Two new sitcoms have just come out, Almost Family and Starstruck. Neither is a masterpiece, but both are well done, with broad humor that is sometimes on target.
Almost Family starts on Hot 3 on September 10 at 6 p.m. and is already available on Hot VOD and Next TV.
It is based on those stories that have come up over the years, of fertility doctors who impregnated patients with their own sperm, without informing the women, of course. The first time such a case came up, the New York Post dubbed the doctor The Sperminator – not very subtle, but it told the story.
Almost Family focuses on the doctor’s daughter, Julia (Brittany Snow), a young woman who has what people like to call “daddy issues” and works as her father’s assistant. She has always believed she was an only child, but when her father (Timothy Hutton, who won an Oscar for Ordinary People) is accused in the scandal, she is forced to confront the truth about him, as well as the fact that she has a huge number of half-siblings around her age. It’s played for laughs and it is funny.
Starstruck, which is running on Thursdays on Hot HBO at 11 p.m., as well as on Next TV, Hot VOD, and on Yes TV Comedy on Saturdays at 7:55 p.m., YesVOD and Sting TV, is a British series based on the premise of the movie Notting Hill: ordinary person inadvertently gets involved with a movie star.
The twist here is that Jessie (Rose Matafeo) is a lot earthier and more irreverent than the fey Hugh Grant was in that 1999 movie. She works in a movie theater and as a babysitter, and her life is going nowhere, when she meets Tom (Nikesh Patel), a famous actor she somehow does not recognize, at a New Year’s Eve party. They spend the night together and both assume it was a one-night stand, but they keep being drawn back together.
Rose Matafeo is a stand-up, and she is often very funny, if not terribly subtle, like Jessie.
For die-hard fans of Money Heist, it’s great news that the first part of the fifth season of the series has just started running on Netflix.
Money Heist, about a group of mismatched bank robbers led by a left-wing Robin Hood, the Professor (Alvaro Morte), all of whom know each other only by their pseudonyms, which are the names of cities, and who rob the fortress-like government entities, the mint and the Bank of Spain, had an insanely suspenseful first season and a decent second season, then lost some of its steam.
However, it’s a good formula, there are always twists and you never know which character is going to die.
The producers are very inventive about finding ways to keep bringing back fan-favorite Berlin (Pedro Alonso), in flashback after flashback, and somehow you keep rooting for the characters to succeed even as the schemes become more and more harebrained.
There are a number of interesting music documentaries coming up. The Bee Gees documentary, The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?, is still running on YesDocu. Fans of the music of that era will also want to see CSNY/Deja Vu, a documentary co-directed by Young about the group’s Freedom of Speech reunion tour in the early 2000s, which is on YesDocu, YesVOD and Cellcom TV. Patti Smith: Dream of Life, is also running on Cellcom TV and YesDocu throughout the month.
Those interested in American literature will want to see Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation on YesDocu, YesVOD and Sting TV.
These two literary icons, Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams, both of whom have Southern backgrounds, could be prickly and difficult, and their work was wildly uneven. Each created works of genius that changed American culture, and it is fascinating to hear what they have to say about their lives and their work.