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      ‘Pernille’ Is a Brilliant Norwegian Dramedy

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      The series, about an endearingly ordinary woman who works in child welfare, is a lot like Pamela Adlon’s spirited FX dramedy “Better Things.”The Norwegian dramedy “Pernille” (in Norwegian, with subtitles, or dubbed), on Netflix, is about as lovely as shows get, endearing but mercifully resistant to treacle.Henriette Steenstrup created and stars in the show as Pernille, a single mom to two of the most ungrateful — realistic — teens on TV. She is reeling from her sister’s death six months earlier, and she still leaves her sister voice mails, sometimes chatty and sometimes wrenching.Pernille’s older daughter, Hanna (Vivild Falk Berg), is histrionic and capricious and suddenly dragging her feet about a long-planned gap year in Argentina. The younger, Sigrid (Ebba Jacobsen Oberg), is a ball of rage, surly beyond measure but still young enough to be read to at night and get tucked in sometimes. Pernille’s nephew, Leo (Jon Ranes), is also living with them while his father recovers from the accident that killed his mother. The show kicks off with Pernille’s widower dad (Nils Ole Oftebro) announcing that he is gay and ready to live his truth.The show is, in all the good ways, a lot like Pamela Adlon’s FX dramedy “Better Things,” which was also about a single mom, her aging parent and her indulged, difficult daughters. The heroines share a life-animating sense of duty, as well as a prickly, spirited humor and brilliance. They both have drip exes whose intermittent fathering is a grave disappointment, and they both have robust social support and sexually encouraging friends.The biggest difference between the shows is that Adlon’s character, Sam, is situated as uniquely, dazzlingly bohemian, a fount of outsider art, sumptuous recipes, dark eyeliner and arty pals. Pernille is more squarely ordinary. She sings in a community choir and spends a lot of time texting, and she gets star-struck just meeting a guy who works on Nick Cave’s tour. This isn’t to say Pernille isn’t special. She is, of course, once you know her, which is exactly what the show accomplishes.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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      Late Night Is Concerned About (the Truth Behind) Biden’s Health

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      “They used to say it’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up, but it’s starting to feel like politics is all cover-up,” Jon Stewart said.Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Our Sympathies, but …The news that former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer naturally spurred late-night discussion on Monday.On “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart mocked those professing sympathy for Biden while at the same time using his condition to score political points. “They used to say it’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up, but it’s starting to feel like politics is all cover-up,” Stewart said.“Don’t news people have to tell you what they know when they find it out? Isn’t that the difference between news and a secret?” — JON STEWART“That’s what’s so hilarious about politicians: The cover-up doesn’t work when everyone knows you’re lying.” — JON STEWART“The tell is when you’re so over-the-top about what you don’t want to tell the truth about.” — JON STEWART“It’s clear Biden wasn’t running the country. Hell, he couldn’t have run a dishwasher, and they knew that.” — GREG GUTFELDThe Punchiest Punchlines (Games We Play Edition)“‘The American.’ Do you know what that is? It’s the idea of [Homeland Security Secretary] Kristi Noem to have a new reality show where immigrants compete against each other to win American citizenship. She said, ‘It’s not like “The Hunger Games,” even though it sounds exactly like ‘The Hunger Games.’” — BILL MAHER“Anyone who thought about it for six seconds would say, ‘Oh, wait, no — this is “The Hunger Games.”’” — STEPHEN COLBERT“I know that sounds dystopian, but, to be fair, that’s how citizenship has always worked. In fact, my great-grandfather actually won the first season of ‘So You Think You Can Dig the Erie Canal.’” — STEPHEN COLBERT“The Knicks eliminated the Boston Celtics to advance to the next round, and after the game, things got crazy. Rowdy Knicks fans went down to Penn Station and caused $3 million worth of improvements.” — JIMMY FALLON“SAG-AFTRA filed an unfair-labor charge against Fortnite, after the game revealed an A.I. Darth Vader that can talk back to players. Great idea, Fortnite, let gamers make Darth Vader say stuff. Because if there’s one thing I know about gamers, they are super polite and respectful.” — TAYLOR TOMLINSONThe Bits Worth WatchingJohn Oliver dissected the ways in which President Trump shapes coverage of his presidency, including using lawsuits and the F.C.C. as leverage, on Sunday’s “Last Week Tonight.”What We’re Excited About on Tuesday NightAmid conspiracy theories circling about his photo of seashells appearing to be a threat against the president, the former F.B.I director James Comey will surely set the record straight on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”Also, Check This OutWith Sarah Sherman, left, Ariana Grande, Marcello Hernández, Heidi Gardner and Ego Nwodim, “Saturday Night Live” generated an unlikely viral hit in October with a sketch about a seducer named Domingo. Will Heath/NBCNow that the 50th season of “Saturday Night Live” is at an end, here are its most memorable moments, from political satire to straight-up silliness. Domingo! More

