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      Aunjanue Ellis Leans Into a Supporting Role in 'King Richard'

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      The actress is used to secondary parts, but with “King Richard” she is being singled out for her turn as the mother of Venus and Serena Williams.The actress Aunjanue Ellis is nearly 30 years into an onscreen career, but until about a decade ago, she thought it was all a fluke.The 52-year-old Mississippi native grew up on a farm and had no drama experience outside of performing in Easter and Christmas plays at church. She began her undergraduate studies at Tougaloo College, the historically Black university where an acting instructor encouraged her to consider taking the craft seriously.“My feet had no path and he just gave me one,” she said in an recent interview.Now, she’s just weeks away from the release of a biopic that is generating Oscar chatter about her performance: “King Richard” is the story of Richard Williams (played by Will Smith), the father of tennis champions Venus and Serena Williams. Ellis plays Oracene Price, his wife.Looked at in one light, it’s a typical part in a career that can perhaps be best characterized as a series of roles ranging from minor to supporting. But Ellis, who went on to earn degrees at Brown and New York Universities, has fully leaned into them and made them her own: whether that’s showcasing her comedic chops in “Undercover Brother” or gravitas in dramas like “Ray” and “The Help.”In recent years she’s earned critical acclaim in productions like “If Beale Street Could Talk” and “The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel,” and Emmy nominations for her turns in “When They See Us” and “Lovecraft Country.” Her performance as Price may be another step on the awards path: she has been singled out by critics and Oscar pundits alike when it played on the festival circuit ahead of its Nov. 19 release on HBO Max and in theaters.On a video call from Chicago, where she’s filming her next project, “61st Street,” a series set to air on AMC, Ellis spoke about what she hopes audiences take from her performance as Oracene Price and the pressure to choose roles that reflect well on Black women. Here are edited excerpts from our conversation.From left: Demi Singleton as Serena Williams, Saniyya Sidney as Venus Williams and Ellis as their mother, Oracene Price, in “King Richard.” Warner Bros.Your first onscreen role was on the TV show “New York Undercover.” Do you remember how it felt when you got cast?I say this with intention because somebody will hear this and feel themselves reflected in my story. My grandmother stood in line for government cheese, for peanut butter, just so we could eat — to sustain us. I was raised on AFDC [Aid to Families with Dependent Children]. I would hide because I would be so embarrassed that my grandmother was paying for our groceries with public assistance.There was nowhere in my imagination that I would be making a living doing something creative. Absolutely none. I got the “New York Undercover” job, I just thought it was a fluke. It wasn’t probably until 10 years ago that I started to believe that I could sustain my life and my family by acting.What makes you say yes to a role?I’m real childish about this. Is it going to be fun? Am I going to have a good time? Can I do it and not be embarrassed and stand by the fact that I’ve done it? That’s a challenge I’m still navigating. I have a responsibility that the people I generally work with don’t have. I know what it’s like to have done a film and when it’s over, Black women are looking at you like, “Why did you do that? You failed us by doing that” and having to answer for that. I think Black women particularly have to answer for that in a way that nobody else does. Those are my considerations: Is it fun to play and am I doing a service to Black women?How did the script come to you and what were your initial thoughts after you read it?I know there were probably other candidates that they were looking at, that they were going to go to originally. I’m used to that. I just bided my time and waited for the possibility that I would get a chance to read for it — and I did.The wife of the hero can be utterly boring to play because they are stick figures and their only purpose is to, as I’ve read somewhere, create problems for the hero. I felt that [the screenwriter] Zach Baylin had done something where that wasn’t the case with Ms. Oracene — she had a life outside her husband. I thought that was going to be fun to play..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-1kpebx{margin:0 auto;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-1kpebx{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-1kpebx{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-1kpebx{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-1gtxqqv{margin-bottom:0;}.css-1g3vlj0{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-1g3vlj0{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-1g3vlj0 strong{font-weight:600;}.css-1g3vlj0 em{font-style:italic;}.css-1g3vlj0{margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0.25rem;}.css-19zsuqr{display:block;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}.css-m80ywj header{margin-bottom:5px;}.css-m80ywj header h4{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:500;font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.5625rem;margin-bottom:0;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-m80ywj header h4{font-size:1.5625rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-qjk116{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-qjk116 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-qjk116 em{font-style:italic;}.css-qjk116 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:visited{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}How did you prepare for the role? Did you get a chance to speak to her?I play the character of Ms. Oracene Price. I’m not doing a recreation of her life. So I approach it in the same way I approach any other role. The other great thing is that I have material to work with. There’s history there, information that I don’t just get out of my own head.Zach and Reinaldo Marcus Green, the director, did extensive interviews with Ms. Oracene, so I listened to those tapes over and over again. She’s a particular kind of woman that is more of a challenge for me. When I play characters, I try to find things on the outside of them that I can capture like accents, how they walk, how they talk. But Ms. Oracene is a very interior person, so I had to rely on her words about herself. Her daughter Isha Price was on set every day, so she was a great resource as well.I’m curious about what you’re channeling. Is it a person? Where does that kind of intensity come from?[On] Wikipedia she was referenced as a coach and I had such a cynical response to that. I thought, why is she calling herself a coach? Isn’t that an overreach? I mean, it’s great that she’s in the stands with her children and cheering them on, but that doesn’t make you a coach.And hearing these tapes, listening to her daughters talk about her, you find out that Ms. Oracene was as much a coach to these girls as Richard Williams was. She was designing their approach to their play. I didn’t know that. I think 99 percent of the world doesn’t know that about Ms. Oracene.Mr. Williams is the architect of the new face of the new generation of tennis; Ms. Price is the builder of that. Now she does all this while working two jobs — plural — and she trained herself for years so she could coach her kids. There are so many women living lives like this. I wanted people to know who Ms. Oracene Price was and is. That is what drove me. I’m speaking for this woman.Ellis was Emmy Award-nominated for her role in the HBO series “Lovecraft Country.”Eli Joshua Ade/HBOI wonder if you see parallels with your own career. Does it feel like your time?I don’t know. It’s strange. I toiled. I was in a whole bunch of stuff that nobody saw and nobody liked. They let me know they didn’t like it. God knows I’ve been in things that were golden and glossy but I wasn’t as proud. But I’m so proud to be a part of something that hopefully gives this family their flowers.What you brought to this role is making you a possible contender for the Oscars. How does that feel?The reality is there’s a practical side of that, right? When that is next to your name, it helps you get more work. I lose jobs all the time to chicks that have that thing at the end of their name. If it happens, it would be great because it expands my job options and everything that comes with that. But the other side of that is, it’s a further extension for me to shout out Oracene Price. She stood in the stands and clapped for her daughters, but it would be so cool to hear people clap for her.Are there any directors you’d like to work with?Reinaldo Marcus Green of “King Richard” — I’d love to work with him again. Raven Jackson, a Southern woman, is doing her first feature. She’s a wonderful writer. I hope that I’ll have a chance to work with her.There are things people send my way — my managers and agents — they come from these reputed directors. I’m not interested in that. I’m interested in Black folks who are hungry to tell stories about Black people and doing it in really interesting, innovative ways.Would you do a buddy cop film or a romantic comedy?Listen, there’s nobody throwing scripts my way. That sound you hear, that’s not people throwing scripts at me.That might change.Well not right now. That’s not my life. So if I had to choose, I certainly am going to choose a “King Richard,” I’m going to choose “When They See Us.” I get joy out of doing that kind of work.Acting is not something that you necessarily do for a hobby, it is how you pay your rent. I do what I need to do to take care of my family. If I had to choose, this kind of work that I’m doing now is the kind of work I’ll continue to do.Do you think about the kind of film you’d like to be the star of?Certainly. There are things I’m working on right now and trying to make happen. I’m from the South, and one of the great travesties is the erasure of Black women who were so central in the freedom rights movement. And I say the freedom movement, not the civil rights movement, because they were two different demographics. So what I’m living to do is to correct that.​​ More

