What a week for streaming media, readers! We have quite a lot to discuss.
On tap this week, among several others, are a rock musical from the writer-composers of Rent and Hamilton, a high-fantasy drama featuring heavy make-up and special effects, and a nonbinary comedy of personal growth.
The Sex Lives of College Girls
HBOMax - Comedy - Coming of Age
Synopsis
Four first-years at an elite liberal arts college in New England experience the tension between expectations and reality, as they each attempt to evolve how they relate to other people in a way that returns both self-confidence and self-fulfillment.
My take
I’ll fully admit, when I first saw the advertisements for Mindy Kaling’s latest project, The Sex Lives of College Girls, I cringed. Seeïng wall-sized posters of four coyly smiling young women above myriad sex toys and below that title on my walk home from work made me deeply suspicious of HBOMax: Was the Max part of that arrangement reaching back to its late ‘90s roots and reprising the gynophilic softcore pornography that had once been its late-night signature — only now under the guise of a witty comedy, pawing at the legacies of prior HBO properties like Sex and the City (Star [creator], 1998-2004) and Girls (Dunham [creator], 2012-2017) for viewers? The whole thing felt grubby and off-putting. For starters, I thought that the outright sexual objectification of young women for (what I assume is still primarily) the male gaze was something now firmly outside the purview of any want-to-be-mainstream series. Then, complicating that initial take was Mindy Kaling’s name attached to the series. Mindy’s past work, uplifting the voices of young (awkward) female people of color in our culture, is so at odds with the vibe of the advertisements that I was very confused: Who was the intended audience of this show? Not straight men? It can’t be straight women, can it? Generally, just what even happened here?
So, it was with a hyperskeptical eye that I tapped on the premier episode and buckled up for viewing. Right away I had my answer.
Rolling up in the passenger seat of a minivan next to a heavily making-out straight couple whose two brief introductory lines of dialogue — both delivered pantingly between kisses — are about how hot they make each other, Nicole Sullivan (last seen selling Vancôme on Salzman, Bahr, and Small’s Mad TV circa 1998) now playing one of the titular girls’ moms intercedes,
“Excuse me?! Excuse me. Can you stop? We’re dropping our daughter off at school.”
The couple pauses to look at her, both nonplussed. Sullivan again, now morally confident with her gripes:
“I can see your erection.”
Jump cut to the titles.
It was then I knew, I was in the right place. Kaling’s sharp eye for casual social commentary, robed in cheeky comedy, is clearly keeping watch over these four “girls.” Paced well, with interesting atypical storylines for both ‘college students’ and the now almost archetypical ‘four female friends’ — which as groups, I think we can all agree, have by now had a surfeit of attempts at televised dramatization — the show is actually a romp. Indeed, by evolving the now rote foursome of women we’ve come to expect from especially HBOMax’s content (i.e., the group of [in purposefully blunt terms] the Prudent, the Slut, the Princess, and the Commoner that, to my knowledge, was born in Susan Harris’ [1985-1992] The Golden Girls but was then refined in Star’s [1998-2004] Sex and the City, later copied in Dunham’s [2012-2017] Girls, and on-goingly repeated in Rae and Wilmore’s [2016-Current] Insecure) from a group that still jokes about, for example, the taboo nature of an openly sexual woman into a group that admits that open sexuality as acceptable (even perhaps aspirational) “table stakes,” the show writers mature content that could otherwise easily lean vacuous and quickly go stale. I applaud the efforts, and actually laughed at the jokes.
While it remains to be seen whether this achievement will be sustained beyond the first two currently available episodes of this inaugural season, I’m at least excited by the prospect that it could be. Drink up, readers.
Temperature check
Hot
The Great (Season 2)
Hulu - Comedy - Historical fiction
Synopsis
After launching a coup against her tirelessly frivolous and horny husband, the pregnant Empress Catherine of Russia must decide how to rei(g)n in the turmoil around her.
