IAfter the shoddy Hallmark fest that is the holiday season, it doesn’t take long for TV shows to pick up steam. In my opinion, he is the only one who has produced a really good new work in 2024. It is the work of Lulu Wang. foreign resident—There were many other great premieres as well.The long-awaited 2010s season anthology true detective and feud (which I count as a new show since it’s basically a standalone miniseries) was an improvement over its predecessor. Australia delivered yet another outstanding program. And Michelle Yeoh makes the less-than-perfect family crime drama worth watching.
Boy Swallows Universe (Netflix)
“Growing up in a family of outlaws really changes your life,” explains 13-year-old Eli Bell (Felix Cameron) in the premiere of this Australian miniseries based on the novel by Trent Dalton. . And he knows what he’s talking about. In 1985, Eli grows up in a dusty Brisbane suburb where his beloved stepfather Lyle (Travis Fimmel), a factory worker with a side job in heroin trafficking, tries unsuccessfully to placate threatening thugs. watch you do it. His kind mother Frances (Phoebe Tonkin) struggles with addiction. And while his older brother Gus (Lee Tiger Halley) doesn’t speak, he sometimes traces cryptic phrases in the air with his finger, perhaps due to past trauma. All of Eli’s male role models are criminals. Stability remains elusive and violence is a daily reality.
The Australian television industry is having an international moment. Last year saw the birth of smart and charming dramas such as: account colin, deadlock, and Class of 2007. Boy Swallows Universe It’s darker and grittier than those shows. (It may not be for those who can’t stand the sight of violence against children.) But it features punchy dialogue and endearing performances as well. The whole thing works so effectively that Lyle and Frances’ dangerous world doesn’t sanitize the constant threats his family faces or reduce his existence to a condescending sob story. , an attentiveness filtered through Eli’s dreamy, alternately curious and fearful perspective.
brothers son (Netflix)
brothers son This is the story of two halves of a nuclear family living across an ocean. In a modest Los Angeles home, the shrewd matriarch Irene, played by Michelle Yeoh, dotes on her incompetent medical student son Bruce (Sam Sung Lee). What she doesn’t know is that he was using her tuition check to fund his true passion: improvisation.what he His estranged father, known in Taiwan’s criminal world as Big Sun (Johnny Kou), runs the powerful triad “Jade Dragons” and his younger brother Charles (Justin Kou), whom Bruce hasn’t seen since childhood. I don’t know that he is raising Chen). ), to become a deadly assassin. A few years ago, the Suns split as a safety measure. Their motto is “protect your family.” [Read the full review.]
foreign resident (Amazon)
Farewell Great Amazon drama from filmmaker Lulu Wang foreign residenta six-part novel by Janis Y.K. Lee foreign residentdepicts three women whose families are intertwined by tragedy. Each is an American living overseas in Hong Kong. And each seems to be nearing an emotional breaking point. What elevates the series beyond its potentially bleak plot is not only the relationship between the central characters brought in from their home countries, but also the foreigners and the diverse, populous and political communities in which they choose to live. It is a sense of subtle connection that Wang evokes even between the unstable urban island and the island. . [Read the full review.]
Feud: Capote vs. Swans (FX)
Half a century ago, the Upper East Side’s Andy Cohen was Truman Capote, and the women of the world he alluded to himself were A-list socialites. The author has been working for 20 years. Ruthlessly and Breakfast at Tiffany’s I listened to their confessions and wiped away my tears. And in 1975 he published the following story: esquire It exposed their deepest humiliation. FX Feud: Capote vs. SwansThe long-awaited second season of the Ryan Murphy anthology began in 2017. bet and joan, tracks friendships and eventual breakups. It’s a messy rendering and sometimes reverts to clichés. But beneath the distracting artifice lies a psychologically rich and wonderfully acted portrait of an artist torn between his work and the life that drove it. [Read the full review.]
true detective night land (HBO)
A grotesque murder case. A disgusted yet persistent cop. A vast, majestic, yet frighteningly extreme rural landscape. Allusions to malevolent occult or supernatural beings. Mysterious philosophical and profane dialogue: “It’s a fucking long night. Even dead people get bored.”
Yes, another season on HBO true detective— In many ways, this anthology’s blockbuster debut feels closer than ever. But this fourth installment, back after a five-year hiatus, is also a reinvention, a reawakening, and even a reconnection to everything that came before.With subtitles country of night Directed by Mexican film director Issa López (I’m not scared of tigers) wrote or co-wrote every episode, but this is the first season to be helmed by a showrunner other than series creator Nic Pizzolatto. Although not without its flaws, Lopez’s masterfully realized story builds a hard-boiled mystery around multidimensional characters, firmly immersing viewers in a unique community and making a strong case for the series’ continuation. To do. [Read the full review.]