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Review by Tatiana Miranda  Loosely based on the novel Mr. & Mrs. American Pie, Palm Royale is a comedy-drama series set in 1969 that centers on outcast Maxine Simmons as she attempts to climb the Palm Beach social circle. The ten-episode series stars Kristen Wiig in the lead role, Carol Burnett as Maxine's sick, wealthy relative, Allison Janney and Leslie Bibb as local country club socialites, and Laura Dern, Kaia Gerber, and Ricky Martin as Maxine's unexpected friends. With the 1960s time period and Florida beach aesthetics, Palm Royale is a campy mystery comedy that constantly leaves the audience wondering who to root for. While the time period and character names remain from the source material, most of the plotlines differ. The series focuses on self-proclaimed former beauty pageant queen Maxine as she arrives in Palm Beach to care for her husband's wealthy aunt, who suffered from an embolism. Through lies and luck, she attempts to work her way up the local social scene and prepares to host the main event of the season. Secrets are consistent as Maxine attempts to keep her own and unravel those of her friends, enemies, and family.  The show's campy mystery aspect is akin to The White Lotus, while its unlikely friendships are reminiscent of Dead to Me, which was co-written by Palm Royale's creator, Abe Sylvia. The main flaw of the series is in what those other two series have: a central mystery. Whether it be a death or a figure pulling all of the strings, Palm Royale focuses more on an amalgamation of reveals rather than one grand whodunnit at the end of the show. Because of this, the series seems to attempt to write itself as it goes along, never quite knowing what will happen to the characters next or what secret will be revealed.
Although the plot is messy and inconsistent, the characters and the star-studded cast that portrays them keep the show from being overwhelmingly disappointing. Of all of the deceptive and flawed characters, none are quite as mischievous as Kristen Wiig's Maxine, even if she doesn't realize exactly what she's doing. Unlike Saltburn's Oliver, who similarly attempts to infiltrate a group of rich people, Maxine is an ultimately kind person who just wants to fit in and have the socialite life she's always dreamed of having. Her character is one of the most compelling, as even as she continues to lie and blackmail others, she is still the underdog of the story that you can't help but feel sorry for. Overall, while Palm Royale leaves you wanting more in terms of the plot, the captivating characters and their relationships keep you coming back for more. One can only hope that more seasons will allow for a more consistent storyline and a return of these entertaining characters. Palm Royale premiers on Apple TV+ on March 20. All ten episodes reviewed. Rating: 3/5
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Review by Tatiana Miranda  To non-bookish individuals, Apples Never Fall might seem like just another mystery drama series similar to Little Fires Everywhere or Sharp Objects. However, those familiar with the series' source material know it comes from the same author. Like author Liane Moriarty's previous book-to-series adaptations, the upcoming Peacock original series features a stacked ensemble cast, with Sam Neill and Annette Bening in lead roles. They are joined by Jake Lacy, Alison Brie, Essie Randles, and Conor Merrigan Turner, who portray the dysfunctional, tennis-obsessed Delaney family. The series quickly jumps into the story's central conflict, alluding to the matriarch Joy Delaney's disappearance before the audience can even get a sense of the family's history and dynamics. It does try to give backstory through flashbacks, but the time jumps happen too much and too inconsistently throughout the seven-episode series to work as intended, leaving several of the main characters' motives unwarranted and unrealistic family dynamics. A majority of the time jumps are to about half a year before Joy's disappearance when a mysterious woman named Savannah comes into the older couple's life, but there is also a flashback to the children's youth in episode five that feels out of place and unnecessary. While the cast is incredibly star-studded, most of the characters feel like one-dimensional dysfunctional family member tropes. Alison Brie as Amy is the most notable example of this. Her character is meant to be the spiritually-minded disappointment of the family who dropped out of college and is pursuing a career as a life coach. Although the series attempts to give her some depth and reveals how being the family disappointment has affected her, it is a small aspect of the story that doesn't carry a lot of emotional weight.  Other characters, such as Jake Lacy's rich womanizer Troy and Annette Bening's overly kind and overlooked Joy, are equally as flat. Even the father, Stan Delaney, who is meant to be complex due to his trauma and suspicious behavior, is ultimately an uninteresting and lackluster portrayal of a typical absent and overcritical patriarch. His character is almost like the poor man's Logan Roy from Succession, with older son Troy as a pseudo-Kendall Roy character as well.
