LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE Burns Bright

Article first published as TV Review: LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE on Seat42F.

Hulu recently premiered LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE, a mini-series adaptation of the novel of the same name from Celeste Ng. It’s the story of two families in Shaker Heights, Ohio in the 1990s. One is comfortably upper middle-class, husband and wife with four kids. The other is a single mom and her teenage daughter, sometimes homeless, always on the move, who blow into town. One kid from the first family is a misfit, and the single mother might be, too. Their worlds collide in interesting fashion. And, of course, there’s fire and destruction, as the opening scene promises.

The cast is led by Reese Witherspoon (The Morning Show) as Elena Richardson and Kerry Washington (Scandal) as Mia Warren, both of whom are producers on the project, as well. Both of these actresses are accomplished, and both are playing characters in their wheelhouses. As such, this seems like a strong duo to put out in front of the series.

Elena is a character study of a familiar archetype. She’s definitely racist and patronizing. She sees the world as one way and wants everyone to conform to it. Her good heart, wanting to help those she thinks need it, is commendable, but doesn’t excuse the glaring flaws, except maybe in her husband (Joshua Jackson, The Affair) and peers’ eyes. Yes, Elena’s attitude was a more common one at the time this story is set, but is a character everyone will recognize, and there is definitely a new version of the personality today. The attitudes haven’t gone away. It’s good the story doesn’t try to excuse her behavior, but instead paints a full picture of the woman.

Mia is not quite as glaringly familiar, but still relatable. She is warm and loving and protective of her daughter, wanting her to succeed. But she has flaws, too, being defensive and flighty, not always opening up with her daughter, and dragging her around without warning, frequently upending her life. Having these elements to her keeps the audience from needing to side with either Elena or Mia when they’re at odds. Usually Elena is obviously on the wrong side of those disagreements, but we get to see a more complex dynamic than we might have in a lesser show.

LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE doesn’t seem to be trying to pass judgment or send a message about Mia or Elena. It’s just showing fully formed individuals whose orbits happen to intersect by circumstance. It’s kind of nice there’s no bigger message here, even though I generally like when there is. Their actions will let the audience judge them without any assistance needed from the show.

The two women are at the center of the piece, but they aren’t the whole thing, with Elena’s son, Moody (Gavin Lewis, Prince of Peoria), daughter Izzy (Megan Stott, So Shook), and Mia’s daughter Pearl (Lexi Underwood, If Not Now, When?) taking a large chunk of screen time, too. For Moody and Pearl, it’s a sweet, innocent connection between two kindred spirits, and maybe even the development of romance. (I won’t spoil anything, but if the series follows the book, it won’t be so straight-forward.) For Izzy, though, it’s an isolated cry for help, rebelling against a family and school she doesn’t fit into, and a dark turn.

The child actors are good. If anything, we don’t get enough of Izzy in the pilot to really figure out what her deal is. But there’s plenty of time with Moody and Pearl to see a dynamic develop. I wonder if the other two Richardson kids will be further explored as the episodes unfold, or if the action will mostly be confined to these three. Either is a valid choice, but it does seem a little strange to have two ‘extraneous’ siblings hanging around.

LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE is set in a specific time and place, and there’s plenty done to show that. From the fashion to Janet Reno references to the bulky car phone, to the teenagers lacking cell phones and being excited about bicycles and abandoned vans, it feels very 90s. And yet, there’s a quality to the characters that doesn’t feel dated. Perhaps because the decade was so recent, add a little technology and they could still fit in to today’s world.

In general, I enjoyed the first episode of LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE, and will probably watch more. Catch the series, currently airing new episodes on Hulu.

Not-So AMAZING STORIES

Article first published as TV Review: AMAZING STORIES on Seat42F.

Apple TV+ dips its toe into the anthology format this month with a reboot of AMAZING STORIES, now airing. Each week, the fresh episode will have a new cast and premise, diving into something supposedly amazing, hence the title. The hour-long episodes tell a singular story arc.

I like anthology series in general. From The Twilight Zone to Black Mirror, and even the season-long anthologies like American Horror Story, there are some really terrific examples of the genre. There are also some very bad ones, whose names I won’t name right now, but they typically don’t get renewed for a second season. I think AMAZING STORIES is likely to be one of the latter.

The first episode, “The Cellar,” stars Dylan O’Brien (Teen Wolf) as Sam Taylor, a present-day man who slips back in time a century and falls in love with Evelyn Porter (Victoria Pedretti, You). Sam really wants to get back to his own time and his brother, Jake (Micah Stock, The Right Stuff), with whom he was renovating an empty house. But once he meets Evelyn in said house, he decides he’d like to take her with him. That’s just fine by her because, even though she has a fiancé, William (Gabriel Olds, Heroes), the marriage is her controlling mother’s (Sasha Alexander, Rizzoli & Isles) choice, not hers.

The story is a classic, if not wholly original. O’Brien and Pedretti are excellent, and act the hell our of their roles. The emotional moments and arc are fully believable, and since that is what the episode is hung on, its an enjoyable watch. The plot is self-contained enough that it stands on its own and doesn’t need sequel or follow-up. These are all staples of strong anthology series.