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      Jimmy Fallon: Biden Can Cut Emissions Just as He Did His Ratings

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      “I mean, he cut his approval rating in half in three months,” Fallon joked on Tuesday.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.‘Save the Amazon From Amazon’President Biden addressed world leaders at the U.N. Climate Conference on Tuesday, reiterating his commitment to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030.“And he can do it,” Jimmy Fallon said. “I mean, he cut his approval rating in half in three months.”“Well, good news, over 100 countries have agreed to stop deforestation by 2030. In other words — in other words, they agreed to stop giving the Brazilian Rainforest a Brazilian.” — JIMMY FALLON“Basically, they made a deal to save the Amazon from Amazon at this conference.” — TREVOR NOAH“Yesterday, more than 100 world leaders pledged to halt deforestation by 2030. Of course, to do that, they’ll need a detailed plan — that they’ll need to print out on thousands upon thousands of pieces of paper.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“President Biden announced yesterday that more than 70 countries would join the U.S. in a pledge to reduce global methane emissions by 30 percent by the end of the decade. Yeah, but not Russia or China, right? That’s like saying: ‘Hey, great news — I got the whole neighborhood to agree to stop murdering, except for Hacksaw Dave and Larry the Strangler. Sleep tight, everybody!’” — SETH MEYERS“Biden ended his big speech by saying, ‘God bless you all and may God save the planet.’ And God was like, ‘Uh, this is definitely a you-broke-it, you-bought-it situation.’” — JIMMY FALLONThe Punchiest Punchlines (Space Jam Edition)“Apparently, there are issues with the toilet on the SpaceX capsule. So four astronauts are going to have to use backup undergarments during their trip home. Astronauts were, like: ‘You know, not sure we needed to make that public. We’re doing tons of other stuff up here.’” — JIMMY FALLON“OK, but be careful which undergarments you choose, because it is very hard to poop in a bra.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“You know, it’s pretty humbling that no matter what technological advances we come up with, we’ve still got to deal with our poop.” — TREVOR NOAH“What is so embarrassing about diapers? I honestly think that diapers are underrated. Like, if diapers didn’t already exist and someone introduced them now as a hot new technology in 2021, be honest, people would be excited about them: ‘Guys, what if I told you you never had to worry about finding a bathroom ever again, because you would always be carrying one with you?’” — TREVOR NOAH“Meanwhile, I saw that NASA astronauts used the first peppers grown in space to make tacos on the International Space Station. I guess they figured, ‘Well, toilet’s broken — Taco Tuesday, anyone?’” — JIMMY FALLON“Anyone thinking here? Next they’re going to have a prune-eating contest.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Bits Worth WatchingTom Hanks paid tribute to the late Peter Scolari, his “Bosom Buddies” co-star, while on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”What We’re Excited About on Wednesday NightKristen Stewart will talk about her latest role as Princess Diana on Wednesday’s “Tonight Show.”Also, Check This OutIan Shaw, the son of the “Jaws” star Robert Shaw, co-wrote the show “The Shark Is Broken” and plays his father.Lauren Fleishman for The New York TimesA new play details the real-life drama that unfolded on the set of the movie “Jaws,” malfunctioning sharks and all. More

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      'Big Mouth' and Other Adult-Animation Series Worth Watching

