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    ‘The Studio’ Ties Emmys Record for Most Comedy Nominations in a Season

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    Past winners like “Hacks” and “The Bear” lost some ground this year, making Apple TV+’s Hollywood satire starring Seth Rogen the one to beat.Season 1 of Apple TV+’s star-studded Hollywood satire “The Studio,” starring Seth Rogen as the beleaguered head of a fictional movie studio, became the comedy to beat on Tuesday for the 77th Emmy Awards, receiving 23 nominations.The nominations tie it with Season 2 of “The Bear” for the most-nominated season of a comedy series ever heading into the final voting round, which begins on Aug. 18. The award ceremony is scheduled for Sept. 14.Created by Rogen with his longtime creative partner, Evan Goldberg (along with Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory and Frida Perez), “The Studio” seemed, in many ways, perfectly engineered to succeed. For a comedy, it is exceptionally ambitious and well made — beautifully shot and elaborately choreographed, with most scenes filmed as extended single takes, or “oners” in the insider parlance of the show.The show is also, as befits a series from the comedians behind “Superbad,” “Pineapple Express” and “Sausage Party,” very funny, taking aim at the pettiness of executive strivers, the boundless self-regard of celebrities and the industry threats posed by Big Tech and Wall Street. Rogen’s character must fight to preserve his artistic integrity amid the often humiliating demands of his corporate overlords.“It knows its business well enough to be blisteringly entertaining,” The New York Times’s chief TV critic, James Poniewozik, wrote in his review of the series in March, adding: “When ‘The Studio’ is funny, it is funnier than most anything on TV now.”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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      ‘Severance’ and ‘The White Lotus’ Dominate the Emmy Acting Nominations

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      The buzzy series are the early favorites in the drama category.TV buzz doesn’t always translate into Emmy nominations. But it did this year for “Severance” and “The White Lotus,” which have amassed rabid fandoms that gather online and in real life to dissect and celebrate the dramas.The second season of “Severance,” the mind-bending sci-fi workplace thriller on Apple TV+, earned 27 nominations on Tuesday morning, the most of any show this year. Nine of those went to its cast, including Adam Scott and Britt Lower for best lead actor and actress in a drama.Supporting nods went to Patricia Arquette, Zach Cherry, Tramell Tillman and John Turturro. Guest acting nominations went to Jane Alexander, Gwendoline Christie and Merritt Wever.Season 3 of “The White Lotus,” the darkly comic HBO drama that skewers self-absorbed luxury travelers, earned 23 nominations, including eight for its cast, which is mostly refreshed with each new season. This year, Carrie Coon, Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Parker Posey, Sam Rockwell, Natasha Rothwell and Aimee Lou Wood received supporting acting nominations. Scott Glenn was nominated for best guest actor in a drama.“Severance” and “The White Lotus” were both nominated for best drama. The other contenders are: “Andor,” “The Diplomat,” “The Last of Us,” “Paradise,” “The Pitt” and “Slow Horses.”Originally considered a limited series, “The White Lotus” cleaned up in that category at the 2022 Emmys, winning 10 awards, more than any other show, including best limited series. The show moved to the drama category for its second season.“Severance” and “The White Lotus” were not eligible for Emmys in 2024, and in previous years, they were mostly thwarted in the drama category by the former juggernaut “Succession.” With that series over and last year’s record-breaking drama “Shogun” out of contention this time around, there’s a good chance “Severance” and “The White Lotus” will be duking it out for the night’s biggest haul.The 77th Primetime Emmy Awards will be held on Sept. 14 in Los Angeles. CBS will broadcast the ceremony. More

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      Where to Go in Philadelphia, According to Brian Tyree Henry

