TV

Netflix's "The Politician" Is Completely Insufferable

Ben Platt's golden vocals can't redeem this show from the pits of its own self-absorption.

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Photo by David Balev - Unsplash

This review contains spoilers.

What happens when you combine Glee's high school drama, American Horror Story's propensity for random acts of violence, and an already absurd 2020 electoral cycle?

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TV

"American Horror Story's" 1984 Trailer Looks Like a "Stranger Things" Ripoff

AHS 9 seems to be taking a summery, nostalgic, cliché-filled turn.

American Horror Story 1984

AHS's 9th season will be called 1984—the year that's also the title of George Orwell's very famous and disturbingly prescient dystopian novel—and it'll take place at a lakeside oasis called Camp Redwood.

It seems that Ryan Murphy's going for a slightly sunnier depiction of the 1980s than Orwell's surveillance-heavy, totalitarian dystopia, though certainly there will be plenty of blood and gore to sate viewers' hunger for the uncanny in the new AHS season.

Image via AltPress

Some fans already have mixed feelings about this season, as it won't feature many of American Horror Story's most beloved cast members. Sarah Paulson will "not have a significant role," according to Variety, though she may have a cameo or two. Evan Peters and Billy Eichner also won't return. However, the Emma Roberts will be back, almost certainly playing a stuck-up character as always, along with Olympic skier Gus Kenworthy. (Perhaps it's for the best that Peters and Roberts won't have to be on set together, because after a seven-year relationship, the two broke up in March 2019). The show will also feature Billie Lourd, Cody Fern, John Carroll Lynch, Leslie Grossman, and Matthew Morrison (of Glee notoriety), as well as a bunch of overzealous teenagers who are impossible to tell apart, at least judging by the trailer's first few frames.

Considering all this, it looks like AHS is either getting desperate or going fully meta. With 1984, they're capitalizing on some of the oldest horror tropes in the book—ripping off Anna Wintour, Friday the 13th, and Orwell's titlebut the trailer doesn't suggest a resurgence of any of the elegance or intelligence that made the show's first few seasons so bone-chillingly good. While Murder House, Asylum, and Coven were incredibly timely, due to the way they deftly threaded topics like school shooters, mental illness, queerness, and feminism into hackneyed horror tropes, it's hard to see how 1984 will replicate the raw ambition and timely acuity of those seasons.

Instead, the show seems to be going for a, well, campy approach, one that makes fun of poorly made '80s B-movies and their perpetually masked, knife-wielding killers. Knowing AHS, there will be some hyper-serious, dramatic undercurrent woven throughout the whole thing; it'll either all be a movie set a la Roanoke or a hyper-realistic hallucination, or perhaps another commentary on the state of American politics or the gleeful clichés of '80s horror; but it's hard to imagine that the entire season could be a parody. Still, in this day and age, sometimes parody feels like one of the most intelligent and realistic forms of media, for at least it's self-aware of its own bullshit. If it is all a parody, then 1984 could be a complete disaster or (by some miracle) AHS's best work in years.

AHS goes 80sImage via Screen Rant

One other thing we know about 1984 is that it won't be American Horror Story's last season. Maybe it should be; since Coven, none of the seasons have lived up to the expectations set by the first three. While many of the concepts have been creative and impressive, the show has favored excessive gore and absurd, unrealistic, and hollow characters, foregoing the nuanced, flawed complexity of characters like Murder House's Tate Langdon and Asylum's Sister Jude. With Peters and Lange not returning, hopefully some of the new cast members will be able to carry the show as these actors did, but that seems unlikely given the fact that the writers seem to be creating simpler (and more annoying) characters each season.

As far as 1984 goes, it seems that we'll be taking a deep dive down the nostalgic path paved by Stranger Things, with a bit of the sunny hysteria of Midsommar to boot, though with fewer neon lights and flowers and lots more blood. Most likely, there will be murders in cabins and by campfires, murders on a lake, and murderers on the loose in the pines. It's hard to know if AHS will be able to exchange some of its reliance on shock value and for its initially spellbinding, supernatural magic, but time will tell.

American Horror Story Season 9 "Camp" Teaser Promo (HD) AHS 1984www.youtube.com


TV

Women Lead the Emmys Noms: Beyonce, "Fleabag," and "Russian Doll" Sweep the List

This year's Emmys nominations favored female-created shows.