Since the characters are lacking, the mystery aspect of the series takes center stage. The mystery does keep you constantly wondering what happened to Joy and questioning each family member. Yet, the reveal of what truly happened and the aftermath of the revelation feels too silly to be taken seriously for what is supposed to be a dramatic series. Ultimately, when compared to Liane Moriarty's other series adaptations, Apples Never Fall is nowhere near as captivating as Big Little Lies and is more forgettable like Nine Perfect Strangers. Even with a stellar cast, the characters are too uninteresting and the plot is too unoriginal to make the series a worthwhile watch. Apples Never Fall premiers on Peacock on March 14. All seven episodes reviewed. Rating: 2/5 Review by Tatiana Miranda  At first glance, Apple TV+'s new series The New Look might seem like a standard historical fashion drama about Christian Dior and Coco Chanel, but the series — and the designers' realities — are much more complicated. Named after Dior's style of fashion in the late 1940s and 50s, the show focuses on famous French designers Coco Chanel and Christian Dior during and following the Nazi occupation of France during WWII. Similar to how Chanel's and Dior's respective fashion styles were deemed opposites of one another, the two figures reacted to the Nazi occupation in varying ways. The series opens as Dior nervously presents his new fashion line at a press conference. Meanwhile, Chanel smears him in an interview and, later in the series, to Nazi officers. From Dior's quiet disposition and structured designs to Chanel's outspokenness and more comfortable fashion style, the characters could not be more unalike. Yet, they both find themselves in the crosshairs of Nazi-occupied France. For years, Chanel's romance with a high-ranking German officer and use of anti-Semitic laws to gain control of her company from Jewish business partners were long hidden. However, due to recently published biographies on the designer, Chanel's unsavory connections to the Nazis have come to light and restarted the discussion of her ethics. Meanwhile, Dior's younger sister, Catherine, was a member of the French resistance who survived a concentration camp. While Dior himself wasn't an active member of the resistance, he worked hard to help his sister and used his experiences to create the "New Look," which became a symbol of hope and change as the war ended. The New Look takes on a lot in terms of characters, subjects, themes, and even talent, as the series features stars like Ben Mendelsohn, Maisie Williams, John Malkovich, Juliette Binoche, and Emily Mortimer. With so much to tackle in a ten-episode series, some things felt sped up or underdeveloped — namely, Catherine Dior's experiences as a French resistance member and concentration camp survivor.  Since the series focuses more on her brother, her work in the resistance and experiences in the concentration camp come second. This would be more understandable if the elder Dior were a fascinating lead character, but his shy personality and understated conflicts make him one of the least interesting characters of the series. Moments of triumph, such as the announcement halfway through the series that he would be starting his own fashion house, feel lackluster as there are hardly any emotional ties between the character and the viewer.
On the other hand, Coco Chanel is a complex lead character who just wants what's best for herself and her legacy, even if that means collaborating with the Nazis. Dior is even seen in a similar position, as he is forced to design gowns for a Nazi ball to provide for his family, but the choice doesn't hold the same weight or narrative influence as Chanel's storyline. While The New Look is an eye-opening look at Chanel's involvement with the Nazis, it is ultimately a dull depiction of the effects of WWII on the French fashion industry and its main designers. Even Chanel's feud with Dior, which resulted from her need for relevancy, is downplayed as simple petty remarks. Although the series has a stellar cast and a beautiful soundtrack produced by Jack Antonoff, it is an unremarkable telling of remarkable historical figures. The New Look premiers on Apple TV+ on February 14th. All ten episodes reviewed. Rating: 2/5 Review by Tatiana Miranda  Fifteen years after the release of the cult classic film Jennifer's Body, writer-producer Diablo Cody expands on her horror comedy filmography with Lisa Frankenstein. Written by Cody and directed by Zelda Williams, Lisa Frankenstein is a campy horror film set in the 1980s and loosely based on Mary Shelley's infamous monster. Despite it being Williams's feature-length debut, it is a fantastic follow-up to Jennifer's Body that still feels like a wholly unique, standalone film. The film stars Kathryn Newton as Lisa, an eighteen-year-old outcast dealing with an overwhelmingly popular stepsister, absent father, evil stepmother, and the aftereffects of her mother's grim death. Unpopular and misunderstood, Lisa finds solace in goth music, her favorite silent films, and an unnamed Frankenstein's monster-like character