TV Talk: Fox returns to ‘Fantasy Island,’ FX introduces winning ‘Reservation Dogs’
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Two series premieres over the next week show the strategic contrast facing TV network executives and viewers: Take the safe, easier path and order a new version of an existing show or dare to try something new.
‘Reservation Dogs’
FX still aspires to be the basic cable version of HBO on linear and something even more niche on its FX on Hulu streaming platform.
Premiering with its first two episodes Monday on FX on Hulu, the original comedy “Reservation Dogs” offers a unique setting (an Oklahoma Indian reservation) and casting (mostly unknowns) while telling an unpredictable story of scrappy underdogs.
Bear Smallhill (star-in-the-making D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) is the self-proclaimed leader of a band of Indigenous teens, although his friends laugh at him when he refers to himself as the group’s leader out loud. The friends consider themselves a gang (they don’t appear to carry weapons) while stealing and re-selling items to raise money to escape their reservation and move to California, the long-time dream of a friend who died a year earlier. How Danny died is not clear in the first four episodes made available for review but his passing leads the group to blame the place they grew up for crushing Danny’s spirit.
Executive produced by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi, “Reservation Dogs” delivers understated but clever, often absurdist humor similar to what’s found in Waititi’s FX show “What We Do in the Shadows,” although here it’s more grounded.
In the premiere, Bear and his friends steal a delivery truck but then Bear feels guilty about it and has visions of an Indian on horseback. This leads Bear to resolve to try to help his community rather than harm it.
The kids nickname themselves the Reservation Dogs – a visual homage to the 1992 film “Reservoir Dogs” follows – as they try to protect their turf from a gang of newcomers.
“Reservation Dogs” also spends time with Bear’s mother who in one fantastical running gag in episode four sees a good angel and bad angel version of herself when she looks in a mirror, pulling her one way and then another as Bear’s selfish, absent rapper father plans a return to town.
There’s a melancholy vibe to “Reservation Dogs” but it’s punctuated by the weird, funny scrapes the kids encounter. The show is not a downer but a welcome look at an under-represented culture through Waititi’s and Harjo’s cracked lens. It’s a series full of oddball characters with a likeable quartet at its center.
‘Fantasy Island’
ABC tried to reboot “Fantasy Island” as a darker series with Malcolm MacDowell as Mr. Roarke in 1998 and it quickly crashed and burned. There was also a little-seen 2019 horror movie.
Fox’s “Fantasy Island” (9 p.m. Tuesday, WPGH-TV) is closest tonally to the original while leaning more into the idea of magic derived from the island itself that allows the fantasies to occur.
Developed by veteran TV scribes Liz Craft and Sarah Fain (“The Fix”), their “Fantasy Island” tells stories largely (but not exclusively) from a woman’s point of view. The new Roarke (Roselyn Sanchez) is the grand-niece of the character played by Ricardo Montalban in the original series. There’s an unexpected revelation of a new Tattoo in the pilot episode that also features a TV news anchor (Bellamy Young, “Scandal”) who lives out her fantasy of wanting to gorge herself on food without gaining weight.
Light and escapist, the new “Fantasy Island” is as unessential as TV viewing gets but for viewers seeking an anthology with close-ended, weekly stories, it’s not bad, particularly in a future episode guest starring Dave and Odette Annable where the story leans more into romantic comedy.
New ‘Daniel,’ ‘Donkey’ episodes
PBS Kids debuts new episodes of the Pittsburgh-based Fred Rogers Productions series “Donkey Hodie” (10 a.m. weekdays, WQED-TV) Aug. 8-13 and “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” (9:30 a.m. weekdays, WQED) Aug. 16-20.
The Aug. 8 episode of “Donkey,” “The Cow and Potato Bug Opera,” is inspired by a classic episode of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”
“Daniel” episodes feature Daniel’s first trip to the hospital (Aug. 17) and Prince Wednesday’s older brother, Prince Tuesday, leaving for college (Aug. 18).
Kept/spun-off
Netflix renewed “Sweet Tooth” for a second season; Disney+ did the same for “The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers.”
Hulu will bring back “Love, Victor” for season three.
TNT picked up a fourth season of “Snowpiercer” as production on the yet-to-air season three winds down.
Showtime renewed “The Chi” for season five.
Poe and BB-8 visit Darth Vader’s castle-turned-luxury-hotel on Mustafar in “LEGO Star Wars: Terrifying Tales,” premiering Oct. 1 on Disney+.
Amazon’s long-gestating “Lord of the Rings” series will debut Sept. 2, 2022.
Channel surfing
“Night of the Animated Dead,” an animated remake of George A. Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” voiced by Josh Duhamel, Dule Hill, James Roday Rodriguez and Katee Sackhoff, will be available on digital platforms Sept. 21 and on Blu-ray and DVD on Oct. 5 from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. … Rosie O’Donnell, who starred in the 1992 “A League of Their Own” movie, says she’ll be in the Amazon series that’s filming locally, playing a bartender in a gay bar. … Harmarville-based NEP Group announced an investment in virtual production for scripted films and TV shows this week with the purchase of Los Angeles-based Prysm Collective, Lux Machina and Halon Entertainment. Lux worked on season one of “The Mandalorian.” … Preschooler animated series “Chuggington,” which was purchased by a new owner in 2018, debuts a new 24-minute special, “Celebrate Chuggington” (8 a.m. Aug. 9, Disney Junior), next week. … Star Jodie Whittaker and writer Chris Chibnall will depart “Doctor Who” following a six-part season this fall and a trio of specials in 2022. … Season six of OWN’s “Queen Sugar” debuts at 8 p.m. Sept. 7. … The final season of Amazon Prime Video’s “Goliath” premieres on the streamer Sept. 24.