THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 76 MARCH 26, 2020
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AGES.Netflix’s Feel Good (top) and Freeform’s Everything’s Gonna Be Okay.as is Ben Mendelsohn once he
stops being exclusively glum! To
me, though, the show felt trapped
between supernatural and pro-
cedural and didn’t live up to its
ample potential.
I’d put Hulu’s Little Fires
Everywhere in the same category
of polished, pedigreed let-
down. Best-selling novel. Reese
Witherspoon being terrifyingly
type A and Kerry Washington
flaunting her trademark quiver-
ing rage. But is that enough?
KANG After the disastrous second
season of Big Little Lies, the mixed
bag of The Morning Show and now
the thoroughly “meh” adapta-
tion of Little Fires Everywhere,
should we revoke Reese’s pedi-
gree card? It might help if she
didn’t continue playing the same
plucky role that we’ve seen her
do a hundred times. To be fair,
Witherspoon does expand in
Little Fires Everywhere as the clue-
less white lady to Washington’s
black struggling artist. The
actresses share one exquisite
scene in episode two, an acting
tour de force in which the shaky
alliance between their char-
acters based on their common
womanhood quickly gives way
to the race and class differences
between them. But the rest of the
series, which finds them squar-
ing off on opposing sides of a
legal case, fails to live up to that
Emmy-reel moment.
Witherspoon’s gradual move
to the small screen suggests that
movie stars no longer connote
quality TV projects. That’s been
the case for a while, but it’s still
jarring to see such celebrated
actors take on such relatively
minor and shallow roles. At leastWitherspoon and Washington are
the stars of Little Fires Everywhere.
I’m not entirely over seeing Sally
Field and Richard E. Grant trying
to give AMC’s Dispatches From
Elsewhere, about a quartet of
strangers playing a live-action,
citywide game that ... may not be
a game ... the heart and intrigue
the show so desperately needs.
FIENBERG Dispatches From
Elsewhere fits into this conver-
sation because it feels like the
glossy brand-name version of
my beloved Lodge 49, only with
Jason Segel as the slacker whose
life turns upside down when he
discovers a secret society that
allows him to connect with a
world of eccentric strangers.
Unlike Lodge 49, however, this
show spells everything out, which
reduces a lot of the magic. For all
the stars and Oscar nominees in
Dispatches, I think Eve Lindley is
the most interesting performer
— and I doubt even she will be
enough for me to stick with it.
Sometimes star power just isn’t
sufficient to turn a show into
something people care about.
Look at Hunters on Amazon.
Juicy premise, legendary lead
actor (the show leans hard on Al
Pacino and his Yiddish accent).
But once the Auschwitz-Birkenau
Memorial and Museum con-
demns you, it’s tough to rebound.
I found it to be a provocative
piece of Jewsploitation, and there
were interesting conversations
to be had about it. But I’m not
sure people had those conversa-
tions, because Hunters ultimately
isn’t quite good enough to be
seen as anything more than
yet another show streaming
on Amazon.I feel similarly about Hulu’s
High Fidelity, which has double
IP prestige from Nick Hornby’s
book and Stephen Frears’ film but
never quite nails why this story is
relevant for 2020. That’s despite
the freshness of Zoë Kravitz’s vul-
nerable and edgy performance.
I don’t want to make it sound
like I’ve been disappointed by all
recent shows with splashy casts
or big-name creators. HBO’s The
Plot Against America, for example,
is stimulating and infuriating
and artfully unpleasant. Have
you found satisfaction in any new
tentpole offerings? Or have you
had to seek your joy elsewhere?
KANG Tentpoles, not really, which
is why we’re having this discus-
sion. (Though I’ve yet to dive into
The Plot Against America.) Wh ich
isn’t to say smaller shows haven’t
been good! Many of them have.
(Check out Lena Waithe’s extraor-
dinarily promising BET series,
Twenties.) But as for the matter
at hand: Do you think we can
really qualify this as a moment
of prestige failures, or does it just
seem more like a function of TV’s
usual “let’s see which spaghetti
sticks on the wall” model? Any
guesses as to how these highly
distinguished disappointments
might impact the industry as
a significant production lull
and recession look increasingly
likely? And since those questions
are kind of heavy, which unabash-
edly unprestigious shows are
making you happy right now?
FIENBERG It’s a scary and uncertain
moment for TV, the industry and,
really, everybody, but I almost
think there’s an upside to how
many of this spring’s best shows
might be flying a little under the
radar at the moment. Sure, people
can tune in for Al Pacino the Nazi
hunter or Reese Witherspoon the
TV star — if that’s still a thing
that makes us jolly after her third
show in less than a year — but
eventually, when the fancy, hype-
driven series have exhausted their
enjoyability, there’s going to be a
long period of discovery of lower-
profile, word-of-mouth treasures.
So many of the things I’ve
been enjoying most these days
are things I have to keep telling
people to watch. It’s tough to
immediately convince mass audi-
ences that they want to tune into a docuseries about cheerlead-
ers (Netflix’s Cheer) or a scripted
series about possibly homicidal
cheerleaders (USA’s Dare Me),
but they’re great! Netflix’s Feel
Good, about an unlikely lesbian
love affair in London, probably
won’t make you feel good, with its
backdrop of pain and addiction,
but it’s moving and frequently
funny in a way that calls to mind
Catastrophe (a great Amazon
comedy that folks might enjoy if
they haven’t seen it before). These
are special shows, and if you don’t
know the names of the people
who created or star in them,
hopefully you’ll know them soon.
And don’t let the similarities
in title between Netflix’s I Am Not
Okay With This and Freeform’s
Everything’s Gonna Be Okay
confuse you; they’re both worth
watching, the latter especially
— not just for Aussie star and cre-
ator Josh Thomas but for co-stars
Kayla Cromer and Maeve Press
as well. That show, with its bit-
tersweet, unexpectedly hilarious
story of an entomologist raising
the two half-sisters he barely
knows, might actually bring new
pedigree to Freeform — which
I hear has a new military witch
drama, by the way.
KANG Dan, please don’t conjure
up my memories of Motherland:
Fort Salem again! I do hope you’re
right in predicting that smaller
shows that arrive on our screens
without the marquee names — or
the accompanying expectations
— might get more of a chance
while we’re all stuck on the
couch. Some of the most pleasant
yet eye-opening or brain-chal-
lenging TV I hope more people
check out during periods of social
distancing or self-quarantine
are network stalwarts like NBC’s
Superstore and ABC’s Roseanne-
less The Conners.
In the same category — enter-
taining yet substantial — but on
cable/streaming are Showtime’s
Work in Progress, a lesbian suicide
comedy (trust me), and Netflix’s
Next in Fashion, a fashion-design
competition hosted by Tan France
and Alexa Chung. Sourcing
designers from all over the world,
it provides just the right amount
of jet-setting, glamour and even
faith in human perseverance that
we could all use right now.10rev_opener-3_L [P]{Print}_53633793.indd 76 3/23/20 4:38 PM