The White Lotus – Same Spirits, New Forms

  • Title: The White Lotus – Same Spirits, New Forms
  • IMDb: link

Mike White‘s HBO anthology returns for a Third Season relocated events in the exclusive White Lotus resort chain’s Thailand location. After opening the episode with a tease of things to come at the end of one week, “Same Spirits, New Forms” focuses on the arrival of the spoiled guests to the resort. Social satire mixed with psychological drama, one thing I say for the premiere, White has me rooting for the death of nearly every member of this group as soon as possible.

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Pretty Little Liars – Spirit Week

  • Title: Pretty Little Liars (Original Sin) – Chapter One: Spirit Week
  • wiki: link

Starting out with two suicides in the first 5 minutes and closing the episode with a grizzly murder, the first thing you notice about Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin is how strongly it leans into the freedoms offered on HBO attempting to be a bit more bloody and bold than the original. However, I find the set up for the episode a bit confusing. We get a young girl, ignored at a school dance by a group of popular girls, committing suicide in 1999. Flash-forward 22 years at that appears to be the catalyst for the mayhem that will occur, although our new “A” targets only one of the women from that party (our second suicide) and instead targets the rest of their daughters for reasons yet to be revealed.

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We Beat the Dream Team

  • Title: We Beat the Dream Team
  • IMDb: link

Headlined by Grant Hill, with interviews from both the Select Team and the 1992 USA Olympic Team, We Beat the Dream Team chronicles the only loss of the greatest basketball team ever assembled in the team’s first informal scrimmage with a group of young college kids, who if not for the Dream Team would have all likely been chose for the Olympics that year, giving them everything the team with 11 Hall of Fame players could handle.

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Reacher – Persuader

  • Title: Reacher – Persuader
  • IMDb: link

Adapting a different novel for each season, every season of Reacher has been a bit different. That continues in the kick-off of the show’s Third Season where Reacher‘s (Alan Ritchson) good Samaritan schtick gets him in hot water. Saving a young man (Johnny Berchtold) from a kidnapping attempt, things go downhill quickly with our hero having few options and delivering the kid to his wealthy father (Anthony Michael Hall). The rest of the episode involves flashbacks to the days leading up to Reacher’s save, where we learn not everything we’ve seen is exactly as it seems, and Reacher agreeing to work for the wealthy rug importer (but that’s not the only thing he’s importing).

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