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Three Busy DeBras is a weird show.
Set in the fictional town of Lemoncurd—
one of those posh Connecticut suburbs
where it still looks like the ’50s and every
stately home sits atop acres of mani-
cured lawn—it follows a trio of house-
wives who are, yes, all named Debra.
You can tell by her string of pearls that
Sandy Honig’s (Isn’t It Romantic) Debra
is the alpha; Alyssa Stonoha’s Debra is
her deadpan deputy. That makes Mitra
Jouhari’s character the odd Debra out,
scorned and scapegoated by her friends.
In the premiere, Stonoha and Jouhari
squash Honig’s pool boy between their
cars. Charged with disposing of his body,
Jouhari buys a purse big enough to stand
inside and pays for it with a fist-size em-
erald straight out of a video game. “Exact
change—nice touch,” chirps the clerk.
Desperate Housewives, The Stepford
Wives, Douglas Sirk melodramas and
every other pop- cultural depiction of
stultifying lives of women in suburbia
are in the DNA of this strange and won-
derful short-form series on Adult Swim.
But Debras, created by its stars with the
backing of Amy Poehler’s Paper Kite
Productions, does more than remix
homemaker tropes à la Weeds. Based on
the avant-garde comedy Honig, JouhariREVIEW
The surreal housewives of Lemoncurdand Stonoha have been performing for
years, the show is delightfully absurdist.
The Debras wear stark white and de-
liver ridiculous lines (“A Debra must
be ready to conceive at all times”) with
mannered deliberateness. Sitcom cli-
chés get stretched to extremes; Stonoha
shoves a cop into a closet, exits wearing
his uniform... and then he struts out in
her character’s pantsuit. Ingenious sight
gags abound, from a woman pruning a
hedge with shaving cream and a razor to
a board game called Security Questions.
It’s particularly encouraging to see
the Debras on Adult Swim. Beloved for
stoner- friendly fare such as Rick and
Morty, The Eric Andre Show and Robot
Chicken, the brand has been criticized for
its lack of female creators. As it contin-
ues to champion oddballs like Tim & Eric,
whose new series Beef House premieres
back-to-back with Debras, experimental
comedy from women languishes on main-
stream platforms. (See: Maria Bamford’s
brilliant, canceled Netflix show Lady
Dynamite.) Here’s hoping the Debras are
just the first of many new female guests
invited to Adult Swim’s pool party. —J.B.THREE BUSY DEBRAS debu ts on A dult Swim
on Marc h 29REVIEW
Loop dreamsSwe dish a rt ist S imon
Stalenhag m ake s t he f amiliar
strange, in digital images that
place h ulking r obots, d ecaying
machines a nd c ement t owe rs
in rural landscapes populated
by r egular p eople. A t fi rst,
these u ncanny works were like
concept a rt f or a fi lm t hat d idn’t
exist. B ut S talenhag s oon
rev erse- engineered a p remise
for t he a rt , w hich h e c ollected
in a b ook c alled Tales From the
Loop, a bout a t own w here t he
government h ad b uilt a n e erie
underground r esearch f acility
called t he L oop.
Amazon’s a daptation
moves the Loop from Sweden
to O hio, i n e ight l oosely
connected s ci-fi v ignettes
from c reator N athaniel
Halpern (Legion). T he s how
captures t he u nnerving beauty
of S talenhag’s w ork; in a
premiere d irected by music-
video a uteur M ark Romanek,
a h ouse d isintegrates u pwa rd,
drifting p iece by p iece i nto t he
sky. S adly, stiff, humorless
scripts s tretch 1 5 m inutes’
wort h o f p lot over hour-long
episodes, l eaving a cast led by
Jonathan P ry ce a nd R ebecca
Hall s cant m aterial f rom
which t o b uild c haracters. In
concentrating o n i ts s trange
tableaus, H alpern’s Loop
neglects t o g round t he t ales
they i llustrate i n t he f amiliarity
of h uman l ife. —J.B.TALES FROM THE LOOP comes
MAKING THE CUT, TALES FROM THE LOOP: AMAZON PRIME VIDEO; THREE BUSY DEBRAS: ADULT SWIMto A mazon on A pril 3Duncan Joiner and Abby Ryder
Forts on probe the depthsStonoha, left, and Jouhari star as two of the show’s thre e DebrasTTV.indd 97 3/24/20 10:47 PM