Do yourself a favor, watch comic’s hilarious Netflix special
1. “Rick and Morty” (Adult Swim) — Another season of “Rick and Morty” has come and gone, with the second half of the 10-episode fourth volume completing its run on Cartoon Network’s adult block.
Was it the best season? Probably not.
Was it smart, funny, mind-blowingly trippy and densely packed with obvious and obscure references? Most definitely. (I especially enjoyed the third episode, “One Crew Over the Crewcoo’s Morty,” a send-up of the heistmovie genre.)
Created by Justin Roiland (“Solar Opposites”) and Dan Harmon (“Community”), “Rick and Morty” follows the interdimensional adventures of Rick Sanchez, who’s often referred to as “the smartest man in the galaxy,” and his grandson, Morty, with Roiland voicing both characters. It’s hardly that simple, though, as all the jumping among myriad realities, often via Rick’s portal gun, has led to bizarre roads and alternate Ricks and Mortys.
Seriously, there’s even a Council of Ricks. It’s a whole thing.
It also … gets a little dark from time to time.
If you somehow slept on this season, get to work watching on demand.
If, on the other hand, you like both animated comedies and science fiction but somehow have never watched this show, you should start from the beginning. Previous seasons can be streamed both through Hulu and the justdebuted HBO Max.
And, hey, you’ve got time to get caught up before it’s all over. In 2018, Adult Swim ordered a whopping 70 more episodes
Taylor Tomlinson performs in her Netflix special, “Taylor Tomlinson: Quarter-Life Crisis.”
of the series.
We’ll all have to wait quite a while to find out if even a fraction of the fan theories regarding the show’s characters and where the whole saga is leading prove to be correct.
2. “Just Mercy” (Video on demand) — I missed this drama during last year’s movie-awards season. (You can fit in only so many screenings, and choices have to be made, people.) However, in response to the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests spurred on by the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, Warner Bros. Pictures has made “Just Mercy” free to rent through June, so I recently checked it out.
Set in late-1980s Alabama and based on a true story, “Just Mercy” has Jamie Foxx portraying Walter “Johnny D” McMillian, a black man incorrectly convicted of killing a white woman by a system seemingly all too happy to see any black man pay for the crime. Michael B. Jordan portrays Bryan Stevenson, the young attorney fighting to get Walter off death row by seeing his conviction be overturned.
Directed and co-written by Destin Daniel Cretton (“The Glass Castle”), “Just Mercy” isn’t the most compelling big-screen examination of racial injustice in the United States, but it’s nonetheless worth a watch, especially now.
3. “Central Park” (Apple TV+) — Given that one of its creators is Loren Bouchard, who previously gave us “Bob’s Burgers,” and is done with similar comedic sensibilities and animation style, “Central Park” may most appeal to fans of that Fox series.
However, given that “Central Park” — originally bound for Fox before landing on Apple’s streaming platform — leans into musical numbers and boasts a voice cast that includes the sonically gifted Kristen Bell (the “Frozen” movies) and a couple of alums from the original Broadway cast of “Hamilton,” Leslie Odom Jr. and Daveed Diggs, there’s a bit of something extra here.
Plus, Josh Gad — another “Frozen” vet — is a lot of fun as a busker and the show’s Central Parkloving guide and narrator, Birdie.
I wish I laughed a bit more during the first three episodes of this show, which follows the family of the park manager (Odom) and a wealthy old woman’s (Stanley Tucci) plan to buy up the park’s land and turn it into a lucrative residential-and-business hotspot, but it’s charming enough to pick away at it.
New episodes debut on Fridays.
4. “Devs” (Hulu) — More than halfway through this eight-episode limited series that debuted in early March as part of Disney’s FX on Hulu offerings, I sometimes think I enjoy it in spite of itself. The storytelling can be pretty slow, and its protagonist, Sonoya Mizuno’s Lily Chan, simply isn’t interesting to me yet.
On the other hand, that slow storytelling allows for moodiness that really serves the show, and a long-haired Nick Offerman is fascinating to observe as Forest, the mysterious head of a tech company. (Forest is almost nothing like Offerman’s hilarious Ron Swanson from “Parks and Recreation.”)
Plus, I have trust in showrunner Alex Garland, director of two very strong recent big-screen works of sci-fi, 2014’s excellent “Ex Machina” and 2018’s “Annihilation.”
Like HBO’s “Westworld,” “Devs” is largely concerned with the ideas related to free will and determinism, and I’m very interested to see how it concludes.
5. “Taylor Tomlinson: Quarter-Life Crisis” (Netflix) — Looking for a standup special on a recent night, I landed on this effort from the 26-year-old Tomlinson that debuted in early March. I’m so glad I did.
Her comedy — largely about dating and existing in general in her 20s — is really smart, and her delivery is excellent. Learn more about Tomlinson at ttomcomedy.com.
Looking for a stand-up special on a recent night, I landed on this effort from the 26-year-old Tomlinson that debuted in early March. I’m so glad I did. Her comedy — largely about dating and existing in general in her 20s — is really smart, and her delivery is excellent. Learn more about Tomlinson at ttomcomedy.com.