Premiere date: August 2nd
Network: USA
Starring: Jessica Biel, Bill Pullman, Christopher Abbott, Abby Miller and Dohn Norwood.
Synopsis: An eight episode close-ended series, The Sinner follows a young mother (Jessica Biel) who, when overcome by an inexplicable fit of rage, commits a startling act of violence and to her horror has no idea why. The event launches an inverted and utterly surprising crime thriller whose driving force is not the “who” or the “what” — but the “why” — as an investigator (Bill Pullman) finds himself obsessed with uncovering the woman’s buried motive. Together they travel a harrowing journey into the depths of her psyche and the violent secrets hidden in her past. – USA.
Why we’re watching: Jessica Biel is one of those actresses who should be a lot more famous than she is and in bigger profile roles and films than she gets. Little known now except for being the wife and baby mama of Justin Timberlake, she’s been working consistently for years but not in anything of note. Her role in The Illusionist with Edward Norton was a demonstration of the acting talent she has and this seems to be another opportunity for her to show it off. Plus, the series marks her return to TV after her not so graceful exit from the 90’s hit Seventh Heaven.
Aside from that, the series looks to be every bit the intriguing crime-thriller-drama that will drive home the suspense, crank up the tension to eleven and leave viewers agonising over the week long wait between episodes and wildly speculating. It should at least be all of those things even if it isn’t particularly good. Those are what make crime thrillers fun to watch.
Premiere date: July 16th
Premiere date: July 10th
Rough Night is a dark comedy film written by Lucia Aniello and Paul W. Downs and directed by Aniello. The film stars Scarlett Johansson as Jess, an aspiring politician who is running for office and goes to Miami for her bachelorette weekend with her college friends Alice (Jillian Bell), Blair (Zoë Kravitz), Frankie (Ilana Glazer) and Pippa (Kate McKinnon). After a night of partying Jess’ friends decided to get her a stripper and the girls return to the home. When the stripper arrives he is accidentally killed and the girls must figure out what to do with his body.
Before we answer that, let us have a brief synopsis of the play. Good Looking was written and co-directed by Annette Alleyne. It’s about Tiquan (Jherad) following his dream to become a famous stripper, while keeping it a secret from his germophobic, narcissistic, sugar mama Gloria (Cassandra Odle). On Tiquan’s journey to stardom, we also meet his crazy best friend known as Buddy (Nelieux) who’s the catalyst behind Tiquan meeting the pretentious strip club owner known as ‘Madame Xotic’ (Yaisa Peter).
So what’s so great about Good Looking? The characters and the first half of the script, especially before the intermission.
The characters that stand out in this play for me personally have to be Tiquan, Sharkeisha, and the Maid. Tiquan, for starters, was a well-developed character from beginning to end. I am sure all of us who had the pleasure of viewing the play felt sorry for him every time he tried to do something to further himself, only be stopped dead in his tracks because of some hi-jinx between his best friend and Madame Xotic.
Some of the dialogue and transitions in the play were out of place and broke up the audience’s immersion. After the intermission, which dragged on way too long, we missed the obvious climax of an almost seamless evening. In story-telling of all kinds we’re taught to “show don’t tell.” What happened after the intermission was a drawn out recap of the party, that we the audience were looking forward to, along with all of the chaos that came with it. This in my humble opinion wasn’t a wise choice, however it did not ruin the overall fun factor of the piece.
