We’re back with this week’s installment of our What to Watch column. Just last week we celebrated the return of shows like Better Call Saul and Barry, as well as movies like The Northman hitting theaters. It’s a bit quiet on the movie theater front this week possibly due to studios anticipating the arrival of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 6. And after Spider-Man: No Way Home’s success, it’s hard to blame them. Anyway, while there is no standout movie releases aside from Liam Neeson’s Memory, TV networks and streaming services alike served up some must-watch entertainment for viewers this week.
It’s the end of the road for Ozark. The second part of the hit Netflix series’ final season hit the streaming service today. You can watch it all in one sitting to avoid spoilers or take it in little by little to really savor it before waving the series goodbye—that’s up to you! After a busy 2021, Andrew Garfield is now starring in a new miniseries for FX on Hulu called Under the Banner of Heaven. Atlanta’s Season 3 is still going strong, delivering captivating commentary about our society and our world—and Episode 7 didn’t miss. This week’s episodes of Moon Knight and Better Call Saul are also worth talking about and explored at length, and we definitely recommend watching them sooner rather than later. Keep reading as we dive into the best entertainment Hollywood had to offer this week.
‘Ozark’
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When: Friday, Apr. 29
Where: Netflix
It’s funny we spent so much time talking about Breaking Bad, considering the second half of Ozark’s finale season debuts on Netflix today, as the series owes a lot to AMC’s crime epic. The walls are closing in on the Byrdes’ in the wake of part one’s eventful episodes. The bulk of part two looks to hinge around Ruth Langmore’s (the excellent Julia Garner) quest for revenge in the wake of her cousin Wyatt’s death. This quest puts her at odds with Marty (Jason Bateman) and Wendy (Laura Linney) as they work to ensure their safety. We don’t know how it all ends, but, in typical Ozark fashion, anticipate plenty of superlative acting, tense action, and weighty explorations into what it means to live the American dream. —William Goodman
‘Under the Banner of Heaven’
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When: Thursday, Apr. 28
Where: Hulu
Andrew Garfield announced this week that he was taking a break from acting to be “ordinary” for a while. “I’m going to rest for a little bit,” Garfield told Variety. “I need to recalibrate and reconsider what I want to do next and who I want to be and just be a bit of a person for a while.” Why would he do that after he has had such a massive year professionally? (He appeared in 2021’s biggest movie Spider-Man: No Way Home and received a Best Actor nomination for his movie tick, tick...BOOM!) Kanye West said it best in his 2010 song “Devil In a New Dress”: “Don’t leave while you’re hot, that’s how Mase screwed up.” (Ye later apologized for that remark so I’ll also respect Garfield’s decision since we all deserve time off.) But you know who else took a “break” after not being properly recognized for her artistic contributions during awards SZN? Rihanna after Anti, and we haven’t gotten an album since. Fingers crossed that this isn’t the case for Garfield but in the event that his time away is longer than fans would like, he left plenty for us to watch.
His new series Under the Banner of Heaven arrived on FX this week, and the actor is delivering yet another epic performance in it. The crime series is based on the Mormon Church during the 1980s, and the murder of a woman played by Daisy Edgar-Jones and her child. Garfield plays Detective Jeb Pyre who is investigating the murder of that took place in a suburb in the Salt Lake Valley. Because of this case, Pyre begins to uncover other buried secrets about the origins of the Latter-day Saints (LDS) religion and what happens when faith gets out of hand. The seven-episode series, inspired by journalist Jon Krakauer’s book by the same name, will drop on a weekly basis. The first two episodes are now available to stream on Hulu. —Karla Rodriguez
'Atlanta' Episode 7
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When: Thursday, Apr. 28
Where: Hulu
Atlanta continues to address deep societal issues this season through its standalone episodes. Last week, we visited the crew in Europe and they dived into the issue of racism and racial insensitivity in the fashion world and what it means when minorities and people of color still covet those same brands. In the episode, a designer brand is caught in a racially insensitive controversy after printing “Central Park 5” into one of their pieces, which was inspired by real-life events. Episode 7 titled “Trini 2 De Bone,” which aired on Thursday, Apr. 28, takes us back to New York City into the home of an affluent white couple. The episode also had a hilarious tagline: “White people watching this be like… Pain.” The couple learns their son’s nanny, who is from Trinidad and Tobago, has died.