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      In a rising tide of animated series, Netflix’s “Big Mouth,” Funimation’s “Sonny Boy” and HBO Max’s “Ten Year Old Tom” are worth catching.There are many growth areas in television these days, but few are as busy or offer as much variety as adult animation. Already the format for more than a few of the recent past’s most richly entertaining shows — “Bojack Horseman,” “Bob’s Burgers,” “Rick and Morty,” “Archer,” “Tuca & Bertie” — it has only gained momentum. New series arrive every week (and that’s not counting the quarterly infusion of anime), perhaps driven by a combination of evolving tastes and pandemic-induced production shifts.They can take the form of superhero and science-fiction genre stories, like Amazon Prime Video’s “Invincible,” HBO Max’s “Gen:Lock” (premiering Thursday) or Adult Swim’s “Blade Runner: Black Lotus” (Nov. 13). Many still crop up in the broad category of wacky-family comedies, like Fox’s “The Great North” or “The Harper House” on Paramount+. Some lean into animation’s license for transgression, like Adult Swim’s “Teenage Euthanasia,” Netflix’s “Chicago Party Aunt” or Tubi’s “The Freak Brothers” (Nov. 14). Others, you suspect, might require too much courage to try to pull off with live actors, like “Fairfax,” Amazon’s satire of teen influencers and hypebeast culture, or “Q-Force,” Netflix’s irreverent comedy about a cadre of L.G.B.T.Q. spies.Inspired by the return of Netflix’s “Big Mouth,” here are three excellent adult-animation series that take very different approaches to the same goal: Whether it’s through theatrical smuttiness, minimalist degradation or surreal fantasy, each has something to say about the real lives of young people.‘Big Mouth’The most unrelentingly and entertainingly dirty show on the small screen returns with a fifth season on Friday. Like neurotic New Yorkers in a Sondheim musical, its adolescent characters are endlessly talkative when it comes to their obsessions: masturbation, the dimensions of the organs involved in masturbation, the likes and dislikes of the classmates they think about while they’re masturbating.The show continues to use the sexual and romantic panic of its perpetual middle schoolers as a frame for commentary that is earnest but mercifully unpedantic; early episodes of Season 5 take on subjects like body image and the shame-free universality of being a teenage perv. And the rapid-fire jokes are as sharp as those on many shows better known for their topical humor. (The budding activist Missy, voiced by Ayo Edebiri, leads a campaign against the school’s problematic mascot, the Scheming Gypsy.)Nick Kroll, a creator of the show, and John Mulaney give vivid life to the central characters, the neurotic nerd Nick and the brash nerd Andrew. But what sets “Big Mouth” apart is its collection of shaggy hormone monsters, sleek love bugs and other beings sent from an alternate dimension to help guide the human teenagers through their difficult years, spicing questionable advice with insults and raunchy one-liners. It’s as if adolescence had a particularly gamy lounge act as its soundtrack, a conceit made literal in the Shame Wizard, a master of dispensing shame because he can’t feel it himself; David Thewlis wraps the character in glorious layers of smarm. (Stream it on Netflix.)In “Sonny Boy,” lost middle schoolers must learn to work together in order to return home.Funimation‘Sonny Boy’As coming-of-age allegories go, this recently completed anime series, on Funimation, is right on the nose. A school building suddenly drifts out of our world and is suspended in a black void; the 36 middle schoolers trapped inside must overcome their anxieties and jealousies and work together to find a way back, a process commonly known as growing up. The voyagers also acquire strange new powers, as teenagers tend to do. The coolest kid can fly; an antagonistic outsider can order whatever she wants from her own magical version of Amazon, and has to keep the community supplied with material goods.The challenges they face are also easy to parse as Japanese social critique: the student-council types institute rules that keep everyone constantly working; students who freeze in place like statues turn out to have disappeared into “Twin Peaks”-style curtained rooms where they can play video games or lift weights in solitude. (A girl is chastised for calling them hikikomori, the Japanese term for extreme recluses.) Western viewers won’t have too much trouble following along, even though the story is told in the elliptical, fragmentary style typical of science-fiction anime.A healthy appetite for teenage romanticism can get you through “Sonny Boy” despite the middling writing, but the real reason to watch the 12-episode season is the striking animation overseen by the director Shingo Natsume — minimalist but evocative in the character designs, and lusciously detailed and inventive in the psychedelic succession of worlds the travelers pass through. The animation studio Madhouse has a proud tradition in feature anime, and the work of Natsume and his artists (including the manga veteran Hisashi Eguchi) recalls some Madhouse landmarks: the elegant frenzy of Satoshi Kon’s “Paprika,” the languorous melancholy of Mamoru Hosoda’s “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.” (Stream it on Funimation.)“Ten Year Old Tom” follows a nervous boy and his shady role models, including an ice cream truck driver voiced by David Duchovny.HBO Max‘Ten Year Old Tom’In 2008 HBO premiered “The Life and Times of Tim,” a roughly animated (the characters looked Etch A Sketched), quietly raunchy workplace cringe comedy that built a small but devoted following. Weighing the show’s insider cred against its paltry viewership, HBO canceled “Tim” after two seasons, changed its mind, and then canceled it for good after Season 3.But that was before HBO Max, which is now the home of the first season of “Ten Year Old Tom,” the writer and director Steve Dildarian’s follow-up to “The Life and Times of Tim.” If you were part of the earlier series’ cult, you’ll be happy to know that “Tom” is largely the same show. The animation and the dialogue are as crude as you remember, and the 10-year-old hero is a mini-Tim, downtrodden and subject to constant embarrassment but more bemused than upset. Being slightly more sane than everyone around him is no defense against the elaborate scenarios of humiliation that Dildarian constructs.Tom, voiced by Dildarian in a diffident monotone that slides into strangled alarm, is a wised-up Charlie Brown; he talks like an adult but his ignorance of things like condoms or how to start a fire without burning down the house gets him into trouble. His moral compass is wider than those of the adults around him, but he’s easily led astray. The cast of bad role models includes David Duchovny as a sketchy ice cream truck driver, Jennifer Coolidge (returning from “Tim”) as the loudly entitled mother of one of Tom’s friends and a highly amusing John Malkovich as Mr. B, the tyrant in charge of band, yearbook, the spelling team and who knows what else at Tom’s school. (Stream it on HBO Max.) More

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      Stephen Colbert: Biden Got the Pope’s Blessing

