Month: August 2021 (Page 2 of 2)

SHOW OF THE WEEK: Mr. Corman (Aug. 6, Apple TV Plus)

Meet Joshua Corman, a grade school teacher with a perfectly human imperfect life.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who wrote, directed, executive-produced and stars in “Mr. Corman,” created his lead character as a kind of alter ego to himself: a man who, like him, grew up in the San Fernando Valley with aspirations to become a rock star, but whose life didn’t take the fortunate turns that Gordon-Levitt’s did.

Gordon-Levitt, obviously, never became a rock star, but he’s a highly respected TV and movie star as well as a director, producer, songwriter, and a husband and father of two.

Joshua hasn’t had it quite as good: he gave up on music to become a fifth grade teacher, split up with his fiancee and lives in a modest L.A. apartment with his high school friend Victor (Arturo Castro, “Narcos,” “Broad City”).

It’s not that Joshua has a bad life. He himself acknowledges how lucky he is, especially compared to the street person he’s forever noticing as he moves around L.A.

But if perfect is the enemy of good, Mr. Corman is often the enemy of his own good in his reluctance to accept the imperfect.

“It just feels like I blew the whole thing, like I suck as a person,” he tells his mother, Ruth, played by Debra Winger.

Joshua suffers anxiety attacks, which are signified onscreen by a loud clanging noise and a flaming CGI meteor speeding toward Earth. (The series mixes sometimes whimsical animation and special effects with its live action, including a gravity-defying dance number between Winger and Gordon-Levitt.) 

Even when he’s not having attacks, Joshua is apt to find fault with whatever’s going on, which pisses off the people around him, including his mother, his sister Beth (Shannon Woodward), his ex Megan (Juno Temple) and the women he half-heartedly attempts to date. This contrasts with his roomie Victor, a divorced dad and UPS driver who always finds the glass half full.

By series end, there is some hope for Joshua; not that his life is likely to change in earth-shattering ways (although he does commit to making music again and to giving romance a shot) but that he stands a better chance of embracing its imperfection.

“Mr. Corman” has its subtle comic moments, but it’s also a modest, thought-provoking drama, one that might have you reflecting on the paths your own life took.

Small Town News: KPVM Pahrump (Aug. 2, 9 p.m., HBO/Crave)

I confess I started watching “Small Town News” expecting it to be a real-life version of TV comedy “WKRP in Cincinnati” or even “SCTV” with its Melonville TV network. And in some ways it did not disappoint.

KPVM, the privately owned TV station in Pahrump, Nevada, that is the subject of the docuseries, has its share of unusual characters and comic situations. 

Certain scenes will put you in mind of the Les Nessmans, Earl Camemberts and Ted Baxters of the TV world, like station owner Vern trying repeatedly to pronounce “Deepak Chopra”; or weatherman John, a former member of the “Portly Presleys,” giving the forecast in an Elvis costume; or customer Barbara, who has her own show, singing about spaceships and her supposed fling with Michael Jackson. 

(News director Deanna says of Barbara: “I have kind of a personal relationship with her ever since she was kidnapped by aliens.”)

But the show also highlights a serious issue in journalism: the dwindling of independent news sources as tech giants like Facebook and Google continue to hog advertising dollars while media conglomerates gobble up the outlets that have managed to survive.

KPVM is just one of 95 independently owned news stations that still exist in the U.S., the series tells us.

What’s more, as unintentionally funny as the employees of KVPM can be, they clearly care about their jobs and about getting out the news in their little corner of the world.

Sure, there are small dogs lounging under the anchor desk during broadcasts, and John wears shorts with his suit jacket and tie, and the station-made ads have catchphrases like “When’s the last time you had a mouthful of Big Dick’s pizza?” but the workers endure, for the station and for each other.

We follow them from January to November 2020, through the COVID-19 pandemic and the presidential election — Trump fan Vern is convinced the election of Joe Biden will sink the business. But when we leave them, they’ve just expanded into Las Vegas an hour away, reporting news from the larger city and opening a second station there.

“You don’t see this from individuals as much anymore,” says Vern. “This is all done by big corporations who have large funding and we’ve really worked hard to get to this point.

“The fact that Pahrump, Nevada, a small town of this size, has a TV station, it’s very rare,” he adds. “The thing of it is we’re still succeeding at KPVM-TV because we have a lot of great people who work for us, to cruise through the difficult times.”

Short Takes

Hinterland (Aug. 2, Acorn TV)

With its austere landscapes and sometimes impenetrable accents, “Hinterland” often feels more like a Scandinavian than a British crime drama. Set in Aberystwyth, Wales, it stars Richard Harrington (“Poldark,” “Gangs of London”) as DCI Tom Matthias, a good detective with a messy personal life (aren’t they all?), a tendency to put himself in harm’s way and a keen sense of justice. He alternately impresses and frustrates his colleagues — including Mali Harries as DI Mared Rhys, Hannah Daniel as DS Sian Owen and Alex Harries as DC Lloyd Ellis — and his shadowy boss, Chief Superintendent Brian Prosser (Aneirin Hughes). In case those names don’t give you a hint, the main cast are all Welsh and the series was filmed in Wales. It presents an interesting selection of homicides that go beyond the run-of-the-mill young woman raped and murdered plots of so many crime dramas as well as an ongoing mystery involving the abuse of children at a residential school.

Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union (Aug. 3, 9 p.m., HBO/Crave)

I watched the first part of this three-part docuseries trying to figure out why this biography of former U.S. president Barack Obama is coming out now. The best answer I can venture, based on pre-release publicity, is that it’s meant to add to the conversation about America’s racial reckoning by looking back at the political career of the country’s only Black president. But based on what I saw, and I confess I didn’t have the time or inclination to watch the other two parts, it feels like standard bio-doc territory. There doesn’t seem to be anything here that anyone interested in Obama wouldn’t already know about. Nor did doc maker Peter Kunhardt get fresh interviews with Obama or wife Michelle, although he does feature commentary from influential Black Americans like Ta-Nehisi Coates, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.

Crave also has the doc “Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street” premiering on Aug. 2; the British drama “Anne Boleyn,” a re-examination of Henry VIII’s most famous wife, on Aug. 6; and Season 2 of “The L Word: Generation Q” on Aug. 8.

Odds and Ends

Netflix has the Israeli American crime thriller “Hit & Run” (Aug. 3), which I was all set to tell you about until I realized that reviews are embargoed until Tuesday. It also debuts “Cooking With Paris” (Aug. 4), as in Paris Hilton, who makes food with celebrity friends like Kim Kardashian and Demi Lovato.

Amazon Prime Video has the documentary “Val” (Aug. 6), about actor Val Kilmer, which brought renewed attention to the “Top Gun” star when it recently debuted at the Cannes Film Festival.

If you missed the marijuana-dealing dramedy “Weeds” in its original eight-season run, Super Channel Fuse has the whole thing on demand as of Aug. 4 or if you want an old-fashioned pre-binge experience you can watch four episodes every Tuesday beginning Aug. 3 at 9 p.m.

BritBox has Season 2 of the Bath-set crime drama “McDonald & Dodds” (Aug. 3), starring familiar face Jason Watkins and Tala Gouveia.

NOTE: The times listed here are in Eastern Standard Time, and reflect information provided to me and cross-checked where possible, but it’s always best to check listings for your own area. The selection of programs reviewed reflects what I’m given access to by networks and streamers, whether reviews are embargoed, how many shows I have time to watch and my own personal taste.