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      ‘Kleo’ Review: Spy vs. a Lot of Other Spies

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      The archly humorous, high-body-count Netflix series about an ex-Stasi assassin is like “Killing Eve” with a more discernible heartbeat.“Killing Eve” went off the air in April 2022. “Kleo” came along four months later. The offbeat, darkly comic, cold-war-related spy thriller abhors a vacuum.The German writers and producers Hanno Hackfort, Bob Konrad and Richard Kropf, who created “Kleo” for Netflix, evidently were not afraid of comparisons to the popular “Killing Eve,” which ran for four seasons on BBC America. Kleo Straub (Jella Haase), their East German protagonist, is a lethal assassin with a guileless pride in her abilities, reminiscent of Villanelle, the “Killing Eve” role that brought Jodie Comer an Emmy.Kleo also comes with her own version of Sandra Oh’s Eve, here a West German cop named Sven Petzold (Dimitrij Schaad) — an operative from the other side who is obsessed with Kleo and whose on-and-off, cat-and-mouse, will-they-or-won’t-they relationship with her is the show’s emotional center. And the two series share a style: the spy caper as darkly humorous fairy tale, shifting between mordant, violent theatricality and mordant, goofy comedy.But “Kleo,” whose second season premiered last week on Netflix, is its own show, and, depending on your taste, it might be the better of the two. It is lighter and more straightforward in its storytelling and its humor, but just as moving and involving. It doesn’t have the filigree of “Killing Eve,” the same degree of baroque inventiveness, but it is ingenious in its own more casual, more human way.And it is less of a self-contained hall of mirrors than the earlier show; it benefits from being about something real, even if its relationship to history is stretched to the breaking point. Season 2 returns to the fraught period between the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and German reunification in 1990, with Kleo, the former off-the-books Stasi hit woman, still pursuing a personal mission of revenge that is somehow mixed up with the fate of the two Germanys.The jokes, the suspense, the melodrama and the violent action of “Kleo” are all contained within a vivid portrait of post-fall Berlin. Everyone is quick to take advantage of the moral and political vacuum, from Thilo (Julius Feldmeier), the spectral techno-music junkie who becomes Kleo’s roommate and confidant, to all the Russian, American and East and West German spymasters who use her for their own purposes. The settings, in Berlin and other Central and Eastern European locales, are always visually absorbing, simultaneously candy colored and brutalist drab.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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      ‘A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’ Puts a Teen on the Case

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      Based on the book series by Holly Jackson, the Netflix series is a British murder mystery with a greener-than-usual detective.What teen girl doesn’t dream of solving her first murder? Of lovingly assembling her first crazy wall, sagely taping up photos of neighborhood murder-types in her bedroom? Of sleepovers that become interrogations? Of high-stress shenanigans that give way to romantic interludes, buoyant in a sea of independence? On “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder,” which arrives Thursday, on Netflix, the true investigation is into oneself.“Good Girl’s Guide,” based on the book series by Holly Jackson, follows Pip (Emma Myers, who plays Enid in “Wednesday”) and her pet obsession with a crime that happened five years ago — an apparent murder-suicide, though she’s not so sure. She still has vivid daydreams of the dead girl, of the seemingly doting boyfriend, of herself as a little(r) girl with a glancing connection to the older teenagers. Pip decides to combine her passions for academic achievement and for not letting things go and turn this investigation into a major school project.“I think sometimes I get fixated on something, and I can’t think of anything else … even things I care about the most,” she tells her bestie. Pip’s single-mindedness is a blessing and a curse, and while that’s a pretty played-out type of character on adult murder shows, it feels more appropriate here for a teen finding her way.The real intrigue of “Good Girl’s Guide” is not its mystery, really, but how much Pip truly does grow and change before our very eyes. She is seemingly approaching high school graduation, but in many scenes she could pass for 12; seeing her behind the wheel of a car genuinely startled me. Her quest to solve the case puts her in a lot of dicey scenarios — seedy, yeah, but also just too grown-up, and Myers’s luminous performance beautifully and poignantly synthesizes this blend of panic, regret, embarrassment, determination, courage, fear and stubbornness.Coming-of-age stories often use road trips as the mechanism of and the yardstick for maturing, and this often feels like a road-trip saga, only with suspects instead of pit stops. Pip is a late bloomer who feels left out of her friends’ crush chats, and she isn’t always aware of the obvious-to-others lurking sexual menace. Her pursuits cause her to grow and to grow up, not through miserable loss-of-innocence tragedies but rather through navigating the unfamiliar, through discovering what her interests and limits really are.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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      Saying Goodbye to the Messy, Murderous World of ‘Elite’

