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6 days ago | 
nytimes.com | Margaret Lyons
The French dramedy "Reformed," on Max (in French, with subtitles, or dubbed), follows a young rabbi who moves back home to begin her career. Léa (Elsa Guedj) is smart, knowledgeable and capable, but she is also new at this and nervous. It doesn't help that those around her, including members of her own family, scoff at the idea of a female rabbi - when they're tired of scoffing at religion in general.
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1 week ago | 
nytimes.com | Margaret Lyons
Jacob Elordi stars in the brutalizing five-part Australian mini-series "The Narrow Road to the Deep North," available on Amazon Prime Video. The show is based on the novel by Richard Flanagan and combines a sweetly doomed romance, a layered domestic drama and a harrowing World War II tale. Elordi is terrific as Dorrigo, a young aspiring doctor heading off to war.
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2 weeks ago | 
nytimes.com | Margaret Lyons
The French drama "Carême," beginning Wednesday, on Apple TV+ (in French, with subtitles, or dubbed), is the story of the chef Antonin Carême, who rose to prominence during the reign of Napoleon and whose ideas still shape the modern food world. Can he save France through the sheer thinness of his pastry layers ... and also through his blazing horniness and sexual charisma?
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2 weeks ago | 
nytimes.com | Margaret Lyons
"Game Changer," on Dropout, is in many ways the hip, scrappy heir to "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" Each episode features three comedians, and the host, Sam Reich, feeds them various prompts. The nature and purpose of the prompts vary; one episode might require a strange physical challenges, and another the impromptu creation of an impassioned Civil War-era love letter.
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3 weeks ago | 
nytimes.com | Margaret Lyons
"North of North," streaming on Netflix, is a bright Canadian comedy set in a fictional Inuk community in Nunavut, remote and TV-quirky. Gossip travels fast in a small town, and our heroine, Siaja (Anna Lambe, terrific), is giving everyone plenty to talk about. Now that her little girl (Keira Cooper) is in school, Siaja feels a bit lost.
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3 weeks ago | 
nytimes.com | Margaret Lyons
A lot of foreign murder shows are about misery, about agony. Bereft parents bicker in muted kitchens while determined detectives avoid but inevitably confront their own personal failings; grim neighbors offer ominous condolences. Let us gaze at the violent, morose ocean. And then, let us gaze at the violent, morose ocean within. The Spanish series "The Gardener" (in Spanish with subtitles, or dubbed), on Netflix, takes a campier, soapier approach.
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1 month ago | 
nytimes.com | Margaret Lyons
The Spanish comedy "Her Majesty," on Amazon Prime Video (in Spanish, with subtitles), is set within the fictional, scandal-plagued royal family of Spain. It centers on Princess Pilar (Anna Castillo), who probably should have outgrown her party-girl ways by now. She can be surly and resentful, and she isn't as comfortable in the public eye as she'll need to be. But she's no dummy: She knows she'll be queen one day. She just didn't think she would have to step in like this.
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1 month ago | 
nytimes.com | Margaret Lyons
"Probably when I was canvassing for Obama, like '06," he says. Later, while enjoying some humiliation play in her neighbor's apartment, Molly picks up a photo. "Is this your dad?" she spits. "How did such an attractive man produce such a [expletive] like you?""That's not my dad," he says. "That's Bill DeBlasio."Cancer is what ends Molly's life, but being sexually abused as a 7-year-old by her mother's boyfriend is what poisoned it. She's haunted by the abuse.
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1 month ago | 
nytimes.com | Margaret Lyons
Image Right on the heels of "Common Side Effects" comes another animated pharmacological thriller, this time the Japanese anime series "Lazarus," which premieres, dubbed, on Saturday at midnight, on Adult Swim. The show is set in 2055, and a miracle pain killer that claims to free people from all suffering has become ubiquitous. Years after the mysterious Dr. Skinner released this drug, Hapna, he re-emerges with a second bombshell: After three years in your system, Hapna will kill you.
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1 month ago | 
flipboard.com | Margaret Lyons
This anime series on Adult Swim is filled with fantastic fight sequences but also deeper musings about the nature of existence and divinity. Right on the heels of “Common Side Effects” comes another animated pharmacological thriller, this time the Japanese anime series “Lazarus,” which premieres, …
