This weekend I have … a half-hour, and I love Los Angeles.
‘This Fool’
When to watch: Friday, on Hulu.
The second season of this savvy comedy offers something of a reset for its emotionally repressed protagonist, Julio (Chris Estrada, also a creator), who lost his job and girlfriend at the end of Season 1. Now he is also depressed, unemployed and living in a garage with his excitable ex-felon cousin, Luis (Frankie Quiñones). The Season 2 premiere is a hilarious and finely observed portrait of South Central Los Angeles, wherein, among other things, Julio defends his landlord’s vocal rooster against angry and sleep deprived neighbors; from there, the season becomes more ambitious, including a two-parter involving a liquor store holdup and fragile male egos.
… several hours, and I’m rediscovering myself.
‘Survival of the Thickest’
When to watch: Now, on Netflix.
If you’re looking for a joy filled weekend binge, settle in with “Survival of the Thickest,” starring and co-created by the comedian Michelle Buteau, who also wrote the essay collection it is based on. Buteau plays Mavis, a stylist in New York whose life gets an overhaul after she discovers her long-term boyfriend is cheating on her; despondent, she moves into a cramped Brooklyn apartment with a weirdo roommate who covers herself in olive oil. Despite that inciting incident, “Thickest” chooses to revel in Mavis’s triumphs, not dwell on her failures, and its true pleasure is Buteau, who has an uncanny ability to make any word funny and the acting chops to back it up. Also: The looks are fabulous.
… 4 hours, and I want nuanced true crime.
‘Last Call: When a Serial Killer Stalked Queer New York’
When to watch: Sunday at 9 p.m., on HBO.
This bracing documentary series, which examines a rash of horrific murders targeting queer men in 1990s New York, finishes its four-episode run this week. While the final episode does get into how the man known as the Last Call Killer was found and apprehended, the three preceding installments provide the emotional weight of this often beautiful and unusual series, painting a vivid and moving picture of New York’s L.G.B.T.Q. community of the time. The result is more a memorial and a rallying cry than anything particularly lurid. (Episodes 1-3 are streaming now on Max.)