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      “The pope telling you you’re a good Catholic is like a bear telling you you’re good at pooping in the woods,” Colbert said of President Biden, who visited the Vatican over the weekend.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.90 Minutes With the PopePresident Biden over the weekend visited the Vatican, where he gave Pope Francis a coin and parted ways by saying, “God love ya.”“Yeah, he does,” Stephen Colbert joked on Monday’s “Late Show.” “Pretty sure that’s the papal job description on LinkedIn: ‘God love ya. Must be good with crowds. Some Latin required. Five to 10 years’ waving experience.’”“That is the most unnecessary ‘God love ya’ in history. You don’t need to say ‘God love ya’ to the pope — he knows God loves him. He had dinner with him last night.” — TREVOR NOAH“You’ve got to give it to Joe Biden. It took everything in his power to not make the coin appear behind the pope’s ear.” — TREVOR NOAH“But I think the meeting was cool for him to see because it’s nice. Because even though these two men are some of the most powerful leaders in the world, when it comes down to it, they’re just a couple of old guys hanging out, showing off their coin collection, talking about alcohol, making inappropriate ethnic jokes.” — TREVOR NOAH“Biden has gotten flack from right-wing Catholic bishops for being pro-choice, but during the meeting, the pope said he should keep receiving communion, and called Biden ‘a good Catholic.’ OK, that’s legit. That’s legit. That’s the stamp of approval right there. The pope telling you you’re a good Catholic is like a bear telling you you’re good at pooping in the woods.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Much of Biden’s visit was confidential, but parts were broadcast on Vatican television, home of hits like, ‘Say Yes to the Vestment,’ ‘The Prodigal Brothers’ and ‘Bob Covets Abishola.’” — STEPHEN COLBERT“I mean I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that Biden’s meeting with the pope was three times as long as Trump’s. I mean, knowing Biden, he puts in a good 40 minutes with the barista when he pops into Starbucks.” — SETH MEYERSThe Punchiest Punchlines (Sometime This Century Edition)“All right, now, after President Biden exchanged Irish jokes with the pope, he caught an Uber to Rome for the G20 summit where he and other world leaders got down to business.” — TREVOR NOAH“They agreed to create a global minimum corporate tax rate of 15 percent, which is expected to raise hundreds of billions of dollars until the corporations find a different loophole about five minutes afterwards.” — TREVOR NOAH“The first time you see people in person post-pandemic is always awkward. It explains the G20 itinerary: ‘See another world leader approaching; wonder if they’re going for a handshake; notice they’re actually coming in for a hug; hug them, only to realize maybe they weren’t and you just made it awkward; call out the fact that you made it awkward and joke about how you’ve forgotten how to interact with other humans; solve climate change?’” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Climate change was one of the main things on the agenda, and the G20 leaders took a bold stand, pledging to achieve global net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by or around midcentury. That doesn’t sound very urgent. It’s like calling 9-1-1 and having the operator tell you the E.M.T.s will be there sometime between the hours of noon and the funeral.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“I’m sorry, guys, but how is climate change the most pressing issue facing humanity but then your plan is to do something about it by more or less 2050? Like that’s a pretty good sign something isn’t going to actually get done. If somebody says, ‘Yeah, yeah, we should hang out sometime. What’s your schedule looking like in 2050?’ You’ll never see the person again.” — TREVOR NOAH“Not to mention, I’m looking at the people making the pledge — half of them aren’t even going to be around in 2050. That’s genius — ‘When are we fixing this? How much time do I have left? Yeah, yeah — around then!” — TREVOR NOAH“So basically what they’ve done is said, ‘I want to lose 100 pounds by the summer so I’m going to do five push-ups by the day and then I don’t know, maybe I’ll get tapeworm. We’ll see what happens.’” — TREVOR NOAHThe Bits Worth WatchingJimmy Kimmel didn’t ask for videos of adults tricking their kids into believing they ate all their Halloween treats for his annual challenge this year, but some parents just couldn’t resist.What We’re Excited About on Tuesday NightTom Hanks will talk about his latest film, “Finch,” on Tuesday’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”Also, Check This Out“Every woman I know — doesn’t matter what they look like, or if they’ve commodified their image or not — knows what it feels like to be looked at, to be rejected, to get attention for how they look,” Emily Ratajkowski said.Caroline Tompkins for The New York TimesIn her debut essay collection, “My Body,” the model and influencer Emily Ratajkowski writes about cashing in on her image for a living. More

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      The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Amazon, HBO, Hulu and More in November