The parents start to learn how much of an impact she had on their child, and what it has meant for the woman’s children to have their mom be so preoccupied raising other people’s kids for a living while neglecting them. This is a normal occurrence in any well-off neighborhood in NYC or any major city. Women of color can be found pushing strollers carrying babies who don’t look like them all hours of the day. People are consistently chasing wealth and success in order to be able to afford luxuries, like hiring a nanny, but at what cost? Will the relationship between them and their child suffer? And also, how does their comfort affect the person or people who are providing those luxury services? Spoiler alert: As expected, the episode also has its downright comedic moments like an unexpected appearance from Chet Hanks (son of Tom Hanks and leader of the white boy summer movement). The episode was directed by Donald Glover and it’s another clear example of why Atlanta is more than what viewers want it to be. —KR
‘Better Call Saul’ Episode 2
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When: Wednesday, Apr. 27
Where: AMC
Major spoilers for ‘Better Call Saul.’ You’ve been warned!
A constant refrain throughout Breaking Bad revolved around the idea of meth kingpin Walter White justifying his abhorred actions in service of helping his family. By the conclusion of that series, Walter finally admitted to the truth: He was good at being bad and liked it. Intentionally, or just by accident, the story of Better Call Saul’s primary drug dealer Nacho Varga (Michael Mando), serves as a compelling and tragic foil to Walter White.
“Rock and Hard Place” brings the first of a few inevitable conclusions for characters present in this show, but not the series from which it spun off, as Nacho exits the series. A tragic fate for Nacho felt all but inevitable; he’s mentioned only by name in Breaking Bad, leaving pretty much everything but the “How?” on the table. Throughout Saul’s preceding five seasons, the writers unspooled Nacho as someone who previously broke bad and struggled to go good once again. Nacho’s most human and empathic moments came when he realized the toll his lifestyle was taking on his family—specifically his father. It’s not unlike how the consequences of Walter’s actions began to interfere and endanger his loved ones.
Realizing his fate is sealed, Nacho decides to protect his father by convincing Don Eladio and the vengeful Salamancas that he’s a mole for another rival cartel group and was the one responsible for Lalo’s death. To add further insult, Nacho doubles down and tells Hector (an always fantastic Mark Margolis) he’s responsible for putting Hector in a wheelchair. It’s a revelation that doesn’t feel far afield from when Walt told Jesse about Jane’s death; hell, the environment in which these confessions occur are practically the same. Mando is fantastic here, unleashing years of rage in one explosive blast—resulting in a performance well worth including alongside other classic Gilligan ABQ universe moments.
The difference between Walter and Nacho is their respective approaches to reckoning their legacies, with Nacho taking the road to a “good death.” As Nacho breaks free from his restraints and pulls a gun on Don Eladio, both he and the audience realize this is the end of the line. As Nacho takes his own life, leaving the gathered ensemble to meet their respective fates in Breaking Bad, he knows he’s saved his father’s life. In the world of Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul, that’s about as good a death as you can ask for. —WG
‘Moon Knight’ Episode 5
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When: Wednesday, Apr. 27
Where: Disney+
Oscar Isaac wasn’t kidding when he told us Moon Knight would soon confront the pain and past of Marc Spector (Issac). The penultimate episode of the Marvel/Disney+ streaming series, “Asylum,” is the weightiest story in the MCU thus far, as it fully grapples with Marc’s psychological damage. After hinting at its scope in previous episodes, we see the full horrors of the situation.
Picking up in the immediate aftermath of last week’s strong cliffhanger, Episode 5 reveals the asylum Marc and Steven found themselves in is but a coping mechanism; the two are, in reality, stuck in the Egyptian version of the afterlife (known as the Duat). The hippo-like god Taweret is here to judge the souls of both Marc and Steven, and the episode uses this framing as a way to explore Marc’s history. As Marc and Steven wander down the asylum halls and open doors into the past, the subsequent reveals are dark for an MCU property; Marc’s childhood brother drowned in an accident, and the resulting grief turned his mother into an abusive alcoholic, so young Marc creates Steven as a way to cope with emotional and physical pain his mom reigns down upon him. These plots ultimately culminate in Marc’s actual origin as Moon Knight, bringing together many of the show’s lingering questions ahead of next week’s finale.
“Asylum” doesn’t obfuscate the intensity of these events. Instead, in typical MCU fashion, the episode attempts to lighten the mood with jokes that make for a decidedly stark tonal contrast that doesn’t quite work. Isaac’s performance (consistently the best part of the series) helps to elevate the material as much as possible, but there are so many moving parts in this episode—I haven’t even mentioned the part where Marc and Steven fight the re-animated corpses of the people Marc killed during his mercenary days. It’s challenging to have a meaningful emotional reaction to these reveals before the episode barrels into its next bit of story. It’s a shame, given Isaac’s work and plenty of elements that, on paper, should have worked together a little more cohesively. —KR
