Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Friday, January 11 and Saturday, January 12. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
Sex Education (Netflix, Friday): Meet Otis Milburn (Asa Butterfield). He’s your average, run-of-the-mill, socially awkward high school student. But Otis has a secret, something that gives him a leg-up over his peers and that most teenagers across the globe have reason to envy: a thorough, positive sex education.
Growing up with an intrusive—if well-meaning— sex therapist as a mum (Gillian Anderson), Otis always knew a bit more than he wanted to know about shagging. That is, until the cute, smart, edgy girl at his high school finds out about his unbidden wealth of knowledge, and proposes they team up to run an underground sex therapy clinic for the ill-informed and sexually repressed kids at their school. Through answering uncomfortable questions and counseling his peers through arguably the most confusing time in their lives, Otis comes to examine his own questions about life, as well as what he wants for himself.
Regular coverage
Rupaul’s Drag Race All Stars (VH1, Friday, 8 p.m.)
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (The CW, Friday, 9 p.m.)
Wild cards
Informer (Prime Video, Friday): When Raza Shar (Nabhaan Rizwan) is taken into custody for a minor drug offense, he is coerced by a mysterious Counter-Terrorism officer (Peaky Blinders’ Paddy Considine) and his bright, ambitious partner Holly (The Diary Of A Teenage Girl’s Bel Powley) into becoming an informer. And if BBC’s recent hit drama Bodyguard garnered criticism for nursing elements of xenophobia, the network’s latest terrorism-themed project seems to aspire to (hopefully) do better, presenting its white Counter-Terrorism officer as a shady and morally ambiguous character and lending complexity to the motives and moral qualms of its British-Pakistani lead. The six-part thriller was generally well received by audiences and critics alike when it initially aired on BBC, with many viewers asserting that is, in fact, better than Bodyguard.
“I think it’s just important that it’s about what’s happening in London now, rather than it being us looking at it through a veneer, like a sensationalized, glamorized War on Terror,” Powley told the Radio Times. “It’s about humans, and humanity, and people who are living in this city right now, and how they’re existing—and their relationships with each other and their relationships with politics.”
Future Man (Hulu, Friday): It is the year 2162. Janitor/gamer-turned-time traveling hero Josh Futturman (Josh Hutcherson) and his friends Tiger (Eliza Coupe) and Wolf (Derek Wilson) discover that their last-season mission to prevent the cure from being released was all for naught. In the timeline they unwittingly created from their failure, Dr. Stu Camillo (Haley Joel Osment) has ascended to power and launched a plan to relocate humankind to Mars. Meanwhile, a sketchy organization called the Pointed Circle attempts to recruit Josh to take Stu down, challenging his understanding of what is right and wrong.
Also, apparently executive producer Seth Rogen will appear as a jailer named… Susan. Which, you know, sounds pretty much in line with what we’ve come to expect from the batty sci-fi comedy that is Future Man. All 13 episodes drop on Hulu today.
17 Comments
Politics Corner – Trump killed the one compromise that could have worked – Wall for DACA. I have laid out in great detail multiple times why I would reluctantly support that compromise. I’m not going to recap. It was backed by 6 GOP Senate moderates on the record, it would have gotten two dozen more if they thought Trump was interested, and in conjunction with Dem votes, it would have gotten to 60, easily. Maybe 70.We don’t have to worry about that anymore, because Trump dropped a wet loose shit on it. His position is wall for nothing. Fuck that. The ‘national emergency’ option, where Trump tries to bypass Congress to claim a border emergency even though illegal crossings are down 75% since W Bush days, is now looking like something he might actually try, instead of an empty threat.Fuck him. Try it. There are 60 imminent domain cases about seizing land for fencing still pending FROM W BUSH! Having read more about the gaps in checks/balances for a national emergency, I’m honestly not sure how it plays out. Truman tried to nationalize the steel industry during the Korean war and was smacked down, but there are non-partisan experts who say in good faith it could possibly work.Fuck you, Trump. Go for it. Declare the emergency tomorrow morning, reopen the government tomorrow evening, get stuck in court. Today he said he will ‘almost definitely’ do it. Shit or get off the pot. You won’t take a compromise, you say you can do it on your own, you say it’s a national emergency, and you’re starting to get Dems won’t cave. DO IT!!! Declare it, try to use the military to seize landowners’ property, with no evidence this is an actual emergency or a basis for how a decade-long construction project could be the right response to an actual emergency. Oh, and it’ll be locked up in court till the second term he isn’t getting.To be fair to Trump, fuck this bigoted lying shitbag in his ear until his shriveled brain pops out. We must be fair.
Trump is a piece of shit.
I don’t disagree with you.
I reread these things after I post them sometimes. It’s eminent domain, not imminent domain. Me spel gud. It functionally means ‘taking private land’, and there are times you can justify it. Not as often as it’s invoked. This is one of the bad times.
At least shit serves a purpose as fertilizer. Don’t insult shit like that.
He doesn’t want this to end. Pelosi is right – conflict of any kind is good for Trump. He doesn’t really stand for anything but if he can get in a fight then the stupid people that make up his base have somebody to be mad at and will support him. It also distracts people from little things like Mueller sending all his cronies to jail and a NY court declaring that his family charity is a criminal organization created solely to defraud people and line his pockets. Meanwhile, the media loves it because it gives them something to talk about and even though 60-70% of people oppose the xenophobia wall there are still plenty of American bigots (most of them wearing cowboy hats – how American!) they can find to interview who are willing to say on camera that there is an immigration “crisis.”
My big fear is that we waste 2 billion dollars on the start of this BS wall so he can take a picture with it for 2020,, and in JanuaryJanuary 2021 construction is immediately halted by the new president, with comparatively small contract losses coming wastefully out of government coffers. But my bigger fear is somehow the various xenophobes who think this will benefit them somehow are impressed by the “results” of the wall. I haven’t even been able to keep track of what’s happened with DeVos and her trash plans or how our cool farm tariffs and stimulus are destroying things.
I hope Trump tries it, because it will be immediately enjoined in court, as there is ample precedent for such a move (Truman tried to do something similar and the courts stopped him), and it would provide excellent grounds for an article of impeachment based upon abuse of power.
Dump Trump! Ditch Mitch!
Pass it on.
I actually laughed out loud at how ridiculously handsome Nabhaan Rizwan looks in that Informer trailer. Move over, Richard Madden! Probably won’t watch the show as I wouldn’t be able to focus on the dialogue.
It seems like the site’s not recapping Future Man this year but if anyone’s interested I did a review of the first episode of season 2 – https://comedytowatch.wordpress.com/2019/01/11/tv-review-future-man-season-2-episode-1/
When did Gillian Anderson start looking like blonde Tamsin Greig?
THAT’S who she looks like in this! Thank you.
The show itself ended up being quite endearing, sometimes because of and sometimes in spite of the central concept. They give Anderson way more of a story-arc and depth-of-character than usually given to an embarrassing mother type as well. Was a little sad it was so short. Anderson, Gatwa & Butterfield (the latter being the reason I watched out of curiosity) were all phenomenal in the acting department.
She delivers an amazing performance as Emma Thompson.
..also while Informer is probably a very important, very serious show , I’ve had this stuck in my head anytime its mentioned.
Are y’all gonna do reviews of Sex Education? I’m really loving it so far and would love to hear your take on it