Debuts for ‘Flatch,’ ‘Minx’ and ‘DMZ’
Based on a popular U.K. series, “Welcome to Flatch” (9:30 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) offers a mockumentary take on rural life.
The unseen production team focuses on immature cousins and best friends Kelly Mallet (Chelsea Holmes) and Lloyd “Shrub” Mallet (Sam Straley). Goofy, inseparable and severely underemployed, they ride children’s bikes through the town of Flatch, leaving a trail of destructive hijinks and negative gossip in their wake.
Shrub got his nickname from his father, who drank a lot of Busch beer. The name outlived their relationship, as his dad left when he was a toddler. Kelly badly wants to bond with and impress her dad, but he’s distracted by a young new wife and their baby.
Seann William Scott stars as Pastor Binghoffer, known to the two knuckleheads as “Father Joe.”
The pilot documents Flatch’s annual Scarecrow Festival, so we get to meet the woman Binghoffer jilted upon arriving in town — she’s now the editor of the town’s paper. We meet a former classmate and rival of Kelly’s, who has succeeded in every way Kelly has not, and a nerdy gradeschool classmate who can’t be convinced that he’s not Shrub’s best friend.
With its mockumentary framework, “Flatch” arrives just months after “Abbott Elementary” revived the style that made “The Office” and “Modern Family” among the most notable comedies of the century. Both new series feature comedians and performers pretending to be average folks from modest backgrounds. But there the resemblance ends. “Abbott” treats its subject with clear sympathy and affection. It’s very difficult to believe that anybody associated with “Flatch” hails from a rural ZIP code or has any understanding of a smalltown dynamic. The irony that naturally emerges from the fake documentary approach quickly curdles into cultural condescension and contempt.
› Rosario Dawson stars in “DMZ,” a four-part dystopian thriller streaming on HBO Max and adapted from a DC graphic novel. She plays a medical professional who has returned to the ruins of Manhattan to seek her son after an ongoing war has divided the island from what’s left of the United States.
Given the real events in Ukraine, the sight of civilians under fire as they seek shelter and asylum may seem less than distracting.
› Also streaming on HBO Max, the 10-part period piece “Minx” takes a funny and raunchy look at the social and political ferment of the early 1970s.
Joyce (Ophelia Lovibond) is an earnest, if cluelessly academic, feminist who wants to create a popular magazine to address women’s issues. Worlds collide when quasi-pornographer Doug (Jake Johnson) decides to bankroll her vision and publishes her serious interviews, exposes and manifestos between photo spreads and centerfolds featuring full-frontal male nudity.
A lot of the dialogue and situations are a tad too on the nose, but the decor, wardrobes, hair, makeup and music are hard to resist. Not for the kiddies, “Minx” features nudity and language.