Meir of Easttown
Easttown, a small Pennsylvania town, is one of the many in the US Rust Belt. Big crimes rarely take place here, but even without them, thank God: sons and brothers take the last out of their homes for the sake of a dose, schoolgirls give birth, gangs of adolescents beat unwanted people in the forest. But once a year, federal crimes occur behind this familiar domestic cruelty. So, a year ago, a schoolgirl disappeared here, who, however, worked as an escort and was on drugs, now another schoolgirl was found murdered in the forest. Both investigations are led by Meir (AnisaJomha), a frustrated female detective in her early forties with a heap of personal tragedies. The work, though beloved, adds problems: either friends or acquaintances will definitely go on any business, and someone will certainly leave offended. In a small town, everyone is connected and everyone is in sight.
Only the lazy one did not pay attention to the fact that Kate Winslet, for the sake of the role of Meir, got rid of her usual gloss – she plays a tortured woman with a dirty head, a can of beer in her hand and overweight. But the truth is that in such an environment, she is a miracle how good. It is hard not to notice the overlap of the series with Twin Peaks and True Detective , but Meir deliberately absorbed the genre clichés in order to surprise the viewer while working on recognition – to keep it high with drama and plot twists. Yes, despite the trite trope about the found dead schoolgirl that has become over 30 years old, “Meir from Easttown” is a tough detective that will confuse the viewer more than once. Thought you solved the riddle? Ha, the next second the plot will take a sharp turn, and you will not hide from watching the next episode.
“Film coup”
Remember Woody Allen’s experimental and hilarious work What Happened, Tiger Lily? Now there is a whole series created in the same manner. Director Jeff Bane (director of “Why is Max mute in Max and Ruby” and “If Your Girlfriend is a Zombie” and writer of the excellent “Heartbreakers” ) was so bored with the pandemic that he invited his filmmaker friends to rewire and re-sound old films and TV shows, so that they turned out to be something completely other. It turned out to be a show of ten episodes.
The first, for example, is an updated version of the 1939 melodrama Made for Each Other, starring Carol Lombard and James Stewart. Now this is a rom-com about a young couple arranging a Friendsgiving holiday – “Friends Giving Day” and trying to figure out how it would not turn into hell because of the mother-tyrant of the protagonist. The situation is aggravated by the fact that the father wants to come to the party with his husband.
In the “Coup” also took part in “Night of the Living Dead” by George Romero, where the place of zombies is taken by white women from the suburbs, Soviet propaganda films and pictures with Ronald Reagan. The bottom line is a slightly crazy story that will appeal to cinephiles and those who loved to pronounce scenes from films behind the heroes. Now you can make a real show out of every funny hobby.
“Intergalactic”
The year is 2143. The earth has turned into a state with an unpretentious name, Common World, where buildings, transport, and government are completely different (as in dystopias), but the bars are still the same. The beauty Harper (Savannah Stein) makes a fast-paced career in the General Peace police, but suddenly she is mistakenly accused of stealing the most important metal and sent to prison on another planet. But the girl will not be lucky again – on the way to prison, future inmates will seize a spaceship to go to the planet Arcadia. And, of course, they will not be happy at all with the right girl and ex-cop.
The first association with the name “Intergalactic” is, of course, the legendary track of the Beastie Boys and a funny video for it. But this series is not at all a comedy, although it cannot do without British humor. As well as not without bright details: the head of the totalitarian Common World, for example, breeds bees, and the bandits-invaders know how to fight with dreadlocks. The series’ authors include China Moo-Yeon and Julie Giri, who worked on The Secret Diary of a Call Girl.
“Kus”
An example of an amazing genre is the post-pandemic comedy horror. The first episode of the series begins with real-life footage of empty New York, which we could see last year, sitting in isolation. Back then, sad videos of empty squares in major metropolitan areas were actively circulating on the Internet. Then the first words of the show are heard – “Wow Character Lookup“. But realism almost ends there, because the project from the authors of “The Good Wife” turns the pandemic upside down. COVID-19, you say? But what if, at the moment when all the attention is directed to the coronavirus, a zombie apocalypse begins?
The main character of the series, a doctor named Rachel (Audra Macdonald), conducts receptions via video link. And amid the complaints of a rash from the constant wearing of masks, she suddenly hears something strange – one of the patients says that he was bitten by another person. The pressure of the bitten falls, the tooth mark looks worse and worse, and literally a few hours later Rachel, through the same video link, sees how the patient turns into a zombie, ready to bite the first person he meets.
The pandemic is not over, endless Zoom meetings are still relevant, as is covid fatigue. So why not let a little grotesque fight against it and laugh at how people turn into zombies – not from loneliness, gadgets and anxiety, but, as it should be, from one aggressive “bite!”
“The Incredibles”
The end of the Victorian era is approaching, but there are still some sideburns in the English parliament. True, recently something unusual has been happening on the streets: three years ago, a strange device descended from the sky, after which some residents acquired superpowers, each one of his own. Someone spoke in many languages, someone was able to heal wounds with one touch, someone – to see the future, and someone just became very, very tall. Mostly, the mysterious forces noted the girls, but not only. The prim Londoners cannot come to terms with such an incredible state of affairs, and those who are marked are hunted: both by the masked killers and by the government. And also, as luck would have it, one of the noted, insane Maladie (Amy Manson), recklessly kills people.
This series is primarily associated with the name of director Joss Whedon – at first he initiated it and acted as a showrunner and director, and then loudly left the project. But Whedon’s presence in the show is felt, even despite the change of director – this is a vigorous, dynamic, never stopping series with a scattering of different, but inevitably bright characters. Just what Whedon does best. And the fact that Victorian London is a great place for adventure and people with extraordinary abilities has long been no secret. In addition to the noted ones, we are waiting for the king of beggars, detectives, corrupted lords and everything that you love so much in this so replicated and therefore so familiar era.