QUICK TAKES

Hacks is back at MAX. (Say that rapidly, several times in succession.) Season three of the sit-com has commenced; I have seen two episodes which is more than enough to declare this Emmy winner of the past a contender for any number of prizes in the current season. Jean Smart is a wonder and the ensemble around her is worthy of the words being written for them by an exceptionally talented team.

I have also seen season seven of Outlander on Starz via Apple TV, bringing to mind the admonition of Aaron Rosenberg, one of my early mentors, who was prone to say things such as “You can stretch a thing but don’t tear it.”

An inordinate amount of time has passed between the fabulous first six seasons and this latest offering. Cagney & Lacey alum, Toni Graphia, along with her fellow producers, just take it for granted that their audience is freaky enough to remember the minutiae that makes up the complicated fabric of this multi-generational/semi-historical/ time-bending bodice buster, regardless of the months (years?) that have gone by since the previous episodes aired on either Netflix or Starz.

Ms. Graphia almost gets away with it. Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan may just be two of the best leads for any series anywhere but season seven gives them too much time on the sidelines, while relying too heavily on the supporting players who simply do not have the magnetism, or anything close to the star power of the two leads. Moreover… after all these years, it would appear every interesting actor in Scotland has had his shot in the series and we are now left with what the producers could find from scouring both the high and the lowlands for fresh faces.

It appears to be almost too much to ask but there is, I am hoping, enough time with Ms. Balfe and Squire Heughan on screen together in what is to come that will get me to return for the second half of the seventh season, due sometime before year’s end.

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A while back, I wrote about a one-man show I saw in Los Angeles direct from its Broadway bow. That show, Just For us, starring Alex Edelman is now a special on Max and it could not be timelier. Lest it go unsaid, it is also remarkably funny. Chalk it up as must-see-TV.

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Sugar is a private eye genre series starring the usually very good Colin Farrell. He is fine here, but the show… complete with the mandatory LA locations, the voice over soundtrack, and the requisite number of exotic cars and seedy characters is so film noir precious that it was all I could do to wade through the first episode. I would give this Apple+ series a most definite pass. If you haven’t done so already, watch Tom Fontana’s Monsieur Spade (Acorn TV), a great homage to the genre and proof that you are not required to set the locale in Los Angeles to come up with a good detective yarn.

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The Sympathizer on MAX is very non-genre traditional and more than worth your time. Although unlikely to ring everyone’s bell, I find the show admirable for its wit, its cinematic style, and the performances which are more than a little off-beat and a lot of fun to watch. It is everything Sugar isn’t. And how sweet that is.

 

Barney Rosenzweig