Lazarus: Playing the hits and hinting at something new

Photo: Adult Swim

Like many a kid my age, I learned about the wider world of anime through the original Adult Swim block. Despite the many warnings that these shows weren’t kid-friendly, I stayed up way too late watching as much as I could. While I enjoyed what I understood of Aqua Teen Hunger Force or Sealab 2021, it was the anime offerings that always kept me coming back. That begins with Cowboy Bebop. I could write multiple articles just on the effect that series had on my adolescent mind. Instead, I’ll keep it short and say it’s a show that continues to influence me. Now, Adult Swim and Bebop creator Shinichiro Watanabe have reunited for a program that aims to recapture some of that magic.

Lazarus is Watanabe’s first new project in 6 years and a clear callback to his most famous work. Set in the year 2052, the series follows a ragtag group brought together to find Dr. Skinner, the enigmatic creator of a miracle drug that took the world by storm. The drug, known as “Hapna,” relieves all pain and quickly becomes a sensation, that is until Skinner reveals the big side effect. Hapna mutates in the body after 3 years, killing the user. With only a month before that change takes place, our crew is on the clock. It’s a compelling central mystery that helps anchor the show.

For the action scenes, Watanabe teams up with Chad Stahelski of John Wick fame and his influence is apparent. While the fights lack flow and grace, they pack the type of hard punch you’d expect. Jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington is also on hand to add a bit of Bebop flair. The trio’s disparate tastes combine to create a fun, if somewhat rigid, style.

Our main cast, an anime Suicide Squad of sorts, provides the most obvious parallels with Cowboy Bebop. You’ve got Axel, the lanky wise-cracker with a kick-based fighting style. There’s Chris, the femme fatale and Douglas, the team’s coordinator and muscle. We even have a hacker. The sixth member, Leland, is the outlier. A drone expert and younger than the rest of the crew, he provides a sense of innocence. The cast is fun even if they all feel a little run-of-the-mill. With only 13 half-hour episodes, there’s a good chance most of them will stay that way.

It’s hard for Lazarus to escape the shadow of its influences, but there’s still plenty of potential. This is a show with fun action, a killer soundtrack, and some big ideas. It remains entertaining, even while referencing Watanabe’s past work. It’s not reinventing the wheel, but isn’t beholden to it either. That small gap is hard to navigate, but Lazarus pulls it off.

Lazarus airs Sundays on Adult Swim and streams on Max.

Final Verdict: Tune In

Your Friends & Neighbors: Rich people, am I right?

Photo: Apple TV+

Jon Hamm remains an incredibly gifted actor. That Your Friends & Neighbors starts with a “I bet you’re wondering how I got here” scene and I didn’t immediately turn it off is a testament to Hamm’s skill. It’s been nearly a decade since the end of Mad Men and in that time Hamm has successfully towed the line between different, usually comedic, roles and parts that are Don Draper-adjacent. With the latter, it’s expected. When you play one of the most iconic characters ever put on television, you’re bound to get some roles that play off of that. With his latest performance, Hamm isn’t so much taking parts from his Draper persona as playing a modern version.

In Apple TV+’s Your Friends & Neighbors, Hamm stars as Andrew “Coop” Cooper, a New York hedge fund manager. Coop’s world crumbles thanks to the twin misfortunes of his recent divorce and a dubious firing from his job. With no source of income, Coop resorts to stealing from, you guessed it, his wealthy neighbors. This Walter White, by way of Robin Hood, tale is only part of the story. The series also devotes plenty of time to the personal lives of Coop, his ex-wife Mel (Amanda Peet), their children, and Coop’s current situationship with Sam (Olivia Munn).

Peet and Munn are both a lot of fun, even if their character’s potential is unrealized. This is the Jon Hamm show, and everyone takes a backseat to him. Try as it might, the show just doesn’t produce the same energy when Coop isn’t on screen. Hamm gives him the patented Draper swagger, even if he’s clearly less put together. Our first introduction to this character is at a bar as he has a witty back-and-forth with an attractive, much younger, co-worker. The Mad Men parallels are obvious from the start and no attempt to differentiate Coop works. He’s officially Draper-lite.

