With William Jackson Harper in the lead, HBO Max’s Love Life becomes a must-watch
Plus, Star Trek: Prodigy premieres and Shudder explores Black horror in Horror Noire
TV Lists HBO
Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Thursday, October 28. All times are Eastern.
Top picks
Love Life (HBO Max, 3:01 a.m., season-two premiere): The new season of Sam Boyd’s anthology series changes protagonists, from Anna Kendrick’s Darby to from Anna Kendrick to William Jackson Harper’s Marcus, while Keith David(!) replaces Lesley Manville as narrator. If you thought Chidi Anna Kendrick Harper would be more decisive in love when not in the afterlife, you’d be wrong. According to Joshua Alston’s review, “Here, Harper reaches his final form as a leading man, further delivering on the promise he showed in turning The Good Place’s Chidi Anagonye from a neurotic milquetoast to a surprisingly credible (not to mention shredded) heartthrob. There are occasional flashes of that character in this one—with Marcus just as eager to please and prone to ruinous indecision—and Harper is as sharp as ever at channeling Marcus’ nuances with his expressive face.” Jessica Williams provides her magnetic presence, alongside Saturday Night Live’s Ego Nwodim and Punkie Johnson; Janet Hubert (the original Vivian Banks), and Kimberly Elise (Beloved, Dope, Ad Astra).
Star Trek: Prodigy (Paramount+, 3:01 a.m.): Danette Chavez wrote about this show in our October preview: “As the first kids show set in the Star Trek-verse, Prodigy checks boxes for all-ages entertainment and a solid addition to the generation-spanning story that first came to life more than 50 years ago. An untested crew that eventually grows as close as a family? Check. Very cool visuals and sound effects? Pew-pew-pew (or yes). Mettle-testing adventures and a variety of alien life forms? Absolutely. A beloved Trek character to offer wisdom and tie things together? A resounding yes, thanks to Kate Mulgrew reprising her role as Captain Kathryn Janeway.” Zack Handlen’s review will be on the site later this morning.
Regular coverage
What We Do In The Shadows (FX, 10 p.m., season-three finale): Katie Rife will be on coffin watch, as usual. Look for Saloni Gajjar’s post-mortem interview with [REDACTED] on the site overnight as well.
Wild card
Horror Noire (Shudder, season premiere, 3:01 a.m.): A new horror anthology composed of six stories and one film, with new and adapted stories from the likes of Victor LaValle, and starring…many favorites of Black genre shows, including Lesley-Ann Brandt (Lucifer, Spartacus), Luke James (The Chi, Thoughts of a Colored Man), Erica Ash (Survivor’s Remorse, A Black Lady Sketch Show), Brandon Mychal Smith (Four Weddings and a Funeral, You’re the Worst), Sean Patrick Thomas (Macbeth, The Curse of La Llorona), Peter Stormare (American Gods, Fargo) Malcolm Barrett (Genius: Aretha Franklin, Timeless) and Rachel True (The Craft, Half & Half), among others.
6 Comments
Crunchyroll finally dropped High Guardian Spice yesterday, and wow. It really is as bad as it looked. It’s basically if you took RWBY and Little Witch Academia and mixed them together, with some Steven Universe sprinkled on top, but instead of using the high end quality ingredients, they used the Richfood versions. The writing is pretty generic at its best, the music is forgettable, and the character designs are very derivative (except for the main girl’s dad, who is bald, has a man bun, and naturally pink hair & beard, he’s just creepy). The worst part is the production quality, though. The voice acting is largely awful, owing to using almost exclusively newbies. One of the side characters is voiced by a musician, and it’s very clear he has never had any VA training whatsoever. From what I can tell, only 3 of the VAs have decent experience, and only one of them is a main character. Furthermore, the audio isn’t synced well with the animation, the composition of the visuals is awful, and there are lots of animation errors every episode. In particular, any weapon a character owns tends to disappear completely when not in use. The main girl has a sword and scabbard, and not only does the sword grow and shrink depending on who holds it, but the scabbard vanishes all the time. And no, it’s not excused by magic because the character doesn’t know any magic.
The only thing that really sets the show apart at all is the fact that 98% of the cast is LGBT. If everything else were the same but the characters were all straight, not only would there have not been as much backlash, it would have been largely ignored outright and forgotten immediately.
“Crunchyroll finally dropped High Guardian Spice yesterday, and wow. It really is as bad as it looked. It’s basically if you took RWBY and Little Witch Academia and mixed them together, with some Steven Universe sprinkled on top, but instead of using the high end quality ingredients, they used the Richfood versions”I have no idea what any of this means. Did I have an aneurysm?
Crunchyroll – A streaming service dedicated to Japanese anime. A few years ago, they launched the Crunchyroll Originals line, with High Guardian Spice as their first project, but the last to air.
High Guardian Spice – A show about four cute young teen girls who attend an academy dedicated to producing warriors and wizards known as Guardians, and most of the cast is on at least some part of the LGBT spectrum. Got a lot of backlash for a) not being an anime, and b) for the announcement trailer where the staff patted themselves on the back for their diverse group of white women as writers rather than give an actual synopsis of the show.RWBY – CG cartoon by Rooster Teeth about four cute young teen girls who attend an academy dedicated to producing demon hunters.
Little Witch Academia – Anime series from the same people that made Kill la Kill and Promare and is a Netflix exclusive in the US. About a group of cute young teen girls who attend an academy dedicated to studying magic and becoming witches.Steven Universe – Cartoon Network show that has a large part of the cast at least partially on the LGBT spectrum.
Richfood – Discount food brand, and subsidiary of SuperValu. You know how, when you go to the grocery store, you have the big name brand food, then a generic store brand right next to it? Richfood was a version of that generic brand that wasn’t tied to a single store chain, a saving grace for Mom & Pop markets. Sister brands include Essential Everyday, Stone Ridge Creamery, Super Chill soda, Java Delight, etc.
If you’re a grown person who is completely unfamiliar with this new turn toward the infantilization of adults toward childish nonsense, who in this case, are overly attached to anime…you’re good!
so if i didn’t watch season 1 of love life, can i just tune in for season 2? when i saw harper was gonna be the star of the second season i thought i should get caught up but i don’t feel motivated to watch anna’s season atm. i’m assuming it’s fine since it’s an anthology?
I just watched season 1 this week to catch up and liked it more than I expected, but yeah, I’m under the impression you can skip to season 2 and be fine. Though I have seen some promotional images with both of them, so I’m assuming Kendrick (and maybe some other season 1 characters) appear occasionally as a bridge between the two seasons since I believe both are set in New York.