Being "Starstruck" & Getting "Physical"
Being "Starstruck" & Getting "Physical"
Father's Day, Robin Williams, & rocking out to Norman Greenbaum's classic
I can’t get this song out of my head:
I don’t know if I’m more shocked to learn what inspired this song (yes, I went down that internet rabbit hole for 10 minutes) or the fact that the singer’s Jewish and this song always felt very un-Jewish/Gospel-y to me, but either way I blame it for the fact that I can’t seem to focus on my recapping of this week’s top choices for your TV viewing fare.
Well, I’ll just get right to the point then.
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there of human and non-humans (i.e. cats or dogs or fish or ferrets). If I got to choose a fictional TV dad, it will forever be Robin Williams and maybe that’s because he was old enough to be my dad and seemed like a really funny, emotionally accessible, sweet and smart man. We’re talking the characters he played and not perhaps his real-life personal demons (“Spirit in The Sky” is really doing a number on me this week).
Think Mrs. Doubtfire dedicated dad, Jumanji paternal good guy or even Dead Poets/Good Will Hunting teacher-like inspiring. Robin Williams delivers the goods.
And who could forget the sheer empathy and benevolence of Patch Adams:
Now that we’ve all shed a few tears for Williams, who has been dead for nearly 7 years, we’ve officially earned our rom-com laughs, courtesy of HBO Max.
Starstruck on HBO Max. For those of you who have been waiting for Nikesh Patel to come back and grace our screens since Indian Summers swept you away or perhaps the reboot of Mindy Kaling’s Four Weddings and a Funeral had you itching for a second season, you are in luck. He’s back and he’s back in a really fun, witty, nerdist love story where a famous actor boy meets “normal” girl and a complicated, undefined relationship ensues.
While the chemistry between Patel and the show’s star, Rose Matafeo (also its creator and writer) felt forced initially, they grow into each other and fumble around each other until it feels palpable and real and just the right touch of awkward.
I watched all six episodes of Season 1 in one sitting. It’s just that fun and breezy to watch. You’re rooting for Tom (Patel) and Jessie (Matafeo) to get together but you’re also enjoying watching Jessie, an Aussie or Kiwi transplant to the UK, work a few jobs, aimlessly trying to figure herself out and what she wants, and like Bridget Jones she has this uncool posse of an odd assortment of friends that do fun stuff, like host murder mystery dinner parties. In other words, she has a life, so Tom, while a nice distraction and augmentation, isn’t central to her existence, but she will drop said posse at the drop of a hat to be with him.
Oh and do you remember the film Notting Hill - Julie Roberts as beguiling film actress Anna Scott and Hugh Grant as William Thacker, owner of a Notting Hill bookstore where they fall hopelessly in love? Well this isn’t that but the overarching idea of a commoner dating a celebrity in the UK and the commoner having to adjust to that lifestyle and unsure if they are fit for task. And then said commoner going thru a period of self-doubt and heavy hating on self - questioning as to why said celebrity would find them remotely appealing feels familiar. Of course, Anna and William didn’t have to contend with 2021 and with 20+ years (one social media bubble) later, there are higher stakes involved for Jessie and Tom.
Physical on Apple TV. Byrne is riveting as Sheila Rubin, a woman in the 1980s, living in California with her unemployed former academic husband who now wants to run for office because she’s convinced him to.
Byrne as Rubin adds a tension to her delivery of a woman on the edge of losing control, existing fully to support her family - her husband and daughter - and trying to stay perfectly fit so she doesn’t get fat, employing her expensive bulimic habit to keep her trim but only doing her binge eating and purging in a hotel room which she rents out.
Enter Aerobics which Rubin spots by way of a bottle-blonde could be extra from one of Jane Fonda’s 80s aerobic videos, driving a Cabriolet and looking might happy with herself. Rubin follows said blonde and discovers Aerobics. The rest is history but it’s also pretty good - at least the first 1.5 episodes. Mind you, Apple has released 4 episodes to date.
If the name of the show or the trailer doesn’t make you think of Olivia Newton John in “Physical,” you live under a rock.
What I’m looking forward to watching starting tonight: