What’s Streaming
BECOMING (2020) Stream on Netflix. Until now, the films produced by Michelle and Barack Obama’s entertainment company, Higher Ground Productions, have not been about either of the Obamas themselves. “American Factory” (2019) looked at what happened after a closed General Motors factory in Ohio was taken over by a Chinese company, while the more recent “Crip Camp” centered on disability rights activism. But Michelle Obama steps in front of the lens in “Becoming,” a documentary from the Obamas’ company that revolves around the former first lady and her memoir of the same name. The film follows Obama on a nationwide tour to promote the memoir. Directed by Nadia Hallgren, a documentary filmmaker from the Bronx, the film has been advertised less as an adaptation of the book and more of a companion piece looking at Obama’s life after leaving the White House. “So little of who I am happened in those eight years,” she says in a trailer. “So much more of who I was happened before.”
UPLOAD Stream on Amazon. The “Parks and Recreation” co-creator Greg Daniels takes a stab at the hereafter in “Upload,” a dark, class-conscious comedy series about a socially stratified digital afterlife. The show, created by Daniels, begins with death: A young man, Nathan (Robbie Amell), is critically injured when his self-driving car crashes. Bankrolled by his wealthy girlfriend (Allegra Edwards), he gets uploaded into a cushy virtual afterlife, complete with in-app purchases. Things get complicated (well, more complicated) when he gets close with Nora (Andy Allo), a customer service representative for a company that manages the afterlife. “Part of the impulse here is to kind of do a genre mash-up,” Daniels said in a recent interview with The New York Times, “to have satire but also to have romance and the mystery.”
TRYING Stream on Apple TV Plus. “I know it sounds bad,” Nikki (Esther Smith) says to her boyfriend, Jason (Rafe Spall), in the first episode of this British comedy series. “But do you think they’d feel like someone else’s child?” The couple are having a conversation about adoption. “I think they probably would at first, yeah,” Jason responds. “But I think you know, you would, you’d wear them in. Like trainers.” That exchange — and the funny and earnest notes on display in it — neatly encapsulates the tone of the series at large. The show follows the couple as they navigate adopting a child.
What’s on TV
BROCKMIRE 10 p.m. on IFC. Jim Brockmire, the foul-mouthed baseball announcer played by Hank Azaria in this satirical series, spent the show’s first season trying to resuscitate his derailed career by working minor-league games. By the third season, he was calling for the major leagues again. The current, fourth season has pushed the action into a dystopian future, with Brockmire appointed Major League Baseball’s commissioner as the world is ravaged by epidemic and conflict. Wednesday night’s series finale will determine the staying power of his redemption.
Source: Television - nytimes.com
