In the world of the combination cable watching and streaming, television has become more accessible. It offers some good and some bad, since the number of shows on your favorite platforms can be overwhelming.
Each week on AirTalk, LAist 89.3's daily news show, we're joined by television critics who help parse through notable releases and tell us what's worth a binge. This week we were joined by Inkoo Kang, TV critic for the New Yorker, and Cristina Escobar, tv critic and co-founder of LatinaMedia.Co.
Listen to the full conversation for a rundown of the variety of shows they hit on. I’ll dig into three of them a little further to offer added insights.
This week’s shows/topics include:
Streaming on Hulu
Taking place in South Central Los Angeles, the show follows Julio, who's struggling in his personal life but goes out of his way to make his community a better place. He spends most of the show with his cousin Luis, previously gang-affiliated, recently released from prison, and trying to adapt to life back home with Julio.
“So I don't think the fault here lies in the Latino viewers not showing up. I think it is in networks for not marketing our stuff as for everybody. This Fool was a show that anybody could watch and enjoy and find funny.” – Cristina Escobar, Latinamedia.co
“But what I really loved about This Fool is that it was a culture comedy, but it was also an existential dread comedy… how can you get more universal than existential dread in the 2020s?” – Inkoo Kang, The New Yorker
Overall take: Despite the show’s cancellation announcement last week, it’s still streaming for the foreseeable future and is worth checking out if you haven’t already seen the show. A great deadpan comedy that happens to include witty social commentary and a fresh look at South Central L.A. that younger Angelenos and old heads will appreciate.
Worth noting: When The Hollywood Reporter broke the story about its cancellation, it was mentioned that this fits an industrywide trend of TV production downsizing. As our critic Cristina Escobar noted, studios and streamers would need to spend as much money and time marketing Latino-led shows as they do on other shows in order to get them to last more than two seasons.
When and where: All 20 episodes for This Fool’s first and second seasons are streaming on Hulu.
Airing on ABC & Streaming on Hulu
Based on the series of crime novels written by Karin Slaughter, this police procedural set in Atlanta follows Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Will Trent.
"I just [feel] like this show is one that I really enjoy watching ... feels tidy and comforting, and also just charming." — Cristina Escobar, LatinaMedia.co
Overall take: Despite being a show that focuses a lot on police work and crime, there’s still plenty of humor added in that won’t keep viewers feeling completely drained or bummed out at the end of each episode. It’s also not a complete glorification of law enforcement, with the second season offering some leveled criticism of police.
When and where: Episode 1 is out now; Episode 2 releases on ABC on Tuesday, Feb. 27 at 8 p.m. and streaming on Hulu the next day.
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video
In her second stand-up special, comedian Jenny Slate talks about becoming a mother, loving your therapist so much that you want to stalk them, and a whole host of bits taken from her life.
"It's very de earnest and ironic ... this just sort of nailed it — and it felt — like catching up with an old friend. Where they are telling you all the crazy things that happened to them in the last three years." — Inkoo Kang, The New Yorker
Overall take: For those who haven’t seen her first special Stage Fright and need a bit more understanding of Slate’s humor, it’s the kind of raunchiness that you'd get with a really close friend. Her humor fits in perfectly with Gen-Z and millennial audiences and she expertly mixes her sense of comedic timing with ironic existentialism. Especially in a live setting, her background in improv and time with the comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade shines through with her well-timed quips.
Fun facts: Many people were first introduced to Slate as the voice of the adorable talking shell Marcel in a series of web shorts called Marcel the Shell with Shoes On that she and Dean Fleischer Camp developed over a decade ago. The two spun the web series into a feature length documentary that released in 2022, and received an Oscar nod for Best Documentary Feature.
When and where: The stand-up special is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
