New to Lightbox in May
April 25, 2020 
3 Comments
Edie Falco plays LA’s first female Chief of Police in Lightbox’s new crime drama, Tommy.
The CBS All Access series earned mixed reviews but was highly praised by one of the US’s most sceptical TV critics, Reason’s Glenn Garvin, who dubbed it “funny, horrifying, and generally thrilling”.
The Hollywood Reporter liked the pilot but felt the next two episodes faltered:
After the pilot, I was prepared to be enthusiastic about CBS having landed an above-average version of a very CBS-y show. After the second episode, I was prepared to savage the show. And after three? It’s just another mediocre broadcast show that probably could have been a lot better.
Season one of Tommy will stream from May 8.
New from May 4 will be another CBS exclusive, Evil.
It follows a sceptical female clinical psychologist and a priest-in-training as they investigate supposed miracles, demonic possessions and other extraordinary occurrences.
Is there a scientific explanation? Or is something truly supernatural at work?
Katja Herbers (Westworld) and Mike Colter (Luke Cage) star.
“Evil’s pilot episode gives viewers a show whose classically elegant construction and sharp sense of itself augur great things ahead,” forecast Variety.
Entertainment Weekly graded the “incisive new procedural from Michelle and Robert King” (The Good Wife, The Good Fight) B+:
I was going to say that Evil is a droll and savvy procedural — heavy questions, light touch — and then I watched [episode four]. Holy hell, kids!
And: Holy hellkids! The CBS drama investigates religious mystery with secular science. Terrifying, inexplicable supernatural enigmas have even-more-terrifying high-tech explanations.
Returning with a new star is Scandi-noir Rebecka Martinsson. Sascha Zachariasa takes over the title role in S2 of the Åsa Larsson adaptation, double-episodes of which will stream weekly from May 7.
Other May highlights will include the fifth and final season of Blindspot (weekly exclusively from May 1) and season two of The Arrangement (May 4).
New movies to rent next month will include:
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April 25, 2020 at 5:17 pm
I really love having Lightbox, at the moment I’m watching season 6 of Homeland 🙂
Hi Phil. Apologies for jumping into this Lightbox article but I was wondering about the Apple TV service. Do you have a subscription? If so, I would be keen to hear your thoughts on a couple of Apple TV series, specifically Defending Jacob, See and Home Before Dark? Have you seen them? Any recommendations?
Always a pleasure to hear from you Rosco. No, I don’t subscribe to Apple TV+. It has nothing compelling that distinguishes it from the streaming and pay TV services I already subscribe to (Netflix, Sky, Lightbox, Amazon Prime). If Apple offered the breadth of TV service here that it does in other markets, with numerous add-ons, I wouldn’t hesitate to sign on. But for too long it ignored NZ as a viable market for its TV platform while stiffing us with the cost of an Apple TV box that accessed a fraction of the content available elsewhere. I’m sure Apple TV+ has some great shows but there aren’t enough and most have earned middling reviews (although Defending Jacob sounds like one of its better efforts). Even though Apple’s streaming quality is widely regarded to be the best, I’ll wait until I buy a new iPhone or iPad and can get a year’s free sub. Despite all the top shows on the various streaming services, I still think Sky’s SoHo (and Rialto) channels deliver the best dramas and will continue to do so until HBO Max launches here.