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      Every month, streaming services add movies and TV shows to its library. Here are our picks for some of November’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.)Rosamund Pike, center, as the mystic Moiraine escorting the young heroes of “The Wheel of Time.”Jan Thijs/Amazon Studios New to Amazon‘The Wheel of Time’ Season 1Starts streaming: Nov. 19Robert Jordan’s “The Wheel of Time” saga spans 14 fantasy novels plus various supplemental works, with the last of the books having been completed posthumously by the author’s colleague Brandon Sanderson. So if Amazon’s TV version of catches on, there’ll be enough story to tell to keep the show running longer than the “Game of Thrones” series and “The Lord of the Rings” movies combined. “The Wheel of Time” starts as simply as the novels do: with the tale of the mystic Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) who helps a group of young people escape the shadow forces pursuing them, while knowing that someone in her charge may be their land’s long-prophesied champion in an ancient, eternally recurring battle against civilization-destroying chaos agents. As with the books, the TV series is as much character-driven as it is lore-driven.Also arriving:Nov. 5“The Electrical Life of Louis Wain”“A Man Named Scott”“Tampa Baes”Nov. 12“Always Jane”“Mayor Pete”Nov. 19“Everybody Loves Natti”Nov. 29“Burning”Jeremy Renner and Hailee Stanfield in “Hawkeye.”Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel StudiosNew to Disney+‘Hawkeye’Starts streaming: Nov. 24The recent run of Marvel Cinematic Universe TV series have featured some real departures, with shows like “WandaVision,” “Loki” and “What If…?” sporting unusual narrative structures and stories that ventured into the more mystical areas of Marvel Comics. But the six-part mini-series “Hawkeye” promises to be more of a grounded action-adventure, in the vein of “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” (and with some of the same characters). Jeremy Renner reprises his role as the Avengers’ resident archer and family man Clint Barton, who finds himself training a protégée, Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), in hopes that he can take care of his latest crisis and get home in time for Christmas. “Hawkeye” was inspired in part by comic book stories penned by Matt Fraction, who brought a playful quality to the title character that should carry over well to television.‘The Beatles: Get Back’Starts streaming: Nov. 25The 1970 documentary “Let It Be” captured both the recording of one of the Beatles’ final albums and the personality conflicts that ultimately led to the band’s breakup. The director Peter Jackson’s three-part docuseries “Get Back” takes the original footage from that documentary (supervised at the time by the director Michael Lindsay-Hogg) and refashions it into a larger story: about the making of the original film, and about what was really happening in the Beatles’ lives back then that even a fly-on-the-wall camera couldn’t catch. Jackson’s version is meant to be a more nuanced take on the band circa 1970, catching the passive-aggressive sniping but also the genuine pleasure these musicians took in working together on classic songs like “Don’t Let Me Down” and “The Long and Winding Road.”Also arriving:Nov. 12“Ciao Alberto”“Home Sweet Home Alone”“Olaf Presents”“The World According to Jeff Goldblum”From left, Douglas Hodge, Elle Fanning and Sacha Dhawan in “The Great.”Gareth Gatrell/Hulu New to Hulu‘The Great’ Season 2Starts streaming: Nov. 19Season one of “The Great” introduced the “occasionally true” story of Catherine II (Elle Fanning), who marries the cruel and capricious Russian emperor Peter III (Nicholas Hoult) and then begins trying to wrest power from him in ways both subtle and overt. The second season picks up not long after the events of last year’s finale, in which the two headstrong aristocrats reached a wary rapprochement, for the sake of their unborn child and for their own private agendas. The series’ creator Tony McNamara was one of the Oscar-nominated screenwriters of “The Favourite,” another unapologetically anachronistic historical dramedy. Expect more of McNamara’s sensibility in year two — along with an exciting new cast addition in Gillian Anderson, playing Catherine’s mother.Also arriving:Nov. 4“Taste the Nation With Padma Lakshmi: Holiday Edition”Nov. 5“Animaniacs” Season 2Nov. 11“3212 Un-Redacted”.css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-1kpebx{margin:0 auto;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-1kpebx{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-1kpebx{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-1kpebx{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-1gtxqqv{margin-bottom:0;}.css-1g3vlj0{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-1g3vlj0{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-1g3vlj0 strong{font-weight:600;}.css-1g3vlj0 em{font-style:italic;}.css-1g3vlj0{margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0.25rem;}.css-19zsuqr{display:block;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}.css-m80ywj header{margin-bottom:5px;}.css-m80ywj header h4{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:500;font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.5625rem;margin-bottom:0;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-m80ywj header h4{font-size:1.5625rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-qjk116{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-qjk116 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-qjk116 em{font-style:italic;}.css-qjk116 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:visited{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}Nov. 17“Marvel’s Hit-Monkey”Tom Hanks as Finch and Caleb Landry voicing Finch’s creation in the film “Finch.”Apple TV+New to Apple TV+‘Dickinson’ Season 3Starts streaming: Nov. 5Although the dramedy “Dickinson” is based on the life of the poet Emily Dickinson, it’s impossible to predict what will happen in the show’s third and final season. “Dickinson” has always been proudly off-kilter, with its creator, Alena Smith, taking the proven facts of writer’s life and then spinning whimsical and at times humorously impossible fantasies about the historical figures Dickinson might have met in mid-19th century Massachusetts, as well as the decadent parties she might’ve attended as a young woman with a thirst for independence. However the series eventually ends, its star, Hailee Steinfeld, continues to bring wit and passion to the role of an artist who wants badly to leave a lasting legacy, but a stubborn patriarchy and the looming threat of Civil War have her fearing that she’ll never get the chance to be heard.‘Finch’Starts streaming: Nov. 5Tom Hanks gets back into “Cast Away” mode in the science-fiction drama “Finch,” playing the title character: a resourceful scientist who is one of the few survivors of an Earth ravaged by environmental disasters. Fearing he is dying of radiation poisoning, Finch builds a robot named Jeff (voiced by Caleb Landry Jones) and fills it with as much useful knowledge as he can, hoping Jeff will help him drive from St. Louis to San Francisco — and that the machine will take care of Finch’s dog after his master is dead. The road trip is filled with surprises and dangers, but most of the movie is just a long conversation between a man and his well-meaning but frequently bumbling creation, as Finch tries to explain to Jeff both how and why to survive tough times.‘The Shrink Next Door’Starts streaming: Nov. 12The journalist Joe Nocera’s true-crime podcast “The Shrink Next Door” tells the story of Dr. Isaac Herschkopf, a psychiatrist who allegedly took control of his patient Martin Markowitz’s life, moving into his ritzy Hamptons estate and eventually guiding his financial decisions. In the TV adaptation, Paul Rudd plays the doctor and Will Ferrell plays Marty. The two actors lean into both the comic and the dramatic possibilities of the codependent relationship that develops between these two men: One who is pushy and the other a pushover. The mini-series’s narrative stretches across decades, as the writer Georgia Pritchett and the director Michael Showalter seek to explain how this situation got out of hand, between a charming opportunist and a person who desperately needed his approval.Also arriving:Nov. 3“Dr. Brain”Nov. 5“Hello, Jack! The Kindness Show”Nov. 19“Harriet the Spy” Season 1“The Line”The cinematographer John Wilson as seen in “How to With John Wilson.”Thomas Wilson/HBONew to HBO Max‘How to With John Wilson’ Season 2Starts streaming: Nov. 26Uniquely strange and sweet, this comic docuseries is built around the eccentric worldview of the persistently upbeat but profoundly confused videographer John Wilson, who tries to make sense of modern human existence by filming the mundane chaos of daily life in New York City and then commenting on it in halting voice-overs. In Season 1, Wilson tried to get a handle on basic concepts like friendship, ownership, security and memory. By the end of the run, he (like everyone else on the planet) saw his life upended by disease and death. It should be exciting — if that’s the right word for a show as gentle as “How to” — to see how Wilson and his crew capture and interpret everything that’s happened in the world since 2020.Also arriving:Nov. 4“Aida Rodriguez: Fighting Words”“Head of the Class” Season 1Nov. 9“Dear Rider”Nov. 16“Simple as Water”Nov. 18“The Sex Lives of College Girls”Nov. 19“King Richard”Nov. 23“Black and Missing” More

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      Why 'American Crime Story: Impeachment' Won't Stream Until Next Year

