vinegarIt’s the perfect time for summer and easy viewing, which is a relief considering that outdoor recreation in much of the eastern U.S. is feeling like playing in a furnace when the heat is so intense. June’s best new shows include documentary series about discos and renaissance fairs (both of which are pretty intense, but relatively light for a genre focused on serial killers), and Julio Torres returns with a comedy that finds ethereal humor in the instability of an artist’s life. Queenie It’s a story about a damaged yet fascinating twenty-something woman’s second coming of age. Star Wars The show is based on the premise of twin sisters switching bodies.
Acolyte (Disney+)
Latest Star Wars The best thing about a spinoff is that you don’t need to be Yoda to understand who the characters are, what’s going on, and how the show fits into Disney’s Lucasfilm 100-year plan (or whatever it may be). Acolyte Set a century before the rise of the Empire and its blockbuster movie legend, in a time when the Jedi Order thrived and the galaxy was at peace, the story follows Osha (Amandla Stenberg), a young woman who drops out of her Jedi Knight training and is framed for murder — a crime that turns out to have been committed by her twin sister, May (also Stenberg), whom Osha had long believed dead. May’s plot to assassinate several Jedi leaders in retribution for past mistakes solves the mystery in fascinating ways. Star Wars‘ The standard light vs. dark moral dichotomy. There are other reasons to be optimistic about the series. Russian Doll Directed by Leslye Headland and starring Carrie-Anne Moss, Charlie Barnett, Jodie Turner-Smith, Manny Jacinto, Squid Game The lead role is played by Lee Jung-jae.
Disco: The Soundtrack of a Revolution (PBS)
Music documentaries are everywhere these days, and many of them are interesting. But how many actually embody the spirit of their subject, rather than merely depicting it? In the case of disco, that feeling is ecstasy, and PBS’s three-part documentary series Disco: The Soundtrack of a Revolution is both a serious, politically and culturally conscious history of the genre and a pleasure bomb that will cover your living room with hi-hat sparkle and metallic confetti. Narrated primarily by the DJs and singers who invented disco in the ’70s, the series not only immerses viewers in the atmosphere of the dance floor, but also analyzes seminal tracks, from Cameroonian musician Manu Dibango’s oft-sampled “Soul Makossa” to Donna Summer’s breathless masterpiece “Love to Love You Baby,” to explore each artist’s innovation.
The structure of the triptych is: Discoopens with an episode tracing the rise of a sound born out of gay nightlife, continues with an account of an imperial era defined by black women artists like Gloria Gaynor, LaBelle, and Candi Staton (who give wonderfully candid interviews), and ends with a finale that celebrates dance music’s continuing evolution while lamenting the record industry’s cash-in on disco (see: Village People’s “Disco Duck”). In recent years, disco has undergone a significant recontextualization as a movement pioneered by black, Latinx, queer, and women artists, and then simultaneously co-opted and demonized by the white, male mainstream. Disco brings a highly nuanced perspective to this revisionism, pointing out the good and bad aspects of the genre’s gentrification while never losing sight of music as a business.
Phantasmus (HBO)
Los Espukis Co-creator and SNL alum Julio Torres returns to HBO with his weirdest, most wonderful offering yet. Phantasmus (In Spanish ghostThe film takes its title from writer-director Torres’ semi-autobiographical protagonist, Julio, who, early in the six-episode series premiere, makes a pitch to Crayola for the ghostly name’s invisible crayon, but it also applies to the show’s characters, quirky dreamers adrift in a society intent on commodifying their identities and aspirations. Phantasmus It’s both a shining example of queer television and a manifesto in defense of a disappearing art form. [Read the full review.]
Queenie (Hulu)
Great new shows on Hulu Queenie The show begins with a medium close-up shot from above that brings the viewer face-to-face with the show’s heroine: 25-year-old Queenie Jenkins, with her braids splayed out on a white pillow, a tangle of necklaces grazing her collarbone, gazing at the ceiling with a look of casual confusion. A voiceover announces, as the camera zooms out, that she is in the middle of a gynecological exam, listing the many things she’s due for a bikini wax today.
It’s hard to imagine a more intimate introduction, and it’s fitting: The film is based on the 2019 novel of the same name and was created by its author, Candice Carty-Williams. Queenie The work delves deep into the subjective perspective of its Jamaican protagonist, a London-born man who works in the social media department of a newspaper and aspires to become a bylined contributor. [Read the full review.]
Renaissance Fair (HBO)
You might think you know what to expect from a documentary series. Renaissance Fairbut you’re almost certainly wrong. charmed and Crossword Chronicles Word play To Trekkie Live-action role-playing documentary DarkonThe Y2K era established the template for quirky, heartwarming nonfiction films about nerd subculture. Renaissance FairThat’s not the case with HBO’s insightful and surprisingly thrilling three-part documentary about the Texas Renaissance Festival’s 50th anniversary. Inheritancebut with a corset and chain mail. [Read the full review.]
