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      The ‘Summer House’ Reunion, Plus 9 Things to Watch on TV This Week

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      The ninth season of the Bravo show wraps up, and Jesse Armstrong’s movie “Mountainhead” airs on HBO.Between streaming and cable, there is a seemingly endless variety of things to watch. Here is a selection of TV shows and specials that are airing or streaming this week, May 26-June 1. Details and times are subject to change.When fiction mirrors reality.The series “The Handmaid’s Tale,” based on the 1985 Margaret Atwood novel of the same name, is wrapping up its sixth and final season this week. The dystopian show, which follows the residents of Gilead, a totalitarian society where women are treated as property of the state, has been airing since the start of President Trump’s first term, and the show’s costumes of red cloaks and white bonnets have been used in real protests for women’s reproductive rights. The finale will be directed by Elisabeth Moss, who has starred in all six seasons of the show. Streaming Tuesday on Hulu.From left: Jason Schwartzman, Steve Carell, Ramy Youssef and Cory Michael Smith in “Mountainheads.”Macall Polay/HBOJesse Armstrong certainly knows a thing or two about portraying the ultrarich when the world around them is crumbling — he was the creator and showrunner of “Succession.” Now, he is making his full-length film directorial debut in his TV movie “Mountainhead,” which follows Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Cory Michael Smith and Ramy Youssef, four men worth a combined half a trillion dollars, who are on a boys’ trip when a violent crisis erupts at home. Along with snowmobiling and playing poker, they also field calls from the president of the United States and keep an eye on the mayhem unfolding on their screens. Saturday at 8 p.m. on HBO and streaming on Max.From the mid-90s to the 2010s, we had shows on air, including “Friends,” “How I Met Your Mother” and “New Girl,” that illuminated the pitfalls and absurdities of 20-somethings stumbling into adulthood and managing to the best of their abilities. There hasn’t been a new show of that genre in a while, so “Adults,” which follows a group of codependent housemates in their 20s, is filling that gap. Malik Elassal, Lucy Freyer, Jack Innanen, Amita Rao and Owen Thiele star as friends who crash in one of their childhood homes, as they navigate dating in a world of apps, try to figure out the health care system and strategize how to climb the corporate ladder. Wednesday at 9 p.m. on FX and streaming the next day on Hulu.When reality is reality.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

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      ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 Finale Recap: The Monster at the End

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      Dina learns the truth. Ellie learns a hard lesson about the unintended consequences of vengeance.‘The Last of Us’ Season 2, Episode 7In an interview with Collider last week, “The Last of Us” co-showrunner Craig Mazin estimated that it will take four seasons for him and the video game’s co-creator Neil Druckmann to adapt the two “Last of Us” games properly. I found this comment a bit surprising. Mazin and Druckmann covered most of the first “Last of Us” game in an action-packed Season 1. After this week’s Season 2 finale, is there enough story left in “The Last of Us Part II” for two more seasons?Having never played the game, I do not know the answer to this. But I do know that Season 2 — as good as it has generally been — has raised some questions about where this show is ultimately headed. Season 1 was something of a quest saga, about a one-of-a-kind hero traveling to the place where she was meant to sacrifice herself and save the world. Then Joel ripped up that script. In the Season 1 finale, Joel didn’t just move the narrative goal posts, he tore them down.So what’s the endpoint now? What does a “chosen one” do when she is no longer chosen?The Season 2 finale wrestles with these questions in ways both exciting and somewhat perplexing, before ending in someplace unexpected and potentially promising. If nothing else, the episode does have a strong arc for Ellie, as she realizes that missions of vengeance are messy and unsatisfying.We begin with Ellie’s return from Lakehill Hospital, where — contrary to how it appeared in last week’s episode — she did not club the infected Nora to death. As Ellie explains to Dina, she beat on Nora until she gave up clues Abby’s location. (The words “whale” and “wheel” were mumbled.) Then Ellie took off, leaving Nora to get zombified.Ellie says all this in hushed, even tones, admitting that torturing Nora was easier for her to do than she had expected. Still in a confessing mood — and in an especially vulnerable place, as Dina is washing the wounds on her bare back — Ellie finally tells Dina why Abby and her crew came after Joel in the first place. Dina’s icy reply? “We need to go home.”After this opening, much of the first half of the episode follows Ellie and Jesse as they head out to find Tommy so that the Jackson contingent can get the heck out of Seattle. This is not a happy journey. Jesse, understandably, is in no mood for Ellie’s flippant attitude; and Ellie does not have much use for Jesse’s sanctimony.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

