If you like your Desperate Househusbands of suburbia spicy, then this limited series on HBO Max is fantastic, albeit melancholic; maybe even downright sad. Starring Jason Bateman (
Ozark) as Clark Forrest, the local TV weatherman who is having a midlife crisis and ends up having an extramarital affair with Carol (Linda Cardellini). She is married to Floyd Smernitch (David Harbour) who does interpretive signing (for the hearing impaired) for Clark's weather reporting. You may know David Harbour as the gruff and lovable cop from
Stranger Things. He gives a performance that Daniel Day-Lewis would be proud of - from hip-hop dancing, to trying to give his troubled stepson life lessons, to allowing a gay man to kiss him for not wanting to hurt his feelings - Harbour should be nominated for all the TV awards. The show is also a murder mystery and the two detectives who work the case, played by Richard Jenkins and Joy Sunday, are an oddly delightful pair. If David Harbour is nominated for his lead role, then Best Supporting should go to Peter Sarsgaard (in eyeliner) as the roller-skating man who wants nothing more at times than to hold hands - fabulous. Writer and creator, Steve Conrad has made a very unique show about troubled and sad people. It has qualities of Ang Lee's
The Ice Storm or Curtis Hanson's
Wonder Boys. It's dark and at times, extremely funny, and really weird. To borrow and paraphrase one of the show's catchphrases, "
Nobody is normal; it just looks that way from across the street." The show is sad, like a used and discarded dirty magazine found in the change room of a community swimming pool that's closed for the season. Have yourself a wild affair with this show. Catch it streaming on HBO/Crave or rent it from
Movies 'N Stuff when available.
