Here are our picks for what you should watch this week.
Curb Your Enthusiasm
After Seinfeld ended, there was a huge gap left in the comedy scene on television. Then Curb Your Enthusiasm started. Starring Larry David, the co-founder and one of the writers of Jerry Seinfeld’s classic show, Curb Your Enthusiasm put the man who was the inspiration for the character George front and center. It created an entirely different dynamic, but was just as funny as the series that came before it.
Playing a fictionalized version of himself, Larry David lives his life as a well-known entertainer in Los Angeles. Half retired and rarely working, the show puts David across from other hilarious talents including Jeff Garlin, playing his manager; and Cheryl Hines, taking on the role of his wife. David himself is a neurotic man with an ethos for his life that almost always makes situations more complicated and awkward than they need to be. He’s stubborn, self-centered, and still always hilarious, even when he’s his own worst enemy. Over the course of eight seasons, Curb Your Enthusiasm builds a legacy as great — if not even better than Seinfeld.
The Hurt Locker
The Hurt Locker earned unanimous praise when it was released in 2008. Produced and directed by Kathryn Bigelow, the film tells the story of a three-man bomb disposal team that serves its country during the war in Iraq. Starring Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghty, the film builds incredible tension and drama with gritty and realistic moments that induce both nail-biting and heart-thumping. It’s about as close to the action on the ground as you’ll ever want to be.
A Most Violent Year
During New York City’s worst years, there were more than 2,000 murders taking place in the city annually. Drug trade and crime was rampant. A Most Violent Year revisits 1981, which is said to be the worst year in the city’s history for violent crime. The owner of an oil company is in trouble financially because his trucks are being hijacked and product is being stolen. With his company under investigation for criminal activity of its own, the owner takes matters into his own hands in this gripping film.
Welcome to Me
Kristen Wiig is able to hold an audience’s attention with her unique humor and performances that make it impossible not to focus on her. Welcome to Me has Wiig working at full steam, turning in an incredible performance as a off-kilter lottery winner who uses her winnings to buy a talk show. With a platform for her peculiar viewpoints and without her psychiatric medication, she becomes unhinged and unstable, but she also transforms into a presence that is impossible to ignore.
Olympus Season 1
The gods of Olympus ruled the earth, until they were banished to the underworld by a group of brave men and women. Now one man named Hero has to discover his past and find his link to those gods who are now gone from the world. That’s the premise of Olympus, the Canadian-British show that plays around in the world of Greek myth and creates a new fantasy realm. The 13-episode series just finished its run on TV, and it’s well worth a binge watch.
