Director, screenwriter and producer Lee Daniels (Precious, Empire) is at the origin of two new series which have the particularity of featuring characters from the African-American middle classes, those of yesterday and today.
The one that will undoubtedly rally the most curious in front of the small screen is The Wonder Years, the new version of the cult series (1988-1993), which so well described the adolescent emotions of his little hero from an ordinary family in an anonymous suburb during a period of great changes in American society, namely from 1968 to 1973.
This time, we follow Dean Williams, his friends and his family around the same time, but in Montgomery, Alabama. As one can imagine, the racial question will take a greater place than in the original version … Don Cheadle ensures the narration of this learning story, Dulé Hill plays the father (this time, music teacher) of the hero and Fred Savage, the main actor of the original series, co-produced and directed the first episode. On ABC and CTV, starting September 22.
thethriller soapy Our Kind of People takes us completely elsewhere, into the little-known world of the African-American upper middle class. Inspired by the essay of the same title by Lawrence Otis Graham, which described the underside of this economic elite, the fictional series follows the foray of a more modest entrepreneurial woman into the closed circle of the wealthy boaters of this community in Martha’s. Vineyard, which will come to wreak havoc. On Fox and CTV, starting September 21.
Grown-ups seen by greats
Three documentary productions portraying legends of the 20th centurye century, all three eagerly awaited, are produced by directors with an impressive track record.
Documentaries devoted to Muhammad Ali have not been lacking in recent years. In fact, Netflix has just unveiled one about its relationship with Malcolm X (Blood Brothers : Malcom X & Muhammad Ali). But we are very curious about the portrait of Ken Burns, assisted by his daughter Sarah and his son-in-law David McMahon in the series in four episodes simply titled Muhammad Ali. At PBS, September 19-22.
New Zealand director Peter Jackson has tackled a colossal task: resuming the sixty-hour filming of the recording sessions of the last two Beatles albums, which served as the raw material for the documentary. Let It Be (1970), to paint a more joyful portrait of the Fab Four’s swan song. It gives Get Back, a miniseries in three two-hour episodes. On Disney +, from November 25 to 27.
Unveiled at the last Cannes Film Festival where it received an enthusiastic reception, the documentaryeThe Velvet Undergroundby Todd Haynes (I’m Not There) which, as its title suggests, is dedicated to the legendary training led by Lou Reed, arrives simultaneously in theaters and on Apple TV +, from October 15.
Old acquaintances
Some key figures from the last decades of television are returning to service this fall. This is the case of the nice serial killer Dexter, still played by Michael C. Hall, found in Dexter : New Blood, ten years after the events of the finale decried by many fans, taken refuge in the deep countryside of the State of New York and trying to suppress his murderous impulses… At Showtime and Crave, from November 7th.
We stay in the same region for the reunion of the heroines of Sex and the City, minus the flamboyant Samantha. And Just Like That, will show Carrie and her friends, now in their fifties, who still have to navigate the meanders of love, seduction and the vicissitudes of the couple… On HBO Max and Crave, on a date still unknown this fall.
Six years after hanging up his microphone for the satirical daily The Daily Show, the often serious comedian John Stewart returns to service in The Problem with Jon Stewart, a weekly program that will tackle a single topical subject in depth, rather than the news of the week, among other things thanks to the interventions of people affected by the subject at hand. On Apple TV +, starting September 30.
Science-fiction
Fans of science fiction literature are in for a treat this fall: they will be treated to the very first television adaptation of the “founding” masterpiece of this genre, the series of novels. Foundation, of Isaac Asimov. It will undoubtedly take several seasons to cover the 22,000 years that this exceptional saga covers. Jared Harris (Chernobyl) embodies the mathematician Hari Seldon. On Apple TV +, starting September 24.
Another masterpiece, this one much more recent, will also be entitled to its television version:Station Eleven, by English-Canadian author Emily St. John Mandel, who recounts the aftermath of a swine flu pandemic that has wiped out much of humanity. On HBO Max and Crave, at an unknown date this fall.
Real life
“Real people” are at the heart of promising fiction series, at least on paper! Thus the autobiographical series Colin in Black and White, footballer Colin Kaepernick, who has become an icon of the Black Lives Matter movement, recounts (literally, since he is a co-writer and narrator) his youth with white adoptive parents, with the collaboration of Ava DuVernay (Selma) scriptwriting and directing. On Netflix, starting October 29.
In a completely different register, The Shrink Next Door, a black comedy inspired by the podcast of the same name, tells the true story of a New York psychiatrist “of the stars” (Paul Rudd) who is embedded in the life of one of his long-time patients (Will Ferrell ), over the course of thirty years, going so far as to settle in his luxurious house and usurp his family business. On Apple TV +, November 12.
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