The Bear
Disney+
Doors! The Bear is back, and open for business in the third season of this award-winning juggernaut show. As much as the various award shows want you to believe this is a comedy, it is definitely a drama, and a moving one at that, that also has ample time for darkly comic moments. This third season is in equal parts calmer and more anxiety-inducing than its predecessors. While the first season was all about Carmy (Jeremy Allen White, continuing to be a strong performer though with perhaps less character growth this time around) whipping The Original Beef of Chicagoland into shape after his brother's passing, and season two was about the rigours of re-opening the site as a high end restaurant called The Bear, season three drops us into the neverending stress cycle of running the eatery. Carmy and Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach, forever a fan favourite after his season two episode Forks) aren't talking after their almighty blow-up in the second season finale, Sydney (Ayo Edebiri, who also stepped behind the camera to direct arguably the season's best episode, Napkins) is grappling with a big decision, and Sugar (Abby Elliott, really coming into her own and absolutely shining in the season's other best episode, Ice Chips) is scared about her baby's impending due date. While season three is not as narratively strong as the first two (the first episode really highlights this, acting as basically a stream of consciousness in Carmy's head), it's the character work that really comes to the fore. And there's cameos galore, with basically every famous person from previous seasons and a few new familiar faces - Josh Hartnett, John Cena - also popping up. The soundtrack continues to be truly excellent (hello Beastie Boys) and the dialogue is so affecting in its simplicity. At the end of 10 episodes we're promised the story will continue, and viewers are definitely hungry for more.
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A Family Affair
Netflix
A mother of a young woman starts dating a very famous man 16 years her junior, putting strain on all of their relationships. No, this isn't The Idea of You, it's Netflix's own age-gap romance, and it's not nearly as effective. At different times, A Family Affair - which sees Joey King's Zara working as a PA for famous actor Chris Cole (Zac Efron post reconstructive facial surgery), resulting in him accidentally falling for her mother Brooke (Nicole Kidman, using her own Aussie/American accent) - is kind of funny, and at other times some of the more serious scenes actually land. But on the whole it's tonally adrift and too much of the dialogue in the comedy scenes is annoying. King is great in a largely unlikeable role (Zara spends the entire movie complaining and making mountains of molehills), but Efron isn't as charming as you'd like. Also features Kathy Bates, Liza Koshy and Sherry Cola.
That 90s Show
Netflix
If for some reason the first season of this That 70s Show sequel series engaged you enough to give it a second go round, you probably don't have an all-consuming hatred for canned laughter, jokes that aren't funny and acting that wouldn't fly in a high school production. That's not going to be most people though, and this second season - which will soon be followed by a third season in October - is just as cringe-inducing as the last. All the characters are painful. Seth Green makes a return.
