Get Millie Black ★★★½
Binge

In outline, this crime drama feels familiar: an obsessive cop driven to save missing children because of their own unresolved trauma, a new case with dangerous ties to a broader conspiracy, and an unwelcome partner from a different jurisdiction. So far, so anti-hero. But the setting for this Anglo-American series is Jamaica, which is depicted with a pungent sense of place, and it’s invested with an understanding of the Caribbean nation’s historic crimes and persecuted queer subculture. It’s a rarely seen world.

Created by Man Booker prize-winning author Marlon James (A Brief History of Seven Killings), Get Millie Black is a reminder that milieu can outweigh plot. The clues Kingston police detective Millie-Jean Black (Tamara Lawrance) follows in her search for a missing 16-year-old schoolgirl are boilerplate, but the people they encounter, whether it’s shady club owners or the dismissive scion of a powerful white family, and the motivations they’re beholden to are vivid and deeply held.

A different character narrates each episode, and as Millie notes in her instalment, “Like every story about this country, this is a ghost story.” Among a tangle of relationships, the defining one is between Millie, back a year after being exiled to London as a child, and her trans sister, sex worker Hibiscus (Chyna McQueen). Estranged siblings living on opposite sides of the law is a telling lens for this show’s underlying truths.

Bread & Roses

Apple TV+

Signal-boosted by producer Jennifer Lawrence, Afghan filmmaker Sahra Mani’s covert documentary reveals the crushing weight exerted on the women in her homeland – specifically dentist Zahra Mohammadi, government employee Sharifa Movahidzadeh, and exiled activist Taranom Seyedi – following the armed return to power of the Taliban in 2022. Recordings by the women, somewhat unevenly edited together, show the reality of conservative theological repression: no schooling for girls, no jobs for women, no public voice. The film plays as an act of resistance.

Interior Chinatown
Disney+

For the most part, this metafiction about a Chinese restaurant waiter, Willis Wu (Jimmy O. Yang, Silicon Valley), who yearns to be the kick-ass lead character in his life story, manages to satisfy both its conceptual framework that exists inside a cliched story and provide a sense of humanity to what is an otherworldly realm. The Taika Waititi-directed first episode does a quick and effective job of establishing the rules under which this satire of slim Asian screen representation operates, and for once, Ronny Chieng’s brash humour actually flourishes with the best friend supporting role.

Cruel Intentions
Amazon

If you want an example of how uninspiring and transactional a television reboot of a familiar property can be, look no further than this remake of the salacious 1999 teen melodrama of the same title, which was in turn a modern retelling of Dangerous Liaisons, the celebrated 1988 movie adaptation of the 1782 novel set in aristocratic France. That’s many iterations of a serpentine and sexually motivated tale, and this latest take, set at a Washington, DC, university, has very little to add to project’s accumulated worth. The performances are shallow, the seductiveness stale.

Superstore
Stan

I used to hedge my bets with sitcoms and suggest that you had to be patient with the first season. Now, as shown by this American network comedy set in a Missouri big-box retail outlet, my advice is to skip the first season altogether. Starring America Ferrera and Ben Feldman as co-workers whose fencing and flirtations are headed in one direction, the second through sixth seasons of Justin Spitzer’s show remain an enjoyable mix of chaotic workplace comedy and personal commentary. Superstore concluded in 2021, but you can easily start (the second season) now.

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