Welcome to my Monday newsletter! Today I am looking at Hulu's We Were the Lucky Ones, the latest episodes of Palm Royale and The Girls on the Bus and more!
We Were the Lucky Ones is a new Hulu limited series that premiered this past week with the first three episodes. Based on the novel of the same name, it tells the harrowing tale of a Polish Jewish family ripped apart by the Holocaust and scattered in many different directions.
I watched the first three episodes and was definitely intrigued by some of it even if has a bit of a "paint by numbers" feel to the way so many limited series are produced these days. Still, it's a story worth telling and there are some interesting performances, most notably from Joey King. She really steals the show here and I found her scenes to be by far the most interesting of the first three episodes (her travel to the border in the second episode was both intense and surprisingly funny at times). King has struck the right balance for a show that can be this heavy with its subject matter.
Overall, I think there's just a few too many characters and stories to service here for it to really work as a limited series. Although it is based on a true story, these are not real characters so I feel like the show could have stood to drop about two of them from their cast. As it stands, it feels like there's not enough focus or a main thrust of the show that really helps guide the show forward. It's just jumping around in time, characters and locations so frequently.
I was mixed on this past week's episode of Palm Royale. Maybe it's because I just got done with the first three a few days before I watched episode four, but it all had a feeling of more of the same. Kristen Wiig is giving it her all, but her character needs some more dimension and motivation than just the same problem manifesting itself in different ways in each episode. I'm not really feeling a sense of escalating issues yet. There were some really great line deliveries by Allison Janney and Carol Burnett in the final scene... just spectacular. How does Burnett, past 90 years old, still have such impeccable comic timing?! The episode gave some much needed time to Laura Dern's character and brought in her real life father, Bruce Dern, to play her dad. I continue to be unimpressed by Ricky Martin. I just want more from him. I kept thinking how much I would like someone like Josh Segarra in this role.
THE GIRLS ON THE BUS "Two Americas"
The Girls on the Bus has been growing on me as I've gotten to know the characters more. They are starting to be less grating and more interesting. I enjoy that each episode has sort of taken place in a different primary state. I'm even getting on board with a lot of the whimsical nature of the show. I just could do without the fantasy elements (the random dream sequences that pop up a couple times an episode just don't fit even for a show like this). Sure, it's so far removed from the current campaign cycle and it's not exactly high-minded, but I think once I let go of the vibes from a different era and just enjoyed it for what it is, I've liked it more. Poor Griffin Dunne though. He can be really strong (look at This is Us). But he's saddled with a character that mostly speaks by phone and feels wholly unnecessary.
SCRIPTED PREMIERES THIS WEEK
It's a busy week for premieres as we head into the final stretch before the Emmy cut-off at the end of May. Tonight, the CW finally returns some of its scripted originals with the sixth season premiere of All American. Tomorrow, NBC has the second season premiere of comedy Lopez vs. Lopez, which did alright for them last year but seems to be a low priority now. On Wednesday, Apple TV+ has the second season premiere of Loot, a show that couldn't really break into the conversation with its first season while The CW has the return of Walker. On Thursday, Netflix has the premiere of Ripley, a show that was originally developed for Showtime. Also, Paramount+ has the final season premiere of one of its flagship shows, Star Trek: Discovery, a show that started way back when it was CBS All Access. On Friday, Apple TV+ has the premiere of the Colin Farrell drama Sugar while Freevee drops the final season of Alex Rider. Finally on Sunday, Hallmark has the premiere of long-running drama When Calls the Heart while MGM+ has the second season premiere of Beacon 23, just a few months after the first season ended.
ODDS & ENDS
- I finally made it through some of the third season of Girls5Eva. I was a huge fan of the first season and much more mixed on the second. I'm also mixed on the third season. As much as I love Tina Fey, there's something about her family of shows (30 Rock, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Great News and this) that always bugs me. It feels like sometimes the writing is a little too clever for its own good and the characters are in service of a joke rather than the other way around. They also seems to get more niche and more in love with their own jokes as the series continue and that's what's happening with Girls5Eva. Much has been made of its muted move to Netflix but I think it's just never going to be a show capable of finding a broad audience.
- I have officially given up on The Regime. I watched four episodes so I only had two left but that didn't even feel worth it. The show couldn't find the right tone at all and wasted an interesting concept and potentially great performance from Kate Winslet. There was an interview with a director of the show this week where he stated the message of the show is "don't vote for Trump." And I think that's the problem. It's not a problem with the sentiment but the show was so transparent about what it was trying to say that it couldn't focus on telling a great story. Succession clearly carried warnings of what could happen with the wrong people in charge of the wrong things but it never felt the need to hold our hand through its message. The Regime didn't trust its audience.
- I didn't do a longer recap of Manhunt this week but I am still enjoying the show. I just feel like there's a little more extraneous story than there needs to be to fill out a series. The time jumping and location jumping is keeping the show a little less focused than it could be. Maybe it should have been a movie?
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