My take
The signature quality that made McNamara’s The Great so fun and engaging in its first season was its whip-smart balancing of both political drama and sexual comedy in its hyperstylized retelling of imperial Russian history. Entirely discarding any notion of high- vs. low-brow, the series was born unpredictable and exciting, despite the necessary factual bounds around the story’s major plot points, which any viewer with an internet connection and a keyboard could look up at any time.
This winning quality, I’m pleased to say, returns undiminished in this new second season. Moreover, the writing takes the hard course, setting aside obvious and easy character arcs in exchange for more interesting novelties — just as its protagonist would. Characters are cycled in or out; devices, introduced without breaking time and tone; and scope, resized to keep pace with the developments of the plot. Replete with immaculate costumes, Elle Fanning as Catherine and Nicholas Hoult as Peter continue to lead what remains the jewel of Hulu’s current original offerings.
Temperature check
Hot
tick, tick…BOOM!
Netflix - Musical - Creators on Creating
Synopsis
A motivated composer frets over the creative process and the life choices he believes he must make for it, as he nears his 30th birthday in Manhattan 1990.
My take
Though of course everyone rightly praises Hamilton (2015) for being a great show and In the Heights (2005) for winning four Tony awards including Best Musical in 2008, I personally haven’t yet found much reason to celebrate Lin-Manuel Miranda as an artist overall. His acting in Hamilton and other fora like Marshall and Magee’s (2018) Mary Poppins Returns and Thorne and Hooper’s (2019-Current) His Dark Materials is tepid at best; his songs for Clements, Musker, and Bush’s (2016) Moana felt overly simplistic and chipper even for Disney; and his middle full-length theatrical piece Bring It On: The Musical was much less well-received than its aforementioned siblings. While I can confidently say that Miranda has captured popular attention, I don’t think anyone can say that he has always thoroughly deserved it.
So, I didn’t quite know what to expect when I turned on his latest project, an adaptation for Netflix of respected and missed Broadway composer Jonathan Larson’s second musical tick, tick…BOOM!, itself an homage to Larson’s prior creative and personal struggles in staging his first musical, Superbia, in early ‘90s New York City. Would this adaptation be the bees’ knees or a different kind of drone? Especially with the content not being Miranda’s own, I’m not sure I could really even guess.
Maybe partly owing to this lack of any expectation (I have no trouble with admitting, reader) I was mostly charmed — and this from someone who never really had much of a taste for Larson’s cornerstone work, his third and final musical, the much lauded Rent (1996). (I blame overexposure during my formative years to the musical’s banner song, “Seasons of Love.”)
First in the credits for this charmed effect must be Larson himself, both for putting the raw tension of his early creative years (extra dramatized though they may be) up for public consumption and for doing so with such musical aplomb, that the presentation remains relevant and stirring today, thirty years after its original creation. Then, essential to that presentation, even actively holding it up for us to consume is Andrew Garfield, playing Larson and delivering a performance that I feel certain will earn him many ‘Actor in a Leading Role’ nominations this year in film. Finally, organizing and seasoning that performance are Miranda as director; editors Kerstein and Weisblum, who do much to hold the creative energy together; and the host of other Broadway actors and references any Playbill aficionado will know and adore sprinkled throughout the film.
Of course, the final product is not without its problems. Some cuts feel abrupt (I suspect, more for the writing than the editing, but … ); the affectionate connections Garfield’s Larson has with other characters feel two-dimensional and inserted, playing second fiddle to his own drama with himself; and Miranda smears the whole thing with a honeyed glaze, no doubt out of his profound admiration for the real Larson and his creative work, that nevertheless robs the film of otherwise needed dramatic tension. (Miranda’s on-going relationship with Disney may be partly to blame for that honeyed feeling.)
Ultimately, however, I suppose, if I were asked for a quick one line on the film, I’d say, “definitely not the cinematic Hamilton, but a reason to applaud Miranda in film, sure.”
Temperature check
Tepid (but fun!)
King Richard
HBOMax - Drama - Biopic
Synopsis
A father with limited resources but unlimited vision works to see through the athletic potential that his two daughters show on the tennis court.
