The Weekly Watchlist: Queer Eye Season 7 And City On Fire Lead The Fight For Change (May 9, 2023)
The streaming landscape is as crowded as ever this week. Apple TV+ has a new series from the team behind "Gossip Girl," a murder mystery called "City on Fire." Netflix is bringing back the fab five for season 7(!) of "Queer Eye." Meanwhile, Pete Davidson is getting confessional in the semi-autobiographical comedy "Bupkis," and "Spider-Man: Homecoming" is finally swinging its way towards Disney+.
If you burn through "Queer Eye," make sure to check out "Getting Curious," which puts Jonathan Van Ness' sunny spin on the educational show format. "City on Fire" stars can also be spotted in recent cult favorite teens shows "Generation" and "I Am Not Okay With This."
Have you heard about the Writers Guild of America strike? Round out the week with some essential strike-related viewing: "Harlan County, U.S.A." is a classic documentary streaming on HBO Max, while the workplace sitcom "Superstore" adds comedy to a labor movement plotline.
City On Fire is a murder mystery from the team behind Gossip Girl
Where to Watch "City On Fire": Apple TV+
When "City On Fire" Releases: May 12, 2023
A noirish murder mystery with a dash of night-time soapiness, "City On Fire" is the latest offering from the team behind "Gossip Girl" and "The O.C." The drama begins when a girl named Samantha (Chase Sui Wonders) is shot in Central Park, leading her friend Charlie (Wyatt Oleff) to dig into the incident and uncover a whole boatload of secrets involving New York City elites, local subcultures, and more.
It's obvious even from the series' trailer – which features a downtempo cover of Queens of the Stone Ages' "No One Knows," of all songs — that this show will be a wild ride. Its buzziest element is the cast; alongside talented up-and-comers Wonders and Oleff, "Girls" star Jemima Kirke, multi-hyphenate John Cameron Mitchell, and Ashley Zukerman (AKA Nate from "Succession") round out the ensemble.
Queer Eye is back for season 7 in New Orleans
Where to Watch "Queer Eye" Season 7: Netflix
When "Queer Eye" Season 7 Releases: May 12, 2023
It's already been five years since Netflix's "Queer Eye" reboot made its debut. Since then, the country has changed an awful lot, but home designer Bobby Berk, food expert Antoni Porowski, relationship guru Karamo Brown, stylist Tan France, and hairstyle genius Jonathan Van Ness have kept changing lives every step of the way.
The newest season of "Queer Eye" sees the Fab Five take on New Orleans, where they clean up a dirty fraternity house, talk to a school teacher about self-love, foster connections among a group of men that includes a wheelchair user, and more. You'd think this show would have run out of gas by now, but it's still delivering emotional breakthroughs and major tearjerking moments — including one that Van Ness declares the most he's ever cried on the show.
Pete Davidson's Bupkis is a star-studded semi-autobiographical comedy
Where to Watch "Bupkis": Peacock
Pete Davidson wears his heart on his slightly-fictionalized sleeve in "Bupkis," the surprisingly great new series about his life that's streaming on Peacock. "Bupkis" has a lot going for it, from a brutally honest (yet somehow lighthearted) approach to topics like addiction and depression to a surreal edge that heightens its comedy to a near-delirious degree.
The show also goes wild with "How did they pull this off?" celebrity appearances; Ray Romano plays a chaos demon-like version of himself, Al Gore does the Wu Tang symbol, and Simon Rex shows up as the most Floridian man of all time (his name's Crispy). "Bupkis" is one part "Curb Your Enthusiasm," one part "Jackass," one part "Louie," and somehow almost everything it tries works. Come for a look beyond the tabloid headlines, stay for a surprisingly sweet and creative story — and a great performance by Edie Falco.
Spider-Man: Homecoming finally swings on to Disney+
Where to Watch "Spider-Man: Homecoming": Disney+
When "Spider-Man: Homecoming" Arrives: May 12, 2023
It's been over a year now since Tom Holland (perhaps temporarily) hung up his Spider-Man mask, and now the first installment of Marvel Studios' Peter Parker trilogy is finally arriving on Disney+. Before Peter felt the weight of the world on his shoulders, he was just a high school kid trying to impress his crush, keep his identity a secret, and avoid Michael Keaton's Vulture. "Spider-Man: Homecoming" isn't the best chapter in the trilogy, but it is a really fun starting point that establishes Holland's Peter as a peppy, endearing himbo who feels more like an actual teen than his predecessors.
