AMC announced this week that it has greenlit an "Interview With the Vampire" TV series. I can't wait for the characters on "What We Do in the Shadows" to respond. |
This weekend I have … an hour, and I like lawyer shows. |
| Christine Baranski and Delroy Lindo in a scene from "The Good Fight."Patrick Harbron/CBS |
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When to watch: Now, on Paramount+. |
Season 4 of "The Good Fight" was derailed by the pandemic, so Season 5 begins with a combination catch-up and reset, cramming in all the events of the last many months and sending off Luca (Cush Jumbo) and Adrian (Delroy Lindo). Sometimes watching "The Good Fight" feels like getting away with something because it makes a lot of moves other shows theoretically could but generally don't: It confronts real-world current events, experiments with structure and tone and always saves room for a little wink-wink moment. New episodes debut Thursdays. |
… two hours, and I care about production values. |
| From left foreground: Emmy DeOliveira, Mystic Inscho, Seth Carr and Marta Timofeeva in "The Mysterious Benedict Society."Diyah Pera/Disney |
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'The Mysterious Benedict Society' |
When to watch: Arrives Friday, on Disney+. |
The first episode of this kids' show is called "A Bunch of Smart Orphans," and if you've ever seen or read anything else that fits that mold, you get the idea: Plucky adventurers with lonely back stories find themselves at a magical school where their talents are finally appreciated and are also essential to some kind of world-saving endeavor. The plot is perfectly functional, but the bigger draw for adult viewers is the set and costume design, which kind of feel like a Wes Anderson version of "Matilda." |
… three hours, and Tokyo is mere weeks away. |
| Laurie Hernandez performing her balance beam routine during the U.S. Classic gymnastics competition in May.Aj Mast/Associated Press |
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'Golden: The Journey of USA's Elite Gymnasts' |
When to watch: Starts Sunday, on Peacock. |
This new documentary series is in a tricky spot timing-wise: Some of the gymnasts it profiles, including Laurie Hernandez, are already out of the running for the 2021 Tokyo games. That casts the tale as more bittersweet than strictly anticipatory, which in some ways creates a richer depiction of the life of an elite athlete but in others makes you understand why oracles are sometimes depicted as sad. NBC's gymnastics announcing is abysmal, so if you plan to watch Simone Biles but want more context for other members of her team and for gymnastics in general, watch this. (Biles has her own, unrelated doc series on Facebook Watch, which is also pretty good.) |
The first three episodes of "Golden" drop this weekend, and the next three arrive weekly, each Wednesday from July 7. |
Your newly available movies |
| Ilana Glazer and Justin Theroux in "False Positive."Anna Kooris/Hulu |
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This week's most notable movies are all micro-targeted: Fans of the "Broad City" star Ilana Glazer may be interested in "False Positive," a Hulu horror-comedy indebted to "Rosemary's Baby"; fans of Liam Neeson thrillers can watch him get in another slippery predicament in Netflix's "The Ice Road"; and fans of the indie iconoclasts Abel Ferrara and Willem Dafoe can see their sixth collaboration, "Siberia." None were Critics' Picks, but they certainly have their constituencies. |
Some independent films are available via "virtual cinemas," which share the rental fees between distributors and theaters. Unless otherwise noted, other titles can generally be rented on the usual platforms, including Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu and YouTube. SCOTT TOBIAS |
Despite its vaguely unsettling clinical ambience, very little about the film, as it makes its way to an ultimately flat and predictable final twist, manages to feel tense or thrilling. Or even funny for that matter. — Beatrice Loayza (Read the full review here.) |
Written and directed by Jonathan Hensleigh, "The Ice Road" musters more tension than credibility. Despite the valorous efforts of all involved — the movie was filmed without the use of a green screen — the action is at times incomprehensible. — Jeannette Catsoulis (Read the full review here.) |
The heart of this movie, directed by Eytan Rockaway, is the relationship between the writer and his subject. So it's dismaying when "Lansky" turns out to include flashbacks, with John Magaro ("First Cow") playing a much flatter version of the mobster as a young man. — Ben Kenigsberg (Read the full review here.) |
'My Heart Can't Beat Unless You Tell It To' |
[The director] Jonathan Cuartas teams up with his brother, the cinematographer Michael Cuartas, and father, the production designer Rodrigo Cuartas, to make a film about a household of murderers. This may be dark fodder for a family project, but the result is a visually striking meditation on obligation and complicity. — Lena Wilson (Read the full review here.) |
Visually, [the director Abel Ferrara] sends him on eerie flights through day-for-night wilderness and into vertiginous caverns and sanctums (haunted by wistful musical motifs composed by Joe Delia). The film (co-written by Ferrara and Christ Zois) ends enigmatically, as dreams do. That refusal to stage an orderly conclusion or redemption might be the boldest thing about the movie. — Nicolas Rapold (Read the full review here.) |
| Titus Welliver in a scene from the final season of "Bosch."Hopper Stone |
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- The seventh and final season of "Bosch" is now streaming on Amazon. Weep not, though; there's already a spinoff in the works, with Titus Welliver continuing as Bosch.
- The season finale of "Mythic Quest" is now streaming on Apple TV+.
- "The Choe Show," a warped interview show from the artist David Choe, airs all four of its episodes, back-to-back, Friday starting at 10 p.m. on FX.
- "E60 Presents: What We're Made Of," a short documentary about the vaccine pioneer Dr. Katalin Kariko and her daughter, Susan Francia, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in rowing, arrives Saturday on ESPN+.
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