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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

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      Olivia Munn’s 5 Favorite Places in Tokyo

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      The baronial manors, rolling lawns and private clubs in the fictional suburban backdrop of the new Apple TV+ series “Your Friends & Neighbors” bear little resemblance to the buzzing sidewalks, neon lights and hidden warrens of Tokyo. But for the actress Olivia Munn, who plays an outsider turned socialite on the show, her childhood years in the city helped inform the role.Ms. Munn, right, stars in the Apple TV+ series “Your Friends & Neighbors,” which premiered last week.Jessica Kourkounis/Apple TV+, via Associated PressAt age 8, Ms. Munn, now 44, moved from Oklahoma City, where she was born, to Yokota Air Base in Tokyo, along with her mom, then stepdad (an Air Force major) and four siblings. Suddenly, she was the odd kid out, “thrust into new worlds” where she became determined to find her place, she said in a recent video interview. “I really got good at observing people.”Over the better part of a decade, she explored the now Instagram-famous alleys of Omoide Yokocho, where packed, tiny restaurants served “the most amazing yakisoba”; teeming Harajuku, where “everyone dressed up like anime” on Sundays; the warren of games and gadgetry in the Akihabara electronics district, where she and her brother combed through the bins for Casio watches; and Mount Fuji, about 60 miles away but visible from the city’s high-rises, where she and her family twice hiked to the summit and were rewarded with steaming ramen and stunning views.Ms. Munn moved back to the United States at 16 and attended the University of Oklahoma before going on to a career that has included the HBO series “The Newsroom” and the superhero blockbuster “X-Men: Apocalypse.” Though she minored in Japanese, her language skills have slipped a bit, she said, but “it all comes back to me” with a little practice when she makes one of her regular trips back to Tokyo.Ms. Munn is married to the comedian John Mulaney, and they have two young children.Krista Schlueter for The New York TimesWe 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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      With ‘The Studio,’ Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg Grow Up. Sort of.

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      Amoeba Records, on Hollywood Boulevard, isn’t the best place for someone of Seth Rogen’s visibility to shop hassle-free. Located just blocks from the Chinese Theater, right by Dr. Phil’s and Dr. Oz’s stars on the Walk of Fame, there may be few places worse.But when Rogen wasn’t being interrupted by his admiring bro-fans, who were legion — one wore toe shoes and a Lil Dicky shirt; another cried — Amoeba was, however, a perfect place to dig through hundreds of vinyl soundtracks. It was the Tuesday before the Oscars, and we were there with Rogen’s longtime creative partner, Evan Goldberg, to browse records and talk about their latest creation: “The Studio,” an ambitious, celebrity-stuffed industry satire for Apple TV+ that premiered on Wednesday.“The Studio” features many celebrity cameos and guest roles, including one by Martin Scorsese, right (with Ike Barinholtz, left, and Seth Rogen).Apple TV+Rogen had been tasked by his wife to stock more jazz — appropriate given the new show’s jazzy score and improvisational feel, shot mostly in long single takes. But as Goldberg and Rogen, who have been friends since they were teenagers, noted, their taste in music had really been formed by their love for movies.So we found ourselves first among the soundtracks, where highlights included a reissue of “The Three Amigos” — “One of my favorite movies of all time,” Rogen said — and two copies of the soundtrack for “Soul Man,” the 1986 comedy about a young white guy who pretends to be Black in order to get a Harvard scholarship. (Different times, as they say.)“Dude, I was just telling some people at work about this yesterday!” Goldberg said.“It has a good soundtrack,” Rogen ventured.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’ Finale: Which Theories Were Correct?

