Blast (Off) from the Past
Loosely based on a 1965 television show and 1998 movie of the same name, Lost In Space is a sci-fi saga set sometime in the near future. The show opens as the Robinsons, a family of five, crash land on an unfamiliar planet after being forced to evacuate the space station delivering them to a better life on an extraterrestrial colony. The tense atmosphere with which it begins doesn’t let up, as threats alien and human alike arise. Each lengthy episode delivers a new series of setbacks for the Robinsons as they try to survive using their various educational trainings on a punishing, unpredictable landscape. The plot thickens when a spaceship stowaway currently calling herself Dr. Smith commits a swath of on-screen identity thefts to ensure her survival and is then rescued from her own craft’s crash. She hops between groups, victimizing the generosity of strangers and inventing new personalities as she goes, never staying long for fear her deception will be uncovered. It isn’t long before she falls in with the Robinsons and their newly-acquired robot companion and more danger follows. You’ll find yourself as encapsulated by this foreign world as the characters are, and the first season—the only released thus far—will whiz by you faster than a rocket ship.
Love, Laughs and Flightless Birds
Most teenagers feel misunderstood by their parents. But because Sam is on the autism spectrum, he feels misunderstood by nearly everyone. Atypical is a dramedy that follows Sam as he navigates his senior year of high school. His recent desire to date, implemented in part by his well-meaning but naive therapist, soon leads to a cascading series of awkward, tragic and heartwarming events that transform his life and the lives of his family members, including a high-strung helicopter mother and scrappy track-star sister. Sam’s warm personality, social setbacks and often verbalized fascination with Antarctica makes Atypical especially memorable. He’ll have you laughing one minute and crying the next, all the while teaching you lessons about empathy and humanity that you never knew you needed to learn. The show is a significant milestone for neurodivergent representation in television, painting people with mental disorders as, in fact, people, rather than problems to be solved. But more so than that, Atypical is a sweet and funny story about growing up and staying true to yourself when the world tries to tell you who you’re supposed to be.
Justice In Jersey
While riding his bike home from school, an African-American 15-year-old is hit by a distracted off-duty police officer who leaves him for dead. The ensuing botched cover-up by the Jersey City PD and legal firestorm against them causes socio-racial tensions to skyrocket. Written like a murder mystery with the mystery taken out, the gritty anthology Seven Seconds is a timely and relevant take on a broken justice system, corrupt police force and sensationalized media. It follows the devout, grieving family of the victim, the guilt-wracked perpetrator of the crime and the drunken mess of a prosecutor overseeing the case. These characters are lackluster and flawed, the plot they follow jagged and spiraling; this is a show without regard for the played-out tropes of its genre. The layered and uncompromisingly dark narrative encourages a sense of discomfort to its audience. Speaking to issues of discrimination and accountability, Seven Seconds leads a discussion on the struggle to survive in urban America initiated a young boy’s failure to do so, and is a must-watch of today’s TV.
An Imperfect Union
Political rivalries, tawdry affairs, government secrets. The political powerhouse House of Cards is centered around the career of Representative Frank Underwood, whose charismatic demeanor and southern drawl mask dangerous ambitions. Having served faithfully in the House for many years, Frank was promised the office of Secretary of State by the presidential candidate he helped put in office. When this goes awry, he is polite and accommodating, but he and his wife, an environmental entrepreneur, swear a secret vow to dismantle the administration one member at a time. The ensuing tale of revenge is elaborate and electrifying, reflecting many of the realities of politics with much more dramatic appeal. Interweaving the meteoric rises of a disillusioned young journalist, cocaine-addicted fellow representative and the president himself, House of Cards is a seamless blend of scandal and stateship, and the unyielding fast-paced progression of events is enough to have you inventing Congressional conspiracy theories. Most of its star-studded cast, save for former star Kevin Spacey who was severed from the series amid sexual misconduct allegations, will return for the sixth and final season this Fall, and the finale will package dozens upon dozens of episodes ready for binging.
The Cuban-American Dream
When Penelope, a Cuban-American mother of two, is medically discharged from the army, she has no idea what her life will be like back home. Now an overworked nurse and soon-to-be divorcee, she enlists the help of her loud, loving mother to help take care of her children, and it isn’t long before everyone is butting heads. Penelope’s aggressively progressive daughter tries non-stop to change her grandmother’s old-fashioned ideas of the world, and her younger son is always vying for unaffordable fads. Despite their personal and monetary hardships, the ridiculous antics and general hilarity of One Day at a Time mirror and arguably even surpass that of the long-running 1975 show with which it shares a name and by which it was inspired. The tone is allowed to deviate from the comedic when exemplifying some of the real problems faced by Latin-American immigrants, reintegrating veterans and women in male-dominated fields, but, somehow, humor is often found in these topics, too. This rebooted One Day at a Time has been perfectly adapted for modern, multicultural television, introducing you to a quirky and lovable family that is completely new.
– By Chase Miller
