Premieres Wednesday: Dolly Parton: A Musicares Tribute — There's a list of people you just can't criticize these days. Like Betty White. (Yeah, I get it.) And Paul Rudd. (Took me awhile, but I came around.) And Keanu Reeves. (Seriously? Did no one see Bram Stoker's Dracula?) In the No. 1 slot is Dolly Parton, whose contributions to music and philanthropy were the focus of a 2019 event that included performances by the likes of Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus and the big Jolene-hater herself. Now you can take a gander at that spectacle from the comfort of your own sofa, smiling at the down-home righteousness of it all while thinking, "She got us the vaccine!" Just don't pay any attention to those scurrilous rumors that she once turned the Civil War into a dinner show or something. (Netflix)
Snabba Cash — The criminal underside of the jet set is exposed in a six-episode crime-drama series that expands upon the popular Swedish film franchise. The title really means "easy money," but apparently everything in that country needs to rhyme with "Abba." (Netflix)
This Is a Robbery: The World's Biggest Art Heist — Four documentary episodes explore the 1990 looting of Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum by criminals who remain uncaught to this day. I'd love to think it was that Banksy, but he would have left us something cool. Like "The Blue Boy" with a Transformer's head on it or some shit. (Netflix)
The Wedding Coach — Every episode, comedian Jamie Lee teams up with another friend from the biz to help a nervous couple make it down the aisle. Because if there's one person you're going to go to for level-headed relationship advice, it's a comic. (Netflix)
Premieres Thursday: The Power — The electrical shortages that plagued the U.K. in the early 1970s are the fulcrum for a feature-length shocker about a young nurse forced to work overnight in a scary hospital. It's like a Brit-horror version of Cinderella, where you have to clean bedpans in the dark because your stepsisters are all on strike. (Shudder)
Premieres Friday: Night in Paradise — South Korea offers up a dual character study of a gangster who's been marked for death and the terminally ill woman he falls in with. Major plot elements: a fake mustache and the line "Look, if you're going to go anyway ..." (Netflix)
THEM — The pitch on this anthology series is "a Black American Horror Story." (Cue Black America: "Redundant!") Although the first season, titled Covenant, sounds like it owes as much to Lovecraft Country, following a North Carolina family whose move to Los Angeles in 1953 triggers all manner of malevolent forces. But so what if the setup isn't entirely unique? You think Ryan Murphy has never seen Bloodsucking Freaks? (Amazon Prime)
Thunder Force — Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer play former BFFs who rekindle their relationship when they're gifted with superpowers. Yet another dubious project crafted for McCarthy by her hubby, Ben Falcone. Now there's a pair who should have considered hiring the Wedding Coach. (Netflix)
Premieres Tuesday: My Love: Six Stories of True Love — And finally, to prove that not all anthologies are horror shows — at least not according to the strictest definition of the term — here's a docuseries that focuses on committed couples from around the globe. To make the cut, the spotlighted pairs can have been together as long as 60 years or as few as 43. Forty-three? I don't know why we're even bothering with such amateurs. At that point, the ink isn't even dry on the forged life-insurance policy yet! (Netflix)
