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Looking for new shows to watch this summer?

/ Heather Strong Moore / Leave a comment

For many of us summer means a change of pace, and a chance to relax and try new things. Our regular shows have wrapped for the season, or we’ve blown through our favorite re-watches for the 8th time, and we need something new to watch on those rainy days or when the temperatures get too hot for outdoor activities. Here are some TV shows currently available on streaming services that you might not have heard of but could find interesting. Nearly all of them are breaking new ground in representation and storytelling, so they are great additions to your current go-to’s. There’s something for everyone on this list!

Rutherford Falls – Peacock

This is a delightful and incisive comedy from Ed Helms and Michael Schur (The Office, Parks and Rec) about a historic town in NY state navigating its colonial and Native history. Not only is this a witty comedy, but it features the largest Native writers room in comedy history, and a Native showrunner and creator, Sierra Teller Ornelas. It’s funny, warm, and thought-provoking!

Content rating: PG for occasional mild sexual innuendo

High On the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America – Netflix

Part cooking show, part African American historical legacy, this show is unique and powerful. Only 4 episodes, chef and food writer Stephen Satterfield explores the culinary roots of Black cooking from Africa to Texas. Part of what makes this show so special is the space it creates for Black people to talk to each other about legacy and identity and belonging. Each episode is full of historical excavation, pride, tenderness and mutuality. I’ve never seen anything quite like it, don’t miss it.

Home Before Dark – Apple+

Do you ever wish all these crime dramas could be mixed with precocious little girl energy? I didn’t know that’s what I needed until I started watching this show. Inspired by a real 9 year-old investigative journalist named Hilde Lysiak, the show creates a wonderful young lead similar to Hilde but with a fictional town and cold case that she has to solve. It’s a wholesome family drama about processing trauma and grief with a local mystery intertwined.

Content rating: G, the first episode contains verbal descriptions of the trans-Atlantic slave trade that will be painful for some

Content rating: PG there is no violence or descriptions of abuse, but the subject matter of a child abduction may be intense for young viewers

Hacks – HBO Max

If you don’t already love Jean Smart, you will after watching this show. Hacks is a thought-provoking comedy about what it means to be a female comedienne and what previous generations had to navigate to pave the way. This first season is still finding its way with working out a few of the characters, but it’s worth a watch!

Content rating: PG-13 for some sexual conversations, no nudity or sex depicted

The Underground Railroad – Amazon Prime

Director Barry Jenkins’ labor of love, this show is based on the novel of the same name. The novel explores the idea of what it would have been like if the underground railroad was a literal railroad underground. It is beautifully filmed and acted, with an intense but powerful portrayal of Black dignity in the face of oppression (a particular strength of Jenkins’ filmmaking). You will likely need to pace yourself and some may want to refrain from watching all together, but if you can handle the intensity of the subject matter, you’ll find a rich and compelling narrative.

Content rating: R for explicit racial violence

Girls5eva – Peacock

This one goes out to all the elder millennials who came up on girl groups and boy bands! Girls5eva is a hilarious and warm comedy about a washed-up girl group from the 2000s who are trying to reconnect with each other and make a comeback. The cast is fantastic, featuring Sarah Bareilles, Renee Elise Goldsberry (Hamilton), Busy Philipps, and other Broadway stars Paula Pell and Ashley Park. These women are so funny and the writing is smart and a snarky revisiting of pop culture in that era.

Content rating: PG for mild sexual innuendo

Shadow and Bone – Netflix

Sometimes you want an elaborate fantasy show but aren’t sure if it’s worth getting to know the lore and characters if the writing will just end up being bad. Shadow and Boneis a fun escape that’s worth the investment. The world is well-crafted, the characters are endearing, the special effects are good, the cast is talented and diverse, the season is well-paced, and we know we’re getting a season 2!

Content rating: PG-13 for some implied sexuality and mild violence. Likely appropriate for teenagers but check the parent’s guide first.

