(i).
“The Boys”
Friday, June 3, Prime Video
Storyline
Prime Video’s outrageous superhero series, based on the beloved, adults-only comic book by Garth Dennis and Derick Robertson, returns for Season 3. If you’ve never seen the show before, it’s about a bunch of blokes, led by Karl Urban’s Billy Butcher, who unofficially police superhero activity and occasionally, you know, murder them. In “The Boys” world, superheroes are deeply complicated, morally compromised people who do very bad things. And it’s up to the Boys to keep them in line. This is the R-rated version of your normal superhero saga; think how “Game of Thrones” felt like a grown-up version of “Lord of the Rings.” It’s very risqué and inappropriate, but also incredibly entertaining and hugely successful (there’s been a series of animated shorts already released this year and a spinoff in the works). This season promises to be the most scandalous yet, incorporating elements from the comic book series that we cannot believe they are bringing to the screen. If you aren’t on board “The Boys” yet, prepare to be. It’s a shocker! [INTERVIEW]
(ii).
“Under the Banner of Heaven”
Thursday, June 2, Hulu
Storyline
If you read “Under the Banner of Heaven,” Jon Krakauer’s nonfiction bestseller that hinges around a double-murder with deep ties to the Mormon Church, you probably had an inkling of what the show would be like. But the great surprise of the series adaptation is how strange and brooding it is. There are flashbacks to the Old West and a labyrinthine mythology that combines deeply held family secrets with a greater conspiracy within the church itself. It’s like the “True Detective” season we always wanted but never got. And as the Mormon detective tasked with unearthing all of this psychic trauma, Andrew Garfield knocks it out of the park, continuing his winning streak from last year (with “Tick… Tick … BOOM!” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home”) well int 2022. If somehow you’ve slept on this show, catch up before the finale drops. It’s certain to be devastating and utterly intriguing. [REVIEW]
³.
“Fire Island”
Friday, June 3, Hulu
Storyline
Finally, the world seems to be embracing the idea of a gay Romeo! Later this summer, we’ll get Billy Etcher’s “Bros” (released theatrically by Universal) and this week we get “Fire Island,” from Searchlight Pictures, on Hulu! The official synopsis read: “Two best friends embark on a weeklong vacation to Fire Island – the famous gay escape destination off the southern shore of Long Island – accompanied by cheap rosé and a small group of eclectic friends.” What they’re not telling you is that this new film, written by Joel Kim Booster and directed by Andrew AHN, is a remake of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.” But, you know, on Fire Island. How good does that sound? Especially with a cast that includes Booster, Margaret CHO and Bowen Yang. And just in time for Pride! [REVIEW]
(IV).
“Theodore Roosevelt”
30 may
Storyline
Somewhere, right now, your dad is getting super jazzed. “Theodore Roosevelt,” the latest two-night History Channel documentary event (it concludes the following night), is just the kind of dad-approved Memorial Day programming we can all get behind. Produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, whose biography of Abraham Lincoln led to Steven Spielberg’s beloved “Lincoln,” based on her book “Leadership: In Turbulent Times,” the doc features reenactments alongside talking head interviews and other miscellanies. (Rufus Jones plays Roosevelt.) According to the official release, this new doc “provide a rich, panoramic portrait of the first modern President of the United States–Theodore Roosevelt, a champion of social justice, a passionate conservationist and the self-proclaimed ‘bull moose’ who once delivered an 84-minute speech bleeding from the chest after being shot in a failed assassination attempt.” We’re in. [OFFICIAL SITE]
⁵.
“Trust”
Hulu
Storyline
Later this week, Danny Boyle is unleashing his latest based-on-a-true-story miniseries, “Pistols” (see below). But if you haven’t seen his earlier crack at the genre, now is the time to correct that. “Trust,” about the abduction of John Paul Getty III (played by Harris Dickinson), was also the subject of Ridley Scott’s “All the Money in the World.” The two projects were competing against each other; “Trust” came out first and didn’t have to digitally erase any of its main performers (remember when Christopher Plummer had to do an 11th-hour substitution for Kevin Spacey?) This time, old man Getty is played by Donald Sutherland and his daughter, the mother of the abducted (or “abducted”), is played by Hilary Swank. And best of all, Brendan Fraser jubilantly plays the man Getty hired to retrieve his grandson (this is the role Mark Wahlberg was wildly miscast for). The series is so much richer and more fun, with razor-sharp scripts that came mostly from Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire” collaborator Simon Beauty and terrific performances. Boyle only directed the first three, but his fingerprints are all over the visual and sonic language of the series. [WATCH]
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