📺 Rosaline, The Watcher, and more
Welcome back to Thursday. For any of you following along, you might be excited to know that Jenni won her fantasy football game last week and is now on a 4 game streak. You also might not care and honestly, that makes sense too.
In today’s edition:
The Watcher
Rosaline
The Curse of Bridge Hollow
Atlanta
— Jenni Cullen and Jess Spoll
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The Watcher
Keywords: thriller, mystery, based on a true story
Watch if you like: The Amityville Horror, Zodiac, Candy
Jess’s Rating: C-
Based on a true story, The Watcher revolves around a family that spends all of their money to purchase their dream house in the suburbs, only to have their dream become a nightmare. Soon after purchasing the multi-million dollar house, they begin receiving disturbing and vaguely threatening letters from someone called ‘The Watcher.’ This anonymous foe claims to watch their house 24/7 and includes personal details in their letters that seem to prove that claim, adding panic-inducing lines like, “All of the windows and doors in 657 Boulevard allow me to watch you and track you as you move through the house.”
The true story grabbed the nation’s attention back in 2014, and for obvious reasons; can you imagine the horror of feeling terrified to live in your own house in a (supposedly) safe neighborhood? The story should’ve easily made for a gripping and scary thriller. Instead, toward the final episodes, the series fails to maintain a truly creepy tone, venturing too far into the unbelievable and over-the-top. I found myself decently engaged over the almost 7 hours of runtime, but the script meanders into a bunch of shallow side plots and pulls on threads that don’t go anywhere. By the time the unsatisfying ending rolled around, I was angered to have wasted so much time on this disappointing adaptation. At least the couple from the real story recouped some of their losses on the sale of the house by selling the rights to their story.
— Jess
Length: 50-min runtime, miniseries / 7 episodes
Watch on: Netflix
Rosaline
Keywords: snarky, Shakespeare, romcom
Watch if you like: The Great, Emma (2020), She’s the Man, Ella Enchanted
Jenni’s Rating: B
Rosaline is a half-modernized comedic retelling of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy, told from the perspective of Romeo’s jilted ex…and it’s a pretty good time.
If you’re at all familiar with the term ‘twin movies,’* Rosaline sort of feels like a twin movie of last month’s Catherine Called Birdy — if twins could somehow also be older sisters. Like Dunham’s Birdy, Rosaline (played by Kaitlyn Dever of Booksmart) bucks at the idea of being married off to the highest bidder by her father (Bradley Whitford) and is desperate to forge her own path — preferably one with Romeo, though that might take some conniving. She is also outspoken and stubborn, but more cunning than brash young Birdy, often able to use the constraints of her time period to work in her favor. Also, though they are similar in many ways, I enjoyed this period comedy a few fractions more, partially because it seemed tonally geared toward a slightly older audience — less spunk, more snark.
This story is not at all serious; the irreverent and anachronistic main characters stand out in their medieval Italian surroundings with arch one-liners and much sass. I do not think Rosaline will take a place in the adaptation hall of fame with the likes of Clueless or Ten Things I Hate About You by any means, but it was cute and fun and perfect for a casual romcom kind of night.
— Jenni
Length: 90-min runtime
Watch on: Hulu, Disney+
*A term that describes the phenomenon in which two very similar films from different studios premiere at the same time. You know, like The Prestige and The Illusionist, or Friends with Benefits and No Strings Attached. Same movie, different font, if we’re being glib about it.
The Curse of Bridge Hollow
Keywords: family-friendly, Halloween, fantasy
Watch if you like: The Haunted Mansion, Hocus Pocus, Scooby Doo
Jess’s Rating: C-
I’ll start by saying that although my rating is rather low, I’m not the target audience for this movie. I think that it’s probably enjoyable for kids (ages 10+) and I am glad to see a new, original family-friendly Halloween movie on the scene.
In The Curse of Bridge Hollow, a married couple (Marlon Wayans and Kelly Rowland) and their teenage daughter, Sydney (Priah Ferguson of Stranger Things), decide to move from Brooklyn to the quiet, safe neighborhood of Bridge Hollow. When Sydney explores the house’s attic, trying to see if it’s haunted, she accidentally unleashes an evil spirit that had been trapped for centuries. Soon, the family and the townspeople find themselves fighting against their own halloween decorations — zombies, spiders, clowns, etc — that have been possessed and are now trying to attack them.
This movie reminds me of the low-stakes, kid-friendly type of fare that I used to watch when I was a kid (typically in the form of Disney Channel Original Movies). It’s sweet, sometimes funny, and entertaining enough to watch. But with my critic hat on, I’d have to say that I found some of the characters to be too flat, and too much of the exposition was told rather than shown. Although I probably wouldn’t recommend this movie to other childless adults, if you’re looking for a new Halloween flick to watch with the whole family, this should fit the bill.
— Jess
Length: 90-min runtime
Watch on: Netflix
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.
Atlanta (Season 4 / Final Season)
Keywords: dark comedy, drama, surreal humor
Watch if you like: Get Out, Search Party, Eric Andre Show, Ramy
Jenni’s Rating: A-
The fourth and final season of Atlanta returned in mid-September and if you’re not watching yet, let this be your sign to start.
Donald Glover has always described this show as his attempt to do “Twin Peaks with rappers” and in my eyes, he’s absolutely succeeded. Everything in this show feels deliberate, well-thought out, and connected somehow — though you might not get exactly how just yet. It keeps you intrigued, slightly on edge, and primed for an unexpected laugh.
The series begins as a story about Princeton dropout and music manager Earnest “Earn” Marks (Glover) and his rapper cousin Alfred aka Paper Boi as they navigate the Atlanta rap scene. All the while, Earn is trying to redeem himself in the eyes of his ex-girlfriend Van (Zazie Beetz). But it quickly becomes clear that there is so much more to these episodes than the story on the surface. Atlanta beautifully blends slice-of-life style storytelling with comedy, horror, existentialism, and surrealism to examine racism, whiteness, and modern America. Season 3 even includes quite a few anthology episodes of a “Black fairytale” nature in which the main four characters are conspicuously absent.
The final season, though, appears to be a return to the form of the first two seasons, as well as a closing of the narrative circle. I can’t wait to see how they wrap this series up. Final note: I do not consider this a “bingeable” show and instead have consumed it more like a series of short stories — one or two at a time to give the episodes a little room to breathe and my brain a little room to let things settle. But I always come back for more.
— Jenni
Length: 30-min runtime, 4 seasons / 38 episodes with new S4 eps out on Thursdays
Watch on: Hulu
Your shows, returned:
Inside Amy Schumer, Season 5: Premieres October 20 on Paramount+
One of us is Lying, Season 2: Premieres October 20 on Peacock
The Acapulco, Season 2: Premieres October 21 on Apple TV+
Ghostwriter, Season 3: Premieres October 21 on Apple TV+
Barbarians, Season 2: Premieres October 21 on Netflix
Love is Blind, Season 3: Premieres October 26 on Netflix
The Mysterious Benedict Society, Season 2: Premieres October 26 on Disney+
Upcoming new releases:
From Scratch: Premieres October 21 on Netflix
28 Days Haunted: Premieres October 21 on Netflix
The Peripheral: Premieres October 21 on Prime Video
Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities: Premieres October 25 on Netflix
Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi: Premieres October 26 on Disney+