Screen Stuff Podcast

Fahrenheit 451, with briefer takes on Dear White People (season 2), The Handmaid’s Tale (season 2), The New Girl (the final season), Avengers: Infinity War, and director Hiro Murai’s work on Barry and Atlanta, among other topics.

Paul and Elgin review #Fahrenheit451:

Fahrenheit 451 (29:30) on HBO, adapted and directed by Ramin Bahrani and starring Michael B. Jordan and Michael Shannon. Based on the 1953 novel (of the same name) by Ray Bradbury, this latest adaptation, starring big-name Hollywood talent, must not only compete with the futuristic dystopias depicted in several recent dramas but also address the technological advances (including the rise of e-books and cloud computing) of our present time. Do Bahrani and his creative collaborators succeed in updating the source material to make a compelling piece speaking to contemporary attitudes toward literature, mass media, and critical, nuanced thinking? We explore that central question and also discuss the state of the TV network-originated movie more broadly.

The Last O.G., with briefer takes on Pacific Rim: Uprising and The Lost in Space reboot on Netflix.

Elgin and Paul chat about #TheLastOG:

TBS’s The Last O.G., created by John Carcieri and Jordan Peele and starring Tracy Morgan and Tiffany Haddish. After a terrible auto accident in 2014, the controversial SNL alum Morgan returns to the small screen–this time on basic cable–to play Tray Barker, a Brooklyn man who’s just finished a 15-year sentence for selling drugs. In modern day, gentrified Brooklyn, Tray tries to win back the woman he lost, Shay (who’s played by Haddish), while getting to know the two kids he didn’t know he had. We discuss what this show, which by turns is raucous, poignant, silly, smart, and potentially offensive, offers fans of the “Tracy Jordan” persona and others less familiar with Morgan’s previous work.

Barry, with briefer takes on High Maintenance (HBO’s season 2), screen supremacy for Sunday night (the latest seasons of Showtime’s Homeland and Billions versus HBO’s and AMC’s past offerings), and Atlanta (season 2 on FX, a.k.a. Robbin’ Season, with a focus on the episode “Teddy Perkins“).

Paul and Elgin review #HBOBarry:

HBO’s Barry (27:05), created by Alec Berg (who’s also an executive producer on Silicon Valley) and SNL alum Bill Hader and starring the latter as the titular Barry, a contract killer who gets the acting bug while on a job in LA. Does this half-hour mashup of two well-worn genres (crime drama and Hollywood satire) sizzle or fizzle? What’s the tone here–and does it work? And does Henry Winkler, as an acting guru to Barry and other wannabe actors, give another performance as memorable as his turn as the Fonz?

Killing Eve, with briefer takes on Netflix potentially buying a movie theater chain, the impact of MoviePass, and Ready Player One.

Elgin and Paul review #KillingEve:

Killing Eve (29:30) on BBC America, adapted for the small screen by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (of Fleabag fame) from the Villanelle novels by Luke Jennings and starring Sandra Oh (as the titular Eve Polastri, a MI5 analyst) and Jodie Comer (as Villanelle, a professional assassin). Does this cat-and-mouse drama (dark comedy?) bring us something fresh besides having two women at its center? Though Eve is white in the novels, the TV role was written for Sandra Oh. What does casting Oh, a Korean American, do for the narrative? And what’s with the odd tone of this show? Does it work?

The Looming Tower.

Paul and Elgin review #TheLoomingTower:

Hulu’s The Looming Tower, based on the 2006 nonfiction book of the same title by Lawrence Wright., stars Jeff Daniels, Tahar Rahim, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Peter Sarsgaard. This ten-episode drama explores the failures in the U.S. intelligence community (most of  them having to do with the rivalry and differences in strategies between the FBI and CIA) in the years leading up to 9/11. Does this dramatization bring us any new insights into real-life events (as other fairly recent shows like The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story have)?

Ugly Delicious.

Elgin and Paul check out #UglyDelicious:

Ugly Delicious, a new documentary series from Netflix, produced by and starring Momofuku chef David Chang and New York Times food critic Peter Meehan. Rather than covering a single place, as do so many other food and travel shows, this one focuses on a particular type of food (such as pizza, fried chicken, or fried rice) and delves deeper into how it’s thought about, prepared, and consumed across the globe.

Featuring several culinary luminaries (such as Mark Iacono of Lucali, Roy Choi of Kogi, and René Redzepi of Noma) and on-screen celebrities (such as Aziz Ansari, Steven Yeun, and Ali Wong), the show explores and deconstructs our notions of authenticity, high and low cuisine, and cultural culinary fusion and appropriation. In many ways quite personal, Chang and Meehan’s new series doesn’t shy away from tough issues surrounding food and racism even as they celebrate how cross-border migrations can transform culture and cuisine. We share our deeply personal connections to this dear screen stuff, and Paul points out some of the blind spots the creators may have.