The (Truly) Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

By Spencer Coile 

The year is 1958, and Miriam "Midge" Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) lives on the Upper West Side with her wealthy husband (Michael Zegen) and two children. Her parents (Tony Shaloub and Marin Hinkle) live in the same apartment complex to watch the kids for her. She is dressed to the nines for all occasions, supports her husband's (flailing) career in stand-up comedy, and still has time to whip up a mean brisket. Why would she ever want her life to change? 

Which is to say, of course, that it will and does.

When her husband leaves her for his secretary, Midge angrily (and drunkenly) takes to the stage of the Gaslight, a downtown bar her husband frequently played at, to rant to her audience about this sudden shift. Her improvised venting, though, has the crowd in stitches. And it soon becomes clear that not only is she performing a stand-up routine, she is also quite good at it... 

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Amazon Pilot Season: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

By Spencer Coile 

Each year, Amazon releases a handful of their pilot episodes for Prime members to stream. This is a unique twist on determining the worth of new series -- viewer feedback factors prominently into Amazon's pickup decisions. Recent Amazon hits such as Transparent, Mozart in the Jungle, and recently The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel have all weathered Amazon pilot season to become full fledged series. 

Yet while this trend is potentially on its way out the door, we were still offered a fresh batch of pilot episodes to help get us through fall of 2017: The Climb, Love You More, and Sea Oak. But which of these three (if any) have the most potential for receiving a full series pickup?...

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Quick Links

• Coming Soon Ant Man and the Wasp has wrapped filming. Apparently there's a scene on a beach between Pfeiffer and Douglas
• Decider 10 movies you should stream right now to prepare for awards season
• The Guardian apparently Feud is just making its way to the UK so there's a new Susan Sarandon interview where she defends her baffling political decisions of the recent past

• Rotten Tomatoes Jude Law has nabbed the male lead of Captain Marvel opposite Brie Larson
• Los Angeles Times John Lasseter, Disney/Pixar's long time chief creative officer, is taking a leave of absence from Disney after complaints of inappropriate behavior with female employees
• Playbill what are the plays that Broadway revives the most often? The top 12 features well loved playwright's like Tennessee Williams (though I was surprised by his second most revived), Arthur Miller, Eugene O'Neill, and of course Edward Albee's masterpiece Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
• Variety Rance Howard, the character actor and father of Ron Howard, has passed away
• Gr8ter Days David Cassidy, 70s teen idol of the Patridge Family has passed away
• Variety The Seen and Unseen, which you'll remember I raved about at TIFF, has won two new prizes this past week, splitting the Grand Prize at Tokyo FilmEx and winning the APSA for Youth Feature. 

Exit Video
Have you checked out the new webseries "Power Couple"? We must thank Joe Reid for recommending it. The concept is simple and hooky (famous pairings through history) and the execution by Sudi Green and Matt Rogers is brilliant. My favorite thus far is Caesar & Cleopatra but they've also done Britney & Justin (with an amazing 50 Shades riff on negotiation) and Evil Queen & Magic Mirror.

Cast List: "Too Old to Die Young"

by Nathaniel R

After his success d'estime with Drive (remember that surprising but wonderful Cannes Best Director win?) his provocative (aka insane) follow-ups, Only God Forgives and The Neon Demon, have not been greeted so enthusiastically. But Denmark's second most famous director shows no signs of slowing down...

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Wrapping Up: Stranger Things 2

By Spencer Coile 

Stranger Things 2 dropped to Netflix three weeks ago, and already, most fans have consumed it in its entirety. In fact, many people finished it within the first weekend. I covered the first half of the season shortly after watching it, but because I choose not to binge the series in one sitting (just not my style of viewing), I was able to let the story and characters really sink in. 

Now, having finally finished Stranger Things 2, I can safely say that the second half of the season eclipses the first half -- making it a solid addition to the cultural phenomenon that is Stranger Things. After the jump, take a look at some brief thoughts about the season as a whole: what works, what doesn't, and what season three will hopefully bring... 

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