Hacks (2021-6)

Hacks has quietly been the funniest show on TV. I say quietly because it was quite a surprise when it claimed the Emmy for Best Comedy in season 3. And though The Studio won for its debut season over Season 4, I think Hacks is a shoo-in for its excellent finale. What started out as a show about inter-generational differences evolved into so much more than that. Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder have great chemistry, as employer-employee, as mentor-mentee, as writer-performer, as friends, and as would-be lovers in one hilarious episode in Montecito. And they weren't the only pair. Paul Downs and Megan Stalter were their own odd couple that got more screen time and their own full-fledged story lines in later seasons. The supporting cast was full of characters. They deliver sharp one-liners, really smart writing. Las Vegas has never looked better, really a character in itself, emblematic of the whole ethos of Hacks. Deborah Vance, at the start a washed up comedienne replaying her same old jokes in her Vegas residency. But the city has a sheen to it, money, glitz, glamor. A corporate sheen. It's a nice touch that in the final season, Deborah and Marcus open up a boutique casino, trying to revive the old glory days. Wonderful show.

Mare of Easttown (2021)

5 stars for Kate Winslet and the whole British cast (and non-Brits alike) nailing the notoriously difficult Delco (Delaware County, PA) accent. The glamorous Winslet totally inhabits the decidedly unglamorous Mare. The production design and setting are supremely specific, and the show is all the better for it, bathing the show in realism. In this depressing, small rural town, rife with teenage pregnancy and drugs, Mare knows everybody and everybody knows her. In some ways, she is like the "mayor", a detective actually. People come to her with all their problems, and they expect her to solve them. Her methods are unconventional, those of someone policing her friends, rather than one who is strictly bound by the law. Her main claim to fame was a basketball championship in high school. But when it comes to a serious, big case, she's kind of in over her head. She lacks the objectivity to do serious detecting. Very strong character development and as a result deeply felt emotions. The plot is a whodunnit, with plenty of red herrings. Even the ones that don't pan out still feel like valuable additions to the plot. Every episode ends with a cliffhanger. I was kept guessing til the very end. The suspenseful pacing is palpable. HBO strikes again.

Watchmen (2019)

In a word, Damon Lindelof's HBO-adaptation of the beloved graphic novel Watchmen is extraordinary. It is actually not really an adaptation, it is a sequel that takes place 34 years after the comic. It satisfies fans by respecting the source material in themes, characters, and structure. You don't need to be familiar with the original, but you can certainly better appreciate the brilliance if you are.

Lindelof uses Watchmen to make the an incisive, honest, and hard-hitting reckoning with race in America. Our hero is Angela Abar, played by Oscar-winner Regina King (and surely a future Emmy-winner). She is a former Tulsa police officer who has since retired but now dons a mask and costume as the vigilante Sister Night who collaborates closely with the police. In this alternate Tulsa, the police by law are now required to wear masks to protect their identities. It asks the question that the original did but brilliantly about the police: what do people feel empowered to do behind a mask? Tulsa was the sight of the real-life massacre in 1921 that demolished "Black Wall Street", one of the most prosperous black communities in the country at the time. This is an event that is inexcusably not taught in schools. Our society has not reckoned with the wrongs it has committed. And until it does, it will never move past it. Watchmen gives this massacre the respect it deserves. The ending is extremely satisfying. The story closes all its loose ends perfectly. The early episodes have you asking lots of confusing questions but if you can make it to the end, it will all make sense.

In addition to writing a compelling story, Lindelof has crafted beautiful character studies. Episodes 5, 6 and 8 are character studies of Looking Glass, Hooded Justice and Dr Manhattan respectively. Tim Blake Nelson's Looking Glass is probably the most interesting character and he is an excellent actor. Hooded Justice was the first masked crusader. Assumed white, he is cast black here and not only does it make sense, you realize he must've been black all along. Without spoiling it, his origin story makes clear that the first superhero had to be black, as the superhero emerges out of necessity. The symbolism obviously pointed to lynching; it was all right there and we didn't realize it. This episode, a bad trip on Nostalgia, is mostly in black and white and is filmed in what looks like one long take. Dr Manhattan's episode tells a beautiful love story to explain who he is. The music supervision is fabulous throughout the series, but this episode cleverly uses multiple songs with the theme "blue" as Dr Manhattan is blue.

This is a TV program for our time and for all time. 

Notes:

• Veidt's alien squid is literally Professor Daniel Deudney's theory on space politics! 
• We are not told who Lube Man is but in the supplemental documents online, we discover it Agent Petey. It's not crucial to know this, but it makes sense. Just like the original comic, there were supplemental materials; yes, even down to that level Lindelof respects the source material
• No season 2! The ending is so perfect and self contained, I'm ok with just one season.

A Simple Favor (2018)

I remember when the trailer first came out. My immediate reaction was "Wow Henry Golding is in a second Hollywood movie already? And he's married to Blake Lively? That's a pretty big deal." But my second reaction was that it looks like Gone Girl. Then I scrolled down to the Youtube comments and they were saying "Don't be deceived, it's nothing like Gone Girl." Lo and behold, now that I've seen the movie, it is very much like Gone Girl. My biggest problem with the movie is that the motivations are unclear. There are no motivations except craziness. Gone Girl has more motivation than that but the underlying drive is just her being crazy. I'm sort of confused and it bothers me a little. In retrospect, it's sort of weird that Anna Kendrick is the protagonist because she is totally external to the central plot. She actually plays the sleuth. I was sort of mislead into thinking she had more to do with the motive or maybe she was a scapegoat, but this has nothing to do with her.

It's a dark comedy, comedic in that it's absurd. I did actually laugh out loud at the absurdity, which does at times come off as fun because it takes itself pretty seriously. Even the music is funny. The glamor of suburban Connecticut is represented by French music, while her trip to New Yorker is accented by Latin music. Speaking of glamor, Blake Lively is gorgeous. The costumes on her are absolutely stunning. Oscar for the costume designer.