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      If your memories of summer camp don’t involve eight-course tasting menus and vintage fashion shopping sprees, well, perhaps you weren’t doing it right. Or you were never in a stalled Apple TV+ production with Brian Tyree Henry.Mr. Henry, 43, who recently received the Gotham Television Awards’ first Performer Tribute for his role in “Dope Thief,” is the star and an executive producer of this crime drama about two friends who try to earn a living as fake drug enforcement agents. The limited series was not quite halfway through filming in Philadelphia when Hollywood writers went on strike in 2023, soon followed by actors. He decided to make the best of a bad situation by staying put and diving as deeply as possible into his character’s hometown.Mr. Henry rose to prominence as Alfred “Paper Boi” Miles in the FX show “Atlanta.” He currently stars in the limited Apple TV+ series “Dope Thief,” which is set in Philadelphia.Taylor Jewell/Invision, via Associated PressDuring the work stoppage, which lasted six months, “the Philly crew was still there, and they were my friends,” Mr. Henry said in a video interview. “So my time in Philly felt like sleep-away camp.” He learned a lot. For starters: “Philly natives love Philly,” he said. “If I walked out of my house in anything green and white, it had better have an eagle on it.”Mr. Henry and his co-star, Wagner Moura, play friends who try to earn a living as fake D.E.A. agents in “Dope Thief.”Jessica Kourkounis/Apple TV+, via Associated PressHe also discovered that he didn’t need to stray far from his Center City rental to find a happy place: the tiny 17th-century Rittenhouse Square. “You can sit in the park and read a book, and then go and chill out and have a good meal across the street,” he said, citing the steak, popovers and tater tots at Barclay Prime among his favorite examples. Another neighborhood staple was the Rittenhouse Spa & Club, where regular facials helped mitigate the “sweat, blood, smoke and gunpowder” he was covered in during filming. “They would be like, ‘What did you go through this week?’” he said.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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      ‘Fountain of Youth’ Review: John Krasinski Goes Continent Hopping

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      An adventurer enlists his disapproving sister (Natalie Portman) in this Guy Ritchie movie with a hint of Indiana Jones.The pop-music adage “Don’t bore us, get to the chorus” is often attributed to the Motown founder Berry Gordy. The sentiment, when applied to film, could generally sum up the approach of the director Guy Ritchie.In his new movie, “Fountain of Youth,” Ritchie opens with a furious chase through the alleys, into the video arcades and over the fruit stalls of Bangkok. On a motorcycle is Luke Purdue (John Krasinski), who’s just purloined a priceless work of art — it’s what he does — and in a vehicle with lots of automatic weapons are some very irate and skeevy-looking journeyman villains.Having evaded his pursuers and boarded a train out of Bangkok, Luke figures he can relax, but no. He is confronted by the lovely Esme (Eiza González, now appearing in her second Ritchie picture), who informs Luke, “I recover rare and unique paintings. Sometimes in leather tubes.” Luke laughs her off; he’s hardly going to let her have the goods. Then she warns him: “I am the hand of mercy. My employers are the hand of judgment.”What’s any of this got to do with the title fountain? It’s mildly complicated, involving a message that can only be deciphered by looking at the backs of a particular group of priceless artworks. Luke is compelled to seek the help of his disapproving sister Charlotte (Natalie Portman), a museum curator; the pair are convinced by a dying billionaire named Owen Carver (Domhnall Gleeson) that the fountain can be found, and that they should find it for him. And off they all go, continent hopping. Once they reach their destination, we learn that the fountain not only de-ages you, it makes you look like computer-generated art. So that’s something.The movie acknowledges its many antecedents; it’s mentioned that Luke and Charlotte are “the children of the famed archaeologist Harrison Perdue,” get it? Besides the hint of Indiana Jones, several scenes also bring to mind the “National Treasure” movies, because they’re set in worlds with great libraries and museums and peopled with characters who, under any other circumstances, would never in a million years set foot in them.Having made his career playing perhaps the ultimate beta male on the television series “The Office,” Krasinski has since ardently pursued alpha roles, playing the reluctant C.I.A. man of action Jack Ryan on the Amazon series of the same name. Still, his ready smile tends to make him instantaneously agreeable, a quality you don’t get from other Ritchie leading men such as Henry Cavill and Jason Statham. Here, the quality doesn’t provide much credibility or added value. Instead, it makes you more sympathetic to Charlotte, who’s almost always scowling at her goofball brother. Stanley Tucci turns up in a Vatican-set cameo, which makes you wonder if he just roosted in the Holy City after completing “Conclave.”Fountain of YouthRated PG-13 for some salty language. Running time: 2 hours 5 minutes. Watch on Apple TV+. More

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      ‘Deaf President Now!’ and the Biases of a Hearing World