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      There was a lot of advance hype for the FX series “American Crime Story: Impeachment.” But it won’t be available on any major streaming platform for another 10 months, and that’s a problem in 2021.It was one of the most dramatic episodes of the season. Monica Lewinsky, the heroine of “American Crime Story: Impeachment,” strikes an immunity deal with federal prosecutors, and President Bill Clinton admits to having had an affair to a grand jury and the nation as a whole. The episode also brought Hillary Clinton, portrayed by Edie Falco, to center stage for the first time.The only thing missing was a big viewing audience.“American Crime Story: Impeachment,” a series that attracted lots of media coverage before its September premiere, airs on the FX cable network Tuesdays at 10 p.m. Last week’s episode ranked 15th in the ratings for cable shows that day, tied with ESPN’s “Around the Horn” and MTV’s “Teen Mom.”Produced by Ryan Murphy, “American Crime Story: Impeachment” has a lot going for it, including an A-list cast (Clive Owen, Sarah Paulson, Beanie Feldstein, Ms. Falco) and the sumptuous production touches that Mr. Murphy’s fans have come to expect of his shows.Edie Falco as Hillary Clinton on the FX show “American Crime Story: Impeachment.” An A-list cast has not meant big ratings.Kurt Iswarienko/FX The last two seasons of the anthology series, which tackles a new subject each time out, won Emmys for best limited series. And although Variety criticized the current installment as an “overwrought rehash,” the reviews overall were “generally favorable,” according to the website Metacritic.So why hasn’t the show landed with viewers in a big way? Why isn’t it a regular part of Twitter’s top trending topics? The answer lies in the fact that “American Crime Story: Impeachment” is not available on any major streaming platform and won’t be for another 10 months.The same was true for the initial rollouts of the previous seasons. But millions of viewers have cut the cord since then, ditching cable for some combination of Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, AppleTV+ and other services.Fans of “American Crime Story: Impeachment” who miss an episode can still stream it, but only if they are armed with their cable-subscription user names and passwords. And in 2021, a show that’s not easy to stream risks becoming almost invisible.The reason for its absence from the big streamers has to do with a deal worked out in 2016 by FX’s parent at the time, 21st Century Fox. For an undisclosed sum, the company sold the streaming rights to all editions of “American Crime Story” to Netflix. Both sides agreed that the series would be available exclusively on FX for roughly a year. From then on, Netflix would make it available to its subscribers.The deal seemed reasonable to 21st Century Fox in 2016. Back then, cable was still a robust business, and viewers were still in the habit of watching a program at a certain time on a certain night of the week.The first season of “American Crime Story,” about the O.J. Simpson case, premiered early in 2016 and was a big hit, although it was not available on any major streaming platform. At the time, video-on-demand technology was still emerging, and Netflix had 80 million subscribers, meaning it had less of a reach than FX, which was then available in 92 million households.“The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” with Cuba Gooding, Jr. as O.J. Simpson, came out in 2016, when FX had reached more households than Netflix.Ray Mickshaw/FXThe pandemic accelerated the trend of viewers dropping cable subscriptions in favor of the watch-when-you-want experience of streaming. Netflix now has 213 million subscribers, and FX is available in 76 million homes.Viewers accustomed to the largely commercial-free experience of streaming would have had a flashback to the days of traditional TV while watching the most recent episode of “American Crime Story: Impeachment” on Tuesday night. The roughly 80-minute show included five commercial breaks that took up 18 minutes and 25 seconds. A sixth commercial break, three minutes long, came between the final scene and the preview of the next week’s episode.Scripted cable shows are still very much a part of the cultural conversation — as long as they’re streaming. All of HBO’s scripted shows, a lineup that includes “Succession,” “White Lotus” and “Mare of Easttown,” appear weekly on the HBO channel itself while also streaming on HBO Max. HBO said that digital viewing for the third season premiere of “Succession” was “up 214 percent from last season’s premiere,” which came out in 2019.FX sends most of its new series to a streaming portal, FX on Hulu, which like FX itself, is now owned by the Walt Disney Company. Because of the 2016 deal, “American Crime Story: Impeachment” is not among the shows that go to Hulu.Before the show’s premiere, John Landgraf, FX’s chairman, conceded that the world had changed substantially in the years since the Netflix deal, telling The Hollywood Reporter he could “not remember the last time that there was a really water-cooler show that was scripted on a linear cable channel.”“I just don’t know whether the pipes are still there to galvanize people’s attention,” he continued. “But we’re going to find out.”Mr. Landgraf and FX declined to comment for this article.Despite the lack of buzz, “American Crime Story: Impeachment” still gets weekly write-ups in Vanity Fair and Vulture. The series also has the eighth highest ratings of any scripted show on cable this year. The 2016 installment, about O.J. Simpson, ranked fifth, and the 2018 version, centered on the murder of the fashion mogul Gianni Versace, was also eighth.The audience figures tell a different story, though. “American Crime Story: Impeachment” draws an average audience of 571,000 viewers among adults under the age of 50, according to Nielsen’s delayed viewing data. “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” had more than double that audience, with 1.2 million, and the O.J. Simpson season had an average of 3.9 million viewers.By the time of “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,” with Edgar Ramirez as Gianni Versace, left, and Penelope Cruz as Donatella Versace, cable was losing viewers to streaming.Ray Mickshaw/FX, via Associated PressIn 2016, the No. 1 rated scripted cable series, AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” averaged 11.3 million viewers among adults under the age of 50, according to Nielsen’s delayed viewing data. By 2018, “The Walking Dead” viewership average had fallen to 5.3 million. This year its adult audience average is 1.3 million — and it still ranks No. 1.Why did 21st Century Fox executives think so highly of the arrangement they had struck with Netflix deal five years ago? At the time, Mr. Landgraf called it a “phenomenal deal from a financial standpoint.” James Murdoch, then 21st Century Fox’s chief executive, said it was “a great deal for the company and for shareholders.”Never mind that many television executives, even then, were already concerned that the sales of their back libraries to Netflix might backfire. The more Netflix had to offer its subscribers, the easier it was for it to attract new subscribers. That, in turn, enabled it to spend billions on original series and big-time talent.In 2018, Netflix signed one of the most successful producers in cable — Mr. Murphy — to a contract worth $300 million. Under the deal’s terms, he was allowed to keep making the series he had already started at FX and Fox. After that, his new shows would belong to Netflix.FX will broadcast the ninth episode of “American Crime Story: Impeachment” on Tuesday and the season finale Nov. 9. More

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      What’s on TV This Week: ‘The Oratorio’ and ‘Dexter: New Blood’

