Tag: NowTV

Where to find it: NowTV
Length: Six 30-minute episodes
Synopsis: Surreal queer sketch show
Recommendation rating: 5/5

What I like about it: artful, satirical, anti-capitalist, incredibly imaginative
What I don’t like about it: hit-and-miss (like all sketch shows)

Review:
Julio Torres’ comedy series follows him through a dreamlike plot, filmed on a soundstage with sets inspired by German Expressionism and Dogme 95, interrupted by surreal overlong sketches and amazingly considered characters. Torres is a fantastic comic actor, making us laugh with only his fingers. He gets the best out of all his collaborators and the outcome is a real work of art about compromise, modern society and growing up. Weird and often awkward but self-contained and fascinating, it’s the best thing I’ve seen in a couple of years.

Content notes (may contain spoilers):

Where to find it: NowTV
Length: Ten 50-minute episodes
Synopsis: Unstoppable killer has an inflated stunt budget and lazy writers
Recommendation rating: 2/5

What I like about it: acting, very occasionally tense or thoughtful
What I don’t like about it: no likeable characters, no stakes, no plausibility, terrible alt-rock soundtrack

Review:
Eddie Redmayne plays a sniper assassin being chased across Europe by MI6 while trying to kill a crypto-bro because his new app is going to make rich people poorer… somehow… don’t examine it too closely.

It’s no more than every other piece of spy fiction thrown into a blender; dry procedure from le Carré, torture porn from 24, pumped-up action from the Bourne flicks, murky amorality from modern Bond. Any early tension dissipates quick as you realise the Jackal’s plot armour prevents actual stakes. Still could be interesting to watch the opsec of this ‘unrivalled assassin’, except his consistency disappears as the writers attempt to make him relatable or possibly redeemable, either way it fails. It’s garbage, I’m sure it will be very popular.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): violence

Where to find it: NowTV
Length: Eight 25-minute episodes
Synopsis: Marvel movies make for easy satire
Recommendation rating: 4/5

What I like about it: funny lines and actors
What I don’t like about it: inconsistent, tries a bit too hard, arrives a few years too late

Review:
In this sitcom, which Armando Iannucci is at least somewhat involved in and is definitely modelled after his work, a thinly-veiled Marvel movie is being made with many disasters and squabbles along the way. Has a lower hit rate than, say, The Thick of It but it gets better as it goes, deserves a second season it probably won’t get.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): inventive swearing

Where to find it: Now TV
Length: 21 half-hour episodes
Synopsis: Low key comedy about everyday Kansans
Recommendation rating: 4/5

What I like about it: cozy, sweet, occasionally funny, Murray Hill’s incredible charm
What I don’t like about it: can be a bit boring at first

Review:
Sam marks schoolwork for a living and is mourning her sister/best friend when her coworker Joel invites her to his queer church choir, run by breakout character Fred Rococo. Sam’s other sister Tricia runs a basic bitch shop called Tender Moments which sells scented candles and embroidered pillows. They all spend the rest of the episodes alternately giggling and arguing, going about their daily lives in something that may be a sitcom, I can’t tell. Cute though.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): religion, interpersonal conflicts, death

Where to find it: Now TV
Length: 32 half-hour episodes
Synopsis: A psychopath is torn between two fitting career paths: hitman and actor
Recommendation rating: 4/5

What I like about it: funny, engaging, clever direction, NoHo Hank, seasons 2 & 3
What I don’t like about it: weak opening, terrible ending

Review:
Bill Hader writes, directs and stars in this HBO comedy-drama with pulpy crime plot, strong action scenes and fantastic Hollywood satire.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): violence

Where to find it: NowTV
Length: Eight 1-hour episodes
Synopsis: TV show based on a movie about making a movie based on a movie
Recommendation rating: 2/5

What I like about it: good scenes, satire
What I don’t like about it: unbearably pretentious and mumbly

Review:
In this meta-mess, Alicia Vikander plays a Hollywood actor filming a passion project, a remake of Les Vampires by Louis Feuillade. The show gives behind-the-scenes satire, restored footage of the original serial and modern remakes of key scenes in each episode. Not bad by any means but very slow and ultimately pointless.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): sex, drugs, violence

