Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Television
Listings and highlights for your viewing.
How about something fun to watch? Future Man is now streaming on Hulu for those who subscribe. All 13 halfhour episodes became available Tuesday.
Caveat: As with many shows on premium channels and streaming services, this comedy is rated TV-MA. It has coarse language, adult dialogue, the occasional sexual situation and cartoonish violence. It’s also hilarious with surprisingly sophisticated humor and has stellar production values.
The series stars Josh Hutcherson as Josh Futterman. Viewers will recognize the 25-year-old Hutcherson from his role as Peeta Mellark in The Hunger Games film series. In this one, he gets to be the hero once again.
By day, Josh is an aimless janitor at Kronish Laboratories (they’re working on a cure for herpes), but by night he’s a world-class video gamer who still lives at home with his parents. Ed Begley Jr. plays his dad, Gabe Futterman, and Glenne Headly is his mom, Diane. (Headly died from a pulmonary embolism in June at the age of 62.)
They try to encourage Josh by saying that although his job doesn’t actually include working on a cure for the disease, he’s cleaning up after those who are.
At the center of the pilot is Biotic Wars, an unbeatable video game that the rest of the world has given up on. Not Josh, who consistently makes it to the ultimate Level 83, where he “dies.”
In the game, the battle rages between the last people on Earth and the superhuman biotics, a virus-free race intent on wiping out inferior humans.
Then Josh has an inspiration, beats the final level and is (shazam!) visited by reallife game characters Tiger and Wolf (Eliza Coupe, Derek Wilson), two Terminator-esque members of the Resistance who have come back from the year 2162 to pronounce Josh the Savior of the human race.
It turns out that the video game was actually a test to find the one person capable of mastering the skills it will take to save the world.
Sound familiar? You bet — from 1984. Josh sighs and says, “That’s the plot of The Last Starfighter.” Tiger and Wolf don’t know what he’s talking about.
All Tiger and Wolf know is that the key to saving mankind is back in 1969, so they grab the protesting Josh (his real combat skills hardly match his gamer abilities) and travel back in time.
Hilarity and adventure ensue.
I’ve only watched the first episode, but would have binged had I had time. Future Man seems like the perfect combination of science fiction and comedy, pop culture and the post apocalypse.
Alias Grace. Sticking with streaming services, Netflix has added Alias Grace to its lineup. The six-episode miniseries is based on the 1996 historical novel by Margaret Atwood. She gave us the magnificent The Handmaid’s Tale, which streamed on Hulu and won eight 2017 Emmys, including best drama.
Alias Grace, loosely based on a real crime, stars Sarah Gadon as Grace Marks, an Irish immigrant working as a maid in Canada in the 1840s.
There is a gruesome double murder, oppressive class prejudice, predatory men and societal silence, along with psychological elements. There is also a handsome young psychiatrist (played by Edward Holcroft) who must decide whether Grace should be pardoned due to insanity.
The viewer, however, will begin to question the doctor’s motivation. Does he want to save Grace, or is he falling for her? Is he obsessed with her or is Grace actually manipulating him?
The mystery and the ambiguity of the tale make for a fascinating journey.
Danger, Will Robinson! If you’re old enough to know to what I’m referring, then you’ll recognize the same breathless urgency that’s about to unfold on ABC’s Scandal.
Scandal’s midseason finale, “Something Borrowed,” goes down at 8 p.m. today and the network (Danger!) promises “shocking revelations and jaw-dropping events that will leave everyone reeling.” Yikes!
This is the final season for Scandal and I feel faint just pondering having to reel. The second part of Season 7 will begin after all the holidays.
Reminder: Little Rock native George Newbern, who plays Charlie, was promoted to cast regular this season. Promoted, yeah, but not enough to earn Charlie a last name.
TV trivia: Dick Tufeld was the voice of the robot in Lost in Space (1965-68). It had many human-like qualities, but no given name. It was a Class M-3, Model B9, General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Robot.