Fleabag: An Unusual Masterpiece

This year's Emmys nominations list has made headlines because many of the selected shows are actually really high-quality television.

It's noteworthy for another reason: Women (whether female actors, writers, creators, or otherwise) are at the forefront of the majority of the shows under consideration.

Leading the pack is Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the writer and creator of not one but two Emmy nominated shows: Killing Eve and Fleabag. Another show in talks for a win is Russian Doll, the breakout Netflix hit created by and starring Natasha Lyonne. Naturally, Beyoncé also scored six nominations for her Netflix Homecoming special.

Image via The Ringer

Not only do all these shows have female creators: they also star women above the age of 30. Amidst a Hollywood crowd that notoriously snubs this demographic, or writes them into restrictive roles, it's refreshing to see women so well-represented in the nominations list (which could perhaps use more diversity in general).

Don't worry, though: Men were still represented in this year's nominations. Craig Mazin's disaster drama Chernobyl scored 19 nominations, and Game of Thrones scored an incredible 32, despite terrible reviews of its last season. On the other hand, Julia Roberts was snubbed for her role in Veep, while Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and (thankfully) The Big Bang Theory received almost no recognition.

Whatever happens, this means that more people will be prompted to bask in the glory of Russian Doll, Fleabag, and Homecoming, and that's a blessing for everyone.

Here's the full list of nominees, via CNN:

Outstanding lead actor in a limited series or TV movie

Mahershala Ali, "True Detective"

Benicio del Toro, "Escape at Dannemora"

Hugh Grant, "A Very English Scandal"

Jared Harris, "Chernobyl"

Jharrel Jerome, "When They See Us"

Sam Rockwell, "Fosse/Verdon"

Outstanding lead actress in a limited series or TV movie

Amy Adams, "Sharp Objects"

Patricia Arquette, "Escape at Dannemora"

Aunjanue Ellis, "When They See Us"

Joey King, "The Act"

Niecy Nash, "When They See Us"

Michelle Williams, "Fosse/Verdon"

Outstanding lead actor in a comedy series

Anthony Anderson, "Black-ish"

Don Cheadle, "Black Monday,"

Ted Danson, "The Good Place"

Michael Douglas, "The Kominksy Method"

Bill Hader, "Barry"

Eugene Levy, "Schitt's Creek"

Outstanding lead actress in a comedy series

Christina Applegate, "Dead to Me"

Rachel Brosnahan, "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel"

Julia-Louis Dreyfus, "Veep"

Natasha Lyonne, "Russian Doll"

Catherine O'Hara, "Schitt's Creek"

Phoebe Waller-Bridge, "Fleabag"

Outstanding lead actor in a drama series

Jason Bateman, "Ozark"

Sterling K. Brown, "This is Us"

Kit Harrington, "Game of Thrones"

Bob Odenkirk, "Better Call Saul"

Billy Porter, "Pose"

Milo Ventimiglia, "This Is Us"

Outstanding lead actress in a drama series

Emilia Clarke, "Game of Thrones"

Jodie Comer, "Killing Eve"

Viola Davis, "How to Get Away With Murder"

Laura Linney, "Ozark"

Mandy Moore, "This Is Us"

Sandra Oh, "Killing Eve"

Robin Wright, "House of Cards"

Outstanding reality/competition series

"The Amazing Race"

"American Ninja Warrior"

"Nailed It"

"RuPaul's Drag Race"

"Top Chef"

"The Voice"

Outstanding variety talk series

"The Daily Show with Trevor Noah"

"Full Frontal with Samantha Bee"

"Jimmy Kimmel Live"

"Last Week Tonight with John Oliver"

"The Late Late Show with James Corden"

"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert"

Outstanding limited series

"Chernobyl"

"Escape at Dannemora"

"Fosse/Verdon"

'Sharp Objects"

"When They See Us"

Outstanding comedy series

"Veep"

"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel"

"Barry"

"The Good Place"

"Fleabag"

"Russian Doll"

"Schitt's Creek"

Outstanding drama series

"Better Call Saul"

"Bodyguard"

"Game of Thrones"

"Killing Eve"

"Ozark"

"Pose"

"Succession"

"This Is Us"