Radiohead, lots of Robert Downey Jr.s, and more from this week in TV
A round-up of our best and most interesting TV stories and features from the week of March 25
Photo: Hopper Stone (HBO)
How Radiohead became the soundtrack of great TV
If you watched the trailer for Netflix’s 3 Body Problem earlier this year, you might have noticed a familiar tune playing in the background. While the sci-fi epic from David Benioff and D.B. Weiss employed a (gorgeous) cover of the song rather than the original, it was still unmistakably Radiohead’s “Everything In Its Right Place,” the opener to the band’s legendary Kid A. – Emma Keates Read More
Curb Your Enthusiasm recap: Conan O’Brien steals the show
The specter of mortality has loomed large here in the twelfth season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. And why shouldn’t it? It’s the last one, and these guys are all looking discernibly older, no matter how much hair dye Jeff has tried to smear on his locks. Our dear Richard Lewis has already left us, and he continues to pop up in episodes like this one. Who knows how the rest of these guys are faring health-wise. They may soon be worn down like the cars in this episode: cursed with unshakeable odors or simply drained of battery power, so to speak. Am I paranoid now? Clinging to these familiar comedic presences, never certain that my comedy heroes aren’t out there doing their little bits and spoofs, yet all the while withering before my very eyes? – Meredith Hobbs Coons Read More
Kristen Stewart gets annoyed with Seth Meyers’ directing in a new “Day Drinking”
Tuesday’s episode of Late Night With Seth Meyers featured a new installment of “Day Drinking,” the recurring segment that may well destroy Meyers’ liver or his home life before it is retired. This time, he lamented being more hungover than guest Kristen Stewart afterwards, because he had to wake up four hours earlier than she did and walk his kids to school while they pestered him for croissants. “They can tell when I’m still a little drunk and they’re like, ‘Let’s do it whiny,’” he joked. – Mary Kate Carr Read More
Shōgun recap: “A man may go to war for many reasons, but a woman is simply at war”
If you guessed that an episode called “Ladies Of The Willow World” would primarily feature the stories of the women of Shōgun, you would be right. And they have really been through hell, man. Sure, the guys have a pretty brutal time of it, too, but at least they have agency. Even John Blackthorne, an Englishman who barely even knows Japan, has now been granted the title of hatamoto, given his own house and personal consort, command of Toranaga’s cannon artillery unit, a new position as chief admiral of the kanto, and a fief near Kanagawa with a 600 koku salary attached—not to mention a pheasant that could have been a yummy meal for him if the townspeople had just let it stink up the place so that he could age it and eat it. Command of that cannon unit, the admiral title, and that sweet, sweet land were just granted this episode, too, as Toranaga delivers an address to his remaining men following that big earthquake that killed a bunch of them. Because Anjin has saved his lord’s life a couple of times now, he keeps getting special privileges heaped upon him. (My advice: Maybe keep doing that? I’d say it’s going well for you, Blackthorne.) The ladies aren’t so lucky. – Meredith Hobbs Coons Read More