September 19, 2024
Provided image/Courtesy of FX Networks
Josh Rivera plays former Patriots tight end and convicted murderer Aaron Hernandez in 'American Sports Story,' the FX limited series.
Football season is in full swing, and it's already bleeding into scripted television.
A dramatized biography of Aaron Hernandez debuted Tuesday, the first entry in the new "American Sports Story" anthology series. The terrible, tragic saga will air into November, with "West Side Story" alum Josh Rivera playing the former Patriots tight end.
Other notable new shows are "English Teacher," a spiky sitcom set in an Austin public school, and "The Penguin," a Batman spinoff starring Cherry Hill's own Cristin Milioti. The Oscar-winning anime "The Boy and the Heron" also recently hit Max, giving Studio Ghibli devotees the chance to catch Hayao Miyazaki's latest. Here's your mid-September streaming guide:
First, there was "American Horror Story." Then, "American Crime Story." Now, FX has added "American Sports Story" to its expanding TV universe. The show's first season follows the life story of former NFL star Aaron Hernandez, whose murder conviction and 2017 death by suicide shocked the sports world. Yet, as "American Sports Story" shows, that industry abused Hernandez and enabled his worst impulses from the very beginning. A bulked-up Josh Rivera plays Hernandez with sensitivity and depth, guiding viewers through his teen years in a difficult home, college career alongside Tim Tebow, and professional ascent and spiral. As with any Ryan Murphy FX project, the cast features several Broadway stars in supporting roles, including Lindsay Mendez as Hernandez's cousin and Tony Yazbeck as Florida Gators coach Urban Meyer. The show streams on Hulu.
Like "Abbott Elementary," the new FX show "English Teacher" is set in a public school. The comparison pretty much ends there. The high school educators on "English Teacher" are grumpier and blunter, constantly beset with inane complaints. As one of the only openly gay staffers, Evan Marquez (show creator Brian Jordan Alvarez) is often thrust into headaches he'd rather not handle — like the football team's powderpuff drag show — and, as he gets into the task, he inadvertently makes things worse. (The professional drag queen he hires to coach the boys ends up stealing a trunk's worth of printers.) But the thorny chaos is fun to watch, especially with singular supporting characters like the surly principal (Enrico Colantoni) and Evan's workplace confidante (Stephanie Koenig). New episodes air Monday on Hulu.
Another comic book story comes to life on HBO with the Thursday premiere of "The Penguin," a spinoff of the 2022 movie "The Batman." But don't expect to see much of Bruce Wayne. The eight-episode series focuses on the criminals he's always fighting, paying particular attention to Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell), aka the Penguin. Oz is hoping to rise to the top of the mob after his boss's death, but he'll have to go through that boss's daughter Sofia, played by a ferocious, terrific Cristin Milioti. Despite Farrell's prosthetics and over-the-top New York accent, she's the real star of the show — and helps viewers power through some of the longer episodes. (The premiere runs over an hour, signaling that TV bloat is alive and well.)
Anime fans who missed Studio Ghibli's latest release in theaters can now catch it on Max. "The Boy and the Heron," which won the Oscar for best animated feature, follows young Mahito Maki into a fantasy world. Escape is appealing to Mahito, who is still reeling from his mother's death, his father's hasty remarriage to her sister and the family's relocation to the country. A slightly sinister grey heron lures him into a magical universe with other uncanny birds, souls in peril and maybe his lost mother. Like Hayao Miyazaki's previous films, "The Boy and the Heron" is wildly imaginative and distinctively strange. It's also melancholic and moving, a coming-of-age tale that will gut the adults who have already been there.
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