August TV Round-Up: Loot, The Sandman, A League of Their Own

The advent of streaming services has meant that summer can be just as busy a time for watching new TV shows as the fall. I spent my summer vacation catching up on a boatload of new shows and they were all excellent in their own special ways. So whether you have Apple TV+, Netflix, and/or Amazon Prime, I've got something for you.

Loot: Created by Alan Yang and Matt Hubbard, and starring Maya Rudolph, this show has major comedy pedigree. It tells the story of Molly Wells (Rudolph), a woman who was married to one of the world's richest men, but then discovers he is cheating, divorces him, and gets half of his money, turning her into one of the world's wealthiest women. After facing numerous PR disasters, she realizes that what she needs to do with this money is to start working with the charitable foundation she and her husband started eons ago but were never really involved with, and use her billions to do some good in the world. It's basically a story about MacKenzie Scott, except in this case, Molly is still a rather clueless rich woman who is going to need a lot of hand-holding along the road to becoming a noble philanthropist.

The supporting cast on this show is truly excellent, including Joel Kim Booster as Molly's assistant, who is mildly horrified that she doesn't want to do rich people things all the time, and then Michaela Jae Rodriguez, Ron Funches, and Nat Faxon (who seems to be in everything these days) as the folks who work at the non-profit and are quiet, unassuming, good people who take a lot of pride in their work. They have to teach Molly how to be better at charity, but she also is able to find ways to make their lives easier and give them more of a chance to stretch out their wings and achieve their dreams. It's a cute show with a fantastic cast, and every episode features new permutations of characters getting together and forming unlikely alliances. It's a classic comedy with a lot of heart and I look forward to seeing how it evolves over upcoming seasons.

The Sandman: All I can say is that after making my way through ten episodes of this show, I will absolutely need to pick up the graphic novels and immerse myself in that world. I have always loved Neil Gaiman's work and have read every novel he's written, but I never managed to make my way to The Sandman. Now, with this show, Netflix has forced my hand. With its lush cinematography and epic production and costume design, this is a series that absolutely captures your imagination from the start and never lets go. 

The cast, led by Tom Sturridge as Morpheus, the King of Dreams, is phenomenal, and many of your favorites will put in an appearance as iconic characters from the books. Each episode feels like a standalone, with its own genre and machinations at play, but they all string together to make a compelling and exciting story as Morpheus tries to figure out why he was imprisoned, where all his tools have disappeared off to, and what to do to rebuild his kingdom. It's brimming with quests, and mythology, and fantastical lore, and if you've ever loved any other Gaiman fare, you are certain to love this too.

A League of Their Own: As soon as I finished watching the eight episodes of this show's first season, I had to rewatch the 1992 movie. And once I was done, I went, "Yup, the show is definitely an improvement." Created by Will Graham and Abbi Jacobson (who also stars), this show follows the creation of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in 1943 to replace men's baseball since all the men were being recruited as World War II soldiers. But instead of Tom Hanks being the star as the drunk and belligerent manager of one of the teams, the Rockford Peaches, the focus of this show is on the Peaches themselves and how all these disparate women come together to make a team despite their many differences. Though, eventually, many of them do discover they have one thing in common - they are very gay.

This show is so fantastically queer and magnificent. You've got the repressed Carson (Jacobson), who is married but then upon meeting chic teammate Greta (D'Arcy Carden), realizes that perhaps this might be the thing she has been missing all along. There are other characters who are much more comfortable with their sexuality, though are still, of course, very closeted as society would permit no such thing in this era. There are struggles with various chaperones and men telling them to be more feminine and to look pretty, when all they want to do is play ball. And there's also a wonderful storyline with Max Chapman (Chante Adams), a Black woman who desperately wants to join the league but is denied because of Jim Crow laws and ceaseless racism. Her journey, not just as a Black woman, but as a Black queer woman, takes on a whole life of its own, and it is simply wonderful to watch this honest depiction of how people can struggle with queer identity, coming out to family, friends, strangers, lovers, and eventually finding their place in the world. 

This show is beautifully shot, with impeccable production design, and every episode is scripted with precision and verve. These actors are all delivering home runs (both literally and metaphorically!) and by the end of these eight episodes, you will be ready for baseball season to come back around again. Let's Go Peaches!