Watchable July 19 to 25, 2021

Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage (July 23, 9 p.m., HBO/Crave)

I had two thoughts after watching this documentary film, part of “Music Box,” a new series by Bill Simmons exploring pivotal moments in music: How did more people not die? And thank goodness I wasn’t there.

Not that I would have been: the original Woodstock, which the ’99 festival was meant to emulate, happened when I was 7; and I was well past the demographic that thinks braving the elements and peeing in Porta Potties is an acceptable tradeoff for a concert experience by the time ’99 happened.

This doc’s POV about Woodstock ’99, in case you were still wondering, is that it was a disaster. You’ll not hear from fans raving that they had the time of their lives. After watching footage of attendees packed into a former air force base in Rome, N.Y., in 110 F heat without adequate water; of backed up portable toilets and people literally smeared in shit and piss; of mobs of young men roaming the grounds fixated on “titties”; of the Night 3 riot that included looting and burning everything in sight, I can’t disagree that the festival looks in hindsight like one of Dante’s circles of hell.

The official toll was one dead — David DeRosia, who died of hyperthermia due to overheating during the Metallica set — 44 arrests; eight sexual assaults, although it’s estimated there were hundreds more; and one big black eye for the promoters. (Curiously, the doc omits the number of physical injuries in its statistics, although an ambulance technician who was there says medical staff were transporting 1,000 people a night from the scene overcome by the heat.)

The various talking heads in the film, interspersed with footage of the event, try to pin down a why for the mayhem that ensued, which is perhaps a fool’s errand.

Among the targets are promoters Michael Lang and John Scher. Scher, in particular, does himself no favours in footage of the daily press conferences on site, being combative and dismissive with journalists bringing up the problems they were seeing. He also, in an interview, blames the victims for all the instances of women being groped by men in the crowd.

Also faulted in the film: MTV, which covered the event live; an audience made up largely of young, white men and some of the bands that played, with the latter criticized for fuelling unrest in the crowd.

One does wonder what geniuses thought packing 220,000 or so people onto a largely asphalt surface in searing July heat was a good idea. The security guards, largely undertrained and unprofessional according to the doc, were confiscating water from attendees, and bottles of it were selling for $4 apiece, an outrageous price back in 1999. Among other things, the doc shows people bathing in fountains meant to provide free drinking water and a long line for the ATMs as concert-goers sought more cash so they could pay to stay hydrated and fed.

Some of the interviewees say the problems began with trying to replicate a 30-year-old event that wasn’t as idyllic as it was made out to be at a time of social unrest in the United States (it was the year of Columbine and Y2K), with a lineup that included bands that appealed mainly to angry young men.

Obviously outdoor music festivals can happen without turning into “Lord of the Flies” — the film mentions Coachella, which began just a few months after Woodstock ’99 and is still going strong — but it strikes me it’s not a bad thing that plans for Woodstock 50 fell apart.

Short Takes

In Their Own Words, Season 2 (July 20, 8 p.m., PBS)

The new season of this docuseries about the lives of people who have transformed history, told in their own words but mostly the words of others, kicks off with Pope Francis, the former Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Obviously such a series seems predisposed to take a positive view of its subjects, although the episode does mention the Pope’s missteps, especially his early mishandling of reports of sexual abuse by clergy in Chile. There is no question Francis has also done good, particularly in his focus on the plight of migrants, the destruction of the planet and the role of women in the Church, even if those efforts haven’t led to substantive change. Future episodes profile Chuck Berry and Diana, Princess of Wales.

Behind the Attraction (July 21, Disney Plus)

Look, I can’t pretend that this 10-part series is anything more than an extended promotion for Disneyland, but if you enjoy the theme park or just aspire to go someday, you might like this insiders’ view of its more popular rides and displays. I screened the first episode, which looks at the history of its “Star Wars”-themed Star Tours as well as the newish Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. And I’m not gonna lie: Disneyland has never been on my wish list of places to visit, but I was kind of itching for a chance to pilot the Millennium Falcon. Other episodes cover It’s a Small World, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, the Castles, Space Mountain, the Haunted Mansion, the Hall of Presidents, the Jungle Cruise, the Disneyland Hotel, and the park’s trains, trams and monorails.

Turner & Hooch (July 21, Disney Plus)

This series is a sequel of sorts to the 1989 movie with the son of the original Scott Turner (Tom Hanks), also named Scott (Josh Peck, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”), teaming up with a dog named Hooch who’s the spitting image of the drooly movie canine. The premise is that Scott Sr. has died, leaving the dog to his son, a rookie U.S. marshal, who spends a big part of the first episode predictably resisting the ill-behaved Hooch. But, of course, Hooch ends up helping Scott and his partner (Carra Patterson) crack a case and then gets assigned to the canine unit. I only had time to watch one episode, which veered unconvincingly between a corny, family-friendly comedy and a cop drama with explosions, car chases and shootouts. Personally, if I wanted to watch a show about dogs and police officers working together, I’d tune in to Citytv’s “Hudson & Rex.”

Sexy Beasts (July 21, Netflix)

The word that came to my mind after watching one episode of this new reality series was “vapid,” which seemed a good fit for both the premise and the contestants. The ostensible idea is that by having everyone dressed in weird costumes, the daters and their potential flames can bypass looks to fall for someone based on their personality. But in the premiere, demon Emma appeared to make her choice from three men dressed as a mandrill, a mouse and a statue based on how much she enjoyed snogging one of them. I can’t see how she would have deduced anything about their personalities based on the brief snippets of shallow conversation we overhead on their speed dates. At least on “Love Is Blind,” in which men and women also formed connections without laying eyes on each other, the couples talked about subjects beyond “What’s the craziest place you’ve ever had sex?” I don’t get the impression that “Sexy Beasts” is focused on anyone getting engaged or married. Just as well. I figure the most these pairs can hope for are a few weeks of hooking up.

Netflix also debuts animated superhero series “Masters of the Universe: Revelation” on July 23, but reviews of that one are embargoed until Wednesday.

Odds and Ends

If you’ve followed Keeley Hawes’ career through shows like “Spooks” (a.k.a. “MI-5”), “Bodyguard,” “Honour” and “Line of Duty,” you might want to add the 2008 “Life on Mars” sequel “Ashes to Ashes” to your viewing list, in which she stars alongside Philip Glenister (“Belgravia”) as a time-travelling police psychologist and detective. It comes to BritBox July 20.

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.

This post has been updated to add “Turner & Hooch” to the list of reviews.