IT’S just as well season five of The Handmaid’s Tale only arrives on Showmax on September 15, because that will give you time to binge some of the international series that are already available to stream.
I’ve had a conflicted relationship with The Handmaid’s Tale since season one. There are episodes when barely anything has happened. I have slept through them, played on my phone through them, and never felt like I’d missed anything important. However, I cannot not watch, as much as I tear at my hair every time June goes back to Gilead. I’m not sure what that says about the series, or me, but I think it’s a good thing.
For now, if necessary, catch up with the previous four seasons of the adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel, the story of life in the dystopia of Gilead, a totalitarian society in what was formerly the United States, where the few fertile women, known as Handmaids, struggle to survive as reproductive surrogates. Government sanctioned rape is what it is.
The show’s 15 Emmy Awards include wins for Moss, Dowd, Whitford, and Wiley, with nominations for Strahovski, Minghella, Fagbenle, and Madeline Brewer, all of whom return for the new season.
Right. Let’s have a look at what on now. Pretty Little Liars; Original Sin. Not my vibe, but this is what they say: “Twenty years ago, a series of tragic events almost ripped Millwood apart. Now, in the present day, a brand-new set of Little Liars finds themselves tormented by an unknown assailant, known only as ‘A’.
“HBO Max’s Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin revives the hit teen franchise with an eerie new setting, a sharp left into the horror that the original 2010s hit series took its time coming around to, and an all-new line-up of teens we can’t wait to meet (with the bonus of a literal Karen we can’t wait to hate).
“Created by Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’s Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Lindsay Calhoun Bring, the slasher series has an 88% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with The Daily Beast headlining, ‘Believe It or Not, Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin Is the Next Great Teen Drama.’ As Decider says, ‘It’s The Breakfast Club meets Scream, and it’s a breezy blast that’s perfect for summer.'”
Well, when they put it like that, it looks like it’s worth a watch even if you’re not in the teen demographic. Widen those viewing horizons, I always say.
The biographical drama series The Offer is inspired by Oscar-winning producer Albert S Ruddy’s never-before-revealed experiences of making the 1972 smash-hit gangster classic The Godfather, and is everything I love in a series – it’s set between New York and Hollywood in the 1970s, it has the Mafia, it’s about making a movie, and that movie is one of the greatest of all time. The book is appalling though. I read it fairly recently and I wanted to throw up many times; the writing is abysmal and the sex scenes are horrendous. Anyway. The Offer is brilliant and I enjoyed every moment of the 10 episodes.
We Own This City was co-created by David Simon (The Wire – still “the greatest TV series of the 21st Century”, according to a 2021 BBC Culture Critics’ poll) and George Pelecanos (Simon’s co-creator on The Deuce) – impeccable credentials – this series chronicles the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department’s Gun Trace Task Force and the corruption and moral collapse that befell an American city in which the policies of drug prohibition and mass arrest were championed at the expense of actual police work.
Adapted from Justin Fenton’s non-fiction book of the same name, We Own This City has a 93% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the critics’ consensus calling it “a spiritual successor to The Wire”. Requires concentration, but worth the effort.
Ah George Carlin. What a guy. Regarded as one of the most important and influential stand-up comedians of all time, his counter-culture comedy lives on. Besides that, he was so darn clever. And right about so many things. The two-part HBO documentary George Carlin’s American Dream is nominated for five Emmys this year, including Best Documentary Special and Directing (Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio, legends themselves). I think I’ll watch this tonight.
George Carlin’s American Dream holds a 100% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus calls it, “an exhaustive and revealing retrospective on the beloved comedian’s career that ought to be mandatory viewing for standup fans.”
Based on Michael Connelly’s 2014 novel The Burning Room, the seventh and final season of Bosch sees Harry Bosch (People’s Choice Award winner Titus Welliver, Sons Of Anarchy, pictured) investigating the death of a 10-year-old girl in a fire caused by arson. Risking everything to bring her killer to justice despite opposition from powerful forces, Bosch must make good on his credo: “Everybody counts or nobody counts”.
Well, having just learned from that paragraph that it was the final season, which is only eight episodes and I watched them all yesterday, has just ruined my day. That’s how it ends? I object most strenuously.
Season seven has a 100% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Lance Reddick (John Wick) and Madison Lintz (The Walking Dead) returning in their Saturn Award-nominated roles as Irvin Irving and Maddie Bosch respectively, along with Emmy nominee Mimi Rogers (Captive) as Honey Chandler, and Black Reel nominee Jamie Hector (We Own This City, The Wire) as J Edgar.
Moving on to later in the month, from September 15 you can watch The Staircase, for which Oscar winner Colin Firth and Oscar nominee Toni Collette (both pictured below) are nominated for Outstanding Actress and Actor in a Limited Series at this year’s Emmys for the biographical drama series. The Emmys will be presented on September 13.
The star-studded cast includes Emmy nominees Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark in Game of Thrones) and Michael Stuhlbarg (Boardwalk Empire), Oscar winner Juliette Binoche (Chocolat, and another “wow, look at her now” moment), Teen Choice nominee Patrick Schwarzenegger (Midnight Sun, yes he’s their son), MTV Movie & TV Award nominee Parker Posey (Scream 3), and Olivia DeJonge (Priscilla in Elvis).
Last but not least, season two of Industry lands on September 23. I found this one by chance some months ago in the “people also watched” tips and was immediately hooked. Created by former bankers Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, Industry follows new bankers Harper (Myha’la Herrold, pictured), Yasmin (Marisa Abela) and Robert (Harry Lawtey) as they forge their identities within the sex- and drug-fuelled pressure cooker environment of Pierpoint & Co’s London office. Lots of sex and drugs. Like really lots. I cannot overstate it.
Rated 18LSDN, season one won casting and cinematography awards from The Royal Television Society Awards in 2021 and earned five-star reviews in places like The Guardian and The Independent, who hailed it as, “A millennial Mad Men with plenty of swagger… the kind of thrillingly fresh series that only comes along once every few years, a drama that makes its rivals look tired and uninspired….” As Vanity Fair put it, it’s like “the missing link between Euphoria and Succession.”