Television

Subterms

    More stories

    • 138 Shares99 Views

      in Television

      The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Netflix in July

      by

      This month brings the arrival of “Lost” and the return of Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley.Every month, Netflix adds movies and TV shows to its library. Here are our picks for some of July’s most promising new titles. (Note: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our Watching newsletter here.)‘Lost’ Seasons 1-6Starts streaming: July 1This enormously entertaining and frequently surprising science-fiction epic comes back to Netflix, just in time for the 20th anniversary of its debut episode. What begins as a story about a seemingly random group of airline passengers crash-landing on an uncharted island grows over the course of six seasons into a centuries-spanning saga, as the castaways stumble across the mysteries and history of their strange and dangerous new home. An innovative flashback structure balances on-island adventure with smaller stories about these people’s lives before they crashed. “Lost” works as both a rich character-driven drama and an addicting puzzle, littered with clues and curiosities. It will be interesting to see if a new generation of fans becomes as obsessed as TV watchers were in the early 2000s — and if they argue just as much about the way the show ends.‘Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F’Starts streaming: July 3Arriving 30 years after “Beverly Hills Cop III,” this long-gestating sequel sees Eddie Murphy return to one of his most memorable roles: Axel Foley, the savvy and wisecracking Detroit policeman who somehow keeps finding himself back in Los Angeles, solving crimes. In “Axel F,” the old-school action hero shows up to help out his estranged daughter, Jane (Taylour Paige), a defense attorney whose life may be in danger. While working alongside Jane’s ex-boyfriend, Detective Bobby Abbott (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Foley runs into a lot of old friends, including Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold), John Taggart (John Ashton), Jeffrey Friedman (Paul Reiser) and Serge (Bronson Pinchot). The movie is being pitched as a full-scale 1980s throwback, with big stunts and R-rated jokes.‘Cobra Kai’ Season 6, Part 1Starts streaming: July 18The sequel series to “The Karate Kid” movie franchise is coming to an end, with a season divided into three parts, starting with five episodes in July. “Cobra Kai” started as a simple twist on the original 1984 film, turning its jerky villain Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) into more of an underdog and its hero, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), into someone out of touch with his humble roots. As the series has gone on, these characters — and their children, who also compete in martial arts tournaments — have evolved in ways that make their motivations and relationships more complex. The story has expanded to encompass more parts of the “Karate Kid” mythology, but it has remained a surprisingly sensitive look at how people overcome the family histories and socioeconomic circumstances that initially shape them.‘Skywalkers: A Love Story’Starts streaming: July 19Acrophobes should probably clear of this dizzying documentary, about a pair of famous Russian “roof-toppers” who climb as high as they can onto towering buildings then take pictures to preserve the achievement. Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus fell in love while pursuing this passion for extreme climbing. When their relationship started to falter, they tried rekindling the romance by making plans to break into the upper floors of the world’s second-tallest skyscraper, in Kuala Lumpur. Because Nikolau and Beerkus have documented and shared so many of their adventures on social media, the “Skywalkers” director, Jeff Zimbalist, and his co-director, Maria Bukhonina, have ample footage to work with. They tell a story that is partly about a risky act of criminal trespass and partly about a couple who have to learn to trust each other in order to survive their big stunt.‘The Decameron’ Season 1Starts streaming: July 25Based loosely on Giovanni Boccaccio’s influential 14th-century story collection, “The Decameron” is set in Florence during the time of the Black Plague and follows an eclectic group of aristocrats and their servants as they shelter from the pestilence at a rural villa. Created by Kathleen Jordan (best known for the wry satire “Teenage Bounty Hunters”), the mini-series features a cast of distinctive comic actors, including Zosia Mamet (“Girls”), Tanya Reynolds (“Sex Education”), Saoirse-Monica Jackson (“Derry Girls”) and Tony Hale (“Arrested Development”). Rather than the wide-ranging anthology format of the book, this version covers the misadventures of the houseguests, as days of isolation and anxiety lead to a breakdown in social and sexual inhibitions.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 100 Shares99 Views

