What’s on this weekend (besides the return of “Severance”)? How about a violent old West series, an animated Netflix show featuring the voice of a talented San Francisco native who just keeps winning awards, and the return of wonderfully clueless Philomena Cunk?
Read on.
“American Primeval”: Nothing sentimental nor kind happens in director/ executive producer Peter Berg and creator/writer/executive producer Mark L. Smith’s grimy, bloody and grueling six-episode Western series. Nor should it. What you get from this 1857-set “How the West Was Mean” Netflix offering are brutal scalpings, killings, non-graphic sexual assaults, zinging arrows thunking into heads and other forms of violent human cruelty, all inflicted on a vast cast of mostly unsympathetic, scurrilous characters.
“Primeval” focuses mostly on two people: hot-tempered grieving frontiersman Isaac Reed (an unrecognizable Taylor Kitsch) and momma bear Sara Rowell (Betty Gilpin) who’s hiding a secret. After much pestering, a reluctant Issac consents to guide Sara and her son through the volatile Utah Territory to meet up with her hubby. But getting from the uncouth and rotten cesspool of Fort Bridger in Wyoming to her destination requires tenacity and major survival skills, given the violent clashes that have erupted between the Mormon militia overseen by Utah governor Brigham Young (Kim Coates) and the U.S. Army, with Native Americans drawn into the feud.
Berg’s series pushes the limits of violence and cruelty, but his rugged, in-your-face style succeeds in keeping you on edge and spares no one. “American Primeval” is based on truths — there was a war between the Mormon militia and the Army and the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre (depicted in an incredible, breathtaking, one-shot sequence) led to renegade Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints settlers killing 120 emigrants. Berg throws dirty, cold water onto any romantic notion about the Wild West and that might put some off. If you’re one of them, stick with “Yellowstone” instead. But if you were a fan of “The Revenant” (Smith wrote it), this addictive series needs to make it way into your queue. Details: 3 stars out of 4; all episodes now available on Netflix.
“Cunk on Life”: Utterly oblivious interviewer Philomena Cunk (played with hilarious cluelessness by Diane Morgan) returns for another “special” assignment that finds her pondering, in her most ill-prepared and misguided fashion, the very meaning of life. She asks all the wrong questions and her insipid comments and blunders net 90 percent more chuckles than groans in director Al Campbell’s fun and funny mockumentary. It is the deadpan looks she gets during her interviews with legit big thinkers (including physics professor Brian Jones being one) coupled with her inane observations (“DNA is tiny and complex, like Tom Cruise;” “Hell receives two stars on TripAdvisor”) make this one of the brightest comedies on Netflix, though it is not for young viewers. Creator Charlie Brooker and star Morgan are guaranteed to brighten your day or night, and maybe even make you look at sex in an entirely different light. Details: 3 stars; available now on Netflix.
“Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld”: San Francisco native Ali Wong is on a roll with her recent Golden Globes win, and in this 13-episode animated Netflix series, she continues to wield the Midas touch. (If I were a teen-ager, I’d gobble it down in one sitting.) The “Beef” star voices the titular 16-year-old Chinese-American youth, who’s going about her adolescent business until she discovers a demon king is out to get her and discovers she also possesses fiery powers that can be overwhelming. Hardly undone by all that, the plucky Texas teen enlists the otherworldly assist of her mystical, kooky and somewhat sage aunt Gugu (Lori Tan Chinn) and a sidekick, the vampire spirit Ed (Bowen Yang), who warned her about the demon Kit (Woosung Kim). That’s just the beginning of creator Echo Wu’s inventive, character-driven journey through the underworld. With a high-caliber voice cast that also includes Lucy Liu and Jimmy O. Yang, “Jentry Chau” combines cultural mythology with a very real portrait of a 16-year-old trying to figure out boys, her place in this world and the underworld and the fact that she too is very human despite those sometimes uncontrollable powers. Details: 3½ stars; available now on Netflix.
“Escape”: Not many films could be called expedient and efficient. So let’s give director Lee Jong-Pil props for his trim-out-all-the-fat South Korean action feature. Clocking in at a zippy 94 minutes, “Escape” delivers a lot of action and even some, but not enough, character development. Sometimes paring it down to the nubbies cuts out some details. North Korean sergeant Lim Kyu-nam (Lee Je-hoon) is the guy doing the escaping, and, after planning in his barrack at night, reluctantly has to take along a breakout sidekick Kim Dong-hyuk (Hong Xa-bin). Lim is narrowing in on retirement after 10 years of police service, but wants out of North Korea ever so badly. After an unexpected turn, “Escape” catapults into a cat-and-mouse chase between Lim and higher-ranking officer (Koo Kyo-hwan), a rich figure from his past. It’s here that the film goes too threadbare, not explaining much about their relationship, making that final push to the final emotionally hollow. Details: 2½ stars; available for rent on Apple TV+.
Contact Randy Myers at soitsrandy@gmail.com.
