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 How real, fundamental, sustainable change happens is something that’s been on many minds in the past year, and Philly D.A. is a riveting docuseries that sheds light on one corner of that tumultuous process. Filmmakers Ted Passon, Yoni Brook, and Nicole Salazar follow Larry Krasner, a civil rights attorney who sued the Philadelphia Police Department 75 times throughout his career, from his long-shot election as Philadelphia district attorney in 2017 as he tries to overhaul the criminal-justice system from the inside, arguing for a kind of radical, systemic change that seems near impossible in the face of institutional inertia. It’s an ambitious, sprawling epic (set to an excellent score by electronic musician Dan Deacon) that has rightfully drawn comparisons to The Wire, not least because of its constellation of vivid, flawed, truly human characters. (Episodes four and five, centering on the impact of incarceration on the lives of individuals and their loved ones, are especially compelling.) Thanks to wide-ranging access to what’s referred to as the black box of criminal justice, the series clearly and movingly depicts the nuts and bolts of an institution that dictates a substantial amount of local policymaking and proves the old—and in these times oft-forgotten—adage that all politics is local.—Lisa Wong Macabasco

 

 

Wrote Marius in July: “Fans of Bridgerton and last year’s stylish spin on Emma will adore The Pursuit of Love, Emily Mortimer’s new adaptation of Nancy Mitford’s eponymous 1945 novel. It stars Lily James and Emily Beecham as Linda Radlett and Fanny Logan, two cousins-slash-best-friends leading rather divergent—if often intertwined—lives between the wars. Where Fanny is the sensible, stable one (steered straight by the antics of her mother, known within the family as “The Bolter”), Linda is romantic to a fault; her love affairs luring her to Oxford, the South of France, and Paris. Both Beecham and James are wonderful in their roles, as are Mortimer (as The Bolter), Dominic West (as Linda’s domineering father, Matthew), and Andrew Scott (as the Radletts’ eccentric neighbor, Lord Merlin).”In Reservation Dogs, from filmmakers Taika Waititi and Sterlin Harjo, four Indigenous teenagers long to flee their Oklahoma reservation for the exotic land of California—but first, they must secure the money for their getaway. “As the four teens plot their grand escape, we’re offered an intimate glimpse into their lives on ‘the rez,’ as they call it—both the good and the bad,” Christian Allaire wrote in August. “While they have, on the one hand, a robust community there, they also lack resources and opportunities. (We learn that the four friends have recently lost one of their peers, Daniel, his death vaguely attributed to ‘where they live.’) Along the way, we’re also introduced to something that’s been missing on television for a long time: Indigenous humor. The show reminds you often of how badly Native people have been treated, but it encourages you to laugh about it too.”

 

 

 

In September, Marius wrote about Scenes from a Marriage, Hagai Levi’s affecting adaptation of the Ingmar Bergman classic. “The new series transports Bergman’s story from Sweden to Boston, with Erland Josephson’s Johan becoming Oscar Issac’s Jonathan and Liv Ullmann’s Marianne becoming Jessica Chastain’s Mira,” she wrote. It also quietly alluded to the complexities of its own creation: “Scenes From a Marriage was filmed last fall, in the throes of COVID-19, and though the action takes place before the pandemic, the series acknowledges the weirdness of its circumstances,” she continued. “The first four episodes begin with a flourish of vérité, revealing the goings-on on set—Chastain and Oscar shrugging off their coats and finding their marks; masked production assistants scurrying to and fro—before the scene work starts. As a framing device, those moments both announce the show as a work of drama—here, there be actors about to do some acting!—and further contemporize it.”As Antrim wrote in March, a Tahar Rahim’s latest series “is the true-life story of Charles Sobhraj, a French serial killer who murdered hippie tourists in Southeast Asia in the ’70s. Costarring Jenna Coleman as Sobhraj’s accomplice, The Serpent, a BBC-Netflix collaboration, was a huge hit in Britain earlier this year and mixes sexy, sun-splashed 1970s escapism with the dark allure of true crime.” In her own review, also from March, Schama posed a compelling question: “Should a show about a serial killer be quite so enticing?”