Spike Lee Coming to Netflix

by Kieran Scarlett

It was recently announced that Netflix has ordered ten episodes of a TV series adaptation of Spike Lee’s 1986 debut feature film She’s Gotta Have It.  Lee will direct all ten episodes.  The age of prestige television truly allows for more fluid movement (at least behind the camera) from film to TV and back again. Spike Lee’s last few features (despite good notices for Chi-raq) have had trouble catching fire outside of the arthouse the way his earlier work has, for this reason or that. He’s certainly a polarizing figure and resistance to his work is built in to certain audiences.

Tracy Camilla Johns and Spike Lee in SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT (1986)

Have you seen She’s Gotta Have It? It’s a very fascinating piece, both on its own and in the larger context of Lee’s filmography. There’s a beautifully bare-bones energy to it that one would expect from a debut, but it still retains Lee’s voice, vigor and artistry. It’s also has a refreshing focus on female characters in a way that even ardent fans of Lee’s work can’t argue is missing from much of his filmography.

Lee’s previous notable foray into television gave us the beautiful and vital “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts,” his in-depth and personal HBO documentary about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath (if you haven’t seen it, get thee to HBO on demand as soon as possible). Spike Lee adapting his voice for television is definitely something that could yield interesting results.

“She’s Gotta Have It” is expected to premiere on Netflix next year. Will you be watching?

The Beauty of "Queen Sugar"

by Kieran Scarlett

The televised family drama, free of a truly high concept seem to be dying.  The party line would be that watching the inner workings of a family unit—the relational politics and generational issues therein—devoid of something else for the show to be “about” don’t’ capture audiences as easily as those same stories with the overlaid veneer of meth production, mafia ties or a shady family-owned record company.  Over the past decade or so we’ve had several shows that have nakedly been about the dynamics of adult siblings in a family unit and very little else, “Brothers and Sisters” and “Parenthood” being two notable examples. Going back even further, even a show like “Six Feet Under” which had the high-concept premise of a family-owned funeral parlor wasn’t explicitly about that as much as it was the lives of the three siblings and the matriarch. We’ve certainly never seen a show of this nature about a non-white family, as it would seem that “black” shows especially need a hook. The shows with black or any non-white characters that get greenlit and see success tend to suggest the perpetuation of the false myth that audiences need to be given a reason for non-white characters in human drama.

Dawn-Lyen Gardener and Rutina Wesley

This long preface serves to highlight how truly rare—both in concept and in beautiful, artful execution—Ava DuVernay’s “Queen Sugar” feels...

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Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (S1. E15-16)

Dancin' Dan back again to cover the next two episodes of the EMMY AWARD WINNING Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

Yes, it's true! At the Creative Arts Emmys, our favorite musical comedy TV show won two trophies: Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing For A Comedy Series (for the pilot episode) and Outstanding Choreography (for the numbers I'm So Good at Yoga, A Boy Band Made Up of Four Joshes, and Settle For Me). CONGRATULATIONS, SHOW!

But now, back to the business at hand. This time out, Rebecca learns something with a little help from her friends, and embarks on an attempt to make healthier choices in her life.

S1. E15: "Josh Has No Idea Where I Am!"

After running away at the end of last episode, Rebecca falls asleep on her plane to New York and is visited by a "Dream Ghost" vesion of her therapist, who takes her on a journey through her past. Meanwhile, no one else knows where Rebecca is, prompting lots of panicking back in West Covina.

Let's rank the crazy!

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YNMS: The Young Pope

by Laurence Barber

In the wake of House of Cards' success, it seems networks have all been clamouring to make shows about other worlds that are full of their own political intrigue. Netflix itself has the Gerard Depardieu-starring Marseille, which French critics savaged and everyone else mostly ignored, and the upcoming The Crown. In other ways, shows like Mr. Robot and UnReal seem partially derivative of this trend despite updating and resituating it. Now, in a joint production, Sky, Canal+ and HBO have teamed up to produce the latest project from Oscar-winning director Paolo Sorrentino: The Young Pope...

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RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars E2 - Snatch Game

By Chris Feil

How was Rupaul's Drag Race All Stars going to follow the all-timer quality of last week's premiere? By diving right into the show's biggest fan favorite challenge and ramping up all sorts of drama, of course!

Yes, this week is already Snatch Game, the show's most legendary challenge that has been seeing increasingly diminishing returns in past seasons (dare we say that we've considered the show should just eliminate it entirely *gasp*). But the actual challenge was more than just hype this time around with even the weaker performing queens producing more memorable celebrity impersonations than some of season seven and eight's strongest. I guess that's why this bunch are truly All Stars.

But the main challenge and runway drama weren't the biggest showdown this week...

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