Three new series – Netflix’s “Supacell,” Prime Video’s “My Lady Jane” and Apple TV+’s “Land of Women” — debut this week, while “The Bear,” beloved by viewers and critics alike, drops all 10 episodes of Season 3 on your streaming platter — at once.
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Which one serves up the best meal? Read on.
We also pint you to a superior but disturbing film on Shudder, a riveting drama that’s set almost entirely in a New York taxi cab and an A24 coming-of-age debut feature about an 11-year-old girl realizing mom is indeed flawed and human. We also highly recommend motoring your way over to see “The Bikeriders,” during its second week of release.
“The Bear Season 3”: Showrunners Joanna Calo and Christopher Storer whip up a savory, absolutely delicious third course for fans of the Emmy-winning FX series. It picks up immediately after the chaos wrought in Season 2’s intense finale that involved a “Family and Friends” dinner going topsy-turvy at a new restaurant. Episode 1 finds obsessive Chicago chef Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) out of the the walk-in fridge he got trapped in and is now stewing in a hangover of regret and self doubt having unwittingly severed his relationship with nurse Claire (Molly Gordon) while offending everyone else around him.
With the official opening of his swanky The Bear restaurant looming soon and news of a restaurant review coming out, everyone working in front of the house and in back of it, along with financial backer and Berzatto family friend Jimmy (Oliver Platt) are on tenterhooks and at loggerheads. Carmy’s insistence to create a Michelin-starred new menu every night strains everyone to their breaking point, specifically level-headed, supremely talented chef/potential co-owner Sydney (Ayo Edebiri, capable of channeling so much with one resigned glance) who suffers from imposter syndrome; the hot-headed head of the front of the house Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach, explosively vulnerable again)’ and dessert chef Marcus (Lionel Boyce), a series fave now burdened with grief.
True to the show’s high standards, each episode contains some of the sharpest writing and the best acting (Edebiri’s panic attack almost gave me one) in a regular series, and polishes all of its various details, from the appropriate soundtrack that reflects each episode’s mood to the care, respect and admiration shown to the restaurant world and all its hard-working, worn-out staff and chefs. The love extends to the city of Chicago.
Each character remains terribly/fantastically flawed, vulnerable and relatable, and the show invites back unforgettable guest stars, including Jamie Lee Curtis as the bad-history momma bear of Carmy and Natalie (Abby Elliott); Joel McHale as Carmy’s soul-crushing mentor who gives him the PTSD jitters now; Olivia Colman as his more compassionate mentor who’s an executive chef of one of the best restaurants, and more. Foodies will especially appreciate the culinary game changers who get cameos, including The French Laundry’s Thomas Keller, amongst others.
Season 3 centers on the struggles surrounding loss and rebirth as well as the joy and pain of creating something new with ties from the past. My favorite episode (6) was written by Edebiri and relates how a beaten-down, laid-off Tina (Liza Colon-Zayas, likely to score an Emmy nomination next year) landed the job at The Original Beef of Chicagoland and became a chef. It’s simply beautiful in how it depicts kindness from a stranger. By the times season 10 ends (in a cliffhanger) you’ll be hungering for another return visit. Details: 4 stars; all 10 episodes now available on Hulu.
“Supacell”: Two frequent complaints about superhero movies are that they rehash the same tired tropes, and that they rely and a white savior to save the planet, universe or whatever. But British filmmaker and rapper/producer Rapman puts a refreshing spin on the much-maligned genre. His six-part Netflix series revolves around five unsuspecting Black South Londoners who suddenly attain superpowers. The acclaimed “Blue Story” filmmaker injects a gritty, streetwise feel to the show as his group of five — a delivery driver (Tosin Cole) who sees the future and wants to reverse his girlfriend’s fate; a nurse (Nadine Mills) with super-human strength; an ex-con dad (Eric Kofi-Abrefa) trying to do good by his teen son; a small-time drug dealer (Calvin Demba) with “Flash”-like speed; and a power-seeking gang member (Josh Tedeku) — cross paths and realize they are bound not only by superpowers but have stumbled upon a secretive operation targeting Black people. With a killer soundtrack and an unpredictable storyline, Rapman’s series is one of the best streaming surprises of the summer. Details: 3 stars; drops June 27 on Netflix.
“My Lady Jane”: For those wishing “Bridgerton” would get a bit more irreverent and even throw in a few sexy shapeshifters into its mix should check out Prime Video’s eight-part series about the titular queen-for-a-few-days — historical inaccuracies and tragic outcomes and all. Creator Gemma Burgess furnishes “Lady Jane” with two appealing leads: Emily Bader, delivering just the right snark as the 16th-century upstart heroine; and a sigh-worthy Edward Bluemel, ably playing her shape-changing dear heart Guildford Dudley. Both bring the heat as well as the angst (this is, after all, based on a YA series). And they are aided by a spirited supporting cast — Jordan Peters as a targeted King Edward, Dominic Cooper as the susceptible Lord Seymour, Anna Chancellor as the sexual Lady Frances Grey and Kate O’Flynn, as the delightfully villainous Princess Mary. They enliven the proceedings even when “My Lady Jane” totters a bit. Is it better than “Bridgerton”? Oh no, dearest readers. But it’s still a lot of kooky fun. Details: 3 stars; all episodes drop June 27 on Prime Video.