Neighbors keeps things light, even if the comedy doesn’t always land. Hamm’s ever-present narration is a consistent source of humor. We get to hear Coop’s thoughts on those around him and his palpable disgust is a delight. Where it gets tedious is the way the show uses his voiceover to underline and bold the themes. It’s great to hear Hamm talk about the obliviousness of the wealthy, but it doesn’t really add much.

Your Friends & Neighbors isn’t much more than a surface level critique of the rich. It populates the world with vain and shallow characters but doesn’t spend the time making them watchable. It’s a satire without any bite. The show tries to make up for this by loading up on the Hamm and it almost works. That it succeeds on any level is mainly because of his ability to draw you in. Unfortunately, Hamm alone isn’t much of a meal and nothing else on the menu is likely to sate your appetite.

Your Friends & Neighbors is currently streaming on Apple TV+. New episodes release on Fridays.

Final Verdict: Tune Out

The Bondsman: Cast this series right into hell

Photo: Prime Video

There’s something off about The Bondsman from the jump, like the guy at the party who is trying a little too hard. Blumhouse’s latest is ostensibly an action horror series with elements of comedy. In reality, it dips a toe in all 3 genres, but doesn’t seem to care too much about any of them. The jokes don’t land; the fights are bland and the horror only comes in too-short bursts of blood and gore. It’s Evil Dead with all the fun taken out.

Our Ash is Hub Halloran, a backwoods bounty hunter who dies almost immediately in the first episode. Brought back to life, Hub soon discovers that he now works for Satan himself. We never actually meet the big man, instead Hub mainly deals with middle manager Midge (Jolene Purdy) who tasks him with finding some demons that recently escaped from Hell. In between battles with the forces of evil, Hub also has to attend to his aging mother Kitty (Beth Grant) and ex-wife Maryanne (Jennifer Nettles). His problems with Maryanne are doubled by her boyfriend Lucky (Damon Harrison), who orchestrated Hub’s murder. It’s a surprising amount of personal drama for a half-hour show.

The Bondsman spends too much time on the uninteresting elements of Hub’s personal life. It bogs down the show’s actual premise of “guy hunts demons.” In fact, you rarely get a lot of demonic action in a given episode. This could come down to the show’s budget. Once you see the “monster of the week” in the first act, you know they won’t be back until the third. There’s very little time spent on developing these demons or making them seem formidable in any proper way. Even the basic rules of how to defeat them are vague. It’s a supernatural show that hates being one.

That lack of interest extends to the actors too. Most of the cast are sleepwalking through their scenes. This is especially true of our lead. For Kevin Bacon, hell is being in The Bondsman. He delivers every line with the weariness of someone who would rather be anywhere else. In Bacon’s defense, the writing only adds to that sense of fatigue. There’s a distinct lack of fun or charm that really sells the show’s premise short.

Ultimately, The Bondsman’s greatest sin is that it’s boring. The clash of tones and the lack of any cohesive world-building drag the program down. Couple that with some lackluster action and dull performances and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. The show only seems to let loose when it’s time for the gore to come out. There’s no shortage of blood, but even that thrill grows stale by the end of this 8 episode run. Sometimes dead is better. The Bondsman is proof of that.

The Bondsman is currently streaming on Prime Video.

Final Verdict: Tune Out

Mid-Century Modern: A new gloss can’t hide old sitcom tropes

Photo: Hulu

The current state of the multi-cam sitcom is in sorry shape. This has been true for most of my adult life. It looks to all as though this classic form of comedy is going the way of the variety show or Saturday morning cartoons. There are, however, a brave few trying to bring some relevance to an increasingly outdated format. As a blogger in the year 2025, I can relate even if I don’t have half the level of influence as someone like James Burrows. Burrows is the legendary director of some of the greatest sitcoms ever made. Shows like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi, and Cheers among others. His latest show is unlikely to end up on that eclectic list.