WandaVision – Disney+

A lot of people have been talking about this year’s spate of Marvel TV shows, and for good reason. But a lot of you have told me that you stopped watching WandaVision after the first couple episodes, so this is my apologetic for why you should revisit it. The format of the first several episodes is that of the classic TV sitcom, starting with the style of I Love Lucy and ending with the style of Modern Family. Some found this format confusing and boring, but what you need to know is that WandaVision is fundamentally a show about grief. It is about the desire to disassociate from a painful reality and immerse oneself in a fun and entertaining distraction. About the longing to return to one’s happiest moments shared with your loved one and try to stay there rather than move forward. The style of the first 7 episodes is very purposefully painting a picture of what Wanda is experiencing internally after the trauma of losing Vision, and how she is making sense of it. Don’t expect huge character reveals, there will be no appearances from Dr. Strange or Mephisto, this is a contained and powerful exploration of the grieving process. It features incredible performances from Olson, Bettany, and Hahn, and one of my new favorite quotes: “What is grief if not love persevering?” Give it another watch!

REVIEW: Wolfwalkers

/ Ivan Strong Moore / Leave a comment

Director Tomm Moore knows the feeling of being otherized. “When I was a little kid, I was in a playground and I was playing with this little kid and his brother came over and asked if I was catholic or protestant and that’s how I found out I was catholic and how I found out that there was a problem with being one or the other.” Moore and his team have recently been nominated for their third Academy Award for Wolfwalkers, a delightful, animated feature steeped in Irish folklore and carrying themes that never seem to get less relevant. At its core, Wolfwalkers is about our connection to our past and to nature, but it is also a signpost for us all as we seek to tear down the many divisions in our society.

“I hate to say it, but I grew up in the 80’s and the tension going back to the English colonization was really present and I thought we moved past it but even today riots have started again. I feel like we need to talk about this,” says Moore as his film that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September of 2020, seems to be speaking even louder so many months later. Britain’s ongoing exit from the EU and the stress of a global pandemic have brought new unrest stemming from decades old divisions in Northern Ireland. Here comes Wolfwalkers, a story about a little English girl, Robyn, living in a British settlement in Ireland befriending a little Irish girl, Mebh, who lives in the woods and may have supernatural wolf powers.

Wolfwalkers

Robyn lives with her father in a puritan village that she very desperately wants to escape from. She would love nothing more than to run through the woods hunting with her father, but, in his misguided attempts to keep her safe, she is, instead, relegated to the palace kitchen. Naturally, Robyn follows her father anyway and winds up on an adventure alongside the wild-haired Mebh and her wolfpack. Mebh isn’t what Robyn is used to. At first, she’s even more off putting than the wolves. Once Robyn has a chance to see the world through Mebh’s eyes, though, her awareness, her sense of self, and their friendship begins to grow. Moore says of what he hopes to convey in the film, “I think about little girls that can see this story playing out and see that they have some say in their voice because it’s still a bit of challenge I think for young women to go against the grain of what society says.”

There just aren’t that many stories focused primarily on female friendship and empowerment, but what is so encouraging about Wolfwalkers, is that it allows Robyn and Mebh to make mistakes as they navigate a world that says they shouldn’t be friends. This is especially true as Robyn tries to bring her dad along on her journey of enlightenment only to find new pressure and stress to conform and stay safe. The process of reconciling divisions in our world is incredibly messy. We see that all around as it often feels like we are taking one step forward and five or six steps back. As we finally have a police officer on trial for the murder of George Floyd, a few blocks away history repeats itself. As history is achieved with America electing a female Vice-President, the capital is stormed with violence and insurrection. As Robyn tries to embrace her wild side and help Mebh out, she ends up reflecting her own oppression onto Mebh.

Wolfwalkers 2

It is a sophisticated film that makes these complicated themes very palatable for children. Afterall, it is when we’re young that we first start recognizing our differences. Just as Moore did on that playground as a kid, and as he describes when he first moved from Northern to Southern Ireland. “So when I came down I had to do a lot of adapting to try and fit in. I had to try and change my accent on purpose, play down how my parents would take me to mass every day, a lot of that stuff that wasn’t seen as ‘cool’ or ‘normal’ amongst kids in my school.” Moore and his filmmaking team hope to inspire our current younger generations to imagine something different. He says, “That’s who it’s for, really, that generation. Cause they’re the ones that have to deal with all the division that we have and maybe if they can see themselves in these characters, they can imagine a less divided way of relating to each other.”

The film also imagines a world where the safety of women is placed more firmly in their own hands, something that is rarely a given in our world plagued by continued oppression of and violence against women. Complete human flourishing is often hard to come by in our fallen world. Wolfwalkers allows us, through folklore and friendship, the opportunity to have a holy imagination and look towards something better. Can you envision a world where all women are allowed to run free into whatever adventure they choose without fear? Hopefully it won’t be long before that world is a lot less fictional and with only slightly fewer magical wolves.

