotted his death because he mistreated their sister. But whether or not they actually succeeded in killing him remains a mystery.
The series jumps back and forth between the present, when the husband is dead and an investigator is poking around, and the past, when the other sisters are dreaming up ways to kill him. With hints and red herrings along the way, the show is suspenseful enough to keep me hooked. The real standout, though, is the humor; although very dark — it is about murder after all — the series is incredibly funny and well written. And the main characters are fully fleshed out over the course of the first few episodes, giving each a compelling backstory and unique reason for wanting the husband dead. It has been getting consistently better, so I’m looking forward to watching the rest of the season.
Length: ~50-min runtime, 3 episodes available with new ones each Friday
Watch on: Apple TV+
These popular shows came back with new episodes. Here’s what we thought, how they compared to previous seasons, and where you can watch them.
Never Have I Ever (Season 3)
Keywords: high school, comedy, coming of age
Watch if you like: Sex Education, Freaks and Geeks, Derry Girls
Jenni’s Rating: A
A few weeks ago I wrote what some might call a ✨glowing✨ review about the first two seasons of this high school comedy by Mindy Kaling. Now that I’ve seen all the new episodes, I can safely say, the latest season did not disappoint. This show remains a lovely blend of sweet, funny, and sometimes sad, all woven together by relationships and low-stakes drama. My favorite kind of drama.
I absolutely love how all the characters are developing — I found some of Devi’s friends a little annoying and ‘over the top’ before, but they’ve grown into themselves a lot — and find that the tone of the whole series is maturing nicely as our protagonist does. I basically binged all ten episodes and felt mildly giddy every time I had a new window to watch more. It’s a real pick-me-up if you ever find yourself in a downer mood. Personal favorite scenes include truly any interaction between Devi and her mom, Nalini — they’re incredible together.
I feel like I can anticipate people saying that some of the show’s punchlines still pander too hard to Gen Z and can be a bit cringey, but somehow, because the show feels so confident in itself, those moments usually come across as charming to me. This is a show with a lot of heart, and Season 3 has only served to make me like the whole series more. Can’t wait for the fourth and final season.
— Jenni
Length: 30-min runtime, 10 episodes
Watch on: Netflix
Our thoughts on brand new shows that we watched, and where you can watch them.
Surface
Keywords: mystery, psychological thriller, amnesia
Watch if you like: The Girl Before, The Flight Attendant, The Undoing
Jess’s Rating: C-
Reese Witherspoon has produced many woman-led thrillers — Gone Girl, Big Little Lies, Little Fires Everywhere, Where the Crawdads Sing — and I’m always intrigued when I see her name attached to a new project. Some of her productions have been good, and some have been mediocre, and unfortunately Surface falls into the latter camp.
This limited series follows Sophie, played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Loki), a 30-something woman who suffers from amnesia after a failed suicide attempt results in a traumatic head injury. But when she starts to have flashbacks, she suspects that the story that her husband is telling her about her “accident” may not be entirely true.
The premise of Surface does intrigue me, as most mysteries do, but I have been struggling to keep my attention on this show. It is frustratingly slow, and none of the characters have any depth. It’s a testament to Mbatha-Raw that she is talented and charismatic enough to breathe life into a one-dimensional character that can’t remember anything about herself. I will watch this until the end to find out the truth, but I wish I’d just looked up the plot and saved myself 8 hours of boredom.
— Jess
Length: 60-min runtime, 7 episodes available with the final episode premiering tomorrow
Watch on: Apple TV+
Your shows, returned:
See, Season 3: Premieres August 26 on Apple TV+
Rick and Morty, Season 6: Premieres September 4 on Adult Swim
The Good Fight, Season 6: Premieres September 8 on Paramount+
Upcoming new releases:
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Premieres September 1 on Amazon Prime
Pantheon: Premieres September 1 on AMC+
Devil in Ohio: Released September 2 on Netflix
Fakes: Released September 2 on Netflix
House of Hammer: Released September 2 on Discovery+
Tell Me Lies: Premieres September 7 on Hulu
Last Light: Released September 8 on Peacock
Wedding Season: Released September 8 on Hulu