Created by Max Mutchnick and David Kohen, the minds behind Will & Grace (another Burrows project). Mid-Century Modern is a mix of that show and Golden Girls. The girls in question are Nathan Lane, Matt Bomer, and Nathan Lee Graham as Bunny, Jerry, and Arthur, respectively. After the unexpected death of their friend, the three decide to live together under one roof. And because this is a sitcom, Bunny’s mother (the late Linda Lavin) is also there. It’s a standard sitcom premise that the show spends most of the pilot attempting to justify.

The stories in each episode are also typical stuff. The only difference between Mid-Century Modern and an older show seems to be an understanding of what a “bottom” is. That type of “risque” humor is a prevalent part of Modern’s joke book. In fact, the writing is pretty frank in its discussion of queer romance and aging. It’s a welcome surprise and something that helps lift the more staid elements of the program.

The cast mainly features our 4 leads, with a few appearances from the likes of Pamela Adlon and Richard Kind, among others. It’s a fun group of actors but they’re mostly stuck playing cliched sitcom roles. Lane comes the closest to making Bunny feel like a real person, but his personality shifts with the whims of the plot. The show ends up falling into a familiar comedy trap where the characters seem to only exist for delivering jokes.

This isn’t to say Mid-Century Modern is an all-around bad time. It’s a throwback, but one with an eye toward the contemporary moment. The reliance on old sitcom tropes and character types isn’t exclusive to this show. It’s pretty much all you get with multi-cam sitcoms. Nobody is breaking the mold here, especially not an old master like James Burrows. In a less crowded landscape, it’s easy to see Mid-Century Modern becoming a hit. It’s light, breezy, and carried by some all-time great comic actors. As it currently stands, there are better options out there for your time.

Mid-Century Modern is currently streaming on Hulu.

Final Verdict: Tune Out

Pulse: There’s no cure for this one

Photo: Netflix

How much is too much for a medical drama? This is a genre that already allows a frankly obscene amount of information to fly at the viewer in a matter of minutes, and thanks to the hectic nature of the profession, we allow it. Now, medical jargon and witty banter aren’t enough. What if we add a natural disaster, a mysterious sexual harassment claim, and copious flashbacks to the equation? If you’re already feeling dizzy, you’re gonna want to sit down because that’s only a part of what Netflix’s Pulse offers.

The streamer’s first foray into English-language medical drama comes out of the gate full of ideas and does not stop until you’ve heard every single one of them. The series follows the lives of the doctors, surgeons, and other medical personnel at Maguire Hospital, a level-one trauma center in Miami. At the center of our story is Danielle “Danny” Simms (Willa Fitzgerald), a resident who is on track to make chief. She’s a Meredith Grey-type, headstrong and determined to be the best. She even has her own McDreamy in Xander Phillips (Colin Woodell), the current chief resident. There’s just one slight problem: she recently filed a sexual harassment claim against him.

Pulse hits us with this information immediately and lets it sit there for much of the first episode. The show’s first handful of episodes deal with a hurricane that has knocked out power all throughout the city. As a trauma center, the hospital commits to staying open during the storm. The goal is to up the stakes, but this just adds to the narrative chaos. There’s a reason most medical shows save a big event like this for the finale. It’s hard to establish your characters while also dealing with a natural disaster. Then, there’s the curious case of the show’s flashbacks.

Ideally, the flashbacks would serve to further develop our characters, showing us their dynamics before the harassment claim and contrasting it with the present. Instead, Pulse uses these moments to build up the mystery of what went on between Danny and Xander. It’s an odd choice for a season-long arc. The flashbacks also cut into the present day action, all but eliminating any tension from a scene.

Your enjoyment of this series is likely going to correlate with how much personal drama you can stand. In the overstuffed world of Pulse, a character’s private life always takes precedent over the patient. Better still for that patient to reflect the character’s problem back at them. It’s a model of medical drama that had its heyday in the mid-00s. Nearly 20 years on, it can’t help but feel a little stale. Pulse tries to have it both ways, offering new takes on old material but failing both versions. The results are a bad combo: overwhelming and unambitious in equal measure.

Pulse is currently streaming on Netflix.

Final Verdict: Tune Out