Scout Tafoya - page 10

New Apple TV+ military thriller Echo 3 finds its heroes in desperate times this week, anxious and ready to take desperate measures. The kidnapped Amber has been put in a hellish South American prison camp, her brother Bambi is abandoned by his cohorts, her husband Prince is back in America recovering from multiple gunshot wounds — and nobody has a clue how to make this situation any better. But the writers sure know how to make it weirder.

The show, about what happens when an American with clandestine government ties stumbles into a private war, gets good mileage out of mechanics over message in this week’s episode, entitled “Upriver.” The bizarro sexual subtext of intervention gets quite the workout in this show.

This week on Shantaram, Lin is ready to flee except for one big thing: He wants revenge. The Apple TV+ limited series about a benevolent fugitive on the run from his past is coming to a bloody head as Lin tries to square accounts, Karla runs around town preparing the double-cross of a lifetime, the grim specter of death arrives in Bombay, and everyone else is caught in the middle.

Though this episode is well-played, it focuses on Shantaram’s least-interesting characters.

Apple TV+ spy thriller Slow Horses returns this week for a slick second season of low-brow high tension.

Grotesque super spy Jackson Lamb (played by Gary Oldman) is on a personal crusade in the wake of a friend’s death. And the rest of his “slow horses” are desperately looking for work — even the ones who are still behind their desks at Slough House, the London HQ for MI5’s misfit spies.

Season two of Slow Horses starts at a good clip and just keeps galloping. The show, based on the Slough House series by British crime novelist Mick Herron, remains one of the most consistent secret pleasures of the Apple TV+ lineup.

This week on Shantaram, the Apple TV+ limited series about a fugitive trying and failing to lie low in ’80s Bombay, our hero sees that his days in his new home are numbered. The only question is, will he leave before a trap is sprung on him or meet his destiny head-on?

Lin and Karla aren’t sure they want to say goodbye, Modena makes a risky move (and Lisa’s caught up in his wake), and Pandey must put his money where his mouth is or risk everything.

Everybody’s escape plans are falling apart in a reasonably gripping outing of this reasonably gripping show.

The Mosquito Coast hits a dead end this week, and the only one happy about it is Allie Fox. His wife Margot and daughter Dina get desperate looking for a way out of their situation, even as their hosts start to have major second thoughts about their new guests.

Charlie puts himself at risk, Dina goes on a fateful date, Margot throws a Hail Mary — and Allie’s one step ahead of everybody. As we’ve come to expect from Mosquito Coast, this is one tense hour of television.

It’s dueling dinner parties on this week’s episode of Apple TV+ culture clash comedy Acapulco. Memo is under investigation, Chad is under suspicion, Julia’s jealous, Esteban’s nervous, Sara’s drunk, Hector’s in lust, and — as usual — Maximo’s in the middle.

It’s an agreeably hectic week on the show, which doesn’t seem sure how to proceed with its more- serious ideas. As a result, Acapulco relies on an old-hat sitcom formula instead.

Mythic Quest goes Hollywood this week as Jo sits down with actor Joe Manganiello to discuss a role in the upcoming Mythic Quest movie.

Also, Dana and Ian go on an accidentally soul-searching trip, while Poppy looks for support around the office. And when Carol takes a personal day, that leaves Brad free to do as he pleases (and once more potentially ruin the game).

It’s a decent episode of Apple TV+’s gamer comedy — with one showstopper of a scene.

New Apple TV+ series Echo 3 follows two very different military men who venture to South America to rescue a mutual loved one during a clandestine war.

Written and produced by Mark Boal, the mind behind Zero Dark Thirty and The Hurt Locker, the series is deeply strange, if certainly memorable. And it shows Apple TV+ heading in a new, possibly suspect, direction.

Apple TV+’s Mosquito Coast finds sanctuary at long last this week, but is it everything it appears to be? The Foxes are still learning hard lessons the hard way, surrounded at once by people who are like them and not —  and who know their place, unlike the Foxes.

Dina, Margot and Charlie have their doubts about their new home but Allie is all in, and he’s going to make sure they know how he feels. A hefty new complication rears its head in a tense episode of the thriller series about a family on the lam.

In this week’s edition of Apple TV+ limited series Shantaram, Lin recovers from cholera with Karla’s help, and she’s discovering she isn’t the moral person she’d been hoping she was deep down. Shah and Khan go to war over water, Prabhu gets a win, Ravi makes a chilling discovery, and Lisa and Modena have an ultimatum or two in front of them.

As the show enters its back half, Shantaram’s becoming a very agreeable place to hang — even with all the bad people hanging around.

It’s girlboss brunch time on this week’s Mythic Quest, the Apple TV+ show about the overworked, undervalued and confused team of executives and developers who keep a gaming company afloat. Jo, Poppy and Rachel go to brunch together and make some discoveries about themselves and each other.

Meanwhile, Ian and Dana search for inspiration in the desert. David gets excited because a Mythic Quest movie might be in the works, even though everyone and everything is screaming at him that it’s a bad idea. Also, Brad might not be the changed man he appears to be.

Apple TV+ comedy Acapulco, about an old millionaire reminiscing about his early life as a wage slave at a popular resort in the ’80s, takes two trips down memory lane this week. Diane relives her glory days before Las Colinas, while Maximo remembers a moral dilemma that cost him and rewarded him in equal measure.

There’s a party at the resort, and all the ghosts of Diane’s past are invited in an unfortunately middling episode.

Interrupting Chicken, the new Apple TV+ children’s show about a family of chickens who get lost in the power of books and storytelling, is a winning combination of beautiful animation, good voice acting, and charming and warm-hearted stories.