      in Television

      ‘The Bear’ Season 3: Tastes Great, Less Fulfilling

      by

      It’s still TV’s best and most beautiful series about work and creation. But the new season is a tease.This article discusses scenes from the beginning through the end of FX’s “The Bear” Season 3, now available in full on Hulu.No one loves a mixed review. The final moments of “The Bear” Season 3 confirm this, as Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), the doe-eyed maniac at the center of the dramedy, receives an alert for the make-or-break Chicago Tribune review of his ambitious, cacophonous restaurant. He has imagined a million versions of it — absolute raves, devastating pans. Now it’s here.We don’t get to see the review, only a Mad Libs rush of contradictory words, out of context: “Brilliant.” “Complex.” “Confusing.” “Innovative.” “Stale.” “Talent.” “Disappointed.” Carmy, alone with his phone and the verdict, lets fly the season’s last words, a hearty curse.Sorry, Chef: Sometimes the truth is mixed. It is for the third season of “The Bear,” in which one of the most brilliant shows on TV attempts a complex, at times confusing, elaboration on its themes. The 10 episodes are often innovative in execution but sometimes stale in their repetition of established conflicts. It’s an astonishing display of talent. But it is likely to leave anyone hoping for narrative momentum disappointed.“The Bear” does not lack confidence. The premiere, “Tomorrow,” is a bravura scene-setter that is as much an overture as an episode. Picking up the morning after the Season 2 finale — in which Carmy successfully soft-launches the Bear but sabotages his romance with Claire (Molly Gordon) — it’s an impressionistic tour of his manic consciousness.There is very little dialogue; mostly this episode, written by the series creator Christopher Storer, tells its stories in a series of quick cuts set to a mesmerizing score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. It dips into the near and remote past, flashing on scenes from the previous seasons, sneak-peeking moments from later in Season 3 and fleshing out events from Carmy’s history. At times it’s hard to tell what’s present and past as you tumble about in his perseverating mind.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 100 Shares179 Views

      in Television

      Enough With Prestige TV. Give Me the Bloopers!

