SCREEN TIME
TOP PICKS INCLUDE ‘THE CONJURING’ SERIES, ‘WE ARE LADY PARTS,’ AND ‘SWEET TOOTH’
Here’s a collection of the best of what’s arriving on TV and streaming services this week.
‘The Conjuring’ series
With old-school, trope-heavy, sturdily built horror tales, “The Conjuring” films have amassed a surprisingly vast franchise, with its many iterations and offshoots totaling nearly $2 billion in worldwide box office. In “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It,” the third in the flagship “Conjuring” series and the eighth film overall in the Conjuring-verse, paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) are back for a 1981 murder trial in Connecticut considered to be the first known court case in which demonic possession was used as a defense. The film opens Friday in theaters and on HBO Max.
‘Changing the Game’
Pride Month will be celebrated across many streaming platforms beginning this week. One standout new release is “Changing the Game,” Michael Barnett’s documentary about
three transgender teens navigating high school athletics. The film, which first premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival back in 2019, is only just getting a release, on Hulu beginning Tuesday, with some updated material. Amid swirling media
attention, “Changing the Game” humanizes a sometimes fraught issue by staying close to the kids — a wrestler in Texas, a skier in New Hampshire and a Connecticut track star.
‘We Are Lady Parts’
The eye-catching title is just the start of the fun with “We Are Lady Parts,” a six-part, London-set series about a Muslim female punk band called — you’ve got it — Lady Parts. Anjana Vasan plays Amina, a microbiology student who is reluctantly pressed into service as the group’s lead guitarist by driven frontwoman Saira (Sarah Kameela Impey) despite the doubts of her bandmates (Juliette Motamed,
Faith Omole) and manager (Lucie Shorthouse). Amina, captivated by the band’s spirit, uneasily finds it at odds with that of her university pals and routine. The series debuts Thursday on the Peacock streaming service.
‘The Legacy of Black Wall Street’
A 1921 race attack that decimated a prosperous Tulsa, Oklahoma, business district known as Black Wall Street and killed scores of the community’s residents is getting unprecedented attention on its centennial. Among the TV entries: A two-part OWN special, “The Legacy of Black Wall Street,” debuting on consecutive Tuesdays
on the channel (9 p.m.) and the discovery+ streaming service. The first episode (Tuesday), tells of the pioneers who built Greenwood District and saw its destruction by mob violence, while the June 8 chapter details efforts by a new generation of entrepreneurs and others to resurrect what was lost.
‘Sweet Tooth’
Netflix’s “Sweet Tooth,” based on writer-illustrator Jeff Lemire’s DC Comics series, is set in a post-pandemic world in which children born as human-animal hybrids are feared and hunted. Gus (Christian Convery) is a deer-boy who emerges from his protected forest home and ends
up in the company of a wanderer (Nonso Anozie), skirting danger as they both seek answers about themselves and what remains of America. The series makers, including husband-and-wife producers Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey, say it’s a work of hope meant for families to watch together. The eight-part series is out Friday.