Hi friends,
I hope everyone’s staying safe and cool despite the unprecedented heat. One thing I found interesting amidst all the tip-sharing going on online is the different takes each culture has on how to cope. Where I’m from, for example, it’s not out of the ordinary to see men wear dresses in the summer, or take multiple baths a day, as this thread funnily accounts for.
Have a breezy weekend!
OUR TOP TV SHOW OF THE WEEK
Glória
On Netflix 🌟 rating: 7.9
For history buffs with a keen interest in the Cold War, Glória might be worth checking out on Netflix. It’s a Portuguese series that follows the ins and out of a CIA base located just outside of Lisbon. Thanks to its hefty budget (reportedly the biggest in Portuguese TV yet), the espionage thriller beats like a Hollywood film; there’s no shortage of drama and intrigue here.
Set in the late 1960s, the ten-episode series follows João Vidal (Miguel Nunes), the son of a politico who works for the CIA while doubling as a KGB spy. João finds himself at the center of a complicated network of lies, spies, and cover-ups as his office becomes an unlikely battlefield between the US and Soviet Union.
OUR TOP MOVIE OF THE WEEK
Come to Harm
New on Amazon Prime Video 🌟 rating: 7.3
Come to Harm is a stylish and slow-burning movie from Iceland about a young man suddenly thrown into the underground crime scene. The sensible (though traumatized) Oliver navigates the roughest night of his life yet when his mother breaks down and he finds his younger brother missing.
Directors Ásgeir Sigurðsson and Anton Kristensen were reportedly inspired by the Safdie brothers (Good Time, Uncut Gems) when making this film.
Top picks outside of Netflix and Amazon Prime
The American remake of BBC’s Ghosts (a show we’ve recommended on the site) is new on Paramount+, and it’s worth checking out if you’re looking for a chill comedy to zone out to over the weekend. It follows couple Samantha and Jay as they convert a run-down mansion into a bed and breakfast, but not before they realize ghosts haunt it. The vastly different group of spirits work together to kick out Samantha and Jay, but their plan goes awry when Samantha soon gains the ability to perceive them. The series doesn’t hold a candle to the original, but CBS’ Ghosts still has a fun premise and a funny ensemble going for it.
Another great show worth checking out is Almost Fly on HBO Max. In 1990s Germany, a group of youngsters set out to produce their own hip-hop songs, but their big dreams are dashed by confused grown-ups and other harsh realities.
New titles worth your time
The Argentinian series The Cleaning Lady is back on Amazon Prime and worth checking. It’s about how a cleaning lady impresses a mob with her intense and ruthless cleaning process. Also new on the platform are Three Families, an Irish miniseries that reveals how three families coped with the country's strict abortion law before it was lifted in 2019, and A War, a compelling Danish drama about a fateful decision one commander makes during a battle in Afghanistan.
No new worthy titles on Netflix this week.
Great titles that will soon expire
On Netflix, Retablo, a Peruvian film about a son who wants to follow in his artisan father’s footsteps until he discovers a shocking secret about him, and Tread, a documentary about a welder seeking revenge on those who wronged him, are both expiring on July 28th.
Meanwhile, on Amazon Prime, Denis Villeneuve’s box office sci-fi film Arrival leaves the platform on July 27th. The great Cold War series The Americans leaves on July 28th (it’s transferring to Hulu the next day), while the Christian Bale-starring war film Rescue Dawn expires July 30th.
That’s all for this week. This edition of the newsletter will be back on Friday, July 29.
Until then,
Renee