The Playlist Podcast Network

There was no reason to make another polite, faithful version of “Cape Fear.” Thankfully, Creator/Showrunner Nick Antosca had no interest in one.
Apple TV’s “Cape Fear” is sweaty, violent, emotionally ugly, and pitched somewhere between a domestic thriller and a full-blown hyper-violent fever dream. The show takes the basic machinery of the 1962 film and Martin Scorsese’s operatic 1991 remake, pulls it apart, and rebuilds it as a ten-hour nightmare about privilege, resentment, marriage and the strange gravitational pull of a charismatic monster.
Or, as Antosca rather happily described it during his recent appearance on The Playlist’s Bingeworthy podcast, “It is the lurid nightmare that we set out to make.”
Mission accomplished!

On paper, “Furious” sounds like something we’ve all seen before. An FBI agent. A serial killer. A cat-and-mouse chase stretched across eight episodes. That’s technically what the show is, but it's also not really what the show is. The cat is carrying around a mountain of old trauma. The mouse has a disturbingly decent argument. Neither one is behaving in a way that makes it easy to decide who deserves your sympathy.
That is where Liz Meriwether’s (“New Girl,” “Dying for Sex”) new Hulu series gets its hooks in. Loosely inspired by the 1987 thriller “Black Widow,” “Furious” follows FBI agent Alice Black (Emmy Rossum) as she hunts Catherine (Lola Petticrew), a serial killer targeting powerful men. Very quickly, though, the pursuit starts to feel less like a standard case and more like two damaged people slowly realizing they may understand each other better than anyone else does. That is not necessarily a good thing for either of them. The series also stars Scoot McNairy, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Jake Lacy, Rob Delaney, Rob Yang, and Steve Way.

“Motor City” feels like somebody found a filthy ’70s revenge movie in the trunk of a burned-out Cadillac, wiped off the blood, and restored the whole thing in 4K and Dolby Atmos. It is loud, violent, strangely romantic and, thankfully, almost entirely uninterested in people sitting around explaining themselves. The fists, engines, needle drops and occasional shotgun blast handle most of the talking.
Directed by Potsy Ponciroli ("Greedy People," "Old Henry") and written by Chad St. John, the film stars Alan Ritchson (“Reacher") as John Miller, a working-class Detroit mechanic framed by a wealthy gangster after falling in love with the man’s girlfriend, Sophia, played by Shailene Woodley. After spending years behind bars, Miller emerges with revenge on his mind and very little concern for whether he survives long enough to enjoy it.
Ben Foster, Pablo Schreiber, Lionel Boyce, Ben McKenzie and Amar Chadha-Patel also star in the nearly dialogue-free action thriller, which arrives in theaters on July 24 through IFC Films.

Apple TV’s “Lucky” joins the platform’s growing collection of prestige shows about attractive, deeply stressed people having the worst week of their lives. “Presumed Innocent,” “Hijack,” “Your Friends & Neighbors”—the streamer has become weirdly good at watching people sprint from one life-altering disaster to the next.
Anya Taylor-Joy’s title character has a slightly more complicated relationship with disaster than most. Raised by a con artist, Lucky became an exceptional one herself before spending years trying to leave that life behind. When a multimillion-dollar job goes wrong, she is forced back into the world she escaped, pursued by law enforcement, criminals, and a family history she has never completely outrun.
READ MORE: ‘The Agency’ Season 2: Jeffrey Wright & John Magaro Talk Spycraft, ‘The Batman: Part II,’ ‘Presumed Innocent’ Season 2 & More [Bingeworthy Podcast]

There is no graceful way to ask another married couple whether they would like to have sex with you. There are only varying degrees of disaster. That is the combustible premise behind “The Invite,” a sharp, funny, and increasingly bruising relationship comedy directed by Olivia Wilde. Wilde and Seth Rogen play Angela and Joe, a married couple who have become more like irritated roommates than romantic partners. Then their upstairs neighbors, Hawk and Piña, played by Edward Norton and Penélope Cruz, come downstairs for dinner and float a proposition that turns one awkward evening into an excavation of everybody’s marriage.

READ MORE: ‘The Death Of Robin Hood’: Director Michael Sarnoski Finds The Brutal Roots Of A Legend, Talks Hugh Jackman, ‘Logan’ Comparisons & His ‘Death Stranding’ Film [The Discourse Podcast]

On this episode of The Discourse, host Mike DeAngelo is joined by screenwriters Rashida Jones and Will McCormack to talk about adapting the film, rewriting it with its formidable cast, and finding the hurt underneath a premise that could have easily become a much broader sex comedy.