My take
It’s a bit curious to have a biopic focus on a supportive character in the life of a respected and admired individual, even if that supportive person be instrumental in lifting that respected and admired individual to his or her respected and admired heights; but that kind of off-center focus does provide a lot of runway for an actor to step into that supportive character’s shoes and turn in a fantastic leading performance, which is just about what Will Smith does as Richard Williams (father of real-life tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams) in his latest film, King Richard.
Smith’s performance is perhaps the only noteworthy element in this rather long film1, except perhaps in minor mention the period costumes setting what is actually quite a varied selection of characters and scenes. Smith adds almost all the humanity and emotion the story depends on and therefore carries the piece almost entirely on his own merit — a feat which, thanks to his talents (largely under-recognized by awarding bodies), produces a film that isn’t a chore to watch, as it easily otherwise could have been for anyone who isn’t either so readily seduced by the film’s wholesome message (i.e., that dedication and integrity are key elements to success) or so fanatically compelled by tennis and the Williams sisters in general that a Wonder Bread sandwich of a film about them feels satisfying.
A sort of thematic cross between Muccino and Conrad’s better (2006) The Pursuit of Happyness (which Smith also produced and led) and Melfi and Schroeder’s smarter (2016) Hidden Figures (which was the ‘Rich Pick’ for adapted screenplay in 2016), King Richard makes sense as a studio’s investment but frankly wastes time as a thoughtful viewer’s. Watch for Smith, or at your own risk.
Temperature check
Cold (but with a fine lead)
The Wheel of Time (Series Premiere)
Amazon Prime - Fantasy - ‘The Chosen One’
Synopsis
In the shadow of an encroaching evil, an order of educated women seeks out the one young person prophesied to save the world from darkness.
My take
Two-time ‘Rich Picks’ nominee Rosamund Pike leads an ensemble cast, including Tony nominee Kate Fleetwood, in an adaptation of Robert Jordan’s fan-favorite series The Wheel of Time. Serving high fantasy by the ladle-full, this adaptation goes down like the corner store’s ramen: warm, convenient, and exactly the kind of thing you were in the mood for, although you’re sure you’ve had better elsewhere.
Borrowing themes from Tolkien’s (1954-1955) The Lord of the Rings, stylings from NBC’s (1998) Merlin and HBO’s (2011-2019) Game of Thrones (its nearest cultural predecessor), and tension from any ‘good vs. evil’ underdog story you’ve ever heard, the show has fine genetics but a face we’ve definitely seen before — and perhaps in better lighting.
While I’ll nevertheless continue to reach for more — warm noodles are soothing, after all — I’d say, order only if you know what you’re getting yourself into.
Temperature check
Tepid
Sort of
HBOMax - Dramedy - Self-discovery
Synopsis
A nanny and part-time bartender habitually lives life for others at the expense of personal certainty and well-being.
My take
Of all the shows on tap this week, reader, this one is the most finely written — and, for that reason, perhaps the one most worth attention. An underdog show almost silently added to HBOMax’ offerings the same day as The Sex Lives of College Girls, the Canadian drama-comedy Sort of is a sensitive and at times hilarious portrait of a fundamentally undecided human being (and similarly undecided others) that may be the first scripted series I’ve seen to forefront a trans or non-binary character without making that character’s gender identity the constant main topic of the conversation. That the main topics in the conversation are instead thoughtful, self-aware, and elementally human questions (e.g., who am I? where am I going? what is my life all about?) is, frankly, the prize within a prize of this shiny little gem of a show.
Most closely related to other dramedy imports like Thomas’ brilliant (2013-2016) Please Like Me and Maine, Matafeo, and Snedden’s sharp (2021) Starstruck (also on HBOMax), Sort of carries my highest recommendation from this packed week. Enjoy!
Temperature check
Hot (I nearly burnt my tongue)
Retrospective
Because this week has been so full of new content, readers, let’s skip the retrospective this time and return to it next. I’m sure that the upcoming holiday weekend will be ripe for revisiting a classic.
Until then, happy viewing!
King Richard’s runtime clocks in just shy of 2.5 hours.