Head Of The Class tops your Thursday night roundup
Plus, Taste The Nation: Holiday Edition and new seasons of HBO Max's Frayed and gen: LOCK
TV Lists Head of the Class
Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Thursday, November 4. All times are Eastern.
Top picks
Head Of The Class (HBO Max, 3:01 a.m., series premiere): Isabella Gomez, who played one of the precocious teens in the One Day At A Time reboot, heads up a whole new revival on HBO Max. The new Head Of The Class stars Gomez as the teacher in charge of the new Individualized Honors Program, where she tries to teach her overachieving students to get more out of life than good grades. The cast includes Jorge Diaz, Jolie Hoang Rappaport, Gavin Lewis, Dior Goodjohn, Brandon Severs, Adrian Matthew Escalona, Katie Beth Hall, and Robin Givens, who reprises her role.
If you weren’t a fan of the original but you watched Spider-Man: Homecoming and wished for more drama among the magnet high school teens over the “Michael Keaton making weapons” bits, this may be the show for you. Will Harris gives his full review later today.
Wild cards
Frayed (HBO Max, 3:01 a.m., season-two premiere): This 1980s-set British-Australian comedy has returned! Sammy Cooper (Sarah Kendall) has taken her children back to London to try and retrieve her house from the lawyer who (allegedly?) forced her to sell it to cover her dead husband’s debts. Unfortunately, she ends up back in Australia and in a police station explaining who may or may not have murdered.
gen:LOCK (HBO Max, 3:01 a.m., season-two premiere): Michael B. Jordan returns for more mecha warfare in this Adult Swim/Rooster Teeth joint. In his review of season one, Toussaint Egan called the show “sharp and engaging,” and praised the cast performances: “Jordan’s candor and affect comes through his portrayal of Chase as a deeply likable protagonist, as does [Dakota] Fanning’s in her turn as Miranda, forming the crux of a strong relational dynamic in which the audience can invest. Game Of Thrones’ Maisie Williams shines as the foul-mouthed hacker wunderkind Cammie MacCloud, as does Orange Is The New Black’s Asia Kate Dillon as the acerbic, disillusioned recruit ‘Val’ Romanyszyn. Blaine Gibson as the smart-mouthed ranger Sinclair and Golshifteh Farahani as the battle-worn ‘Yaz’ Madrani round out the impeccable vocal roster. But the most delightful performance is that of anime staple Kōichi Yamadera as gen:LOCK recruit Kaz Lida, delivered entirely in Japanese.”
Taste The Nation: Holiday Edition With Padma Lakshmi (Hulu, 12:01 a.m.): Padma Lakshmi returns to charm both us and her guests in this holiday version of the show, covering Korean New Year in Los Angeles and Cuban Christmas in Miami. One of the best food travelogue shows on TV, if not the best. Samin Nosrat changed the game but Padma’s keeping the dream alive. The holiday special looks like the perfect amount of cozy and family-oriented—and diverse, considering “holiday” doesn’t just mean Christmas.
5 Comments
That Head of the Class reboot is your “top pick”? Jfc it looks like a Disney series from the early 2000s.
AV Club writers have some weird fascination with the One Day at a Time reboot and haven’t gotten over the show’s cancellations. Since the Head of the Class reboot stars Isabella Gomez, it has their attention.
Really going to miss What We Do in the Shadows tonight. It’s gonna feel like a loooooong wait until the next season.Serious talk now.I didn’t want to dignify this show I’m about to rant on with a rant on the actual day of broadcast.La Brea.What. The. Hell.This show is a train wreck of almost epic proportions – yet remains ultimately a slog to watch. The show requires some serious suspension of belief that bends to the point of breaking – somehow things like a rock of average size (couple feet on surface) has not only remained in the exact same place for 10,000 years but is sitting in exactly the same level of topsoil. I’m willing to forgive the ‘mystic handprint’ thing, and I’m even willing to forgive that a 10,000 year buried ring would be in the top 2 inches of soil (there’s a stupid little green glow that says ‘oooh mystic stuff’). I’m not willing to forgive 10,000 years not even raising the level of soil by an inch. I’m not willing to forgive them carbon dating the ring. They don’t even try to explain it with a “we found organic plant material in the earth caked on the ring and dated it to…”. They just straight up say “we carbon dated the ring”. So, yeah, science.I’m not willing to forgive the show’s eternal inability to actually deliver on what it continually promises. The show had an episode called “The Hunt” that opened with the money shot of a giant sloth eating their assembled food – then the only ‘hunt’ turning out to be snaring one very modern bunny rabbit that is so hand tame it lets the character pick it up for snuggles.Gentle folks, I’m going to tell you right here and now that just picking up any wild rabbit – regardless of whether or not it has ever had human experience – is a good way to bleed from a succession of sharp, hard kicks with what turn out to be remarkably effective weaponized hind feet. Gods help you if they get to you with the teeth – domestic rabbits, wild rabbits, those chompers are going to do some damage.I’m also not willing to forgive the writing. Most of the actors are gamely trying to do what they can with the material. Some of it’s absolutely abysmal – like, hey Mr. Good Guy whose daughter openly detests another character because of a misunderstanding that you are literally the entire focus of and can solve with one short convo? Yeah, just go on wondering why your daughter keeps telling your new friend “but you left my dad to die!” and running off. No way you could tell what the problem is, we get it. EVERYTHING is this stupid and inconsistent. Drug dealers! Kidnapped kid in full Stockholm mode! Psychologist with a gun! It all sounds like it might even be worth watching. It’s not.Seriously. Avoid this show. It’s not ‘fun awful’. It’s ‘awful’. Just that. There’s a reason a reviewer actually stated “high on concept, low on planning, just dawdling along toward nowhere in particular until its fans rise up in fury and disembowel the producers with shards of their own cell phones” (reason.com). I put six episodes in waiting for something ANYTHING to hang on to. I have given up. Don’t repeat my mistake.
I made it to the opening titles of the pilot “La Brea” and decided to give it up. It was that bad.
Which of the new Head of the Class cast will be the overweight one who goes through weight-reduction surgery between seasons?Yes, this happened with Dan Schneider and they built it into the show.