      by

      In a world of bad vibes, I just want to see an actor break.In the summer of 2023, while a confused nation binged old episodes of the gourmet cheeseball legal drama “Suits,” I chose instead to fixate on a “Suits” blooper reel. It’s on YouTube. It’s 16 minutes long and consists primarily of the star of the series, Gabriel Macht — he plays Harvey, a cocky lawyer who works at the same firm as the woman played by the future Duchess of Sussex — flubbing lines, wiggling his eyebrows, moonwalking, mispronouncing “behalves,” playfully pretending to punch his co-stars in the face and dissolving into giggles when one of those co-stars calls him “Chucklebutt.”I have never watched a full episode of “Suits,” neither when it originally ran on the USA Network throughout the 2010s nor when Netflix shrewdly revived it. Still, I returned to these “Suits” bloopers multiple times a day, every day, for months. They delighted and comforted me, as legal dramas never do.I dig blooper reels, man. I dig the slapstick, the loopiness, the unexpected poignancy, the genial chaos. I first encountered this universe as a child via the crucial (and poignant!) 1989 direct-to-VHS classic “Dazzling Dunks and Basketball Bloopers,” in which the N.B.A. gods of my youth proved themselves to be mortal by occasionally whining to the refs. And now, as a weary adult with too much to worry about and too much stuff to watch, I find blooper reels to be richer texts than the shows and movies from which they derive. Macht from “Suits” saying, “Donna, Judge Atkins is ready to hear my motion for summary judgment”: boring. Inert. I don’t care about any of these people. Macht from “Suits” repeatedly stumbling over the words, “Donna, Judge Atkins is ready to hear my motion for summary judgment” until he growls, “Oh, my God, this line”: hilarious. Winsome. Engrossing. A celebration of man’s imperfection. I think that’s beautiful.Sometimes I love bloopers for their wanton silliness. Jason Schwartzman splitting his pants during a “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” sword fight. Will Ferrell waxing rhapsodic about the nice bluish hue of his plums on “Eastbound & Down.” Jenna Ortega accidentally clonking a young lady in the face with a flashlight while filming “Wednesday.” Jerry Stiller incapacitating Julia Louis-Dreyfus with his impassioned delivery of “What the hell does that mean?” on “Seinfeld”; Chris Pratt incapacitating the entire set of “Parks and Recreation” by suggesting that Kim Kardashian has a great comeback story. The bloopers during the end credits of Jackie Chan movies, in which Jackie Chan gets injured doing various Jackie Chan-type stunts. Ryan Gosling as a competent dramatic actor: Lovely. Good job. Ryan Gosling tittering ineptly through nearly every “Saturday Night Live” sketch in which he has ever appeared: awesome. Bizarrely compelling. A legacy to be proud of.Sometimes I watch this stuff while I’m writing. For each paragraph (or sentence) I grind out, I reward myself by returning (briefly!) to the split pants, the juicy plums, the copious giggling. This is not an especially noble impulse: Bloopers distract me, revert me to the childlike state that is my preferred adult mode.But often my love for such tomfoolery is more complicated, more emotionally fraught, more, dare I say, sophisticated. Because it turns out that sometimes grimly prestigious TV shows have blooper reels too, and I find these bloopers to be both delightful and bizarrely soothing. Look: I hate conflict, stylized cruelty, cross-examination, grittiness, bleakness, middle- to highbrow tragedy. Regrettably, the best (or at least biggest) shows on TV are often full of all that. I watched every episode of “Breaking Bad” and “Game of Thrones” and “The Americans” but didn’t really enjoy myself at all; I enjoy all those shows’ respective blooper reels very much, though. I hate watching people being mean to one another, and I love it when one of those people biffs a line and ruins the take and everyone dissolves into giggles. See? They’re actually friends! Everyone’s having a good time! The world is a fundamentally friendly and goofy and joyful place! Bleakness and cruelty are entirely fictional constructs!We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 113 Shares149 Views

      in Television

      Netflix and Amazon Drive Bump in TV Show Market

      by

      Netflix and Amazon are driving a small bump in the market for TV shows after a major slowdown.It has been nearly seven months since Hollywood resolved its strikes, but momentum still hasn’t taken hold in the entertainment industry. “Survive till ’25” has become an informal slogan among entertainment workers.But the global market for ordering new TV shows is beginning to show some signs of life, and it’s been overwhelmingly driven by two players — Netflix and Amazon.Netflix greenlit more scripted television projects through the first quarter of this year than in any quarter since 2022, according to Ampere Analysis, a research firm. Amazon had its most active quarter since Ampere started tracking market activity five years ago, the firm said.Many of their competitors are still taking a more cautious approach. As a result, Netflix and Amazon collectively accounted for 53 percent of the scripted television series orders among the major studios through the first three months of the year, according to Ampere.Most of the series orders have been made internationally. Netflix has been particularly active in Britain, Germany, Spain and South Korea, the research showed, while Amazon has been investing aggressively in India.Netflix and Amazon have also purchased more projects in the United States compared with the tail end of 2023, but the increases have been more modest. Netflix had its most active quarter domestically since the first quarter of last year. Amazon had its biggest quarter since the spring of last year, according to the research.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares199 Views

