Summer gems
Three television shows that deserve to be rediscovered in the months ahead
With the pandemic shutdown beginning to slow the usual open-hydrant blast of new TV shows down to a trickle, there’s an opportunity for viewers and critics alike to take time to discover (or re-evaluate) some recent noteworthy shows. Following are three standouts.
RAMY
SUNDAYS, CRAVE
Creator, star and Golden Globe winner Ramy Youssef picks up his dramedy where we left it in season 1, as the title character, a 30-year-old Muslim American in New Jersey, tries to get himself right with Allah and rejects such haram temptations as internet porn. Things change when Ramy joins a small mosque headed by Sheikh Ali Malik (Mahershala Ali), who helps Ramy see Islam’s core values rather than its restrictions.
Through Ramy’s increased devotion, viewers get a broader understanding of Islam’s tenets of peace and self-awareness, in addition to Youssef ’s brand of humour, which illuminates the difficulties of being Muslim in American culture. The show exhibits a command of mood, meaning, personal integrity and the quirks of family life.
HIGHTOWN SUNDAYS, CRAVE
Here’s the tightly wound, smartly layered, compulsively watchable crime drama about an alcoholic, lesbian marine fisheries agent that you’ve all been waiting for. Monica Raymund (Chicago Fire) gives a compelling performance as Jackie Quiñones, whose hard-partying nights in Cape Cod’s summertime gay mecca of Provincetown, Mass., are endangering her day job. After one wild binge, Jackie discovers a woman’s body washed up on the beach, drawing viewers into a larger story about the cape’s deadly opioid trade.
Hightown captures a seamier side of life in this vacation paradise and becomes an enjoyable getaway of a different sort.
I MAY DESTROY YOU MONDAYS, CRAVE
There’s something captivating about Michaela Coel, the creator-writer-star of this dramedy about a British social-media influencer.
Arabella battles writer’s block while trying to deliver the cheeky millennial memoir she’s sold to a big publisher. Seeking escape from her work with a night of partying, Arabella blacks out and can’t fully recall what happened — except for a vague recollection of being raped.
In an instant, a show that at first seems to blend the best elements of Fleabag, Euphoria and Insecure swerves in an emotionally startling direction, as Arabella and her two best friends (Weruche Opia and Paapa Essiedu) embark on paths of self-discovery and the recognition of shared traumas.