“Land of Women”: The story line could use some tightening, but what works well, and best, about Apple TV+’s easygoing six-part series are its three generation of actors: Eva Longoria (also an executive producer), Carmen Maura and Victoria Bazua. They breathe life into this zesty female-driven dramedy that brings rich New Yorker Gala (Longoria), her daughter Kate (Bazua), who has a girlfriend and is trans, and her mother Julia, a flirt with memory issues, to a small Spanish wine country village where Julia created some bad blood. The weakest element in this adaptation of Sandra Barneda’s novel circles around the disappearance of Gala’s husband’s. Focus instead on the interactions of the strong, resourceful female characters as each realizes that in order to better understand each other and themselves they need to spend more time with each other. As the manager of a female-driven vineyard that produces dubious wine, Santiago Cabrera creates the right amount of tension (sexual and otherwise) between his Amat and Longoria’s Gala. It’s no classic, but it’s effortlessly enjoyable. Details: 2½ stars; two episodes drop this week with a new episode every Wednesday through July 24.
“The Devil’s Bath”: Winner of eight Austrian Film Awards, Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s (“Goodnight Mommy,” “The Lodge”) unnerve the hell out of us with this horror period piece, an inescapable nightmare that crawls into the psyche and eats it up alive. It opens with a shocking crime committed by a distraught mother near a waterfall and then artfully wedges us into the unstable mind of devoutly religious Agnes (Anja Plaschg, going through the wringer here), a bride-to-be saddled with an impotent hubby who fancies someone he can’t have given the times. Agnes crumbles as life becomes more unbearably miserable in a community that doesn’t embrace her. Her descent into madness is difficult to watch, but there’s a purpose to “The Devil’s Bath,” not to mention an expertise in every cranny of its filmmaking, as it takes on a dark, lesser-known chapter of European history and shines a dark light on the horribly destructive consequences of archaic religious rules that begat needless violence. Details: 3½ stars; available on Shudder June 28.
“Janet Planet”: Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker’s feature-length directorial debut peers with a singular intent into the inside-out world of 11-year-old Lacy (Zoe Ziegler) as she deals with a hippie-like life that surrounds her and her mom Janet (Julianne Nicholson). Set during the summer of 1991 in a rural patch of Massachusetts, “Planet” lacks plot and action. And that’s mostly OK, since Baker’s meditation into the mind of a child undergoing an epiphany that her mom is indeed flawed and human wants to be unrushed and reflective. Nicholson is wonderful as usual and Ziegler acts so natural it’s as if no camera is in the room with her, but I also loved Will Patton as Janet’s emotionally scarred war veteran lover; Elias Koteas as a Lothario-esque theater director; and Sophie Okonedo as Janet’s friend who overstays her welcome when a drug trip goes bad. “Janet Planet” is content with revealing odds and ends about its characters rather than having them confront melodramatic situations. But to enjoy it, you must be patient. Do that, and the rewards will come. Details: 3 stars; in theaters June 28.
“Daddio”: An old-school New York taxi cab driver (Sean Penn) picks up an enigmatic female fare Girlie (Dakota Johnson) at the JFK airport, a random encounter that turns into something much more over the course of a long night. Due to an accident, the two get stalled in traffic along the way to her Manhattan apartment. That’s the gist of what, on the surface, happens in playwright Christy Hall’s thoroughly engrossing conversation-driven feature. But oh so much more is going on in that cab as these two very unlike people talk in a most honest, unfettered way that then affects them both. Hall’s work — adapted from her own play — is unpredictable and wily, keeping you engaged as she metes out more about each of these characters and their sex lives and relationships. Penn’s an ideal choice for the part and he’s so good here, but it is the mesmerizing Johnson who buckles up and drives away with “Daddio.” She’s the heartbeat of the entire film and somehow even makes a pause while she’s texting her older lover reveal so much by doing so little. She’s amazing. Details: 3 stars; opens June 28 in select theaters.
“The Bikeriders”: Indie auteur Jeff Nichols’ understated, yet supremely sexy feature takes us on a 10-year nostalgic road trip with a band of badass-in-training ‘60s biker brothers as they see their small-time Chicago-based club morph into a more dangerous, volatile gang. Nichols and his team’s attention to detail almost makes you feel like you can smell the leather jackets, the cigarette smoke and the stale beer. Based on Danny Lyon’s 1968 photographic musing on an actual club, Nichols extracts a love triangle from this muscled, Brando wannabe world as reluctant club leader Johnny (Hardy, in full on Brando mode himself) and no-nonsense Kathy (Jodie Comer, phenomenal) crush hard on oh-so pretty-boy biker Benny (a sizzling Austin Butler), who strikes like a mad rattlesnake when provoked. “The Bikeriders” authentically plunges us into another era and shows both the undeniably attractive side of masculinity and its dark and dangerous side. The three lead actors in it deliver award-caliber performances. Details: 3½ stars; in theaters now.
Contact Randy Myers at soitsrandy@gmail.com.