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      Martin Scorsese hosts an hourlong documentary on PBS. And the serial-killer drama “Dexter” returns to Showtime (with a new subtitle).Between network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, Nov. 1-7. Details and times are subject to change.MondayTHE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT 11:35 p.m. on CBS. The singer-songwriter David Byrne, currently on Broadway with his “American Utopia,” will take advantage of a show-less night by popping over to the Ed Sullivan Theater on Monday to perform on Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show.” Huma Abedin, a former aide to Hillary Clinton who is releasing a memoir this week, is also slated to appear.TuesdayMURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (2017) 5:15 p.m. on FXM. The actor and filmmaker Kenneth Branagh is set to return to theaters next week with “Belfast,” a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age movie. Branagh was behind the camera for “Belfast,” which he wrote and directed. But he was on both sides of the lens — directing and acting — for this Agatha Christie adaptation, in which he plays the fictional Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. He’s in good company: The cast also includes Penélope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench and Michelle Pfeiffer, among others. Christie fans should have fun seeing the distinguished cast act out the old mystery, though critical reception of the film was mixed. In truth, you might be better off sticking with the book. (If you’re worried about hurting Branagh’s feelings by skipping his movie, you’re in luck: He recorded a “Murder on the Orient Express” audiobook, too.)Shiloh Fernandez and Penn Badgley in “The Birthday Cake.”Screen MediaTHE BIRTHDAY CAKE (2021) 9 p.m. on Starz. Val Kilmer plays a mob boss in this modern-day Mafia drama, alongside a roster of other familiar faces including Ewan McGregor, Lorraine Bracco and Paul Sorvino. All portray characters in the orbit of a young man, Gio (Shiloh Fernandez). The film focuses on one revelatory night in Gio’s life, during which he learns truths about his father’s death 10 years earlier — and gets pulled into a violent life he’d tried to avoid. The movie is “brash, a little hokey and endearingly melodramatic,” Jeannette Catsoulis said in her review for The New York Times. “It’s not the fairly predictable tonal arc that makes this first feature from Jimmy Giannopoulos click,” she wrote, “it’s the deftness with which he weaves multiple threads of unease into a single strand of throttling tension.”WednesdayA JOHN HUSTON DOUBLE FEATURE 8 p.m. on TCM. Here’s a chance to relive John Huston’s early-1940s filmmaking emergence: At 8, TCM will air Huston’s directorial debut, the noir classic THE MALTESE FALCON (1941). Then, at 10, the network will show ACROSS THE PACIFIC (1942), Huston’s third feature, which transplanted three stars from “The Maltese Falcon” — Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor and Sydney Greenstreet — into a World War II spy story, and helped cement Huston’s reputation as an important Hollywood filmmaker. “This time it is certain,” Bosley Crowther wrote in his 1942 review for The Times, “Alfred Hitchcock, Carol Reed and all other directors who have hit the top flight with melodramas will have to make space for John Huston.”ThursdayTHE QUEEN FAMILY SINGALONG 8 p.m. on ABC. As the gentlemen of “Wayne’s World” know well, few bands are as ready-made for over-the-top singalongs than Queen. Seize the opportunity with this hourlong special, in which pop acts including Adam Lambert, Fall Out Boy and Pentatonix cover Queen songs. The actor Darren Criss hosts..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-1kpebx{margin:0 auto;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-1kpebx{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-1kpebx{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-1kpebx{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-1gtxqqv{margin-bottom:0;}.css-1g3vlj0{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-1g3vlj0{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-1g3vlj0 strong{font-weight:600;}.css-1g3vlj0 em{font-style:italic;}.css-1g3vlj0{margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0.25rem;}.css-19zsuqr{display:block;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}.css-m80ywj header{margin-bottom:5px;}.css-m80ywj header h4{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:500;font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.5625rem;margin-bottom:0;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-m80ywj header h4{font-size:1.5625rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-qjk116{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-qjk116 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-qjk116 em{font-style:italic;}.css-qjk116 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:visited{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}FridayTHE ORATORIO: A DOCUMENTARY WITH MARTIN SCORSESE 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). When this new, hourlong special begins, it greets viewers with close-up shots of the historic Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral in NoLIta. The camera takes in the holy building’s interior, tilting up stained glass and panning across lit candles, finally settling on a former altar boy, now a gray-haired man, ambling along the cathedral’s aisles. The man is Martin Scorsese. And he’s there to geek out, for Scorsese has come to discuss a landmark performance at the cathedral: A one-off show in 1826 that brought Italian opera to New York. The documentary, which also features interviews with experts, including the musicologist Francesco Zimei, looks at the 1826 performance as a piece of New York’s foundation as an arts hub, and an example of how the city’s immigrants were central to the cementing of its identity. The documentary will be followed, at 10 p.m., by DA PONTE’S ORATORIO: A CONCERT FOR NEW YORK, a program built around footage of a 2018 performance by the Italian opera company Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, which recreated the 1826 show in the present-day cathedral.SaturdayRobin Wright in “Land.”Daniel Power/Focus FeaturesLAND (2021) 8 p.m. on HBO. Robin Wright plays a grieving woman who goes into the wild in this sweeping drama, which is also Wright’s feature directorial debut. After experiencing a tragedy, Wright’s character, a lawyer named Edee, buys a cabin in a secluded slice of Rocky Mountain wilderness. She drives there, then she ditches the car. Edee is determined to survive solo, or maybe simply to be alone in nature — whether she actually wants to survive isn’t clear. That is, at least, until a near-death experience causes her to cross paths with a hunter, Miguel (Demián Bichir), with whom she forms a mutually lifesaving bond. “Wright’s movie is ambitious (that location! that weather!), but not grandiose,” Glenn Kenny wrote in his review for The Times. “Its storytelling economy helps make it credible and eventually moving.”SundayJulia Jones and Michael C. Hall in “Dexter: New Blood.”Seacia Pavao/ShowtimeDEXTER: NEW BLOOD 9 p.m. on Showtime. Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, or at least makes you grow a beard and buy some flannel shirts. The finale of the original “Dexter” series, which ended in 2013, wrapped up with its titular character, a mild-mannered serial killer played by Michael C. Hall, getting caught in a lethal-looking storm. It didn’t leave any ambiguity about whether he survived, though: The final moments flashed forward to Dexter, alive, having escaped from the authorities in Miami to start a new life in the Pacific Northwest. This continuation of the story, which carries the subtitle “New Blood,” moves the action forward a decade and to a fictional town in upstate New York, where Dexter works to control his violent urges under an assumed identity. When the show debuted in 2006, Hall discussed in an interview with The Times the challenges of approaching Dexter as an actor. “How do you bring your full human self to someone who at least claims to be without the capacity for human emotions?” Hall asked. “It’s tricky.” One wonders, 15 years later, whether that challenge has gotten easier or harder with practice. More

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      ‘Succession’ Season 3, Episode 3: Head Spaces and Hullabaloo

