The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Bounty hunters, kings, queens and zombies
Solid viewing choices include returning “Star Wars,” chess drama, new “Dead’ adventure and return of the Pearsons
Baby Yoda, we call on you to help heal a fractured nation.
As the novel coronavirus pandemic continues to rage and a presidential election has largely divided the country, emotions are running high. Fortunately, there continues to be plenty of entertainment to absorb on our home screens, starting with the return of aforementioned adorable little green guy.
“THE MANDALORIAN” (DISNEY+)» This show is the rarest of beasts: a “Star Wars” entity largely adored by fans and critics.
Although a science-fiction series — it takes place in a galaxy far, far away, between the events of “Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” — its bones are that of a Western. As a result, it’s storytelling can be a little slow.
That’s my only complaint about the tale of Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal of “Game of Thrones” and “Narcos”), a bounty hunter who wears the armor of the people of the planet Mandalore and who is forbidden from removing his helmet. (“This is the way.”)
The big surprise came in last year’s premiere episode, when it was revealed the bounty “Mando” was hunting was the aforementioned 50-year-old member of Yoda’s mysterious species. (The character is referred to in the series as “the kid,” as five decades of life for that race seems to put one in toddler territory.) Din is devoting himself to returning the little dude to his people, believed to be sorcerers called “Jedi.” I dunno. Rings a bell. The series’ eight-episode
second season began Oct. 30 with entertaining hour “The Marshal,” which saw a character called Cobb Vanth (Timothy Olyphant) working as a lawman in a Tatooine outpost while wearing the Mandalorian armor of “Star Wars” fanfave bounty hunter Boba Fett. (I love that former “Deadwood” and “Justified” star Olyphant keeps taking on marshal roles, as he’s also doing on the current season of FX’s “Fargo.”)
Look for “The Mandalorian” to connect more directly to the greater “Star Wars” mythology this season, with some established characters likely on the way. For instance, Force-sensitive heroine Ahsoka Tano will make her live-action debut as she’s portrayed by Rosario Dawson.
Hopefully, those rumors of a fallout between Pascal and showrunner Jon Favreau and Lucasfilm powers over their insistence the actor remain largely hidden under that helmet prove to be exaggerated and this cool show can keep gunslinging its way through the galaxy.
New episodes drop on Fridays.
“THEQUEEN’SGAMBIT”(NETFLIX) » Binging this sevenepisode limited-series adaptation of Walter Tevis’ 1983
novel was, sadly, the highlight of a recent staycation.
I suspected I would love it — chess makes for a fantastic backdrop for drama, and star Anya Taylor-Joy (“Emma”) is fast becoming one of my favorite actors — and I did.
Although the role of fictional chess prodigy Beth Harmon is played primarily by Isla Johnston in the first episode, Taylor-Joy takes over in the second episode, and her performance only strengthens as the character ages and becomes a world-ranked player.
For Beth to become queen of the game, she will have to knock off its king, Russian world champion Vasily Borgov (Marcin Dorocinski).
However, she also battles what she believes to be a need for alcohol and drugs, as they tend to help her see the game in different ways.
Still, that a woman is almost always the smartest person — and the best player — in the room makes the show worth celebrating.
“The Queen’s Gambit” may make the occasional wrong move, but it’s likely to have you thinking about getting out your chess set and considering learning about “The Sicilian” defense and the show’s namesake opening strategy.
Jason Aaron Goldberg, a 2016 Oberlin College graduate, is directing both productions.
He never expected to be involved with a show this fall.
“I think it came out really well,” said Goldberg, calling from Fort Lee, New Jersey. “When (Oberlin Opera Theater Director Jonathon Field) called me, he
was like, ‘I have this weird idea to actually produce an opera season following COVID guidelines. … My idea — because it’s Oberlin undergraduate opera — I want you to direct “La voix humaine” somehow with multiple women.’”
The issue there was, simply, that Poulenc’s opera is a one-woman show.
Eventually, Goldberg landed on a plot device that worked.
“That angle was making it about the universality of female oppression by
showing different women in different time periods,” said Goldberg, who is in his third year of studies toward a masters of fine arts degree at New York City’s Actors Studio Drama School. “A traditional production finds the audience thinking the one woman is crazy.
“By having it be multiple women, hopefully the audience goes, ‘Wow, women have been in an abusive relationship and treated poorly by men throughout time.’ So it sends a message
that’s very relevant with the #MeToo movement and everything that’s happening in terms of equality that the original production by just having it be one woman doesn’t provide.”
If there’s any question that COVID-19 has us living in a new world, that’s confirmed not only by Goldberg directing the production remotely from his Garden State home but also by that being where he edited the video performances.