Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Friday, January 8, and Saturday, January 9. All times are Eastern.
Top picks
Dickinson (Apple TV+, Friday, 12:01 a.m., season premiere): Apple TV+’s sleeper hit returns for season two with three episodes today, followed by a new episode every week. The series follows Emily Dickinson (Hailee Steinfeld)—still heartbroken over the marriage of her brother Austin (Adrian Enscoe) to her best friend and soulmate Sue (Ella Hunt), as well as the death of Ben Newton—as she is pulled out of her private literary life and thrust into the public eye. The cast includes Jane Krakowski, Anna Baryshnikov, Toby Huss, and Wiz Khalifa, and this season will also see notable appearances by Nick Kroll, Finn Jones, Ayo Edebiri, and Timothy Simons. Dickinson creator Alena Smith discussed the new season with A.V. Club TV editor Danette Chavez, including how the pandemic factored into writing it. Look for our season review on the site later this morning.
Marvel Studios: Legends (Disney+, Friday, 3:01 a.m., season premiere): Marvel begins 2021 by diving deep into its cinematic universe’s important heroes and villains, exploring iconic MCU moments, and setting the stage for a bevy of originals that will begin streaming on Disney+ this year. The first episode of Legends acts as a refresher for the stories of Wanda Maximoff, a.k.a. Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olson), and Vision (Paul Bettany), in anticipation of WandaVision’s premiere next week.
Regular coverage
RuPaul’s Drag Race (VH1, Friday, 8 p.m.)
Vikings (Amazon Prime Video)
Wild cards
Herself (Amazon Prime Video, Friday, 12:01 a.m.): “To leave an abusive household is an uphill battle in many advanced societies, where the courts and laws can put victims at a heavy disadvantage. Directed by Phyllida Lloyd (The Iron Lady), from a script by Malcolm Campbell and star Clare Dunne, Herself approaches the subject gracefully, and with an unexpected degree of hope. In an era when neighbors often turn on neighbors, the film’s optimistic ‘It takes a village’ perspective risks hokeyness.” Read the rest of Anya Stanley’s B+ review of this film here. Herself stars Clare Dunne, Ruby Rose O’Hara, Molly McCann, Ian Lloyd Anderson, and Harriet Walter.
A Discovery Of Witches (Sundance Now and Shudder, Saturday, 3:01 a.m., season premiere): Adapted from Deborah Harkness’ All Souls trilogy, A Discovery Of Witches’ second season follows Matthew (Matthew Goode) and Diana (Teresa Palmer) as their romance faces new threats in Elizabethan London, where they must find a powerful witch to help Diana control her magic.
16 Comments
I still say this sounds like one of Jenna Maroney’s ill-fated TV shows where she plays sexy Emily Dickinson.
It was surprisingly watchable. I’ve no idea if I’ll like season 2 but I was surprised to keep hitting play on the next episode on season 1.Sigh, I just wish Apple would release the entire season at once. Waiting for the season to end kinda sucks. But at least it’s only 10 weeks.
I just came here to say that “Herself” is one of my favourite movies from last year. Saw it a month ago here in Spanish cinemas and was left in awe with how respectfully and sensibly it approaches its topic(s). Beautiful story, amazing direction and even better actress. Plus, the movie’s objective isn’t to make you cry – which is nice for a change.If you’re reading this, give it a chance.
So It’s Come to This: A MCU Clip Show
have no fears, they’ve got stories for years
I did a free sample to Shudder ages ago and found that I didn’t have any interest in most of the content. But one thing I tried sort of half-heartedly and ended up liking a lot was Discovery of Witches. It starts out good and just keeps getting better. At that point, the whole season one was available, and I binged it in a weekend. It’s been a long wait for season two! Now I have to wait until all eps are available to sign up again for another weekend binge. Maybe, what, around March? I can’t wait!
I found the first season to be pretty generic, but I immediately pegged the lead actress as struggling with a put-on American accent. Five seconds of internet research later and my suspicion was confirmed.It seems to be a running theme in the modern era that a *lot* of actors have problems with American accents. It was conventional wisdom for ages that actors from other countries could bang out an American accent in an afternoon with no problems, either because America’s accents were basic and stupid, or because foreign actors likely had multilingual upbringings as a baseline and greater multicultural exposure. It actually seemed like a reasonable thesis, but, well, here we are.
Legends is a good idea. I remember literally nothing about Scarlet Witch and Vision from the movies. They were probably the least interesting aspects of the MCU. And yet, WandaVision has had me intrigued from the first Trailer and I’m very much looking forward to it. A quick refresher is just the thing this casual fan needs.
I guess, but honestly, the origin story for both of them in the MCU is… not illustrative of MCU’s best work. Indeed, as far as Wanda goes, I think the writers would strongly prefer people not get into the details, because they’re so obviously trying to transition Wanda’s powers more towards her super-cool mutant ones without any real in-universe justification.For example: Wanda’s less-interesting MCU powers are usually accompanied by red glowy stuff. And hey, the red infinity stone is a pretty good fit with her cooler mutant powers! But, uh, small complication: the red stone wasn’t the one that was used in the experiments that buffed her. Secondary complication: she’s already manifested a bunch of other lame powers that don’t really make any sense either.Well, I guess it all loops around again. Her power set was vague and incoherent already, so why not just keep piling more shit on? Hey, turns out that Wanda was just that one-in-a-trillion freak who got zapped with infinity stone juju and is now secretly a god that can do anything… but she just doesn’t know it! Done and done.
A 15 minute show about the hilarious cluster of licensing agreements that led to “cannot legally be a mutant” Wanda existing in the MCU would probably be more entertaining and edifying.
Now that they own Fox, they should “reality-warp” her history to show that her Brother Quicksilver was actually the X-Men movies version of Quicksilver (the best part of the First Class and Beyond X-Movies) and not the lame Quicksilver from Age of Ultron.
I enjoyed the first season of Dickinson–it was uneven but overall generally a fun show. I hope the second season is just as good, or better. It started off strong but kind of faded down the line.
I was under the distinct impression that WandaVision was premiering today and I am… disappoint…
Next week!
If you haven’t read The Vision (2016) collection, check it out. It’s bonkers and fantastic and sounds (kinda) thematically similar to the show.
Wait, WandaVision starts next week?Sweet!
I’m sorry, Marvel Legends labels itself as a docuseries but it is a clip show. Had they had interviews with the people who created the films or even the characters maybe docuseries would be apt.