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      There was plenty of petty Roy cruelty to go around in this week’s brutal episode.Season 3, Episode 3: ‘The Disruption’“Succession” is often a “fun” show, where all the sniping and the slip-ups of the rich and the arrogant generates some incredibly entertaining schadenfreude. But any given episode — like this week’s “The Disruption” — can be brutal, as the characters we hate to love fall hard.The problem with the Roy family right now is that as far as they’re concerned, coming out ahead in their epic public squabble matters more than saving their company or avoiding federal prosecution. Yet just because they’re preoccupied with petty power games doesn’t mean the F.B.I. is going to wait for them to finish clobbering each other.This is exactly what Kendall’s attorney Lisa Arthur warned him about last week as he bopped around his ex-wife’s apartment, feverishly pitching a coup to his siblings. Lisa has been trying to help the government, to keep her client out of jail. Meanwhile, it turns out that Kendall has been doing exactly what Logan always assumed he was doing: using the Brightstar cruise line scandal as “a play,” to outwit his father and to reinvent himself as a progressive hero.So everything inevitably implodes this week, not just for Kendall, but for his father and for Siobhan — and in a roundabout and sickeningly sad way, for Roman. The first third of this episode is a bit of a romp, as the Roys rapidly punch and counterpunch. And then the walls start closing in.First: the not-so-playful sparring, which keeps getting rougher by the minute. At Waystar, Logan and his loyalists are annoyed at Kendall for an interview where he made noises about “planting a flag” within the company, while saying of his family, “I’m just really happy in my head space and I hope they’re happy in theirs.” Roman mocks this mercilessly around the office, tossing around the term “head space” with glee. (Imitating his brother, Roman adds, “I love my kids, uh, Blur Face and Who Cares.”)Shiv, though, thinks it’s time for a more aggressive public response to Kendall, whose accusations and self-aggrandizing declarations are dominating the business news. She starts by attending the annual gala benefit for the Committee for the Protection and Welfare of Journalists, where she waves away an ATN hater by reminding him her dad’s business has kept a lot of local newspapers alive. She’s defending Logan the only way she knows how: through the wishy-washy talking points she can half-convince herself she believes.Then Shiv runs into Kendall; and it’s here where this episode starts to take a turn. He offers a meek quasi-apology for his misogynistic rant during their last meeting. (“I maybe threw a couple of ugly rocks.”) But when she tries to get him to promise he won’t cause an ugly scene by coming into the Waystar offices, he smirks. Seeing his sister doing the kind of thankless public-facing hack work that used to be his job prompts him to say, earnestly, “Look at this. It’s you now. I’m sorry for you.”Worse than earning her brother’s pity, Shiv may have given him an idea. Kendall does in fact decide, almost on a whim, to show up at the Waystar building, hoping to generate some more positive publicity through an open act of rebellion. The whole sequence where Kendall comes in, just before an employee “town hall” Shiv has organized, is incredibly tense, as no one is quite sure what legal right they have to remove him.This is something that pops up a lot in this episode: the proper chain of command in this new reality where Logan is pretending, for legal and PR reasons, that he’s no longer in charge. Can Gerri swing a deal with the Israelis without Logan’s approval? Does Waystar’s security have to follow Logan’s orders when Kendall — still technically an employee and a shareholder — tries to pass through? Can the staff refuse to admit representatives of the court bearing subpoenas? Can Logan threaten his old buddy, the President of the United States, with bad ATN coverage if the Department of Justice doesn’t back off?This question of authority extends to what Logan asks of his children. He gets annoyed that Shiv would rather take on the job of publicly attacking Kendall than defending her father. The “I wuv my Daddy” gig falls to a reluctant Roman, who agrees to do an interview with ATN Business but then nixes nearly every question about his childhood. (Roman finally makes up a story about going fly fishing in Montana with his pop, then later admits his genuinely happy childhood memory actually happened with Connor.) Logan would rather Shiv play the sweetie-pie and his son be the assassin, but Roman says attacking Kendall “makes me feel unwell.” After all, his brother was more of a father figure to him than his actual father — who, in a painful scene, insinuates that Roman is a weak-willed worm.Sarah Snook in “Succession.”Macall B. Polay/HBOAs for why Shiv can’t bring herself to hail her dad, this is addressed in another remarkable moment, where she tries to get Logan to admit to what actually happened at Brightstar. All he will say is that no one will ever find any evidence that he knew anything about “all of this hullabaloo” — and that he was just trying to shield the family from harm.I’ve written before about how Kendall uses nonsense biz-speak to express how he’s really feeling, but it’s worth taking a moment to consider how Logan uses softening or dehumanizing words — like “hullabaloo” — to insulate himself from criticism. He refers to the women hurt in the Brightstar scandal as “Moaning Minnies.” And he shrugs off the cover-up, saying, “Maybe there were some salty moves.”Logan says this after Shiv asks, “Can we talk?,” which is her code for, “Can we drop the act for a second?” Alas, she’s never brave enough to demand total honesty. One of her pet phrases is “Is there a world where ___?” (fill in the blank with some variation on “be honest”), which is her tacit way of acknowledging that no, there is not.All this dancing around the subject ultimately leads the Roys to skip off the edge of a cliff. Kendall thinks he’s controlling the narrative, with his offers to “open the kimono” to business reporters and his willingness to let himself be roasted in person at the late-night TV comedy show “The Disruption with Sophie Iwobi.” (“This is being in the conversation,” he insists, while watching Iwobi skewer him.) And Shiv thinks she can turn things around with her Waystar town hall, where Hugo has tossed aside all the angrier employee comments in favor of what Roman calls “less question-y questions.”But Kendall pulls a cruel stunt during his Waystar visit, arranging it so Nirvana’s “Rape Me” blares through a few scattered speakers while Shiv is talking. She responds by issuing a statement — which Roman refuses to sign — saying the whole family is concerned about Kendall’s drug addiction and mental health issues.And then the F.B.I. arrives. Maybe there was a world where the Roys could’ve avoided what’s about to happen. But it’s not a world where any of them live.Due DiligenceSophie Iwobi is played by the comic Ziwe, who has been a writer and performer on multiple “The Disruption”-like TV shows, including “Desus & Mero” and her own “Ziwe.”The tone-deaf sloganeers in Waystar’s PR department come through again, pitching a series of full-page apology ads with the tag line “We Get It” — a phrase that, as Shiv rightly notes, sounds more exasperated than empathetic.Cousin Greg — or as Tom calls him, the “leggy princeling of ATN” — blows off a work event to hang with Kendall, who he believes is going to buy him an expensive watch. (“I’ve always been self-conscious about my wrists,” Greg confesses.) It turns out Kendall is just hooking his cousin up with a watch-broker and has no intention of paying; but Greg is coaxed into spending 40 grand anyway because he’s told he left his “patina” on the timepiece. (“I don’t have a patina! I shower!”) And then the watch breaks.Tom has his own troubles this week, as he gets legal advice from an old friend who suggests there’s no way he’s not going to see jail time. Accepting the inevitable, he tells Logan he’s willing to sacrifice himself to the feds. Whether he’s being sincere or whether this too is a “play” remains unclear.When Kendall runs into Tom at the Waystar offices, he claps his brother-in-law on the shoulders with both hands — a gesture Tom briefly misinterprets, moving in as though expecting a hug. Whether this moment was scripted or spontaneous, it’s a brilliant illustration of who these guys are.A neat image: As Shiv walks back to her office after the town-hall humiliation, the reflection of New York in the windows as she walks down the hall briefly makes it look like she’s about to step outside and plunge to her to death. More