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      What We Know About ‘The Paper,’ the Upcoming ‘Office’ Spinoff

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      It takes place at a small newspaper in Toledo, Ohio, and at least one original cast member will return from the hit NBC sitcom.It’s been 20 years since the U.S. version of “The Office” debuted on NBC, where it ran for nine acclaimed seasons and endured as a pop culture juggernaut well after its finale. It lives on in countless memes and catchphrases, and the network says it remains one of its most streamed shows.So it should surprise no one that the sitcom, as delightfully cringy as it is lovable, is finally getting a spinoff: “The Paper.” Here’s what we know so far about the new show.Extra Extra! Read All About It.NBCUniversal revealed at its May upfront presentation that “The Paper” would debut on its streaming platform Peacock in September.The sitcom is being created by Greg Daniels and Michael Koman. Daniels was behind the American adaptation of “The Office” and Koman created Comedy Central’s “Nathan For You” alongside its star, Nathan Fielder, a king of deadpan comedy.Daniels and Koman are executive producers of “The Paper,” as are Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the duo behind the original British version of “The Office” (which ran from 2001 to 2003).Fans first caught wind of the potential spinoff in May 2024, when it was announced that Peacock had an untitled comedy mockumentary series in the works. Production of “The Paper” began last summer.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

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      Daniel Sunjata on the Photo With Michael Jordan He Treasures

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      “Every time I look at it, it makes me feel like I touched greatness and maybe a little rubbed off,” the “High Potential” actor said about picture day with the Chicago Bulls.Daniel Sunjata was nearing the end of the casting process for ABC’s “High Potential” when he was asked to do a chemistry read with the show’s star Kaitlin Olson — by Zoom.“I was like, ‘How can you get a gauge on chemistry between two actors through a computer?,’” he recalled.Turns out he understood the assignment.In “High Potential,” a darkly comic murder procedural that has been renewed for a second season, Sunjata is a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department, and Olson is a janitor with a genius I.Q. who can deduce things the officers can’t.He’s very by-the-book, she’s more of a rule breaker. But it’s hard to argue with the results.“It’s been a fantastic experience,” Sunjata said. “There are many occasions where you enjoy the process of creating something and it doesn’t find an audience. So the fact that the show is also seeing a pretty significant amount of success is very, very gratifying.”In a video call from Los Angeles, Sunjata discussed why he cherishes his baby book, a photo with Michael Jordan and the journal his first agent gave him.These are edited excerpts from the conversation.‘Interstellar’Christopher Nolan is one of the most visionary directors of modern times, and I think this movie is a perfect example why. To me, it was a meditation on the relationship between our conception of love and gravity — of science and spirituality — and where the two things intertwine. There are people that I miss dearly, but when I’m with that feeling of why I miss them, that love almost transcends distance, transcends time.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

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      How Sarita Choudhury, the ‘And Just Like That …’ Star, Spends Her Sundays