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      John Mulaney’s Weird Talk Show on Netflix Suddenly Found Its Way

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      “Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney” understands what’s wrong with the genre. Still, it took time to hit on the ambitious free-for-all it is now.Last week, John Mulaney hosted his weekly talk show blindfolded, because, well, why not?Covering his eyes enabled him to make a joke about what he has in common with the pope: “We’re both from Chicago and we both willfully blind ourselves to the absurdities of our job.”Yet the stunt had less to do with opportunities for punchlines than with short-circuiting the rhythms of the talk show. Putting a host in such a predicament scrambles the script. Mulaney occasionally wandered away from the camera, leaving us, his viewers, abandoned and slightly worried for him. What’s remarkable is that if you were to rank the most bizarre aspects of that hour of “Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney” (every Wednesday on Netflix), blindfolding the host might not make the Top 10.Consider the competition: Mulaney’s sidekick, Richard Kind, told a story about taking a nap on a toilet during a date. An actor playing Yakub, a bulbous-headed ancient scientist who the Nation of Islam believes invented white people, came onstage to sing a show tune. That was followed by an actress who did an impression of Jean Smart — that is, if she weren’t smart. (The character’s name was, naturally, Jean Dumb.) Steve Guttenberg appeared and underneath his name onscreen, it read: “Defund the Police Academy.” Then there was the subplot of a daredevil robot named Saymo who broke up with his girlfriend in front of a crowd on a studio lot, then tried to roll off a ramp and fly over a car. He failed and crashed to bits.With a lab-experiment aesthetic, “Everybody’s Live” is the most ambitious, most anything-goes television talk show in many years. Whether it works is more of an evolving question.The season began with a firm idea of what was wrong with other talk shows: actors promoting projects, overly planned chat, generic topicality, formulaic structure. Critics like me have long complained about these elements, and Mulaney, bless him, just did away with them. But figuring out the show you want to do is harder than knowing the one you don’t.“Everybody’s Live” is less original than it appears (even the blindfold had been done before). Trying to escape topicality, Pete Holmes’s short-lived talk show organized monologues around not the news but broad subjects like marriage or family. Mulaney did something similar, centering every episode on quirkier themes like “Can major surgery be fun?”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 6 Mitford Sisters, Their Jewelry and a New TV Series

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      The costume designer for “Outrageous” talks about finding designs that the women would have worn.The Mitford sisters, known for their 20th-century aristocratic glamour and political scandal, were not among England’s most gem-laden women. But jewelry did play a role in their outsize public profiles.“Diana the fascist, Jessica the communist, Unity the Hitler-lover, Nancy the novelist, Deborah the duchess and Pamela the unobtrusive poultry connoisseur” is how Ben Macintyre, a writer for The Times of London, once described the six women.Now they are the subjects of “Outrageous,” a six-part series scheduled to debut June 18 on BritBox in the United States and Canada and June 19 on U and U&Drama in Britain. The series is set in the 1930s, the era in which they became famous — and infamous — and arrives on the heels of the discovery of a diary kept by Unity, who was obsessed with Hitler and, by her own account, was his lover. Excerpts were published this year by The Daily Mail.A childish prank involving Unity and Jessica was most likely one of the sisters’ earliest jewelry episodes. “A diamond ring was used to etch both the image of a hammer and sickle and swastika on a window in their childhood home,” Sarah Williams, the writer of “Outrageous,” said in a recent video interview. “They had such a young bond as kids, but they were both rebels, and that bond of rebellion was stronger than their political beliefs. They were absolute extremes.”The sisters — there also was one brother, Thomas, who was killed in World War II — were the children of David Freeman-Mitford, the second Baron Redesdale, and his wife, Sydney Bowles. While the family was not particularly wealthy, the sisters were schooled at home and then entered society.“As part of our research, we specifically collected images of jewelry pieces worn by the Mitford girls,” Claire Collins, the costume designer for “Outrageous,” said by email, “and although we couldn’t replicate certain pieces, we were able to use them as a guide.”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 Best of ‘S.N.L.’ Season 50: Trump, Biden and Domingo

