The Week’s best film, TV, book and live show on this weekend, with excerpts from the top reviews.
TELEVISION: Lethal Weapon - season three
Daniel Kurland, Den of Geek
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“Lethal Weapon enters its third season facing the difficult task of replacing a main character. This would be a lofty endeavor for any series, but Lethal Weapon lives and dies off its buddy cop chemistry between Riggs and Murtaugh... Martin Riggs is dead and gone, but his presence heavily hangs over this premiere in a way that’s cathartic and necessary for the series. Believe it or not, the death of Riggs might actually be the best thing that could have happened to the show and Murtaugh’s character. It wakes Lethal Weapon up and pushes it to make some challenging decisions... Lethal Weapon’s premiere has plenty on its plate with Murtaugh in mourning and Cole’s acclimation to the police force, but the show doesn’t forget that people still expect some of the most bonkers action on a procedural cop show here. In the Same Boat goes for broke and fires away with plenty of series staples like shootouts, car chases, and multiple explosions.”
First episode airs on 26 July at 9pm on ITV
MOVIE: Teen Spirit
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
“Some singers start young, before they have a clue about how the music business can chew up their talent and package it for mass consumption. Take Violet, the 17-year-old dreamer played with shy loveliness and a tough core by the luminous Elle Fanning... Then a British singing competition called Teen Spirit hits the Isle and fires her up. It’s a tale as old as American Idol, and the script goes exactly where you think it’s going. But writer-director Max Minghella, in a more than promising debut behind the camera, has a flair for dazzling detours and actions that define character... Teen Spirit rises to the occasion on the shoulders of its remarkable leading lady. Fanning, 20, handles the dramatic demands of the role like a seasoned pro.”
Released on 26 July
BOOK: Killing It: An Education by Camas Davis
Kim Ode, Star Tribune
“When we talk about barbecued ribs, smoked bacon, succulent roasts and braised thighs, we’re talking about hogs and cattle and poultry. Right? Of course we are. Yet when the French butcher teaching Camas Davis his profession saw that she knew little of his language, he began pointing to his butt, to his thigh, to the muscles along each side of his spine - his loins - to better illustrate his cuts. This set Davis on her heels... Killing It: An Education is about coming to terms with killing and butchering dinner. But it is no pat paean to the carnivorous life, which is both its strength and detriment... After a career of writing about food, she decides to actually do food and become a butcher... Davis takes the essential need to eat and compels us to examine how, why and what we consume, without preaching or judging.”
Released 23 July
SHOW: Blues in the Night
Randy Lewis, LA Times
“It simply, and satisfyingly, serves up a full slate of blues and jazz numbers from the 1920s and ’30s. They are convincingly delivered by a quartet of singers who are backed by a sharp live jazz quintet that delivers the songs in smart arrangements... It examines the intersection of the blues and jazz through more than two dozen songs written by such formidable talents as Bessie Smith, Ida Cox, Alberta Hunter, Duke Ellington, Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, Benny Goodman and Billy Strayhorn.That’s about all an audience needs to know going in to this show, which speaks, or rather sings, for itself.”
Playing 26 July to 7 September at the Kiln Theatre, London
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