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      When Sarita Choudhury joined the cast of “And Just Like That …” in 2021 as Seema Patel, she said the role initially felt “bigger” than her.But three seasons into the show, a revival of “Sex and the City” on HBO Max, the actress has found herself much more settled in playing the glamorous, sex-positive real estate broker who steals scenes in sophisticated neutrals, gesticulates with cigarettes and dons old-Hollywood head scarves.“Just like I grew into playing Seema, Seema also has grown through mistakes, through hanging out with Carrie and being free within her power,” said Ms. Choudhury, referring to Carrie Bradshaw, the character played by Sarah Jessica Parker.Ms. Choudhury has played Seema Patel on “And Just Like That …” since 2021. She also spent many seasons on Showtime’s “Homeland” and starred opposite Denzel Washington in a 1991 romantic drama.Craig Blankenhorn/MaxWhile she has always taken it as a compliment that Seema reminds viewers of the original series’ sexually liberated Samantha Jones (played by Kim Cattrall), Ms. Choudhury believes Seema has carved her own lane. “Her ability to dive into, whether it’s an affair or a quick advice, is similar,” she said. “But apart from that, I find them very different.”In the new season of “And Just Like That …,” which premieres Thursday, she said she is looking forward to more “character growth” emerging in Seema’s arc.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

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      Art Spiegelman Documentary Had Trump Criticism Removed Before Airing on Public TV

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      A segment in a documentary about the cartoonist Art Spiegelman was edited two weeks before it was set to air on public television stations across the country.The executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning “American Masters” series insisted on removing a scene critical of President Trump from a documentary about the comic artist Art Spiegelman two weeks before it was set to air nationwide on public television stations.The filmmakers say it is another example of public media organizations bowing to pressure as the Trump administration tries to defund the sector, while the programmers say their decision was a matter of taste.Alicia Sams, a producer of “Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse,” said in an interview that approximately two weeks before the movie’s April 15 airdate, she received a call from Michael Kantor, the executive producer of “American Masters,” informing her that roughly 90 seconds featuring a cartoon critical of Trump would need to be excised from the film. The series is produced by the WNET Group, the parent company of several New York public television channels.Stephen Segaller, the vice president of programming for WNET, confirmed in an interview that the station had informed the filmmakers that it needed to make the change. Segaller said WNET felt the scatological imagery in the comic, which Spiegelman drew shortly after the 2016 election — it portrays what appears to be fly-infested feces on Trump’s head — was a “breach of taste” that might prove unpalatable to some of the hundreds of stations that air the series. But the filmmakers have questioned whether political considerations played a role. They have noted that earlier this year, according to Documentary Magazine, which first reported the “American Masters” decision, PBS postponed indefinitely a documentary set to air about a transgender video-gamer for fear of political backlash.Sams pointed out that their film had already been approved for broadcast — the filmmakers agreed it would be shown at 10 p.m. rather than 8 p.m., so that certain obscenities would not need to be blurred or bleeped — and that the call came a week after a Capitol Hill hearing in which Congressional Republicans accused public television and radio executives of biased coverage (the executives denied that accusation in sworn testimony).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

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      International TV Series to Stream Now: ‘Miss Austen,’ ‘I, Jack Wright’ and More