Sony's streaming deal means that the other two Holland "Spider-Man" flicks are still over on Starz, but it's great to see the first entry finally web-sling its way onto the streaming home of all things Marvel Cinematic Universe-related.
Keep the Jonathan Van Ness love going with Getting Curious
Where to Watch "Getting Curious With Jonathan Van Ness": Netflix
"Queer Eye" hairstylist and breakout star Jonathan Van Ness has been hosting the "Getting Curious" podcast for years, and last year he took his effervescent personality and curious spirit to Netflix for a TV show version that explores topics from ice skating to skyscrapers.
"Getting Curious" takes on a similar format as the podcast. It features the host talking to experts in the field with his signature honest, hilarious, open-minded approach, but it also adds a lot of campy visual flair — like when figure skater Michelle Kwan appears in a music box to talk to Van Ness. Some episodes are focused on bringing the funny ("Are Bugs Gorgeous Or Gross?" includes a plenty of insect-related apprehension from our host), while others, like one about the history of the gender binary, are actually pretty deep. "Queer Eye" fans, you'll love this.
I Am Not Okay With This is a short series that packs a punch
Where to Watch "I Am Not Okay With This": Netflix
"City on Fire" star Wyatt Oleff might be best known for his turn in "IT," but the actor got a chance to make a bigger impression (and a charming one) in "I Am Not Okay With This," a frustratingly short-lived Netflix series he co-stars in along with fellow "IT" alum Sophia Lillis.
The story is based on a graphic novel from "The End Of The F***ing World" author Charles Forsman, and its adaptation features the same type of darkly comic edge and anti-romance love story as that hit show. In it, an angry girl named Sydney (Lillis) reckons with all the typical adolescent changes, plus a few she didn't bargain for, like telekinesis. With flavors of "Pretty in Pink" and "Carrie," "I Am Not Okay With This" is a throwback, but it's also stylish and compelling all on its own.
Generation is a wild teen show with a zoomer co-creator
Where to Watch "Generation": TubiTV
"Generation" might be the first TV show written by a teenage zoomer, and that sentence alone will tell you whether or not it's for you. Co-creator Zelda Barnz started working on the show while still in high school, and the result is a chaotic, funny, messed-up series about a group of mostly queer, mostly rich teens yearning for connection in the digital age. "Generation" grows on you; when I first watched it, I admittedly wasn't a fan, but I've found myself thinking about the show regularly since its single-season run ended.
HBO Max dropped the show during the great content purge of 2022, but you can find it on Tubi. Its big ensemble of interconnected characters shifts perspective often, but Justice Smith's vibrant, precocious teen Chester is my personal favorite. "Generation" also includes a breakout performance from Chase Sui Wonders — another "City on Fire" star.
Superstore puts a comedic spin on the fight to unionize
Where to Watch "Superstore": Hulu
"Superstore" is remembered as a funny and romantic long-running workplace sitcom, and it definitely is all of that. But the NBC series that aired from 2015 to 2021 also has a heart for workers' rights and made the labor movement a focal point from very early in its run. The series' two leads are by-the-book worker Amy (America Ferrera) and idealistic progressive Jonah (Ben Feldman). The two have slammin' chemistry, but more relevant to this week's news, they also have the determination to start a union at the Walmart-like store where they work against all odds.
This show is an ensemble sitcom first and foremost, and it's often screamingly funny, but it also addresses the particulars of workplace organizing — and the underhanded tactics of corporate pushback — more frankly than any other show on television. "Superstore" fights for the underdogs, even when the battle feels impossible.
Harlan County, U.S.A. is a classic documentary about the power (and cost) of striking
Where to Watch "Harlan County, U.S.A.": HBO Max
Barbara Kopple's classic 1976 documentary is a harrowing and vital example of truth-telling non-fiction, and a demonstration of the fight for workers' rights at its most brutal. The doc goes inside the Kentucky Brookside Strike, a movement in which coal miners and their families faced off against employers in a bitter, year-long fight. Kopple shows us the effects of mining without workplace protections, including accidents, occurrences of black lung, and paltry living conditions.
The miners' strike may feel a world away from current movements going on across the U.S., but there's something contagious about the resilience, moral clarity, and courage of these working-class people standing up for themselves. "If I get shot, they can't shoot the union out of me," one woman says, in a story about putting one's livelihood — and life — on the line for a better future.