Based on the Caldecott Medal-winning book series of the same name, written and illustrated by David Ezra Stein, it’s another solid entry in Apple’s growing catalog of kids shows.

Spirited, the Apple TV+ musical comedy remake of A Christmas Carol, is a depressingly literal, overly sarcastic and nightmarishly unfunny look at the lives of the people who work from beyond the grave to make Christmas cheer.

In the film, which hits the streaming service today, Will Ferrell plays a spirit who’s lost his mojo when he meets a man who’s more persuasive than he is. The laughs never start and the songs never stop in this gaudy waste of money and talent.

There’s a cholera outbreak this week on Apple TV+ epic Shantaram, and impostor doctor Lin Ford finds himself in the thick of it. If he saves lives, he’ll become a hero. If he doesn’t, he’ll be a pariah.

Meanwhile, Lisa and Karla make business arrangements that threaten relationships with the people closest to them. Abdullah gives Maurizio an ultimatum, Khan gives the competition a scare, and Lin must make some very hard choices.

It’s another gripping episode of the Bombay-set thriller.

Candy-colored Apple TV+ comedy Acapulco takes stock of its situation on an eventful trip to the city this week. Sara is sleeping at Las Colinas illegally, and her mother Nora still wants to put the fear of god into her. Meanwhile, Memo’s feeling down and Maximo’s solution just makes things worse. Also, Chad wants to dance, and Don Pablo wants out.

Acapulco goes through a few ups and downs this week as the creative team takes a few risks, and the writers fall back on bad habits.

This week on Apple TV+ thriller The Mosquito Coast, the Fox family’s boat suffers some serious damage but the show itself refuses to run aground.

Allie suffers a bad bug bite that takes him out of the equation when they need him most. Plus, Charlie finally comes clean about his guilt, and Dina starts being honest with herself. It’s an excellent episode with all the tension and beauty you could hope for.

Mythic Quest — the Apple TV+ sitcom about the world’s most popular role-playing video game company and the kooks who staff it — returns today for a third season of behind-the-scenes insanity and power plays.

Poppy and Ian are nearly at each other’s throats working together at their new company. And David and Carol are panicking now that they have no idea what to do with Mythic Quest.

Apple TV+ ’80s comedy Acapulco has romance on the brain this week. Maximo and Julia have to talk, Hector and Don Pablo are feeling unloved by Diane, Memo’s love is over and blooming at once, and Sara is heartbroken but she ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

A strong episode of the tacky comedy reveals some important things about the limits of a show like this, how formula and reality don’t always match, and how much you can get away with in a comedy. It’s a fascinating, frustrating study in the state of the sitcom.

Apple TV+ show Mosquito Coast returns Friday with more under-the-radar thrills. Based on the book by Paul Theroux and starring his nephew Justin as wanted criminal and escape artist Allie Fox, Mosquito Coast is about the many little compromises we make on our way to what we hope is a better life.

In the season two opener, Allie and his wife Margot reminisce about their past lives for their children Dina and Charlie, finally explaining why they’ve been living their lives on the run this whole time. And one telling lie means they’re still not really ready to be honest. It’s a solid return to form after last year’s stellar season finale.

This week on Apple TV+ drama/thriller Shantaram, it’s all about escapes. Lin knows a story about his medical work will bring his flight from justice to the attention of the authorities, so it’s time to leave Bombay.

Meanwhile, Prabhu and Parvati want to marry in secret before her parents can prevent it. Lisa discovers Modena is still up to his old tricks, and now she wants out of their new arrangement. And just when Lin is in line for a fake passport, a whole new situation arises that threatens his freedom. It’s a suitably tense time.

In new Apple TV+ documentary Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me, we take a trip into the center of the pop star’s world to discover her journey has been nothing but hardship surrounded by impossible highs, which makes coping with her fame something like a near-impossibility.

Narrated by Gomez herself and directed by Alek Keshishian (Madonna: Truth or Dare), this revealing, well-intentioned and often quite beautiful documentary gets us inside of her turmoil and the whirlwind of both her fame and her illness. It’s important for people to know that being America’s sweetheart is no picnic, and that the machinery of fame is parasitic and unyielding. Hopefully, someone, somewhere will pull the brakes on throwing kids into the show business maelstrom.

Depressive drama Causeway, which stars Jennifer Lawrence as a recovering Afghanistan war veteran trapped in her hometown, marks the latest collaboration between indie film company A24 and Apple TV+.

Lawrence, dipping her toe back into being a movie star following last year’s Don’t Look Up, returns to her roots in the film, which premieres Friday on Apple TV+. Causeway hits a lot of expected Sundance/indie movie beats but finds grace notes in quieter, less empathic scenes.

On this week’s installment of the Apple TV+ limited series Shantaram, Lin must take stock of where he is, what good fortune means and whether it’s his to truly celebrate.

The people of Bombay are getting used to the impostor doctor, but at every turn, Lin faces potential threats to his freedom and his place among his newfound community of outsiders. It’s a typically engaging outing of the Charlie Hunnam drama.

New Apple TV+ documentary Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues takes a lively and appropriately soulful look at the man who invented popular music in America as we know it today.

The film, which premieres today on Apple’s streaming service, brims with expert testimony from witnesses, fans, friends, and family of the incredibly influential jazz musician. It’s bolstered by a cornucopia of rare archival footage and photographs that root Armstrong firmly in history.

Louis Armstrong is too big a subject to think you could ever fully capture him, so director Sacha Jenkins treats this project as just one man’s look at another man. It’s remarkably successful.