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      The just-completed 50th season of “Saturday Night Live” was dominated by anniversary hype, but the new episodes managed to create some memorable moments, too.In a season so heavily focused on celebrating the 50th anniversary of “Saturday Night Live,” it was easy to forget that there were also 21 regular episodes of the show this year.While not every sketch from this run will go down in history, this year “S.N.L.” did cover a contentious presidential election and reckon with the re-election of Donald Trump; create an unexpected online trend by ruining a couple’s impending marriage; and allow Timothée Chalamet to appear as both a host and a musical guest.Will we someday talk about these segments with the same reverence we reserve for the Coneheads or “Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood”? That will be the job of some future recapper to decide. (Hopefully.) For now, join us as we look back at the most memorable moments of the past season of “S.NL.”Political impressions of the seasonAfter abundant speculation about who would play the Democratic presidential and vice-presidential nominees, the results — with Maya Rudolph as former Vice President Harris and Jim Gaffigan as Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota — were mostly lackluster. The performances were too amiable and not particularly satirical (much like the real-life Harris’s own appearance on the show).James Austin Johnson has remained a dependable President Trump. But we’ll give the edge this season to the “S.N.L.” alums Dana Carvey, who finally found a funny way to play President Biden, and Mike Myers, who seemed to be having the time of his life skewering Elon Musk. Two ’90s-era “S.N.L.” stalwarts remaining relevant? No way! Way.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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      ‘Sirens,’ Plus 7 Things to Watch on TV this Week

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      A mini series starring Meghann Fahy comes to Netflix. Two HBO shows wrap up their seasons.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 19-25. Details and times are subject to change.Something here isn’t right …If we know one thing about Meghann Fahy, it’s that she’s good at playing characters who go to stunning locations where the interpersonal vibes are … bad (see: “The Perfect Couple” and “The White Lotus”). And that is exactly the setup of the new mini-series “Sirens.” Fahy plays Devon, whose billionaire boss is developing a too-close relationship with her sister, and she heads to a seaside estate where to suss out the situation. Off-putting energy and gorgeous locations, what could be better? Streaming Thursday on Netflix.And if we know anything about Nicole Kidman, it’s that she loves to put on a chic wig and act as a cold, slightly unagreeable but somehow charming matriarch or leader (see: “The Undoing,” “Big Little Lies,” and also “The Perfect Couple”). And that is the setting for “Nine Perfect Strangers,” which is coming back for its second season. Masha (Kidman), the director of a resort in the Austrian Alps, hosts a 10-day retreat where things go, well, not exactly as planned because participants are actually signing up for psychedelic therapy. Henry Golding, Annie Murphy and Christine Baranski are joining the cast this season. Streaming Tuesday on Hulu.Nicole Kidman in “Nine Perfect Strangers.”Reiner Bajo/DisneyThough fans of the video game knew the brutal death in store for the second season of the series “The Last of Us,” it still created waves with viewers. Now the season is wrapping up with characters forging ahead across post-outbreak America to try to avenge that death. Don’t get your hopes up for a quick Season 3 release, though; one of the show’s stars Isabela Merced said that they don’t plan to begin to filming until 2026. Streaming Sunday at 9 p.m. on HBO and Max.Nathan Fielder’s expertise is making viewers uncomfortable. And in Season 2 of his series “The Rehearsal,” he has continued to succeed in doing just that. In the show, Fielder directs staged scenarios with the help of construction crews and willing talent. If you’ve seen “The Office” episode “Scott’s Tots,” this show tends to elicit that same type of pearl-clutching cringe. And sometimes Fielder’s bits seemingly goes too far — the musician Lana Love told Variety she spent $10,000 (travel, lodging, hair and makeup) to audition for a new singing competition show “Wings of Voice,” which ended up being just a part of Fielder’s ruse. (Neither representatives HBO or Fielder responded to Variety’s request for comment.) The second season is wrapping up this week. Sunday at 10:30 p.m. on HBO and streaming on Max.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, Episode 6: Like Father