      in Television

      What’s on TV This Week: Shark Week and Macy’s Firework Show

      by

      Discovery airs its annual lineup of ocean terrors. And NBC airs the annual firework show in New York City.For those who still enjoy a cable subscription, here is a selection of cable and network TV shows, movies and specials that broadcast this week, July 1 – 6. Details and times are subject to change.MondayBASKETBALL WIVES 8 p.m. on VH1. This show about the wives (and ex-wives and girlfriends) of N.B.A. players, is back for the second half of Season 11. In this world, the success of your partner dictates your power within the group and that continues to play out as the show goes on. Thankfully, these ladies are around to stir up drama because with most “Real Housewives” franchises in between seasons, it has been a little too quiet.TuesdayDISCO: SOUNDTRACK OF A REVOLUTION 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). This three-part documentary series uses different songs from the disco era to highlight the impact the musical genre had on its listeners. In the first episode, the focus is on “Stayin’ Alive” with conversations about how Middle America reacted to the genre’s queer and hedonistic themes.From left: Brandon Brown and Joe Schoen on “Hard Knocks: Offseason.”Matt Swensen/HBOHARD KNOCKS: OFFSEASON 9 p.m. on HBO. Since 2001, this series has shown us behind the scenes moments from over 20 teams in the N.F.L. season. This new version will instead follow a single team — this year it’s the New York Giants, as the team prepares for its 100th season.WednesdayHOPE IN THE WATER 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). Documentaries like “Seaspiracy” and “A Plastic Ocean” have warned us about the dangers of the fishing industry and the consequences of ignoring climate change. This documentary series is bit more hopeful since it outlines a solution: sustainable aquaculture, a method of fostering and harvesting seafood for people to eat, while protecting fragile ocean ecosystems.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 150 Shares169 Views

      in Television

      ‘Interview With the Vampire’: Ben Daniels on That Bloody Season 2 Finale

      by

      “He has an energy that’s fun to hate,” the British actor said of his swaggering vampire character in AMC’s series-length Anne Rice adaptation.This interview contains spoilers for the Season 2 finale of “Interview With the Vampire.”Until his time in AMC’s “Interview With the Vampire” was cut short — along with his head — in the Season 2 finale, Santiago was the toast of the vampiric theater scene.Played by the British actor Ben Daniels, himself an Olivier Award-winning veteran of the stage, Santiago was a dashing and devilish performer at the Théâtre des Vampires, in postwar Paris. Formerly known as Francis, a failed English actor, Santiago transformed himself into an underworld dandy after becoming a bloodsucker — and took a cooler-sounding name — rarely seen without a vampiress on each arm and a theatrically hateful twinkle in his eye.“He’s so awful and delicious at the same time!” Daniels said in a video interview last week. “And it’s his relish of it as well, his glee. He just loves being a vampire.”Daniels added: “He has an energy that’s fun to hate.”Unfortunately for Santiago, the show’s title vampire was his hater-in-chief. Over the course of Season 2, which concluded on Sunday, Santiago seized control of the theater troupe, which turned out to be a coven of vampires in disguise. At the season’s climax, Santiago staged a mock trial that ended with the real execution-by-sunlight of Claudia (Delainey Hayles) and her companion, Madeleine (Roxane Duran). It was for this crime that Santiago lost his head to their father figure, the vampire Louis (Jacob Anderson), in the finale.Based on the novels of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles series, the AMC show, created and overseen by Rolin Jones, has already been renewed for a third season. But Daniels doesn’t feel too bad that his character won’t live to see Season 3. Santiago had it coming given his bad behavior — particularly by the end.“If you didn’t want him dead before,” Daniels said, “you certainly do then.”These are edited excerpts from the conversation.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares139 Views

      in Television

      ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2, Episode 3 Recap: Let’s Talk