Wolfwalkers is currently streaming on AppleTV+

REVIEW: Boys State

/ Ivan Strong Moore / Leave a comment

How have you been feeling about politics lately? Fearful? Hopeful? Angry? Energetic? How many times in the last four years have you heard some version of, “America is more divided than it has ever been”? If this very common sentiment is true, and has been for a while, then perhaps the only way to fix it is to do something different. What do we do differently, though, and whose responsibility is it to be different? It’s all too easy to assume that the next generation will bring change, but if Apple’s new documentary Boys State is a signpost of what’s to come, we may want to create a little more urgency in the here and now.

Boys State Rob

Boys State, from filmmakers Amanda McBain and Jesse Moss, won the U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, and documents the 2018 Texas Boys State program. Every year in every state the American Legion runs a leadership development experience for male and female high school juniors. The goal of the program is to educate young people on civic engagement and often includes perks like college credit or valuable college scholarships. The film opens highlighting some of the program’s more infamous alumni like Bill Clinton, Dick Cheney, and Rush Limbaugh. Each young person is sponsored by their local Legion and are usually the sole representative of their high school. Following the leaders of the youth of our nation, what an incredible opportunity to see what they stand for and how they will engage in the political process! The issue is, once this week at the Texas state capitol begins to unfold, it’s not that different from what we see on our national political stage.

Maybe we’ve grown accustomed to seeing the survivors of the Parkland shooting standing behind podiums or Greta Thunberg addressing the world’s leaders, but the displays at this Boys State more resembles the worst comment threads on Facebook. Are abortion and gun control the most pressing concerns on the average 17-year-old conservative Texan? The answer, from the subjects themselves, is no, but it’s what they think they’re supposed to talk about. They may not even be able to tell you why, but they definitely think it will make them successful, popular, and, more importantly, elected. One young man even goes as far to admit that he believes the exact opposite of what he said in a debate because he knows it’s what people want to hear. They’re all getting ready to enter college or the workforce. Many probably do think often about the world they’re inheriting. Some of them probably have challenging family lives rife with relational and economic obstacles. Other’s minds are filled with dreams of tricked-out pickup trucks and queries as to who among them can do the most pushups. But you ask them to talk about politics and the only place their mind can go is the 2nd Amendment.

Boys State Group

In this environment it’s hard not to notice the outliers. In the documentary, it is a young man named Steven who enters the narrative in his Beto t-shirt telling stories of his conversion to the political sphere by Bernie Sanders. Later we find out that Steven helped stage the “March For Our Lives” march in Houston. It’s not his progressivism that makes Steven different, though. He also knows in order to win the coveted highest office of Boys State Governor, he must reach across the aisle. When asked the primary role of a politician, Steven answers “public service.” He says again and again in his speeches, and during his quest to get the signatures needed to be on the ticket, that governing means he represents everyone, not just those who agree with him. The film spends a lot of time watching Steven go conversation to conversation, handshake to handshake, lunch to lunch, asking the same question, “What do you care about?” He’s not interested in changing his convictions to win, he wants to build a representative government.

The doc might look upon Steven with a tinge of partiality, but what if all of the other boys acted this way? What might be different about the platforms they produce or the races they run? The policies and campaigns end up looking all too familiar, though. There are guys who jump to impeachment at the slightest whiff of disagreement while others attempt a full-blown Texas secession just to be cool (the previous year’s Boys State voted to succeed and made headlines). There’s mudslinging, social media smear campaigns, and petty or goofy congressional resolutions.

Boys State Rene

If we are expecting the next generation to be different, then one Steven in a sea of 1,100 future politicians aren’t great odds. We may need to take some responsibility for what this next generation is absorbing. Think about someone like John Lewis who did have the burden of change thrust upon his shoulders at a young age, but he clung to his elders (though many weren’t much older) for an example. Now how many young people will vote for the first time in 2020 because they learned of his legacy as the world eulogized him? Lewis is encouraging more Americans from the grave than many who currently hold office. “My friends, let us not forget that we are involved in a serious social revolution. By and large, American politics is dominated by politicians who build their careers on immoral compromises and ally themselves with open forms of political, economic, and social exploitation,” Lewis said in front of the crowd at the March on Washington in 1963. Boys State helps us see that we simply cannot wait to see what progress the next generation will bring or how they’ll be different. We have to be different right now or they never will be.