SHOW OF THE WEEK: Brand New Cherry Flavor (Aug. 13, Netflix)
PHOTO CREDIT: Sergei Bachlakov/Netflix
Hell hath no fury like an aspiring filmmaker scorned.
This limited series, based on the occult novel by Todd Grimson and created by Nick Antosca and Lenore Zion of “Channel Zero” fame, takes a thwarted Hollywood newcomer-with-a-dream tale and turns it into a noirish nightmare of revenge, sex, witchcraft and death.
Rosa Salazar (“American Horror Story,” “Alita: Battle Angel”) is Lisa Nova, a young woman who’s come to 1990s L.A. to turn her short “paranoid thriller” into a full-length film with the help of Lou Burke (Eric Lange, “Narcos,” “Escape at Dannemora”), a producer who’s won three Oscars but who hasn’t had a hit in years.
But when Lou double crosses her, hiring another director and getting violent when Lisa demands her movie back, Lisa turns to Boro (Oscar nominee Catherine Keener), a mysterious woman she meets at a party, to put a curse on Lou.
Boro lives in a crumbling mansion with zombie servants, creating potions from guinea pig guts and other revolting substances, and makes Lisa pay for her services by vomiting up kittens.
But after the man who was meant to direct Lisa’s film is horribly injured and Lou’s son Jonathan (Daniel Doheny) almost dies, Lisa tries to call off the curse. Boro refuses and it’s clear that Lisa is in her power. Besides the kittens, she’s got a plant that’s taken over her shabby chic apartment, a scary, alien-like spirit that follows her and a terrifying being living beneath a trap door that suddenly appears in her floor.
Her one hope is to try to find out who Boro was in her past life and use that against her.
Likewise, when Lou demands that Boro reverse the curse, she advises him to fight back by digging into the darkness in Lisa’s past.
Also in the mix is movie star Roy Hardaway (Jeff Ward, “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”), who’s got a dark history of his own and becomes Lisa’s ally and romantic interest of sorts.
This could be ridiculous in the wrong hands, but Salazar, Lange and Keener, fine actors all, keep the weirdness from tipping into camp. Salazar in particular is a mesmerizing presence who brings a matter-of-fact reality to the strangeness.
And the period L.A. setting (although it was actually shot mostly in Vancouver and Burnaby, B.C.) adds a veneer of glamour-tinged sleaziness.
The series walks a line between horror, mystery and character-driven drama. It’s scary, funny, loopy and entertaining.
Netflix also has the series “Bake Squad” (Aug. 11); the comedy special “Phil Wang: Philly Philly Wang Wang” (Aug. 10); and the films “The Kissing Booth 3” (Aug. 11) and “Beckett” (Aug. 13).
Short Takes
Fantasy Island (Aug. 10, 9 p.m., Global TV)
Look, I barely remember the original “Fantasy Island,” other than Ricardo Montalban in his white suit and Herve Villechaize and “The plane! The plane!” but it would not have topped my list of TV shows that deserved remakes. In this version, Elena (Roselyn Sanchez), the great-niece of the original Mr. Roarke, is the one charged with making dreams come true, dressed all in white like her great-uncle, natch. I could only stand to screen one episode but, other than offering a more diverse, female-heavy cast, it didn’t feel to me like it had anything worth revisiting in 2021. My advice if you want to see a show about rich people in a facsimile of paradise is to watch or rewatch “The White Lotus.”
Odds and Ends
T+E is trying to do for UFOs what it did for ghost stories with the new series “Encounter: UFO” (Aug. 10, 9 p.m.). It has the usual mix of eyewitness accounts, re-enactments and talking heads in eight episodes’ worth of tales that go beyond UFO sightings to cover alleged alien encounters and abductions.
CBC and CBC Gem have the documentary “Terry Fox: The Power of One” (Aug. 9, 8 p.m.) 41 years after Fox’s Marathon of Hope and 40 years after his death from cancer.
Amazon has Season 2 of the anthology series “Modern Love” dropping Aug. 13.
If you’re a fan of the gaffer on “Line of Duty,” you might enjoy “Adrian Dunbar’s Coastal Ireland” (Aug. 9, Acorn), in which the actor takes us on a tour of his native land.
Disney Plus has “What If . . . ?” (Aug. 11), which reimagines events from Marvel Universe films.
Wrestling fans might enjoy the new Starz series “Heels,” which debuts on Crave Aug. 15. The drama is about a community of pro wrestlers in a small Georgia town. Stephen Amell of “Arrow” and Alexander Ludwig of “Vikings” star.
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.
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