A tech dystopia and Brad’s babe
Gypsy, Season 1 10 episodes, available Friday
ANYONE who has ever been in any kind of therapy must wonder what the therapist really thinks about them. That interesting idea is explored in a not-so-compelling way in Gypsy, in which Naomi Watts plays Jean, a therapist working out of a group practice in Manhattan. By day, she listens to her patients talk about family and relationship difficulties, and then she goes home to a seemingly perfect picket-fenced house, and her lawyer husband and adorable daughter. Her problem is that she invests too deeply in her patients’ lives. When a mother who comes to see her complains about growing estrangement from her daughter, she goes and befriends the daughter. She intervenes in the drama of a depressed drug addict, coming into conflict with the addict’s boyfriend. And, most troubling of all, when a man complains about the irresistible ex he can’t forget, Jean seeks her out and, using an assumed name and identity, begins a relationship with her that gets a bit The Hand That Rocks The Cradle-like. It’s all a little bit literal — the therapy setting has lured the writers into thinking they can expositionally state everything rather than have it unfold through subtext and nuance. The central character is rather unlikeable and the parody elements of this don’t succeed nearly as well as in, say, Enlightened. The series showcases Watts’ talent and watchability but such inherently dramatic subject matter would benefit from a more sober treatment.
Okja (2017) Available Thursday
THIS has already been described as one of the most exciting movie releases of the year and that’s partly because controversy has dogged it at every turn. First, it drew criticism as Netflix’s debut entry at the Cannes Film Festival, where critics, peeved at the idea of a streaming service jostling with the traditional studios, booed at one of the screenings. Next came a disagreement with three of South Korea’s biggest cinema chains; unhappy with the US giant’s distribution model, they tried to delay its release by three weeks. That failed, but it’s still been a bumpy ride for the Brad Pitt-produced drama. It tells the story of a girl, Mija, who lives with her grandfather in the countryside of South Korea. They’re given a cute ‘super-pig’ by an American company and told to raise it in competition with others around the globe. Ten years later, the suits return to collect their prize, with the intention of selling Mija’s best friend into extra-succulent, low-cost meat. What follows is a heistlike chase across the continents to New York, where she risks all to save her ‘wittle’ piggy. It’s like a cross between Babe and Meat is Murder but the all-star cast (Jake Gyllenhaal and Tilda Swinton are among the stars) help it deftly manage the jumps from children’s drama to social commentary.
The Circle (2017) Available Friday
IT might be hard to make a film with Tom Hanks and Emma Watson that isn’t a hit, but The Circle, an adaptation of a 2013 Dave Eggers novel, might just manage it. The story, which deals with the social media dystopia of a young woman (Watson), tries hard to hold a mirror (in fact, it owes a lot to Black Mirror) up to the foibles of our modern screen-obsessed lives, but mostly it feels like it was written by people who have heard about, rather than lived, this reality. Watson has a well-paid job at a company whose purpose is vague but may be cloud computing — but she is forced to party with her colleagues so that they can be photographed and is asked to wear a camera all the time in an effort to get people and politicians to be more transparent. Eventually she begins to question the cult-like dogma of her boss (Hanks) and the happy ending is nothing like the satisfying satire that closes the book.
Chelsea, Season 2 Weekly episodes
CHELSEA Handler’s chat show used to suffer from the same malaise that affects The Daily Show’s guest roster — too many American-centric names and not enough full-on star wattage. Handler often tried to outshine her funny guests. This season, that happens much less frequently and Handler meets her match in quip-tastic exchanges with the likes of Wanda Sykes and Amy Schumer.