Fresh video trio – Style – Kommersant

“Titanic” in a new reading, a series about the series and a black Australian comedy – “Kommersant Style” about what is worth watching on streaming.

“1899”

You may remember the deluxe TV series Dark, which critics called the second Twin Peaks, a dark sci-fi drama about time travel, sinister family ties and life in a provincial German town. Two years after the release of the last episode, “Darkness” writers Baran Bo Odar and Jantje Friese are back to present viewers with a new mystical puzzle.

In 1899, 13 years before the Titanic (allusions are obvious), the passenger steamer Cerberus sets off on a voyage across the Atlantic. On board is a real Babylon of future immigrants: in the series they speak Portuguese, Cantonese, Polish and other languages. Each of the heroes got on the ship, having received a strange letter of invitation, and it will soon become clear that their destinies are mysteriously connected. And the Cerberus is forced to suddenly change course in order to try to save the passengers of the missing ship Prometheus. As usual, nothing good will come of this.

1899 has everything we love so much: time travel and space jumps, secret portals, creepy children and repetitive signs. True, the dynamics in the dialogues are less than in “Darkness”, and the characters do not cause such deep empathy. But the director’s work deserves applause.

“Reboot”

What will happen if great actors, a good director and a brilliant screenwriter come together to make a series about how to make a series? In the case of Reloaded, it’s a sarcastic, pithy, and topical meta-sitcom.

Young prodigy Hannah comes to the board of directors of Hulu (it’s a joke within a joke, since Reboot is Hulu’s brainchild) with a sudden proposal to restart the old family series Step Right Up. And not just restart, but invite the same actors, modernize the storyline and remove censorship. At all. The Hulu management is delighted with the idea, and then for some reason everything does not go according to plan: the former showrunner has, as they say, questions, the old actors have not seen each other for more than 15 years, and their relationship is not easy …

The general vibe of “Reloaded” is very reminiscent of everyone’s favorite “Episodes”, but the series turned out to be even more relevant and witty. Steve Levitan, a wonderful screenwriter and co-creator of Modern Family, wrote not just a “meta-meta” sitcom, but a story about how the film industry has changed and what happens when old-school Hollywood actors meet “queer feminist directors” (that’s what he calls himself Hanna). And “Reboot” is a clear illustration of how you can take advantage of the second chance given by fate in different ways.

“Shabby”

How well do we know our spouses? In the case of Simone Cooper, a well-bred married lady and mother of two children, it turned out that not very much. When she received a sudden call from the hospital with the news of the death of her husband, a respectable family man, she did not at all expect that the reason was erotic asphyxiation. Moreover, literally the entire periodic table was found in the blood of Mr. Cooper, and he died in the hands of a prostitute. Along the way, other unexpected details are revealed.

Simone and her children have to leave England for their native Australian hole – the industrial city of Newcastle (there is one on the green continent as well). There they will start a new life, which will include a crazy grandmother, Simone’s high school crush and a lot of tough guys.

The show was created by Sarah Kendall, a former award-winning Australian comedian. She set the task of showing “another Australia” and her native Newcastle: no beaches and muscular surfers, unemployment, dirt, heroin addicts and steel mills. At the same time, there is no hopelessness from the “Shabby”. This is a witty and sometimes sad series about the collapse of hopes, complex human relationships and the mighty power of optimism.

Natalia Inshakova