In the early ’70s, singer Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman” became an iconic feminist song, thanks in part to its fearless challenge: “I am woman, hear me roar.” However, we suspect that Reddy wasn’t expecting that “roar” to take the form that it does in Apple TV+‘s new show called Roar. Apple TV+ describes Roar as “an anthology series of darkly comic feminist fables. Spanning genres from magical realism to psychological horror, these eight stand-alone stories feature ordinary women in some pretty extraordinary circumstances.” But if you were expecting The Twilight Zone‘s sci-fi morality tales, then you’ve come to the wrong place. Roar has its own flavor.
Nicole Kidman is executive producing Roar and also starring in one of the episodes. In the footage, Kidman’s character can’t seem to satisfy her voracious appetite for photographs. That’s not a euphemism. She literally eats photographs. The trailer doesn’t explain why she eats pictures, but it’s probably not for the taste. The trailer also lays out the premises of the remaining seven episodes as well.
Perhaps the strangest story belongs to Merritt Wever’s character, who is dating a duck. That’s not the first time we’ve seen this in fiction. Marvel’s Howard the Duck famously dated a woman named Beverly when he was trapped on Earth. But at least Howard can speak English and had personal agency. Wever’s duck is just a duck! But she’s so desperate for an emotional connection that her character latches on to the water fowl.
Alison Brie’s character has a bigger dilemma. Someone murdered her, and she will have to take the lead in bringing her killer to justice even though she’s only a ghost. In another episode, Insecure‘s Issa Rae plays a character who has a truly horrifying experience. She speaks with eloquence and conviction, but the men around her can not perceive anything she says.
Betty Gilpin, Meera Syal, Fivel Stewart, and Kara Hayward also headline their own individual episodes alongside a guest cast that includes Nick Kroll, Judy Davis, Alfred Molina, Daniel Dae Kim, Jake Johnson, Jason Mantzoukas, Chris Lowell, Ego Nwodim, Griffin Matthews, Peter Facinelli, Simon Baker, Hugh Dancy, Jillian Bell, Bernard White, and Justin Kirk.
Roar was created for Apple TV+ by Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, and based on Cecelia Ahern’s novel of the same name. The first episode will premiere on Apple TV+ on April 15.