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      A series of flashbacks traced the evolution of Joel and Ellie’s relationship in Jackson, Wyo., filling in some blanks about her current state of mind.Season 2, Episode 6What is the opposite of a love story? A disenchantment story, perhaps?That may be the best way to describe this week’s haunting and heartbreaking “The Last of Us,” which features a years-spanning flashback. The episode functions a lot like the award-winning episode “Long, Long Time,” from Season 1, except in reverse. We follow Joel and Ellie from their early days living in Jackson, closely bonded; and then, over time, we see how that bond weakened and broke.This episode begins with a prologue, set in 1983 in Austin. We learn that Joel and his younger brother, Tommy, were the sons of a cop (played by the great Tony Dalton of “Better Call Saul”) who was quick to smack them around whenever they stepped out of line. One night — after Tommy was caught buying pot — Joel tried to shoulder the punishment, telling his dad to leave Tommy alone. In a moment of bracing self-awareness, Officer Miller admits that he may be following in the footsteps of his own father, who once beat him so hard he had to be hospitalized.“But I’m doing a little better than my father did,” he says to Joel. “When it’s your turn, I hope you do a little better than me.”Post-prologue, the episode cycles through five vignettes — four set on Ellie’s birthdays, and one on the New Year’s Eve night we saw in the Season 2 premiere.The first vignette catches Joel and Ellie at a somewhat awkward place in their relationship: still recovering from the trauma of Salt Lake City, and in the first few months of living in a normal domestic situation, as a surrogate father and a daughter. Nevertheless, Joel makes what might be his first grand parental gesture (besides saving her life) as he rebuilds a guitar for her for her 15th birthday, using real bone for the saddle and carving a moth design from one of her notebooks into the neck.But these two have not really found a relaxed family groove yet. Joel can’t figure out how hard to play “dad” when Ellie intentionally burns her arm, trying to hide a bite mark. And when he describes how he fixed up the guitar, he becomes adorably awkward, going deep into the weeds on the machinery. (“Used a Dremel. That’s a rotary drill. Or it could be a saw, depending on the tip. Actually it’s a pretty versatile tool.”)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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      On ‘S.N.L.’, Bad Bunny and Scarlett Johansson Have a Couples’ Feud

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      This weekend’s broadcast, hosted by Scarlett Johansson and featuring the musical guest Bad Bunny, began with a sendup of President Trump’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia and Qatar.There was only one way for the final episode of the milestone 50th season of “Saturday Night Live” to begin: with Lorne Michaels announcing that his chosen successor will be — nah, come on, it was another sketch with James Austin Johnson playing President Trump.This weekend’s broadcast, hosted by Scarlett Johansson and featuring the musical guest Bad Bunny, began with a sendup of President Trump’s recent visit to the Middle East.Sharing the stage with Emil Wakim (who was playing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia), Johnson said that he’d been enjoying their meals together, “sitting on the floor, dipping our fingers straight into various goops and spreads that I politely scrape under the rug and go eat at a mobile McDonald’s that you built for me.”He added that he was a “big fan of everything that Saudi Arabia has to offer, from the oil to the money to end of list.”Johnson vowed that he didn’t make this trip for his own benefit. “I want to make that clear,” he said. “I did this for the American people and, in many ways, myself. My personal enrichment. I did that too.”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