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      New international series include a drama about Jane Austen and her sister, a Netflix reboot of a French institution and a whimsical sci-fi anime.In this roundup of recent series from other shores, we go tripping through time and space: from Roman Empire high jinks to Regency England melodrama, and from contemporary British mystery to a postapocalyptic Japanese hotel.‘Apocalypse Hotel’This whimsical, oddball science-fiction anime has not ranked highly in surveys of this spring’s season of Japanese animated series, perhaps because it doesn’t fit precisely into a standard category. (It also has the disadvantage of being a rare original series, with no ties to an already popular manga or light-novel franchise.) In a Tokyo slowly being reclaimed by nature, on an Earth abandoned by humans because of an environmental catastrophe, an intrepid band of robots keep the lights on at a luxury hotel, prepping every day for nonexistent guests. The staff members’ intelligence may be artificial, but their commitment to service is touchingly genuine.When guests do appear — sometimes decades or even centuries apart — they are not humans but wandering aliens whose habits and needs test the robots’ resourcefulness. A family of shape-shifting interstellar tanuki (raccoon dogs) decorate their rooms with towers of dung; a superpowered kangaroo with boxing gloves for paws is intent on destroying the planet’s civilization, not realizing the job is already done. As the travelers and the staff adjust to one another, the robots enact their own version of exquisite Japanese tact and hospitality, with results that are both melancholy and raucously comic. (Streaming at Crunchyroll.)‘Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight’The tremendous success of the Asterix comics and their offshoots across more than 60 years — hundreds of millions of books sold, a panoply of movies, a popular theme park outside Paris — has never translated particularly well to the United States. The heroes of the stories, a village of 1st-century-B.C. Gauls with egregiously punny names, may hold out against Roman occupation because of the magic strength potion brewed by their druid priest. But their true power, in literary terms, is a projection of insular French wit and wordplay and rough-and-ready Gallic sang-froid. For Americans, the humor can seem both beneath our standards and over our heads.“Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight” is based on the long-running Asterix comics.2025 Les éditions Albert René/Goscinny-Uderzo/NetflixNow that Netflix is involved, however, it is a sure bet that the intention is to cross over into as many markets as possible, not least the United States. This five-episode adaptation of an early (1966) Asterix book accomplishes that goal with sufficient style, primarily through its brightly colorful 3-D animation. The images are vivid and pleasing, and they hold your interest even when the action kicks in and the storytelling loses some of its French particularity, sliding into a Pixar-derived international-blockbuster groove. (Streaming at Netflix.)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

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      Two Miss Austens, Asterix & Obelix and Robot Chambermaids

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      New international series include a drama about Jane Austen and her sister, a Netflix reboot of a French institution and a whimsical sci-fi anime.In this roundup of recent series from other shores, we go tripping through time and space: from Roman Empire high jinks to Regency England melodrama, and from contemporary British mystery to a postapocalyptic Japanese hotel.‘Apocalypse Hotel’This whimsical, oddball science-fiction anime has not ranked highly in surveys of this spring’s season of Japanese animated series, perhaps because it doesn’t fit precisely into a standard category. (It also has the disadvantage of being a rare original series, with no ties to an already popular manga or light-novel franchise.) In a Tokyo slowly being reclaimed by nature, on an Earth abandoned by humans because of an environmental catastrophe, an intrepid band of robots keep the lights on at a luxury hotel, prepping every day for nonexistent guests. The staff members’ intelligence may be artificial, but their commitment to service is touchingly genuine.When guests do appear — sometimes decades or even centuries apart — they are not humans but wandering aliens whose habits and needs test the robots’ resourcefulness. A family of shape-shifting interstellar tanuki (raccoon dogs) decorate their rooms with towers of dung; a superpowered kangaroo with boxing gloves for paws is intent on destroying the planet’s civilization, not realizing the job is already done. As the travelers and the staff adjust to one another, the robots enact their own version of exquisite Japanese tact and hospitality, with results that are both melancholy and raucously comic. (Streaming at Crunchyroll.)‘Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight’The tremendous success of the Asterix comics and their offshoots across more than 60 years — hundreds of millions of books sold, a panoply of movies, a popular theme park outside Paris — has never translated particularly well to the United States. The heroes of the stories, a village of 1st-century-B.C. Gauls with egregiously punny names, may hold out against Roman occupation because of the magic strength potion brewed by their druid priest. But their true power, in literary terms, is a projection of insular French wit and wordplay and rough-and-ready Gallic sang-froid. For Americans, the humor can seem both beneath our standards and over our heads.“Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight” is based on the long-running Asterix comics.2025 Les éditions Albert René/Goscinny-Uderzo/NetflixNow that Netflix is involved, however, it is a sure bet that the intention is to cross over into as many markets as possible, not least the United States. This five-episode adaptation of an early (1966) Asterix book accomplishes that goal with sufficient style, primarily through its brightly colorful 3-D animation. The images are vivid and pleasing, and they hold your interest even when the action kicks in and the storytelling loses some of its French particularity, sliding into a Pixar-derived international-blockbuster groove. (Streaming at Netflix.)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