📺 Very cable, very streaming
Welcome back to Thursday. And to the week our beloved Abbott Elementary returns for Season 2! If you have a TV with actual channels, you may have seen the season premiere last night on ABC. If you’re like us and only have too many streaming services, you can catch the episode tonight on Hulu.
In today’s edition:
Tell Me Lies
Heartbreak High
Reboot
— Jess Spoll and Jenni Cullen
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Where we each choose a recent-ish show to review and feature.
If you like melodramatic coming-of-age tales, try… Tell Me Lies
Keywords: drama, college students, toxic relationship, warning: NSFW
Watch if you like: Normal People, the After movies, The Summer I Turned Pretty
Jess’s Rating: C+
Adapted from a novel by Carola Lovering, Tell Me Lies is the latest series to center egocentric and melodramatic young adults in tumultuous relationships. I blame the success of Normal People for this current trend.
This new Hulu series follows a relationship between Lucy, a self-possessed but reserved college freshman, and Stephen, an older guy on campus who describes himself as “polarizing” in their first encounter. From the opening scene of the show, set 8 years after they first meet, we learn that their romance left Lucy with a lot of pain and trauma. The rest of the series begins on Lucy’s first day of school and slowly unveils the ups and downs of their time together.
The high point of this show is Grace Van Patten’s performance as Lucy; she excels at coming across as both insecure and self-assured. I find the casting of Stephen (Jackson White, son of Katey Sagal) to be less effective, as he’s not nearly as charismatic as the script would want me to believe. There are backstories to be unraveled, but the show takes its sweet time to do so, and while I’m generally intrigued, I’m not running back each week to catch the new episode as soon as it drops. It could make for a good binge watch one day when you’re in the mood to watch a steamy drama about a doomed romance.
Length: 45-min runtime, 5 episodes available with a new one each Wednesday
Watch on: Hulu
If you think you’d like a slightly edgier version of Sex Education, try… Heartbreak High
Keywords: Australian, teen comedy-drama, provocative
Watch if you like: Sex Education, Euphoria, Degrassi
Jenni’s Rating: C
Heartbreak High is a reboot of a 90s Australian teen drama, re-suited for modern times, that leans grittier than it does soapy. Think Degrassi or Skins, but with a drier, funnier undertone.
The story centers on two previously inseparable friends, Amerie and Harper, who are suddenly and inexplicably (to Amerie, at least) enemies. Back when they were still chummy, they created an “incest map” in an abandoned stairwell at their school that tracked the sexual escapades of their classmates. When the principal finds out, all the students mentioned on the map are forced to take an “outdated and heteronormative” sex ed class, mostly in an attempt to improve the reputation of the school.
If you think this sounds eerily similar to Sex Education (a show I absolutely adore), you’re not wrong. There are a lot of similarities — including necessary representation for different sexualities, abilities, and minorities — however, I do think this show is a bit edgier and I like the storylines and pacing slightly less. I’ve never seen Euphoria, but I imagine that’s another good comp for the level of intensity in Heartbreak High. Either way, if you are waiting for the next season of Sex Ed, I’d recommend giving this series a try.
Length: ~50-min runtime, 1 season / 8 episodes
Watch on: Netflix
True to our title, in this segment we each give our take on the same show. Will we see eye to eye?
Reboot
Keywords: satire, meta, workplace comedy
Watch if you like: Hacks, 30 Rock, Mythic Quest
Length: 30-min runtime, 3 episodes available with a new one each Tuesday
Watch on: Hulu
Reboot, from the creator of Modern Family, is a new comedy about the making of a revamped early 2000s (fictional) sitcom titled “Step Right Up.” A millennial writer (Rachel Bloom) pitches her idea to Hulu to remake the show as an edgy comedy rather than as the family show that it once was. The original cast members sign on (Keegan Michael-Key, Judy Greer, Johnny Knoxville), and they bring all their baggage and old grievances with them.
In real life, we’ve been inundated with rebooted series in recent years, so it’s no surprise that a show about an old sitcom being rebooted is ripe for satire. There’s a joke in the first episode where one Hulu exec asks another, “Are people still doing reboots?”, and she responds with a list of 20 shows that have been rebooted in the last 5 years. Beyond the obvious jokes and jabs at the world of showbiz, there are also little meta details to enjoy, like the episode titles matching past sitcom titles: New Girl, Growing Pains, etc.
As a lover of both satire and workplace comedies, this show jumped out to me from my first trailer viewing. Having watched the 3 available episodes, I am certainly excited for more. It’s laugh-out-loud funny, the cast has excellent chemistry, and I love getting an inside look at Hollywood.
Jess’s Rating: B
I don’t have anything to add to Jess’s excellent setup and intro to this show, but after watching the first three episodes, I do have a slightly more negative take/review. Lol, what else is new.
While I do think the series so far has been palatable and at times quite enjoyable, I can’t stop fixating on how clunky some of the jokes feel, and how over the top some of the acting is. I’m mostly thinking of one or two specific Rachel Bloom scenes, which is a bummer, because I really liked her in Crazy Ex Girlfriend! Maybe some of the choices are supposed to be meta — a nod to the cheesy slapstick nature of older sitcoms — but I felt like that tone didn’t match up across the board.
So far, it feels like the show keeps revving its engine but hasn’t actually gone anywhere. I am hoping Reboot follows the pattern of a lot of my favorite comedies and is able to grow into its potential over the rest of the first season, but if the next episode is similarly stagnant, I don’t think I’ll want to keep watching to find out.
Jenni’s Rating: C-
Your shows, returned:
The Kardashians, Season 2: Premieres September 22 on Hulu
Law & Order, Season 22: Premieres September 22 on NBC
Law & Order: Organized Crime, Season 3: Premieres September 22 on NBC
Law & Order: SVU, Season 24: Premieres September 22 on NBC
Bob’s Burgers, Season 13: Premieres September 25 on Fox
Family Guy, Season 21: Premieres September 25 on Fox
The Rookie, Season 5: Premieres September 25 on ABC
The Simpsons, Season 34: Premieres September 25 on Fox
Bachelor in Paradise, Season 8: Premieres September 27 on ABC
La Brea, Season 2: Premieres September 27 on NBC
The D’Amelio Show, Season 2: Premieres September 28 on Hulu
The Real Housewives of SLC, Season 3: Premieres September 28 on Bravo
Survivor, Season 43: Premieres September 28 on CBS
The Amazing Race, Season 34: Premieres September 28 on CBS
Call Me Kat, Season 3: Premieres September 29 on Fox
CSI: Vegas, Season 2: Premieres September 29 on CBS
Ghosts, Season 2: Premieres September 29 on CBS
Hell’s Kitchen, Season 21: Premieres September 29 on Fox
Welcome to Flatch, Season 2: Premieres September 29 on Fox
Young Sheldon, Season 6: Premieres September 29 on CBS
Upcoming new releases:
Chefs vs. Wild: Premieres September 26 on Hulu
Reasonable Doubt: Premieres September 27 on Hulu
The Rookie: Feds: Premieres September 27 on ABC
So Help Me Todd: Premieres September 29 on CBS