2019-09-01 Rolling Stone

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TRUTH BE TOLD

Unbelievable

NETWORK Netflix

AIR DATE September 13th

4

CASHING OUT

On Becoming a God

in Central Florida

NETWORK Showtime

AIR DATE Sundays, 10 p.m.

@

In an early episode of this dram-

edy about American delusions,

Kirsten Dunst’s Krystal is greeted

steam too quickly. As a 10-episode

series, it becomes as exhausting

to sit through as Krystal finds

Cody. Her contempt for the whole

enterprise, and the sharp edges

of Dunst’s performance, cut

through some of this unpleasant

cult’s inanity, but not enough.

There’s a scene of black-comic

violence in the premiere that’s

hilarious for its surprise; by the

time the finale strikes a similar

note, the show feels too labored

for anything to be funny.

by her husband’s pyramid-scheme

boss, Cody (Théodore Pellerin),

who offers her a cookie cake and a

creepy, painted-on smile to make

her feel better about the scam

obliterating her life savings. Once

upon a time, Dunst would have

nailed playing a falsely chipper

zombie like Cody. On Becoming

a God in Central Florida smartly

turns her fundamental sunni-

ness on its head. Krystal has no

patience for Cody’s bullshit and

responds to him with a perfect

expression of disdain.

Dunst is wonderful, and the

show makes some strong satirical

points early on about the lies we

are conditioned to tell ourselves

in order to pursue the fortunes to

which we are allegedly entitled.

But it quickly runs out of things to

say, leaving us to spend way too

much time in the company of the

pyramid scheme’s acolytes and its

leader (Ted Levine). As a two-hour

movie, this story would run out of

FIGHT THE POWER

Godfather of Harlem

NETWORK Epix

AIR DATE September 29th

3

“I got guns,” legendary gangster

Bumpy Johnson (Forest Whitaker)

announces. “I got soldiers,” Mal-

colm X (Nigel Thatch) replies. It’s a

match made in gritty-drama heav-

en in this Sixties period piece that

mixes Mob action with civil-rights

rhetoric. The cast is stacked: Gi-

ancarlo Esposito is Congressman

Adam Clayton Powell Jr.; Vincent

D’Onofrio, Paul Sorvino, and Chazz

Palminteri are infamous Mafioso

with limited tolerance for John-

son’s activities. (“You know that

nobody likes you people getting

all loud and boisterous, right?”

D’Onofrio’s gangster sneers.)

Everyone’s wildly overqualified

for the material, which feels like

Boardwalk Empire minus the artier

pretensions. But the music — a

mix of period tunes and original

hip-hop, curated by Swizz Beatz

— is great, and Whitaker gets to

unleash his remarkable onscreen

temper long enough to create

the illusion that this Godfather is

worthy of that name.

+++++Classic | ++++Excellent | +++Good | ++Fair | +Poor

WATCH LIST

What to stream, what to skip this month

D’Onofrio,

Whitaker

square off.

INTERVIEW

McElhenney

and Danny

DeVito

As It’s Always Sunny in Philadel-

phia returns for a history-mak-

ing 14th season, creator and

co-star Rob McElhenney explains

the keys to the black comedy’s

against-all-odds longevity.

WHEN “IT’S ALWAYS Sunny

in Philadelphia” returns to FXX

on September 25th, it’ll tie

The Adventures of Ozzie and

Harriet as the longest-running

live-action comedy in American

TV history. How has this scruffy

DIY sitcom about a group of

pals (a.k.a. “the Gang”) arguing

about abortion, sexual harass-

ment, drug addiction, and more

lasted this long — and been so

consistently, scathingly funny?

By sticking with what works.

The formula is simple: A

hot-button topic comes up; the

Gang has the worst possible

response to it; repeat. But as

Sunny creator and star Rob

McElhenney says, “Because the

world seems to change so much

from a cultural perspective,

each year gives us a bunch of

new cultural things that have

changed that we can mine.”

That the Gang are all socio-

paths (and Glenn Howerton’s

Dennis may be a serial killer) has

actually helped in the long run.

The fact that these people never

grow up just provides more

comic fodder. “The older it gets,”

says McElhenney, “the sadder it

gets, the funnier it gets.”

As for Season 14? “It’s more

of the same!” he promises.

“Hopefully there are episodes

that’ll satisfy people who like

the show, and will also enrage

some people. Part of my job

is subverting the expectation

of my core base on a consis-

tent basis. They might have to

watch a four-and-a-half-minute

contemporary-dance sequence.

They might scream at the TV in

rage. But I promise them that

is why they like the show: They

don’t know what’s coming.” A.S.

Wever (left),

Collette

Dunst sells

her soul.

The ‘Sunny’

Side of Life

This miniseries about sexual

assault and the trauma that rever-

berates around it is essentially two

different shows operating under

one title. In the first, Booksmart’s

Kaitlyn Dever is a young woman

who reports her assault, then re-

cants under pressure from skepti-

cal cops, and is charged with filing

a false report. In the second, cops

Toni Collette and Merritt Wever

team up to pursue a serial rapist.

The detectives are clearly chasing

Dever’s attacker, but the stories

mostly stay on parallel tracks: one

an emotionally brutal tale of a

woman victimized first by a rapist,

then by the system; the other a

thoughtful but also propulsive

police procedural.

Both halves are superb, as are

the leads (particularly Wever), but

the police story is the easier one

to get through. The show devotes

the entire first episode to Dever’s

horrifying situation, which might

scare away viewers unwilling to

endure seven more hours like it.

Be patient: Unbelievable offers

ample rewards. A.S.