Sunday Service

Announcements

• Peacock’s Poker Face finally returns this summer

• HBO’s Emmy-winner Hacks sets April for season four

• Disney’s Percy Jackson renewed early for a third season

Black Mirror returns with season seven

The Pitt goes where no audience has gone before

Another stellar episode of Max’s The Pitt pulled all the punches with a medically accurate depiction of a high-risk pregnancy. Experiencing a full-frontal birth was the first time I remembered it isn’t on linear TV; free of censors for something that should be more commonplace. If you haven’t watched the episode or are asking “What’s The Pitt?”, sit down immediately, preferably without any food or drink, and indulge in one of the year’s best shows.

The Pitt airs on Thursdays at 9 p.m. on Max.

Netflix’s Adolescence examines an internal gender war

Netflix’s breathtakingly shot limited series explores the tumultuous teen years; familiar fare since Bayside High. But, the microcosm of schoolyard romances, peer pressure, and gender roles reaches beyond the halls of pre-teen confusion, showcasing that the same misinterpretations of masculinity are carried into adulthood.

Playing out like a special episode of SVU, 13-year-old Jamie Miller is arrested from his home for the alleged murder of a female classmate. As he professes his innocence, his family - specifically his father - stands by his side insisting that he’s done nothing wrong. As the four-episode saga unravels, we discover the truth and the symptoms of an illness as contagious as a click of a heart emoji on a picture.

The series boasts incredible performances from Stephen Graham and the surprisingly stunning lead, Owen Moore. In addition to the powerful cast, each episode has been seemingly shot in one take, for a hauntingly intimate tone. The first two episodes take place consecutively time-wise, within days of one another capturing the instant disbelief, and the perilous fallout among the small town. The last two episodes have different time jumps, catching up with Jamie and his family at certain stages of this ordeal.

While its themes are nothing new — society has tried to solve these issues since Columbine — it takes into account the new ways teens are radicalized. Before folks scavenged the dark web for these discussions, cloaked in anonymity. Today, this rhetoric is a play button away on a popular podcast or pops up in an innocent fitness ad. The messaging is even not-so-subtly pushed by public officials, holding both girls and boys hostage.

And as much as we seek to cure our teen boys from these wounds, it doesn’t go away after graduation. Or disappear with one’s first big-boy job. As the series shows, this distinct insecurity around masculinity plagues adults of all ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds.

Adolescence is available now on Netflix.

Dark Winds season three excels in premiere

AMC’s crime drama Dark Winds returned for its third season last week, accumulating a stunning 2.2 million viewers. The period drama set on a Navajo reservation in the 1970s Southwest follows Lt. Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) and Deputy Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon), members of the tribal police. The two enter unknown territory to solve a missing child’s case, which quickly reveals a more sinister plot spanning 500 miles to the Mexican border, where former colleague Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) suspects illegal operations from a powerful foe. As the three contend with a rising threat, Leaphorn struggles with a sin from his past.

Join me here for more of my thoughts on the premiere episode. Dark Winds airs every Sunday at 9 p.m. on AMC and streams on AMC+.

Coming Attractions

• 3.18 HBO’s massive hit The Penguin lands on Blu-Ray

• 3.19 K-drama Gannibal returns for a long-awaited second season

• 3.20 Netflix’s comedic whodunit The Residence arrives

• 3.21 Apple TV delivers the season two finale of Severance

• 3.21 Colman Domingo’s Sing Sing arrives on Max