What’s on this weekend? From Queer Eye to The Lion King

(Image credit: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Netflix)

By The Week Staff

last updated 19 July 2019

The Week’s pick for the best film, TV, book and live show to check out this weekend, and why the critics love them.

TELEVISION: Queer Eye - season four

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“Our favourite makeover show Queer Eye is returning to Netflix for a fourth season this summer... The reality show follows five gay men fondly known as the Fab Five as they travel around the US, giving people much-needed advice on everything from fashion and interior design to self-confidence and self-love... Rest assured that we are in for an emotional rollercoaster, as Jonathan dares viewers to ‘try not to cry’ in the trailer. Season four will see the Fab Five return to Jonathan's high school to make over his old orchestra teacher. The gang will also make over a man who says he’s ‘never had a conversation with a gay person before’.”

“After 25 years, during which it gained classic status as the last Disney picture in the old style that Walt himself would have endorsed and enjoyed a long afterlife in theatres all over the world with Julie Taymor’s staging and costumes, the 1994 animation The Lion King has been remade as a quasi-live-action digital movie. Here once again is the story of the lion prince Simba (voiced by Donald Glover) who as a tiny cub is “presented” to his subjects in the ceremony on the phallic Pride Rock by his parents King Mufasa (in which vocal role James Earl Jones is a survivor of the original film) and Queen Sarabi (Alfre Woodard). But wicked Uncle Scar (did he have a real name before the nickname?) nurses evil designs on poor little Simba....This is a virtual shot-for-shot reproduction of the original, and some credulous souls have been excitably posting side-by-side images on social media, showing the cartoon and its digital duplication.”

“The college-centered plot is reminiscent of many novels that have come before about quirky kids forming a family of sorts only to destroy each other—Tana French’s The Likeness, Donna Tartt's The Secret History—but the development of Malin as a narrator is truly inspired. While French and Tartt use the outsider-as-narrator to further emphasize the group's isolation and the narrator's failure to find true acceptance, Brockman's Malin draws riveting attention to humankind's vulnerability to evil. She is a shadowy figure; an unreliable narrator we get to know through subtle hints and slanted comments in addition to flashbacks.

“Gay history buffs will recognize the UpStairs Lounge as a real bar that once graced the French Quarter of New Orleans…There's piano man Buddy (Randy Redd), tiny drag queen Freddy (Michael Longoria), and bar proprietress Henri (Frenchie Davis, effortlessly butch and soulful at the same time). Their joyous opening number, “Some Kind of Paradise,” lets us know how they feel about this sanctuary masquerading as a mere drinking establishment. A musical about this family that chose each other would be enough, but Vernon goes a step further by dropping a gay fashion designer from 2017 into the action: Wes (Jeremy Pope) has just purchased the dilapidated space and hopes to transform it into his new boutique. As soon as he starts renovating, he is transported back in time, where he has all kinds of funny, awkward, and enlightening misunderstandings with his gay forebears. It's like a queer spin on A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.”

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