Culture recs: What to Watch This Weekend
A historic epic starring Jason Momoa, a thoughtful true-crime series, and more
Chief of War (Apple TV+, Aug. 1)
Jason Momoa wrote, directed, and stars in this historical epic about the unification and conquest of the Hawaiian islands. The Game of Thrones and Aquaman actor brings his “sensitive alpha male” energy and jacked physique to his role as Ka’iana, a warrior in 18th-century Hawaii who rides sharks and enjoys chilling on the beach until he is reluctantly drawn into war.
Contrary to virtually every other onscreen portrayal of Hawaii, from Magnum, P.I. to The White Lotus, Chief of War is told from the indigenous perspective, and great efforts were made by Momoa and his co-creator, Thomas Pa‘a Sibbett, to ensure the project’s authenticity. The cast of the nine-episode series is mostly Polynesian, and the script was written in the Ōlelo Hawai’i language (which was once banned in Hawaii’s public schools but has been making a modest comeback). But the series, full of bloody action sequences and shots of Momoa in a skimpy loincloth, is the type of sweeping drama that transcends any cultural differences.
The Yogurt Shop Murders (HBO, Aug. 3)
On Dec. 6, 1991, four teenage girls — two of them sisters — were murdered at an I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt in Austin, Texas. The brutal crime remains officially unsolved and continues to haunt the city more than 30 years later. Directed by Margaret Brown, this four-part docuseries features interviews with surviving family members and the detectives whose determination to find the perpetrators may have only drawn them further away from the truth (two convictions in the case were eventually overturned). In a departure from your typical true-crime saga, The Yogurt Shop Murders is less concerned with laying out the facts of the case or examining theories about whodunnit — that’s what Wikipedia is for — than in exploring memory, grief, and trauma.
Marc Maron: Panicked (Aug 1. HBO)
Last month, Marc Maron announced that he was bringing his trailblazing podcast WTF to an end after 16 years. Bereft fans can take comfort knowing there is no shortage of Maron content in the world. This fall will bring the release of Are We Good?, a documentary about the comedian and the sudden death of his partner, Lynn Shelton, in 2020. And landing Friday is Maron’s latest stand-up special, Panicked, which has the same digressive, confessional, gently self-flagellating style as WTF.
The 70-minute special finds Maron reckoning with what it means to be a liberal — or even just a person with basic empathy — at a time when, as he puts it, “unfuckable hate herds, white nationalists, [and] crypto dorks” seem to have all the power. He has plenty of contempt for Trump supporters (“All they really wanted was to say the R-word with impunity”) and manosphere figures like Theo Van, whom he imagines interviewing Adolf Hitler (“Hey Hitler you probably didn’t even hate the Jews, that was just the meth making you crazy.”) But Maron also argues that progressives, with their constant hand-wringing over soy milk and Amazon boycotts, also have a “buzzkill problem.” “Do you realize we annoyed the average American into fascism?” he asks. He’s joking — but only a little.
Sunday Best (Netflix, now streaming)
Everyone knows that Ed Sullivan introduced Elvis and the Beatles to a nationwide audience through his CBS variety show. But this documentary takes an in-depth look at how the esteemed host was also a champion of many Black performers, from Bo Diddley to Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, putting them on the airwaves at a time when much of the country remained segregated.
The film follows Sullivan’s unlikely journey from the pages of the New York Daily News to an accidental career in television, where he was roundly criticized for his wooden demeanor. Despite — or perhaps because of his — his lack of onscreen charisma, Sullivan cared deeply about the quality of the acts booked on his show. He was happy to defy people like Georgia’s segregationist governor Eugene Talmadge, who said that Black performers should be banned from the show and CBS censors who warned him not to shake hands with boxer Joe Louis.
Directed by music journalist Sacha Jenkins, who died in May at the age of 54, Sunday Best makes it clear that Sullivan also benefited from the Black artists who appeared on his show. Given the recent furor over another CBS variety program — which happens to film at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York — the documentary is a useful reminder that even shows that are “just entertainment” can be deeply political.
Meredith Blake is the culture columnist for The Contrarian
Marc Maron and Ed Sullivan. As Maron says, the cruel racists have all the power now. They want us to forget men like Ed Sullivan. Will they succeed in resegregating America and erasing all truth from the historical record? Too many Americans have decided that money is more important than people.