played by Cole Sprouse. Newton and Sprouse are also joined by Carla Gugino, Joe Chrest, Henry Eikenberry, and Liza Soberano. While February might seem like a weird time to release a horror-comedy, the film's campy romance between Lisa and the monster makes it the perfect alternative rom-com. Similarly to Cody's work on Juno, Lisa Frankenstein shows the world through a more rose-colored lens. Less dark than Jennifer's Body and unlike other popular dark comedies with more distinct good and bad characters, Lisa Frankenstein doesn't focus on the ethics of murders or regeneration. Instead, character actions are taken at face value. This is not to say that the campy nature of the film makes it unbelievable, but it comes off as more fantastical. Like the plot's supernatural nature, the characters don't subscribe to the ethics and consequences of the real world. While sometimes this can come across as an easy way out of dealing with plot holes, Lisa Frankenstein uses its otherworldliness to create a captivating world full of eccentric characters.  Outside of the outlandish plot and characters, Lisa Frankenstein's campiness also comes from its over-the-top '80s-inspired aesthetics and soundtrack. From REO Speedwagon to Wite-Out as nail polish, the film incorporates plenty of trends and music from the '80s in a way that feels more like a caricature of the decade rather than being period-accurate or a parody. The distinctive costumes and incredible soundtrack lend themselves to the film's likely cult classic status.
Even with great performances by Newton, Sprouse, and Soberano as Lisa's stepsister, Taffy, the characters come off as secondary to the plot and aesthetics. Since the film isn't a drama by any means, it makes sense to keep certain characters more rudimentary to focus on the extremity of the plot. Yet, it also makes it harder to have emotional beats between characters that don't have well-developed relationships, such is the case with Lisa and Taffy. Overall, though, Lisa Frankenstein is another wonderful work from Cody that feels unlike anything else. This, paired with stellar performances and captivating visuals, makes the film a fun spin on the usual rom-com genre and a perfect Valentine's date night movie. Lisa Frankenstein hits theaters on February 9. Rating: 4/5 Review by Tatiana Miranda  Masters of the Air is the latest captivating miniseries from Apple TV+. Produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks and based on the book of the same name by Donald L. Miller, the series centers around the 100th Bomb Group of the US Eighth Air Force as they were stationed in East Anglia during WWII. While the show is based on the real-life bomb group — nicknamed the Bloody Hundredth due to its 77% casualty rate — and features fictionalized versions of its members, it never comes across as a history lesson and is instead a riveting look at the realities of war and the technical aspects of the US Air Force. Chock-full of recognizable faces, as well as new names, Masters of the Air utilizes nearly every single character who comes across the screen. Led by Austin Butler as Major Gale Cleven and Callum Turner as Major John Egan, the show also features stellar lead performances from relative newcomers Nate Mann as Major Robert Rosenthal and Anthony Boyle as Major Harry Crosby. More established stars such as Barry Keoghan, Raff Law, Bel Powley, Isabel May, and Fionn O'Shea also star, although in more minor roles. Still, each performance is a standout, and even with such a large cast, the characters never feel overwhelming. While it would have been easy for each episode to fall into a routine of focusing on a specific mission that the Bloody Hundredth faced, it instead weaves different storylines and locations of members to give the series a more cinematic feel. From German imprisonment to celebrations on base, Masters of the Air doesn't focus solely on the fighting aspects of the war or the Air Force. Instead, it paints a multidimensional picture of the 100th Bomb Group and their sacrifices.  One of the more disappointing aspects of the series is its portrayal of the Tuskegee Airmen. Coming in at episode eight of the nine-episode series, the 332nd Fighter Group is portrayed as the supporters of the 100th rather than having their own established storyline and characters. Although the series focuses mainly on the 100th, the attempt to show any of the 332nd, comprising African American military pilots, comes across as a last-minute addition to the storyline. Actors such as Branden Cook and Ncuti Gatwa don't get nearly as much screen time as their white costars, and even when their storyline is interwoven with those of Butler and Turner's characters, they are seen more as background characters.
Overall, Masters of the Air is a fantastically shot and well-acted series, although it does have its few flaws. Still, it's a fascinating look into WWII that doesn't watch as solely a war series but instead features moving portrayals of grief, romance, friendship, and sacrifice in the US Air Force. Masters of the Air premieres on Apple TV+ on January 26. All nine episodes reviewed. Rating: 4/5 |