Staff
- Jun 23, 2017

The Hulu Weekend Watchlist

Lisa Jane

1) Mr. Majestyk (1974) - Directed by Richard Fleischerm with story & screenplay by deceased Detroiter Elmore Leonard. This classic movie stars Charles Bronson as Mr. Majestyk, a watermelon farmer/Vietnam veteran who faces off against small-town corruption in support of labor rights for the immigrant fruit pickers on his farm. This film oozes that particularly sweet combination of 1970's action and social justice, and is both intellectually engaging and entertaining.

Watch on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/watch/136638

2) Heathers (1989) - Directed by Michael Lehmann. Another film classic, staring a young Winona Ryder (of Netflix’s Stranger Things) and Christian Slater, it’s the brutally hilarious story of star-crossed teen lovers whose fondness for rebellion ignites a murderous chain of events. This one is vantablack on the darkly humorous comedy spectrum. It’s not to be missed, & worth a repeat viewing if already seen.

Watch on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/watch/418882

Matt Linton

Summer is the perfect time to marathon through a TV series, and streaming media makes that easier than ever. This week I’d like to recommend three sitcoms, each of which just finished their first season (and, importantly, have been renewed for a second, ensuring that you won’t be left hanging):

1) The Good Place – Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) stars in this series from Michael Schur (The Office, Parks and Rec) about a hilariously terrible woman who, through a ridiculous series of events, finds herself in the afterlife. Fortunately for her, a clerical error has sent her to “the good place” rather than “the bad place.” When she realizes what’s happened, she tries to keep the perpetually optimistic administrator, Michael, (played by Ted Danson) from finding out the truth. The show features outstanding supporting characters including a wealthy, self-absorbed altruist, an uptight and easily frazzled ethics professor, a blissful Buddhist monk, and an omnipresent helpful AI. (13 episodes)

Watch on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/the-good-place

2) The Mick – Speaking of terrible people, it’s hard to top the family at the center of this sitcom starring It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Kaitlin Olson as a belligerent alcoholic forced to raise her wealthy sister’s three horrible children after their parents flee the country. This series upends the tired trope of a well-meaning, but inexperienced adult trying to raise adorable orphans, and instead recognizes that we’re all, child or adult, varying degrees of awful. The show manages to be both low-brow and smart, as it tackles modern parenting challenges like navigating fluid gender identities and cyberbullying, and is willing to go dark without being miserable. (17 episodes)

Watch on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/the-mick

3) Trial & Error - The faux-documentary style for sitcoms (much like the “found footage” format for horror) can seem like a worn-out gimmick. Here, the creators use it to good effect to spoof true crime shows, as John Lithgow (3rd Rock from the Sun) plays a poetry professor who really, really, seems to have murdered his wife. A young and inexperienced big city lawyer, Nicholas D’Agosto (Gotham) comes to the increasingly and hilariously odd small town to defend him, and faces off against an ambitious small-town prosecutor determined to win the case, execute the murderer (by electrocution, although “death by bear” is still a legal option), and win election as the new DA. As with all three shows, there’s a theme of culture/class clashes. Unlike the other two shows, the two leads here (the alleged killer and the lawyer, mind you) are likeable, pleasant people. (10 episodes)

Watch on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/trial-and-error