      by

      Rhaenyra acts on a risky hope that cooler heads might prevail. But are there really any cool heads left?Season 2, Episode 3:“We read fantasy to find the colors again, I think,” George R.R. Martin wrote in his short 1996 essay “On Fantasy.” “To taste strong spices and hear the songs the sirens sang.” By that standard, this week’s episode of “House of the Dragon,” a series based on Martin’s book “Fire and Blood,” is spicy fantasy indeed.I don’t just mean the sex and nudity, though what there was of both blew my hair back on my head. For Martin, fantasy is about more than ribaldry. Describing it as a genre of “silver and scarlet, indigo and azure, obsidian veined with gold and lapis lazuli,” he goes on to write of how its very largeness, the unbounded scope of its imagination, “speaks to something deep within us.” This episode certainly spoke to something deep within this critic.Crumbling gothic castles and grotesque charnel-house battlefields, nightmares of murder and desperate pleas for peace, breakneck dragon chases and it-was-all-a-big-misunderstandings — this week offered the kind of maximalist storytelling that felt both over-the-top and vital. (Indeed it’s hard to have great TV without at least a smidgen of the outlandish.) From a story perspective, the episode’s biggest moment arrived right near the end. The brewing war between the Blacks and the Greens over the Iron Throne comes down to the wishes of one dead man, King Viserys. For years, he proclaimed his daughter, Rhaenyra, to be his heir to all and sundry. But on the night it most counted, the night of his death, he told his wife, Queen Alicent, that his eldest son, Aegon, must be the one to unite the realm — “The Prince That Was Promised,” as Viserys called the callow lad.Or so it seemed to Alicent. We in the audience knew that when he mentioned the name Aegon, he was referring to his prophetic ancestor, Aegon the Conqueror, and to Aegon’s vision of an apocalyptic battle against the darkness, as depicted in the final season of “Game of Thrones.”Did Alicent truly believe that Viserys was talking about their son? Or was that merely what she wished to believe? (As important, should a drama hinge its central conflict on the kind of verbal mix-up better suited to a sitcom? Answering that is, at this advanced stage, perhaps beyond the scope of this recap.)The daring stealth mission in which Rhaenyra sneaks back into King’s Landing (with Mysaria’s help) to force a one-on-one meeting with her frenemy of frenemies clears all this up. Alicent really believes Viserys wanted Aegon. For her part, Rhaenyra really believes Alicent really believes it. But once the dowager queen mentions the Conqueror’s “Song of Ice and Fire,” Rhaenyra figures out what went wrong and offers a clarification … which Alicent refuses to heed, although she seems to knows in her heart that it is true.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares129 Views

      in Television

      Can Japan’s First Same-Sex Dating Reality Show Change Hearts and Minds?

      by

      Producers of “The Boyfriend” on Netflix hope it will encourage broader acceptance of the L.G.B.T.Q. community in Japan, which still has not legalized same-sex unions.Japan is the only country among the world’s wealthiest democracies that has not legalized same-sex unions. Few celebrities are openly gay. Conservative groups oppose legislative efforts to protect the L.G.B.T.Q. community.But now, Netflix is introducing the country’s first same-sex dating reality series.Over 10 episodes of “The Boyfriend,” which will be available in 190 countries beginning on July 9, a group of nine men gather in a luxury beach house outside Tokyo. The format evokes Japan’s most popular romantic reality show, “Terrace House,” with its assembly of clean cut and exceedingly polite cast members, overseen by a panel of jovial commentators.The vibe is wholesome and mostly chaste. The men, who range in age from 22 to 36, operate a coffee truck during the day and cook dinner at night, with occasional forays outside for dates. One of the biggest (among very few) conflicts of the series revolves around the cost of buying raw chicken to make protein shakes for a club dancer who is trying to maintain his physique. Sex rarely comes up, and friendship and self-improvement feature as prominently as romance.In Japan, the handful of openly gay and transgender performers who regularly appear on television are typically flamboyant, effeminate comic foils who are shoehorned into exaggerated stereotypes. With “The Boyfriend,” Dai Ota, the executive producer, said he wanted to “portray same-sex relationships as they really are.”Mr. Ota, who was also a producer of “Terrace House,” which was made by Fuji TV and licensed and distributed globally by Netflix, said he had avoided “the approach of ‘let’s include people who cause problems.’”“The Boyfriend,” he said, represents diversity in another way — with cast members of South Korean, Taiwanese and multiethnic heritages.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More