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Week of September 26 – October 2
Yeah we’re really in the thick of the fall TV deluge, with everything from a starry prestige literary adaptation (“East of Eden,” with Florence Pugh, on Netflix) to a you-can’t-look-away true-crime doc (“The Widower” on Netflix) to acclaimed new British shows making their stateside debut (“War” on HBO). All of that, plus the return of "SNL," a new mountain-climbing documentary (“The Last First: Winter K2” on Apple TV), a would-be “M3GAN” spinoff (“SOULM8TE” on Hulu) and a witchy show the whole family can watch for Halloween (“Coven Academy” on Freeform). Something for everybody – and so much of it!
On with the television!
East of Eden
Thursday, October 1, Netflix
Source: Netflix
The circle is now squared. This new iteration of “East of Eden,” based on John Steinbeck’s 1952 novel of the same name (it was the author’s “magnum opus”), was created and largely written by Zoe Kazan, whose grandfather, Elia Kazan, directed the 1955 feature adaptation. Kazan showruns the new series with Jeb Stuart, the longtime Hollywood screenwriter who has worked on everything from “Die Hard” to “The Fugitive."
Florence Pugh leads the cast of “East of Eden” as Cathy Ames, the protagonist (and chief villain), with a supporting cast that includes Joseph Zada, Joe Anders, Christopher Abbott, Mike Faist, Tracy Letts, Martha Plimpton and Ciarán Hinds (what, are you going to say no to Kazan and Stuart?) We’re interested to see whether the new limited series fully captures the scope and scale of the original novel, which primarily takes place in pre-World War I California but whose narrative reaches back to the Civil War. If there’s anybody who can pull it off, it’s Kazan, Stuart and their collaborators, who include directors Garth Davis and Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre and writer Alexander Chee.
And while there won’t be a second season of “East of Eden,” Stuart and Kazan have already picked out their next prestigious literary adaptation for Netflix – this time they’re going to tackle Larry McMurtry’s western “Lonesome Dove,” which was previously adapted as a hugely popular, Emmy-winning 1989 miniseries that starred Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones. From one American epic to another! [TRAILER]
President Curtis
Sunday, September 27 at 11:30 p.m., [Adult Swim] on Cartoon Network
Source: Cartoon Network
Honestly, “President Curtis” could have gone either way. The spinoff of “Rick and Morty” centers on the title character, a paranormal-fighting leader of the free world voiced by living legend Keith David. Without the two central characters from the mainline show (aside from a brief cameo in the first episode), it could have lost a lot of momentum. But the show has stayed lively and bizarre and charted its own course, partially because of the President’s wacky sidekicks — a cyborg chief of staff (voiced by Stephanie Beatriz) and a half-leprechaun Secret Service agent (Jim Rash) — and also because David is clearly having the time of his life. He sings a new nonsense song over the end credits of every episode for crying out loud! It’s a joy. And has yet to be encumbered by the deep lore of “Rick and Morty.” What a breeze! [TRAILER]
SOULM8TE
Thursday, October 1, Hulu
Source: Universal
It seems almost quaint to think of a time when “M3GAN,” the surprise hit about the doll-like killer cyborg, was being envisioned not as a series of PG-13 horror movies but as a vast universe that could contain all sorts of stories. One of those stories was “SOULM8TE,” which combines the dynamics of a 1990s erotic thriller with the technological unease of a contemporary sci-fi thriller.
David Rysdahl plays a nerdy scientist who has just lost his wife and works at a next-gen tech company. He agrees to beta test the company’s new lifelike female sex robot, whom he names Sara (Lily Sullivan). As you can imagine, things soon go horribly wrong: Sara starts killing people and must be shut down. It’s actually a lot of fun, and has some interesting things to say about sexual dynamics in the modern world and some sly commentary on the “trad-wife” phenomenon we’re seeing in social media and in politics.
The problem, of course, was that “SOULM8TE” was being finished when “M3GAN 2.0” was released theatrically and underperformed at the box office. Post-production was paused while Universal searched for a potential partner and when that didn’t happen, they opted to just release "SOULM8TE" direct-to-digital themselves, stripped of any connection to “M3GAN” or its once-promising universe. And it’s a shame because “SOULM8TE” is actually pretty underrated – there are some good kills and it has something on its mind. Hopefully its release to streaming will give it an even wider audience, who will undoubtedly ask, “Wait, why wasn’t this ever in theaters?”
May the world of “M3GAN” one day rise from the ashes. But for now, this is a tantalizing glimpse into a world where “M3GAN” became a multimedia sensation. [INTERVIEW]
The Widower: ‘Til Death Do Us Part
Wednesday, September 30, Netflix
Source: Netflix
While there might be a big, starry A24 movie in theaters now about the intersection of “Dateline” and reality (that’d be “Primetime,” starring Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen) there’s an equally fascinating documentary at home about the same uneasy conflagration. “The Widower: ‘Til Death Do Us Part,” which is a hacky title for a very good movie, follows a “Dateline” investigator as he looks into the death of a woman in Las Vegas who was supposedly killed by an intruder that her loving husband (Thomas Randolph) then murdered. The tale gets significantly more twisted as the investigative journalist starts to look into the history of the man whose wife was murdered, uncovering a string of failed marriages and dead women.
Part of what makes the documentary so compelling is that Randolph is such a charming, oddball character, who clearly sees the journalist as a sympathetic ear, willing to broadcast his side of the story for the whole world to witness. It’s this narcissism that gives us unfettered access to his life in prison, as he begins to craft a narrative that perhaps only he truly believes. It’s shocking, sad and occasionally infuriating. And thanks to ace direction by Chris Smith (who made everything from “American Movie” to “DEVO”), you cannot look away. [TRAILER]