Where to find it: NowTV
Length: Eight 35-minute episodes
Synopsis: Struggling couple dive headlong into a mystery
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: casting, acting, occasionally funny or interesting
What I don’t like about it: pointless, ridiculous

Review:
Emma and Noah are married and enjoying a vacation in southeast Mexico, even though they don’t seem to enjoy each other’s company. Emma finds an old phone in the jungle and digs around in it, becoming captivated by the unsolved disappearance of the teen who dropped it.

They know how to build a mystery but the one they picked is so convoluted and unnecessary that I assumed they were playing some kind of alternate-reality game. Not so and it does give some payoff, it just leaves you wondering why you bothered. It says nothing new about its well-trod themes and is largely a waste of time and quite a lot of effort.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): violence, dental surgery, sex, loss and grief

Where to find it: NowTV
Length: Six 40-minute episodes
Synopsis: Nathan Fielder wastes HBO’s money, traumatises a child
Recommendation rating: 4/5

What I like about it: absurd humour, smart, a great idea
What I don’t like about it: not quite as good in execution, poorly paced, i’m absolutely furious at him

Review:
Nathan Fielder’s latest project finds him exploring such worthy and neurodivergent-adjacent themes as scripting/rehearsal, fear of social mistakes and empathy. He sets up a format in the first episode of finding a person who has been putting off something difficult and running them through the possibilities in a comically high-budget simulation. This is a (seemingly planned) misdirect however and the second rehearsal project gets Nathan’s personal attention and gets way out of control.

If you’ve seen Nathan For You and know his style, you’ll find plenty here to enjoy. He sets up awkwardness and absurdity that are very funny and the mix of simulation and real life is interesting, though far less subversive in this series as his targets move away from the world of business. The funniest moments in this are when Nathan, having chosen Evangelicals and Punisher tattoo guys for his show, is shocked to encounter anti-Semitism and breaks his usual deadpan character to deal with them, pranking one of them so hard that he drops out of the show. The rehearsals he sets up are soon shown to be inadequate and he tries to fix this by ‘going deeper’ and trying to make them perfect, using HBO’s infamous creative generosity to show how no amount of preparation can truly prepare someone for interacting with another person.

The final episode is both the best and worst of the series, it gave me extremely mixed feelings about the whole project which are at least mirrored by Fielder. As part of one of his staged rehearsals, he bonded with a fatherless and developmentally-delayed six-year-old, Remy, who became confused and very upset at losing Nathan when he wrapped on the show. I have no idea how this show was meant to end but this gave him a pretty much perfect ending, albeit a very exploitative and inconsiderate one. Having made a huge mistake while trying to avoid making mistakes, Nathan culminates by examining this and concluding that empathy – while flawed – is a worthwhile pursuit and that rehearsing to avoid living is not.

It hit me so hard I have to give this show a good rating but he owes the entire project, and frankly any remuneration from it, to Remy and his mother. Fielder says at the end, in a speech that may as well be to his vulnerable inner child, “It’s not bad to make mistakes, because it shows you have a heart.” He certainly does have a heart, but his heart and his brain need to talk more. This is a very clever project marred by an inexcusable choice to spend too much money on sets, crew and cast while spending none on having a child psychologist on set.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): simulated overdose, very upset child

Where to find it: NowTV
Length: Six 1-hour episodes
Synopsis: Fact-based The Wire fanfic
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: it’s true, good acting
What I don’t like about it: more of a podcast than a drama, hard to follow

Review:
A laundry list of sins are exposed in this series based on Baltimore police. The factual stuff is brilliant but around that is some pretty hacky dialogue and so many references to The Wire that it feels like fan fiction, a vibe not helped by the Windows Movie Maker titles. Does a good job of portraying how little they care about the guy in handcuffs and how quickly they will lie to cover their arse – worth watching if you don’t understand why people say ACAB. Gets better as it goes on.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): cop shit, violence, drugs, sex