As the lockdown due to the novel coronavirus pandemic began, I thought most people watching TV at home would either want entertainment that was extremely light, or quite dark. Now I see that there is a third possibility: shows and movies that are offbeat and quirky. Three just-released female-centric, coming-of-age movies and series focusing on minorities - The Half of It, Never Have I Ever and Betty - fit this bill.
The more closely you are in touch with your high-school self, the more you’ll relate to Netflix’s The Half of It. The indie rom-com movie, written and directed by Alice Wu, won the Best US Narrative Feature Award at the Tribeca Film Festival. It’s set in a midwestern town and tells the story of a lonely, brainy lesbian Chinese immigrant, Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis). She agrees to write love letters for an inarticulate jock (Daniel Diemer) to the ethereal Aster (Alexxis Lemire), who turns out to be the girl of both their dreams. Its leads are appealing and it is literary in a charming way, although at moments it seems a bit self-conscious.
Actress/writer/producer Mindy Kaling (The Office, Late Night), who was born in the US to a family of Indian immigrants, drew on her teen years to create the Netflix series Never Have I Ever. It veers back and forth between her highly regulated home life with her widowed mother and gorgeous cousin, and her romantic high school misadventures, her close girlfriends and her academic rivalry with a geeky guy.
Betty is an HBO series about a diverse group of teen female skateboarders in New York. More than the other two new girl-power releases, it made me feel old and uncool. While the immersion in the skateboarding subculture, where everyone wears brightly colored home-made outfits and pulls off great athletic feats, is visually stunning, I kept thinking about accidents and having to rush these vibrant multiracial skateboarders to the ER. Betty can be seen on Cellcom TV, HOT HBO on Sunday nights at 10 p.m., as well as on HOT VOD and Next TV, YES Drama on Thursdays starting May 14 at 9 p.m., and YES VOD and Sting TV,
All channels have been releasing new series at a breakneck pace lately, and one of the most entertaining options is Hollywood, a sexy, fast-paced Netflix series by Ryan Murphy, who created Glee, American Crime Story and many other shows. It’s about a group of attractive young wannabes desperately trying to break into movie business both in front of and behind the camera just after World War II.
It stars Glee alum Darren Criss, who was so good in the American Crime Story season about Versace’s killer, as a naive aspiring director. It’s full of references to the glory days of the old Hollywood, and features portrayals of many real-life legends, among them Philadelphia Story director George Cukor, composer/writer Noel Coward, former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and actresses Vivien Leigh, Tallulah Bankhead and Hattie McDaniel. The cast includes Rob Reiner, Holland Taylor, Patti LuPone, Jim Parsons and Mira Sorvino.
If watching Belgravia, the new series on YES and HOT by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes makes you long for Downton, you can catch the Downton Abbey movie on Cellcom TV. Although it drew some criticism for coming off like one long episode of the series rather than a standalone movie, that criticism will sound like heaven to many Downton devotees.
For those who are in the mood for something on the dark side, Netflix’s six-episode Into the Night might be just right. As it opens, a seemingly crazy NATO officer hijacks a plane flying from Brussels to Moscow, screaming about how when the sun rises, they will all die and demanding that the plane head west. Strange little clues begin to convince the passengers and crew that the hijacker is right.
Each episode focuses on a different character’s experience of these events, and the series features a talented, international cast. It may sound like such a downer that it’s the last thing you would want to see right now, but it’s gripping and, unlike news headlines, fictional.