Weekend Watch Guide
Kick summer to the curb with this entertainment explosion.
An interesting week for entertainment. As I’ve mentioned about television, we’re out of the summer Sargasso Sea, swept up in the current of, if not the highest of quality, at least interesting and different. Alien: Earth finished its run this past week, and while I had significant issues with it, at least it didn’t simply bunt for the base hit and took a Rob Deer swing into something that pushed you around a little.
As always, if you want a more specific look at television in September that you should be watching, I’ve created this handy guide.
This is a great time to start catching up on the television that’s being thrown at you, but if you’re a movie fan you’re probably ignoring all that because One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson’s tenth film is opening this weekend…
I know very little about it, opting to go in as cold as I possibly can for the richest experience. We’ll see if I can accomplish that. I’ve been seeing it’s getting phenomenal reviews, and it currently holds a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, with only a smattering of negative reviews including one from a Finnish critic and another from blast from MTV’s past Kurt Loder panning it.
One Battle After Another is the most chalky of prestige movies at the theater this weekend, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only thing being released. Far from it actually. You’ve got whatever this is, which seems as though it was born of internet memes; the second chapter to a bad horror film; and uh, Gina Gershon hamming it up in… something.
But one of the more interesting releases is Predators, a documentary about the mid-2000s To Catch A Predator television show. If you’re unfamiliar, the show concocted a sting operation to bait (I think all) men into visiting an underaged girl. Used for entertainment, the show played fast and loose with a lot, but if you could turn off your moral and ethical compasses for an hour or so, it was also entertaining.
And that’s the issue, as the show didn’t simply pre-cog people and alleged crimes, it created a black/white line for the audience, selling the salacious of stopping pedophiles while ignoring the legal and ethical quandaries it was creating.
And that’s what this documentary is about, asking not just the creators and face of the show Chris Hansen about his moral and legal obligations, but also, indirectly, the audience.
The Ryder Cup is also this weekend, so if you like mostly white rich dudes hitting small white balls around and cos playing patriotism in the name of - ratings? entertainment? - this is the event for you. Start here as it’s currently happening.
So my recommendation? It’s nothing off kilter but something maybe you should catch up on now that it has hit Netflix, and has a sequel coming in January. Watch 28 Years Later!
Or if superheroes are your thing, Superman has hit HBO…