Apple TV+ announced today that “Long Way Up,” a follow-up to “Long Way Round” (2004) and “Long Way Down” (2007) will premiere on Sept. 18. The shows follow Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman on monthslong motorcycle trips, and I loved the first two series back in the day. (They’re not currently streaming, but I’m lighting a candle in the hopes they become available in connection with the new iteration.) Ah, travel. |
I believe anti-science and ignorance harm society |
 | | A scene from “Connected.”Netflix |
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There’s a boomlet of explainer shows right now, and “Connected” is among the more lavish and exciting, with the host Latif Nasser traveling the world on all kinds of science adventures to explain broad concepts in quirky detail. If your household already enjoys “Brainchild” or cheery inquisitiveness, or if you feel energized by the panic-relief cycle that comes from learning at once about a horrible aspect of our existence and about the scientists who already study, treat or prevent it, watch this. |
Nasser is the director of research at “Radiolab” and host of the podcast “The Other Latif,” and “Connected” uses the podcast-y intonation of mentioning a vague concept, and then? asking? if you even really know what it is?, before cranking the sounds from the audio library — clang clang clang — and then racing to a quirky! charming! maybe philosophical! line arguing that dust is the most significant substance in our universe or whatever. (“Dust” is the third episode. I preferred “Digits,” which is the fourth.) |
Several podcasts are being adapted directly for television, but we’re also seeing the broader influence of podcast and internet aesthetics on television generally. The shift from authority-from-certainty to one of authority-from-curiosity is one part of that. |
 | | A scene from Season 1 of “Harley Quinn.” Aquaman, bye bye.WBTV |
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- The racy, fantastic cartoon “Harley Quinn,” which streams on DC Universe and aired recently on Syfy, is now streaming on HBO Max, too.
- “Chez Jolie Coiffure,” a documentary about a Cameroonian hair braider in Brussels, airs Monday at 10 p.m. on PBS. (Check local listings.)
- “John Lewis: Celebrating a Hero,” a one-hour tribute to John Lewis hosted by Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, Gayle King and Brad Pitt, airs Tuesday at 10 p.m. on CBS.
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Your newly available online movies |
 | | Gemma Arterton, left, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw in “Summerland.”Michael Wharley/IFC Films |
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Not a single Critic’s Pick among the 14 new films released online last week, but there’s a wealth of documentaries: Taking a break from big-budget Hollywood productions, the director Ron Howard visits a California community devastated by a 2018 wildfire in“Rebuilding Paradise.” “The Fight” looks closely at four cases that the American Civil Liberties Union has recently brought to court. And “Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind” catches up with an 81-year-old Canadian singer-songwriter as he ruminates about his time as a folk-pop hitmaker. |
Some independent films are available via “virtual cinemas,” which share the rental fee between the distributor and the art-house theater of your choice. |
Other titles can generally be rented on the usual platforms — Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu and YouTube — unless noted otherwise. — Scott Tobias |
| The movie is concerned not with simple boosterism but with showing the inner workings of building a case: how potential clients are identified, what arguments get made, how lawyers prepare for court appearances and how arcane matters of law affect real lives. — Ben Kenigsberg (Read the full review here.) |
| Lightfoot is frank about sizing up [his] work — the movie opens with him expressing disdain for the sexism of his early hit “For Lovin’ Me” — and he’s refreshingly up-to-date in his perspectives about today’s music. Driving around Toronto, he sees a billboard of the hip-hop artist Drake and starts enthusiastically praising his countryman. — Glenn Kenny (Read the full review here.) |
| A film like “Rebuilding Paradise” could be made about other climate-change-driven catastrophes — a notion that the closing montage makes explicit. But this particular movie has a special timeliness: Watching Paradise’s high schoolers graduate at their athletic field — something initially thought to be improbable — inevitably raises the question of how the district will fare through the pandemic. — Ben Kenigsberg (Read the full review here.) |
| The filmmakers chose two charismatic leads whose good-natured chemistry makes the contrivances of public betrayals and club breakups feel fun. The directors also demonstrate agreeable ease in adapting the formulaic plot to fit their South African setting. — Teo Bugbee (Read the full review here.) |
| Warm and soft and benignly manipulative — the movie’s sole death is scandalously opportune — “Summerland” brims with genteel sentiment and British briskness. Arterton is a wonderful actor, when not constrained by picture-book settings and prickly-spinster clichés. And an ending so contrived it will blow your mind. — Jeannette Catsoulis (Read the full review.) |
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