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      The documentary recalls the 1988 protests that erupted at Gallaudet University when trustees rejected deaf candidates to lead it.In 1988, the board of trustees of Gallaudet University was preparing to announce its pick for the institution’s next president. That’s not an unusual task for a board. What’s unusual is what happened next, as told in “Deaf President Now!” (streaming on Apple TV+).Directed by Nyle DiMarco and Davis Guggenheim, the documentary plays like a high-stakes political thriller, but in an unconventional venue. The film chronicles the week of turmoil and transformation that followed the announcement of Elisabeth Zinser as president. (DiMarco is a Gallaudet alum.)Gallaudet University — founded in 1864 as a school for deaf and blind children, through a law signed by Abraham Lincoln — is the nation’s only liberal arts university designed specifically for deaf and hard-of-hearing students, and it’s officially bilingual, with instruction in both English and American Sign Language. In 1988, however, Gallaudet had never had a deaf president. And Zinser, a hearing person with a background in nursing, had been chosen over two deaf, arguably more qualified candidates.To tell the story, “Deaf President Now!” weaves together archival footage and contemporary interviews with a number of the students and faculty, now middle-aged and older, who led or were involved in the protests. All of the interviewees, filmed against a simple black background, give their answers in ASL, with an off-camera voice (rather than subtitles) providing the translation for hearing audiences.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 ‘Government Cheese’ Creates a Dream World in the Valley

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      Set in late 1960s California, this magical realist comedy takes place in a fanciful, aesthetically distinctive world that reflects the spirit of its characters.In a scene early in the Apple TV+ period comedy “Government Cheese,” the show’s Chambers family watches an episode of “The Addams Family” in which a neighbor remarks, “Addamses, you are kooks!”The sentiment applies to both clans, as well as to the family upon which the Chambers are based: that of Paul Hunter, a creator and showrunner of “Government Cheese.”“They called us odd,” Hunter said in a video interview from Mexico City. “They said, ‘Oh, you guys are always in the clouds. Do you know what’s going on?’ We knew what was going on. We just really were in our own world.”Set in the late 1960s San Fernando Valley, “Government Cheese” follows the Chambers, a Black family pursuing idiosyncratic interests — inventions, pole vaulting, eagle feather hunting — with little concern for the realities of the outside world. (The title, taken from the processed foodstuff once distributed to low-income families, also refers to the delicious sandwiches Hampton’s mother made from it, and to the sense of invention and aspiration they embodied.)Matthew J. Lloyd, the show’s cinematographer, called the Chambers family — the parents, Hampton (David Oyelowo) and Astoria (Simone Missick), and sons, Einstein (Evan Ellison) and Harrison (Jahi Di’Allo Winston) — and their adventures a “fable-ized version” of Hunter’s upbringing. Magical, fantastical things happen to Hampton, in particular, and the audience is asked to believe them.From left, Jahi Di’Allo Winston, Oyelowo, Simone Missick and Evan Ellison in “Government Cheese,” based on the family of Paul Hunter, one of the creators.Apple TV+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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      ‘Câreme’ Serves Up Satisfaction in the Kitchen and the Bedroom

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      “Carême,” a new Apple TV+ series, is based on the life of a 19th-century society chef who delighted diners and lovers. It’s very French.In recent years, you may have followed a hunky onscreen chef, battling chaos to create outstanding food on FX’s “The Bear.” Maybe you also fell for “Bridgerton,” Netflix’s lavish, anachronistic romp through the 19th-century upper classes.Now “Carême,” a new Apple TV+ show arriving Wednesday, combines the pleasures of both those shows to tell the story of Marie-Antoine Carême, who was perhaps the world’s first celebrity chef. Born into poverty in late-18th century Paris, Carême rose to cook for Napoleon Bonaparte, a Russian czar and a member of the Rothschild banking family, delighting European high society with his intricate, architectural dishes. He is often credited as the founder of French gastronomy — and with popularizing the tall chef hat.To convey how innovative Carême was, “our vision was to avoid a usual period drama style,” said Martin Bourboulon, who directed the show’s first three episodes. Although “Carême” is based on a book by Ian Kelly, Bourboulon said he and his colleagues approached the period elements with a “side step,” and added some modern twists to the historical fact.Lyna Khoudri, left, and Voisin in “Carême.”Apple TV+The costumes, for instance, nod to 20th-century and contemporary fashions, and so they had to be made from scratch rather than rented, as is typical on a production of this scale. The characters speak modern French, and Benjamin Voisin plays Carême as a tousle-headed, opium-taking charmer, with the rebellious attitude of Mick Jagger and Lenny Kravitz.It’s unsurprising, therefore, that it can seem as if almost as many of Carême’s scenes are set in the bedroom as in the kitchen — and some of those kitchen scenes are still quite sexy. “I found similarities between the sex scenes and the food scenes,” Bourboulon said, especially when it came to the care Carême takes giving pleasure in both contexts.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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      In ‘Your Friends & Neighbors,’ the Watches Steal the Show