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      A diverse cast of characters and a murder to solve each school year have helped make this teen drama one of Netflix’s longest-running original shows.Shooting the eighth and final season of Netflix’s teen crime drama “Elite” last November, crew members yelled “silencio” so often it could have been mistaken for a chant.Dozens of young actors, dressed in black tie, talked and laughed as they milled around a set on the outskirts of Madrid that depicted a nightclub. The Brazilian actor André Lamoglia seemed used to the chaos as he waited, perching on the bar in a black suit with white trim, to lead another of the show’s rowdy party scenes.After the cameras finally started rolling, and with the extras making much less noise, Lamoglia’s character, Iván, took a seemingly casual selfie with his half sister Chloe (Mirela Balic) that was actually part of a scheme to discover who murdered his friend.Unruly teenagers, expensive clothes and mysterious dead bodies are all typical for the Spanish-language show which, since its premiere in 2018, has become one of Netflix’s most popular original titles, and one of the longest-running. (The final season is being released Friday.)In its first season, “Elite” used a setup familiar from other successful teen shows, including “Gossip Girl” and “Beverly Hills, 90210”: inserting beautiful outsiders into an exclusive social setting. In this case, three scholarship students join Las Encinas, an expensive private high school. But at Las Encinas, every year (and season) there is also a murder for students and the police to investigate.This blending of soapy teen drama and tense murder mystery has helped the show run for eight seasons, and by its fourth, “Elite” was ranking in Netflix’s weekly Top 10 chart in more than 70 countries, according to data from the streamer.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘The Decameron’ Review: They Take a Holiday. Death Doesn’t.

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      A loose Netflix adaptation turns Boccaccio’s story cycle into a gleeful satire of class war in plague times.TV audiences have an appetite for a good class-conscious satire of rich people on holiday in a fabulous location — say, a stunning Italian getaway — and the servants who attend them. The new Netflix series “The Decameron” draws on medieval literature to offer a raucous twist on this premise, heightened with the looming threat of bubonic plague.“The White Lotus,” meet the Black Death.In the 14th-century work by Giovanni Boccaccio, a precursor to Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales,” 10 young people flee to a rural estate from disease-ridden Florence, entertaining one another by telling stories both dramatic and raunchy. The 10 tales per refugee, as told over 10 days, makes for a cycle of 100 stories, proving that even before streaming media, creators know how to stretch out material to series length.The eight-episode Netflix series, arriving Thursday, is a loose adaptation — very loose, like a caftan. It borrows Boccaccio’s character names and setting, with some nods to the source stories. But the creator, Kathleen Jordan (of the gone-too-soon “Teenage Bounty Hunters”), reimagines it as a rollicking social comedy of striving and survival.Jordan introduces four sets of characters, offered respite at a villa in, as the invitation puts it, “the beautiful, not-infected countryside.”We meet Pampinea (Zosia Mamet), a noblewoman anxious about being unmarried as “a shriveled-up, 28-year-old maid,” and her perhaps-too-devoted servant, Misia (Saoirse-Monica Jackson); Tindaro (Douggie McMeekin), a sickly and pompous young noble attended by his quackish physician, Dioneo (Amar Chadha-Patel); the devout and secretly randy Neifile (Lou Gala) and her social-climbing husband, Panfilo (Karan Gill); and Licisca (Tanya Reynolds), the eccentric and put-upon handmaiden to the imperious Filomena (Jessica Plummer).The holiday offers a chance at life, solace and social advancement — especially for Pampinea, who has managed a sight-unseen engagement to the villa’s absent lord. But despite the estate’s gorgeous furnishings and manicured maze gardens, there are deceptions and dangers.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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      Elizabeth Debicki Discusses Her Second Emmy Nomination for Princess Diana

