Sundance winner CODA premieres on Apple TV Plus

Also this weekend: Rosa Salazar leads Brand New Cherry Flavor, and Modern Love season two arrives on Amazon Prime Video

By Saloni Gajjar | August 13, 2021 | 5:00am

TV Lists Coda

Sundance winner CODA premieres on Apple TV Plus

Amy Forsyth, Daniel Durant, Marlee Matlin and Troy Kotsur in CODA Photo: Apple TV+

Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Friday, August 13, and Saturday, August 14. All times are Eastern.

Top pick

CODA (Apple TV+, Friday, 12:01 a.m.): CODA is a coming-of-age drama about a hearing child with deaf parents starring Emilia Jones, Marlee Matlin, and Troy Kotsur. Here’s an excerpt from Noel Murray’s review: “The climactic emotional beats are telegraphed almost from the beginning, but they still hit hard, effectively leaving viewers who can suspend their disbelief feeling uplifted and dewy-eyed. There’s a reason CODA became the first Sundance Film Festival entry to win the Grand Jury Prize, the Audience Award, and the Directing Award (along with a Special Jury Prize for Best Ensemble).”

Regular coverage

Star Wars: The Bad Batch (Disney+, Friday, 3:01 a.m., season finale)
Ted Lasso (Apple TV+, Friday, 12:01 a.m.)

Wild cards

Brand New Cherry Flavor (Netflix, Friday, 3:01 a.m.): “Despite its ’90s Los Angeles setting, the entire thing seems to take place in the reality of a Lynchian daydream, where characters and conversations are ever-so-slightly off, giving the impression of being caught between the real world and an hallucinatory underbelly. Despite being based on Todd Grimson’s novel of the same name rather than a creepypasta story, this plays for all intents and purposes like a fifth season of Channel Zero.” Here’s the rest of Alex McLevy’s review of this noir horror series starring Rosa Salazar, Catherine Keener, and Manny Jacinto.

Modern Love (Amazon Prime Video, Friday, 12:01 a.m.): John Carney’s romantic anthology series returns for season two. Like season one, the eight new episodes are based on stories published in The New York Times weekly column of the same name. The new season’s cast includes Kit Harington, Minnie Driver, Lucy Boynton, Sophie Okonedo, Tobias Menzies, Dominique Fishback, Anna Paquin, and Garrett Hedlund.

Spin (Disney Channel, Friday, 8 p.m.): This Disney original movie centers on Indian American teen Rhea Kumar (Avantika Vandanapu) who discovers her artistic side through DJ culture and realizes her passion is to blend the music of her Indian heritage into the world around her. The film also stars Meera Syal, Abhay Deol, and Aryan Simhadri.

In the news

Washington Week (PBS, Friday, 8 p.m.): In this week’s episode, moderator Yamiche Alcindor will be joined by Politico’s Laura Barrón-López, Spectrum News’ Eva McKend, The New York Times’ Jonathan Martin, and The New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow to discuss New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s resignation, the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill passed in the Senate this week, and the U.N. Climate report’s dire warning for the world.