The Week’s best film, TV, book and live show of this weekend, with excerpts from the top reviews.
TELEVISION: The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
“Particulars of plot, character, and world-building often take a backseat to matters of ‘How the hell did they do that?’ And that’s okay. In fact, it’s more than okay — it’s ultimately the real reason we watch this sort kind of thing: for the Wow Factor… Age of Resistance is like an immense, ten-hour magic show, engrossing down to the very last wondrous detail. This is an altogether staggering artistic achievement, and a joyful continuation of the Henson tradition.”
Released 30 August on Netflix
MOVIE: The Informer
Tim Robey in The Daily Telegraph
“The Informer is one of the year’s more pleasant genre surprises: a clenched fist of a crime thriller in the mode of The Departed or The Town, in which every element is just a notch smarter than you’d expect. Generic though the film may look, it holds together absorbingly, thanks to a sturdy script which ups stakes and adds characters with cunning and intelligence.”
Released 30 August
BOOK: Legacy by Thomas Harding
Andrew Hill in the Financial Times
“Legacy sets out to celebrate that [catering] empire and its founders, going back to Lehmann Gluckstein, who fled west from Prussia’s anti-Jewish pogroms in the 19th century. Lehmann’s grafting descendants ultimately turned misfortune into success in the UK, first as tobacconists Salmon and Gluckstein - Barnett Salmon married Lehmann’s granddaughter Lena - and then as J Lyons. Joe Lyons, hired as a frontman for the catering business, ‘wowed and impressed,’ Harding writes, but ‘the family and the rest of the staff did all the work’.”
Released 29 August
STAGE: A Brutally Honest Evening with Mel B
David Simpson in The Guardian
“Brown reveals the five hours of hair-weaving and vocal warm-ups that turn her into Scary Spice. She talks about her mixed-race childhood and bisexuality, hints that the Spice Girls will play Glastonbury in 2020 and is joined by her dog, Cookie, who promptly pees on stage… It’s far too long, but somewhere in the chaos is a powerful insight into superstardom’s human cost and what it means to gain, surrender and determinedly rediscover girl power.”
1 September at the Savoy Theatre, London
-
Political cartoons for November 15Cartoons Saturday's political cartoons include cowardly congressmen, a Macy's parade monster, and more
-
Massacre in the favela: Rio’s police take on the gangsIn the Spotlight The ‘defence operation’ killed 132 suspected gang members, but could spark ‘more hatred and revenge’
-
The John Lewis ad: touching, or just weird?Talking Point This year’s festive offering is full of 1990s nostalgia – but are hedonistic raves really the spirit of Christmas?
-
Gen Z in Los Angeles, the end of ‘Stranger Things’ and a new mystery from the creator of ‘Breaking Bad’ in November TVthe week recommends This month's new television releases include ‘I Love L.A.,’ ‘Stranger Things’ and ‘Pluribus’
-
The 5 best political thriller series of the 21st centuryThe Week Recommends Viewers can binge on most anything, including espionage and the formation of parliamentary coalitions
-
The 5 best TV shows about the mobThe Week Recommends From the show that launched TV’s golden age to a Batman spin-off, viewers can’t get enough of these magnificent mobsters
-
Tim Robinson falls out of a chair, chefs compete for Michelin stars and Martin Scorsese gets the documentary treatment in October TVthe week recommends This month's new television releases include ‘The Chair Company,’ ‘Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars’ and ‘Mr. Scorsese’
-
Jump scare! Evil villain! These are fall’s most exciting horror movie releases.The Week Recommends An Airbnb rental gone wrong and another ‘Frankenstein’ adaptation highlight this autumn’s horror crop
-
'The Office' spinoff, a 'Mare of Easttown' follow-up and the Guinness family royalty in September TVthe week recommends This month's new television releases include 'The Paper,' 'Task' and 'House of Guinness'
-
The best limited series of all timethe week recommends Trading cliffhangers and endless renewals for narrative closure
-
The return of 'Wednesday,' an 'Alien' prequel and a dramatic retelling of the Amanda Knox trial all happening in August TVthe week recommends This month's new television releases include 'Alien: Earth,' 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox' and a new season of 'Wednesday'