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      Elizabeth Debicki earned an Emmy nomination for outstanding supporting actress in a drama series on Wednesday, her second nomination for playing Princess Diana on “The Crown.”The Australian actress took over the role from Emma Corrin starting in Season 5 of the Netflix series about the British royal family and embodied Diana through the implosion of her marriage to Prince Charles. Season 6, the show’s final one, includes the 1997 car crash that killed Diana, her boyfriend Dodi Fayed and their driver, Henri Paul, as they fled the paparazzi in Paris.The final season of “The Crown” received 18 nominations overall, including for outstanding drama series. Other acting nominations went to Dominic West as Prince Charles, for lead actor in a drama series; Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth II, for lead actress; Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip, for supporting actor; and Claire Foy for reprising her role as a younger Elizabeth, for guest actor.Debicki will also be competing against Lesley Manville, who played Princess Margaret, in the supporting actress race.For Debicki, receiving the nomination was a bittersweet cap on the experience of playing Diana.“It dawns on you that it’s done,” she said by phone just after the Emmy nominations were announced on Wednesday. “You don’t get to go back. You know while you’re doing it that this will be a totally one-off experience. Nothing will touch this. Nothing is like this. That’s the pill to swallow as the actor.”In a brief interview, Debicki discussed playing Diana and receiving the nomination. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.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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      ‘Baby Reindeer’ Star Jessica Gunning on Her First Emmy Nomination

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      Jessica Gunning is still a little stunned by the size of the audience “Baby Reindeer” has found, and the acclaim that has followed.A Netflix drama about a comedian and his stalker, “Baby Reindeer” picked up 11 Emmy nominations on Wednesday, including one for best limited series and one for Gunning, her first, for supporting actress in a limited series.The show follows the aspiring comedian, Donny Dunn, as he is tormented by a woman named Martha. Richard Gadd, the Scottish comedian who created the series and also received an acting nod, plays Dunn; Gunning plays Martha. The series is billed as a true story based on Gadd’s experience.In an interview shortly after the Emmy nominations were announced, Gunning said she and other members of the show are “still pinching ourselves” over the fact that so many millions of people have found their work. As to the 11 nominations, she added, “I literally can’t quite believe it.”“I think if someone had said three months ago when the show came out that it and the Emmys would even be included in the same sentence, I’m sure Richard would agree that we would have thought we were being pranked,” she added in a video interview from her parents’ house, several hours’ drive from her home in London.These are edited excerpts from the conversation.Some folks have called “Baby Reindeer” a surprise hit. Were you expecting this kind of audience and acclaim for the show?We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      What to Expect From Wednesday’s Emmy Nominations

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      The top nominees are announced at 11:30 a.m. ET. “Shogun” and “The Bear” are poised to have a big day.Just six months after a strike-delayed ceremony, the Emmys are back.Nominations for television’s most prestigious award show will be unveiled on Wednesday morning. “Shogun,” the lush period drama, and “The Bear,” the anxiety-inducing comedy, are poised to have a big day. Netflix’s “Baby Reindeer” is expected to stand out among limited series.There is a considerable cloud hanging over Emmy nomination day this year. Last year’s double strikes, along with several years of cost cutting, have put the industry in the throes of a contraction. The Peak TV era is now firmly in the rearview mirror. To wit, the number of shows submitted for Emmy consideration this year plummeted.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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      Saudi Arabia Sentences Producer to 13 Years in Prison Over Netflix Show

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      In a video plea for help, Abdulaziz Almuzaini — a dual Saudi-American citizen — described how the authorities had accused him of promoting extremism through a cartoon franchise.From the outside, the past few years looked like the peak of Abdulaziz Almuzaini’s career.As the head of an animation studio in Saudi Arabia, he signed a five-year deal with Netflix in 2020. A sardonic cartoon franchise that he helped create, “Masameer,” likened to a Saudi version of “South Park,” was soon streaming to audiences around the world. And as the conservative Islamic kingdom loosened up, Mr. Almuzaini was being publicly celebrated — as recently as a few months ago — as one of the homegrown talents shaping its nascent entertainment industry.Behind the scenes, though, he was on trial in an opaque national security court, as Saudi prosecutors — who accused him of promoting extremism through the cartoon series and social media posts — sought to ensure that he would spend the rest of his life in prison or under a travel ban.Mr. Almuzaini, a dual U.S.-Saudi citizen and father of three, recently described his plight in a video pleading for the Saudi leadership to intervene, saying that he was awaiting a final ruling from the kingdom’s Supreme Court.“I might bear the consequences of what happens after this, and I’m ready,” he said in the 18-minute video, which he said he was filming at his home in the Saudi capital.The video was published on his social media accounts late last month and deleted the same day. In it, Mr. Almuzaini, sporting a black beard graying around the edges, spoke in front of a wall covered with colorful sticky notes.A screen shot from a video posted on Mr. Almuzaini’s social media accounts late last month that was later deleted.via XWe 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