Ramy Youssef leads a thoughtful sitcom about clashing cultural values in Ramy
TV Lists What's On Tonight
Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Friday, April 19 and Saturday, April 20. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
Ramy (Hulu, Friday): When it comes to independent film, A24 is pretty much killing the game. In its not even seven years of existence, the entertainment company has gifted us films like The Lobster, Swiss Army Man, Lady Bird, Hereditary, First Reformed, Eighth Grade, and the list goes on.
Somewhat lesser known is that A24 is also responsible for turning out some damn good TV in the last few years, including the critically acclaimed Random Acts Of Flyness and 2 Dope Queens. Now its latest (and already highly acclaimed) TV venture stars comedian Ramy Youssef as Ramy, a first-generation Egyptian American man living with his family in New Jersey. An unapologetically religious millennial, Ramy attempts to define his personal values while also considering how they align—or clash—with those of his Islamic faith. Ramy looks like a thoughtful, funny, and timely family sit-com; Caroline Siede is on hand to offer her own take.
Regular coverage
Saturday Night Live (NBC, Saturday, 11:30 p.m.)
Wild card
Someone Great (Netflix, Friday): Netflix might be bringing the rom-com back in style, but it doesn’t always nail every look. But while the recent The Perfect Date was far from perfect (it was very bad), this Gina Rodriguez film actually looks promising, if only because it seems to be more about female friendship than, say, a privileged young man lying his way into Yale. Also starring Brittany Snow, DeWanda Wise, Lakeith Stanfield, and Rosario Dawson, Someone Great follows Jenny, an aspiring journalist gearing up to move across the country for her dream job. When her boyfriend of nine years dumps her rather than move with her to San Francisco, Jenny turns to two best friends for support, and for an unforgettable night out. Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya will have the review.
7 Comments
Politics Corner – FINALLY! Edition. Mueller’s report came out, and it exposed sooo many lies from the administration – including some critical lies from AG Barr. Mueller came to the conclusion that he didn’t have enough proof to prove a criminal conspiracy beyond a reasonable doubt, but he didn’t conclude that no criminal conspiracy exists. And not everything operates based on a reasonable doubt standard. This meets the preponderance of evidence standard for collusion. And it easily exceeds the common sense standard. Take what has been proven, apply common sense, and that adds up to collusion. And it SURE AS HELL doesn’t exonerate Trump on the question of collusion.Which means Barr mischaracterized the report, and Trump has been spreading another big lie. Mueller proved everything but the final, trickiest piece – he didn’t have definite proof that the mutual help involved an explicit bargain. But even if it didn’t have a codified deal spelled out (which it might) the knowing mutual assistance with a hostile foreign power is a betrayal of America that we didn’t know for sure until today. It’s still a proven ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’ arrangement. It’s just not a proven ‘I’ll scratch your back BECAUSE you scratched mine’ arrangement. But there’s one even more damning twist – Russians reached out about offering assistance, and Trump campaign officials were ‘receptive’. This appears to mean Russia asked if they wanted more help, and the Trump campaign said ‘yes’. But to prove criminal conspiracy, you have to prove they’re actively working together. Maybe the mutual back rubbing, and extensive secret talks about that back rubbing, and all the lies where the members of the Trump campaign insisted none of them even HAD backs to scratch, or hands for rubbing… Maybe it’s all a coincidence? That seems hard to believe. And if it’s not a coincidence, that’s ‘collusion’.There’s other really juicy stuff in there, like Mike Flynn asking Peter Smith to find Hilary’s emails whatever it takes – including contacting hackers from unfriendly countries. Or Don Jr. getting a password to access WikiLeaks as if he was a member. Oh, and Sarah Sanders admitting she just makes shit up based on nothing sometimes. But I want to focus on the big picture.On obstruction, Mueller didn’t even conclude he lacked the evidence to charge a crime. He presented a lot of very damning evidence and then said ‘I’ll let Congress make the call.’ Mueller says in the report that the fact DoJ guidelines say he couldn’t indict Trump meant, to him, it would be improper to say Trump ought to be indicted. Even if he was obviously guilty. Which he is. He makes it clear that the facts make it impossible to exonerate Trump, and suggests maybe Congress should take a look at doing something about this.Barr tried to step in and say ‘no obstruction’, but based on the parameters of the Mueller investigation, that was never Barr’s call to make! Obstruction is proven six ways from Sunday. Literally 10 times over. As in, he obstructed in ten specific, separate ways. Not ten times – probably dozens of times. Trump used ten different methods to obstruct. I would go over each one, with the evidence, but I don’t want this to be 400 pages. I encourage you to read about it.I just want to take one instance. We already knew that Trump told chief WH counsel McGahn to fire Mueller, thanks to the ‘fake news’ (a lot of stories the admin denied turned out to be right). And that is obstruction on its own. But what puts it over the top – TRUMP TOLD MCGAHN TO LIE ABOUT IT TO THE FBI! That is legally equivalent to telling someone to lie under oath. Making that request is illegal whether they do it or not, even if you have no authority over that person. It is the definition of obstruction of justice, and unlike, say, firing Comey, Trump’s intent is irrelevant. There is no legal reason to tell someone to lie to federal investigators. Mueller has ample proof beyond a reasonable doubt of Trump commuting multiple felonies, and all that’s saving him from indictment is the infamous DoJ policy. We know that, because the evidence is now in the public record. The President is a proven criminal. The question now is, what are we going to do about it?
With the GOP controlling the Senate, we are going to do nothing about it.
Yes. Hopefully he gets voted out of office and then spends his remaining days in jail. After turning on Don Jr. and Jared.
It wasn’t a matter of “ he didn’t have enough proof to prove a criminal conspiracy beyond a reasonable doubt.” What actually happened was that Mueller did not have the Authority to charge a sitting President with “criminal conspiracy.”
The “shoe” will drop when they indict Don Jr, Eric, Ivanka, and Jared for their financial crimes.I also think they can indict Melania for the time she continued to stay in the United States in violation of her Green Card.
If he gets re-elected the statute of limitations will run out. Not that he won’t probably commit some other crimes in the meantime.
So the guy who bombed the World Trade Center in the 90s has a sitcom now?
New season of Bosch dropped – best cop show on TV