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      Some fans correctly predicted some of the episode’s biggest revelations. But other mysteries remain, and many more were introduced.This article is almost entirely made up of spoilers.The “Severance” rabbit hole online is deep, with fans sharing theories about the meaning of the notes used for elevator dings, the true nature of the Lumon Industries office (is it actually a hospital?) and other arcana. Would any of them pay off in the Season 2 finale?Yes, as it turned out. In fact, one of the most popular predictions prevailed in the explosive episode: The numbers Mark S. had been diligently sorting on his terminal were indeed the building blocks of his wife Gemma’s mind. With every file he completed, a new consciousness — or “innie” — of hers was created to be tortured on the testing floor.The effort culminated in Cold Harbor, his 25th and final file, which Mark S. completed as part of a greater scheme and collaboration between his innie and outie to free her.This work, which relied on Mark S.’s gut instinct, was — as Harmony Cobel confirmed — tied to “the four tempers,” a philosophy developed by the Lumon founder Kier Eagan: woe, frolic, dread and malice. Hats off to the “Severance” enthusiasts who saw that coming!And while the big Cold Harbor revelations will satiate devotees for a moment, many other questions remain, and many more were introduced.Yes, we learned that the goats serve some sort of ceremonial and sacrificial purpose. “This beast will be entombed with a cherished woman whose spirit it must guide to Kier’s door,” the Lumon fixer Mr. Drummond tells Lorne, of the Mammalians Nurturable department, as he hands her a bolt gun to kill the animal.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’ Finale: Which Fan Theories Were Correct?

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      Some fans correctly predicted some of the episode’s biggest revelations. But other mysteries remain, and many more were introduced.This article is almost entirely made up of spoilers.The “Severance” rabbit hole online is deep, with fans sharing theories about the meaning of the notes used for elevator dings, the true nature of the Lumon Industries office (is it actually a hospital?) and other arcana. Would any of them pay off in the Season 2 finale?Yes, as it turned out. In fact, one of the most popular predictions prevailed in the explosive episode: The numbers Mark S. had been diligently sorting on his terminal were indeed the building blocks of his wife Gemma’s mind. With every file he completed, a new consciousness — or “innie” — of hers was created to be tortured on the testing floor.The effort culminated in Cold Harbor, his 25th and final file, which Mark S. completed as part of a greater scheme and collaboration between his innie and outie to free her.This work, which relied on Mark S.’s gut instinct, was — as Harmony Cobel confirmed — tied to “the four tempers,” a philosophy developed by the Lumon founder Kier Eagan: woe, frolic, dread and malice. Hats off to the “Severance” enthusiasts who saw that coming!And while the big Cold Harbor revelations will satiate devotees for a moment, many other questions remain, and many more were introduced.Yes, we learned that the goats serve some sort of ceremonial and sacrificial purpose. “This beast will be entombed with a cherished woman whose spirit it must guide to Kier’s door,” the Lumon fixer Mr. Drummond tells Lorne, of the Mammalians Nurturable department, as he hands her a bolt gun to kill the animal.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’ Season 2 Finale Recap: Mark vs. Mark

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      The season ended with a bizarre but moving episode that found the Lumon employees’ inner and outer selves at cross purposes.Early in the Season 2 finale of the acclaimed, much-memed Apple TV+ series “Severance,” a man has a spirited debate that ends up encapsulating much of what keeps the show’s fans watching. The person he is talking to? Himself, via an old video camera. Mark (Adam Scott) records messages for Mark. And Mark replies.Created by the writer Dan Erickson in collaboration with the producer and frequent director Ben Stiller, “Severance,” which was just renewed for another season, is centered on a cultlike company named Lumon that allows employees to “sever” their work lives and their home lives via a chip surgically inserted into their brains. The people who clock in every day — the “innies” — have no idea what their “outies” do after quitting time, and vice versa.At the end of Season 1, Mark’s innie led his office-mates Dylan (Zach Cherry), Helly (Britt Lower) and Irving (John Turturro) in a mini-rebellion, executing “the overtime contingency,” which allowed them all, very briefly, to live their outies’ lives. This is how Mark learned that his outie’s wife Gemma (Dichen Lachman) — presumed dead in the outside world — was still alive as an innie at Lumon.Season 2 has been primarily driven by outie Mark’s efforts to reintegrate his consciousness with innie Mark, in hopes of rescuing Gemma from Lumon. In the finale, the two Marks argue over whose needs are more important: If Gemma leaves Lumon, will outie Mark terminate his employment there — and in the process terminate innie Mark?“Severance” Season 1 arrived not long after the pandemic, at a time when people were questioning how much of their lives were being spent in an office — and how much needed to be. As the story has expanded into more existential mysteries, it has spoken more to the “rise and grind” mind set sweeping through much of the modern world, where having relationships or hobbies — or even a good night’s sleep — is considered somewhat suspect. The Season 2 finale brings to a head some of the story lines inspired by our increasingly out-of-whack work-life balance.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