Where it fails and does so utterly is in the logic of the story. Or rather, the lack thereof. A barometer in the basement makes the characters time travel. They can’t control when it happens, and although it’s said to be triggered by a storm that only happens rarely, Sam goes back and forth several times, sometimes extremely conveniently. There’s no rhyme or reason, and no satisfying explanation as to how the device is used so much but soon can’t be used again. It feels like the character stuff was written first, and then only later did the writer try to figure out how to actually make the premise work. And this explanation was rushed, with little care taken to flesh it out all that much. Time travel is tricky and easy to screw up. It feels like this one didn’t even try all that hard.

To be honest, I’m not completely surprised given the producing credits on the show. While the original AMAZING STORIES was produced by Spielberg, the reboot was developed by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, best known for the ABC series Once Upon a Time. That show could be great occasionally, but frequently suffered from a lack of cohesiveness. Its best parts were character interaction, and it was most satisfying when dealing with family relationships. But it rarely landed an arc solidly because so little care was taken with making everything make sense. In fact, character development was undone if a sequence was desired that required different perspectives.

“The Cellar” is much the same, and would fit right in as a Once Upon a Time installment. It has a fairy tale-esque quality that is magical with a pleasing love story at its center. But it also falls short of quality storytelling because it seems corners were cut, or things were rushed, and it just has an unfinished air about it.

The nice thing about anthology series is that every week there’s a brand-new chance to get it right. But if you choose to lead with such a poor example, I don’t hold out much hope for future installments.

AMAZING STORIES is currently streaming on Apple TV+.

HUNTERS and the Hunted

Article first published as TV Review: HUNTERS on Seat42F.

Amazon recently released HUNTERS, a ten-episode drama about a group of Jewish people in the late 1970s hunting down Nazis hiding in America to take revenge for their wartime atrocities. From the mind of David Weil, this hyper-reality series picks a handful of things from history, and amps them up a la Inglourious Basterds, with plenty of shocking deaths in this cat-and-mouse spy game. It’s like The Americans, but way more fun (which is not a knock against that excellent series) because it’s a lot less concerned with accuracy.

The cast is very capably led by Logan Lerman (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) as Jonah Heidelbaum. Jonah lives with his grandmother, a survivor of the concentration camps, and his only remaining relative. But when she is mysteriously murdered in her home and Jonah doesn’t stop it, his mission to make up for his inaction leads him to a larger conspiracy. Jonah meets Meyer Offerman (Al Pacino, The Irishman, The Godfather) and his band of Nazi hunters. Despite Meyer’s best efforts, Jonah joins them in their quest, taking his grandmother’s place.

The supporting cast is wonderfully assembled. Jerrika Hinton (Grey’s Anatomy) is Millie Morris, an earnest federal agent investigating suspicious murders. Dylan Baker (The Good Wife) is so, so, so creepy as Biff Simpson, a former Nazi. Greg Austin (Mr Selfridge) is chilling in his cleanup. Lena Olin (Alias) is the cartoonishly evil German who wants to establish a Fourth Reich. Saul Rubinek (Warehouse 13), Carol Kane (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), Josh Radnor (How I Met Your Mother), Tiffany Boone (The Following), Louis Ozawa (Bosch), and Kate Mulvany (Fighting Season) make up the members of Meyer’s team.

From the first scene, HUNTERS is gripping. A friendly cookout among co-workers goes wrong, and the result is something that very nearly crosses a line. From there, things only ramp up, as in the pilot alone, there are something like ten murders (most in a single scene). Each tends to be done with flair and dramatics, keeping one’s attention, even as it’s hard to know exactly when the next one is coming up. The pacing is quick, and the story flows smoothly.

There is a line one wouldn’t want to cross, and HUNTERS comes right up to it. The line I refer to is showing brutality towards children, which the show manages without being graphic the way it is in its treatment of adults. That restraint is appreciated, even if it’s clearly just for viewer sensibilities; the world isn’t any less realistic in the outcomes towards the youths.

Still, there’s a lot of violence, and without stating that it’s glorification, it is stylized entertainment. Much as the way the rest of the show is. As I said in the opening, HUNTERS operates on a hyper-reality, and from Florida wallpaper choices, to sitting positions in an alley, to a secret lair, much care has been taken to build something that feels just not-grounded enough to fully enjoy, without worrying about what might have really happened. There’s an air of fairy tale to it that keeps you from being bummed out by all the death, even as the frequent references to the Holocaust lend a sad undertone. The overall satisfaction is joyous, with those who have been wronged balancing the scales in their own ways, extralegal or not.

I love what I’ve seen of HUNTERS. It’s got some absolutely terrific performance moments in a pleasing package. I wouldn’t call it light entertainment; it threads a careful balance between fun and depth. Yes, it is prestige programming, and uses its period concept delightfully. But it also says something, and the specific point of view behind it makes it well worth the watch.

You can stream the entire first season now on Amazon Prime.