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      “Your Friends & Neighbors” strives to comment on the vacuousness of wealth while simultaneously glorifying the spoils of being really, really rich.It appeared as if Jon Hamm were, once again, selling us something.Mr. Hamm, who has lent his assertive baritone to Mercedes-Benz ads, an American Airlines spot and a Super Bowl intro, was this time on television enumerating the merits of an expensive wristwatch. Only this time, it wasn’t for an ad. It was a scene from the first episode of “Your Friends & Neighbors,” by Apple TV+, a new soft satire of the financially fortunate.“The Patek Philippe Nautilus sealed 18-karat white-gold blue sunburst dial, water-resistant up to 30 meters,” Mr. Hamm intoned in voice-over, as graphics whizzed across the screen noting the watch’s 2.3-millimeter thickness and other wonky specs. Up flashed the price of this timepiece: $70,110 at retail, but around $169,000 on the resale market.In the show’s first episode, Andrew Cooper, a hedge fund titan who is played by Mr. Hamm and goes by the nickname Coop, finds himself unceremoniously out of a job. With a shriveling bank account and a money-burning lifestyle, he turns to robbing his well-off neighbors.His first target is the Patek. As Coop pulls the watch from a cubbyhole of similar timepieces, he treats viewers to a data-dense recap of what makes the watch so special — and, by extension, so worth stealing.“Like the ads say, you never actually own a Patek Philippe,” Mr. Hamm says in character. “You merely look after it for the next generation.”In the series, Mr. Hamm plays Andrew Cooper, a hedge fund titan who ends up stealing from friends after losing his job.Apple TV+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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      ‘Government Cheese’ Review: Moving on Up, to the Surreal Side

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      The comedy, starring David Oyelowo, straddles a border between the pioneering Black sitcoms of the 1970s and dreamy modern dramedies like “Lodge 49.”Hampton Chambers, the would-be patriarch played by David Oyelowo in the Apple TV+ series “Government Cheese,” bears some resemblance to a classic sitcom dad. He has moved on up, finding a home in a tidy San Fernando Valley suburb for his wife and two sons and striving to keep them there. He is obsessed with taking family photos. He cajoles his rebellious younger son into a weekend fishing trip at a nearby lake, with predictably comic results.But what distinguishes Hampton, and “Government Cheese,” are the ways in which he departs from the stereotype. The fishing trip is a cover for a nighttime burglary. The photos are exculpatory evidence. He owes a debt to a local criminal clan of seven thuggish French Canadian brothers. His George Jefferson cockiness is cracked by fissures of guilt, fear and regret; he pleads with Yahweh for forgiveness.That might make Hampton sound like a Walter White (“Breaking Bad”) or a Marty Byrde (“Ozark”), losing his way under pressure. But “Government Cheese,” which premiered on Tuesday with three of its 10 episodes, is indeed a comedy, if a barbed and mysterious one; it straddles a border between the pioneering Black sitcoms of the 1970s (it’s set in 1969) and the fable-like dramedies of the streaming era, particularly “Lodge 49,” a show it strongly evokes. (There is also some “Fargo” in it, at the darker end.)“Absurdism” and “surrealism” are the words Apple TV+ has applied most liberally in the show’s publicity materials. American comedy very rarely commits to these qualities, though. What “Government Cheese” really offers is something softer and more common: a mildly sardonic, artfully presented magical realism.Hampton is in prison for petty fraud when the show starts, about to be paroled. He comes home to find that his family has been hijacked by the ’60s. One son, Einstein (Evan Ellison), is a soft-spoken prodigy who sees his future in pole vaulting; the other, Harrison (Jahi Di’Allo Winston), is a budding radical who wears a Billy Jack hat and identifies with the Chumash people. Hampton’s wife, Astoria (Simone Missick), has a job and a man on the side, and sees her husband’s return as a threat to her tentative freedoms.Hampton’s hopes of proving himself and keeping his family together are pinned to a gizmo he invented in the prison machine shop, a self-sharpening drill. (It isn’t clear whether it actually works.) In his way are the comically violent Prévost brothers, as well as the everyday difficulties of being out of place, as an ex-con and a Black man, in both suburban Los Angeles and the aerospace industry. That’s why he reluctantly puts the drill to use as a safecracking tool, in league with his old friend Bootsy (a jovial Bokeem Woodbine).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