Recommendations: Week of 10/21/24
November beyond the 5th.
I recently heard someone say there’s a presidential election in two weeks, which cannot possibly be right. In two weeks?? The amount of things I would need to do in the next two weeks to get my soul ready for that is quite literally legion. I am prepared for the following: NBA opening night, cooler weather, the finale of the DC season of Love is Blind (our real October surprise), switching from iced lattes to hot. I am not ready for the concept of November. So I am writing this for you, dear reader, and for me to remind us that there is a future beyond November 5.
The Day of the Jackal (Peacock, November 7): In Roger Ebert’s review of the 1973 movie adaptation of this story, he wrote that the film was “put together like a fine watch.” It follows an assassination attempt on Charles de Gaulle, president of France from 1959 to 1969 and the leader of the Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II. Based on a 1971 novel by Frederick Forsyth, the movie is now being reimagined as a miniseries starring Eddie Redmayne and transported to a contemporary setting. Removing the de Gaulle of it all is probably a good idea, as most modern viewers will not be as familiar with the man as audiences in the 70s were, but it remains to be seen who the Jackal is after now. It is always tricky and potentially stupid to remake something great from the past, although I don’t think most viewers will even be aware of the original film. But spy thrillers are perpetually popular; even when they’re wacky, James Bond is in our cultural bones. It remains to be seen if this is also “put together like a fine watch” but I am interested in finding out.
Yellowstone season five, part two (Paramount Network, November 10): I will admit to having fallen off the Yellowstone train several years ago. I have kept on the overall Taylor Sheridan express, sampling many of his other offerings, but Yellowstone requires a lot of energy. I will one day sit down, potentially during some kind of global lockdown, and binge it all and emerge a changed woman. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to remind you that there’s a part two of season five and that Kevin Costner dipped from the show that was literally built around his character due to his desire to make the Horizon saga, which I feel entitled to judge despite having not seen it as bloated, egotistical, and propagandistic. After all, Costner’s performance on Yellowstone was all of those things and what made the show great was the way Sheridan surrounded Costner with sharper-edged actors and vicious writing. Without those elements, it’s going to be saggy. If Horizon is Yellowstone without Sheridan, it remains to be seen what Yellowstone is without Costner. I might just tune in and find out.
As a note, there’s another Sheridan show coming out this month called Landman (Paramount+, November 17). I bet you can guess what it’s about without me providing any more info than that. I will watch at least three episodes!
Bad Sisters, season two (Apple TV+, November 13): Season one of this show was a delightful Irish murder mystery. Sharon Horgan, Anne-Marie Duff, Eva Birthistle, Sarah Greene, and Eve Hewson co-star as five sisters, each with their own quirks (and ways they would commit murder if they needed to). In the first season, it becomes clear to each sister independently that one of their husbands needs to die (he is abusive and awful). But which one of them killed him? Did they pull a Murder on the Orient Express? Maybe a And Then There Were None? In season two, they’ve gotten away with that murder, so what comes next? I can’t wait to see how you stretch this show beyond one season because it is an absolute treat. Here’s hoping a second season enriches and doesn’t ruin (a la Big Little Lies).
Cross (Prime Video, November 14): It’s hard to overstate how successful James Patterson has been. He is a totally ok writer who does not really write any of his own books anymore but who has been such a savvy businessman that it hardly matters if he ever writes another word. He makes roughly $100 million a year and has written or co-written over 200 books. Many of his books have been adapted, including his Alex Cross series. That is the subject of the new show Cross, which promises to be something a little different. The official synopsis is as follows: “Alex Cross, a decorated D.C. homicide detective and forensic psychologist, faces a sadistic serial killer; he and his partner, John Sampson, track this killer and a threat from Cross' past appears with ill intent.” Everything you need for a rip-roaring thriller, but it’s also nothing we haven’t quite literally seen before. Hopefully they’ve found a way to make it new.
Say Nothing (FX on Hulu, November 14): In 2018, the journalist and author Patrick Radden Keefe published a non-fiction book examining the 1972 disappearance of a woman in the midst of the Irish Troubles. Focusing on her disappearance (and ultimately potentially solving her murder) allowed Keefe a window into the complicated dynamics of loyalists, nationalists, families, lovers, and neighbors in the middle of a time of incredible stress and instability. Turning a non-fiction book into a fictional series is a difficult task, but the entire series is being directed by Michael Lennox, who directed Derry Girls, a sitcom about the Troubles (the most Irish sentence I’ve ever written). That show is incredible, so I have high hopes for this. The story is incredibly compelling and the topic is one more people should be familiar with.
Outlander, season seven, part two (Starz, November 20): I have not kept up with this show, but I so deeply love it that I have to recommend it whenever I can. It is a strange one, as it’s status as a Starz show, when no one seems to remember Starz still exists, has kept it in this liminal space. I always thought it was going to get cancelled, but it has remained, likely because it is one of the only shows bringing eyeballs to that network (kind of like From on MGM+). Outlander is a big romantic time traveling epic and contains some of the best writing, acting, and directing of any show that’s been on television in the last decade. It is romantasy before that term became en vogue. I adore it, but I also find it incredibly exhausting, as it will put just as much effort into its central plotline of time traveling Scottish lovers as it will into like French nun’s medical practices in the 18th century. There’s a lot of side quests here, but the juice is so so so worth the squeeze. Once this show is over (one more season to go), I will lock myself in a closet for six months and watch it all (there’s several shows like this on my list).